NEW DELHI: A private school in India is being investigated by police under a controversial religious conversion law for holding multifaith prayers that included the Islamic declaration of faith, an officer said on Tuesday.

Video on social media showed students at the Florets International School in Kanpur reciting prayers that included texts from four major faiths — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism. Several rightwing Hindu outfits and Hindu parents held street protests in the city at the weekend.

Religious conversion has long been a flashpoint in India, which is majority Hindu but also has the world’s second-largest Muslim population.The school is in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state, which last year passed a law criminalising all religious conversions without prior state approval — legislation that critics said was targeted against Muslims.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2022