I forgive my students, will return to classroom: Hriday Mondal
"I will go back to the classroom and continue teaching my students. Forgiving them for their mistakes and helping them differentiate between right and wrong is my job."
This is what Hriday Chandra Mondal, maths teacher of Munshiganj's Binodpur Ram Kumar High School, told The Daily Star yesterday, after spending 19 days in jail.
"There are some young, impressionable students who are being led astray. It's my job to tell them what is right," he also said.
Just weeks ago, Hriday was thrown in jail "for his own safety" after a crowd of locals hurled rocks at his house and beat the door down with stakes.
His son still cannot go to his school. He is being continuously taunted and bullied. Hriday's wife recently told this daily that they were passing days in fear.
Having suffered so badly, Hriday refuses to step back from his role as a teacher, which he has performed for 25 years.
"I faced similar things in the past. Some locals, probably students, threw brick chunks at my house. One day, some boys hurled abuse at me as I was walking by them. As I confronted them, they denied speaking anything abusive."
There were several instances when he found the lock of his cupboard in the school broken. "I used to keep students' fees and the receipts in the cupboard. Now, I take the receipts home."
Hriday believes he had to face all these because he did not agree to students' request to pass them in exams after they failed.
"On March 20, some students kept prodding me with questions on religion. It was something I had never encountered before," he said yesterday.
"We normally don't have debates on religion and science in classroom. But those students began the centuries-old debate on creationism versus the theory of evolution… I then explained Darwin's Theory of Evolution to them.
"I told them religion is about belief but science is based on proof. But they are free to decide what they will believe."
It was not just one or two questions -- there was a concerted effort to spark an incendiary debate. "This has not happened in my classroom before."
Students usually don't bring mobile phones in his classroom as the device is not allowed there, Hriday said. "At one point of the debate I noticed four to five students huddled together. They were laughing. I didn't release they were recording the conversation. Another group of students kept asking me questions."
Two days later, Hriday was called to the school office where he saw a member of the institution's managing committee sitting next to the headmaster. They asked him why he spoke ill about religion.
"I was accused of saying things which I did not speak. I told them to call the students and hear from them about the matter. They then told me to come back the next day. They told me I was in trouble and I should not go to the school unless asked to go there."
The next day began the attack on his house.
"I heard voices of adults and children. They were shouting at us. My children began crying in panic. We thought they would kill us," he said.
He called the school administration for help, but they came with a letter which said he has been suspended.
"The letter mentioned false allegations against me," he said.
At one point, police arrived at Hriday's house and took him to the nearest police station.
"I told everything to the law enforcers and they advised me to go to jail for my own safety. I was told that I would be charged with some minor offence, so that I can get bail easily. I agreed.
Later a case was filed against Hriday for "hurting religious sentiments" by an office assistant of the school.
The assistant had no issues with the teacher. He simply followed orders, found our correspondent there.
Hriday, however, was not told he was going to be charged under Sections 295 and 295 (A) of the Penal Code. Both carry jail terms up to two years.
Section 295 criminalises vandalism of religious sites, while Section 295 (A) criminalises "deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of the citizens of Bangladesh, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations of insults, or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class".
"I did nothing of that sort. I did not vandalise any religious site," said Hriday.
But the truth did not matter -- what mattered to the angry crowds was that Hriday be thrown in jail.
The police apparently appeased them.
Hriday was released on bail on Sunday, after his lawyer proved in court that Hriday did not demean religion.
"This society needs science more than anything," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Hriday was released on bail on Sunday, after his lawyer proved in court that Hriday did not demean Islam.
"This society is blind in faith. It needs science more than anything," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
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