'Kids Without Religious Tags Are the Future': Kerala Judge's Comment Evokes Consideration of Secular Education

In a society where religious identity tends to cast a long shadow over individual decision-making, a statement by Kerala High Court judge Justice V G Arun resonated deeply. Addressing a felicitation function recently held in writer Vaisakhan's honor, the judge made the following simple yet forceful remark: "Children who study in schools with no religious identity are the hope for the future."

 

The function, organised by Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham — an organisation of rationalists — was intended to commemorate literary voices that have ventured to question, challenge, and think for themselves. Justice Arun's words, however, sparked a broader discussion. In appreciating parents who refuse to attach a religious tag to their children in schools, he gently pushed society to redefine what it takes to bring up a free-thinking generation.

 

"Those children," he declared, "will lift their fingers when others remain quiet. They will ask questions to society when others remain bewildered." It was not merely an observation; it was a clarion call to respect inquiry over conformity.

 

There was also an undertone of quiet frustration in his words. Justice Arun spoke of how seldom one encounters individuals with unshakeable convictions. Instead, he referenced the proliferation of what he terms "social media warriors" — quick to strike, slow to think. "A section of the cases I am dealing with are FIRs for social media posts. Writers are being attacked like vultures," he said, giving a glimpse into the sort of online aggression thinkers these days endure.

 

The judge's words arrive when issues of identity, secularism, and freedom of speech are being examined in India. But under the judge's robes and public rhetoric, his message was a profoundly intimate one — about bringing up kids unencumbered by inherited labels, but enabled by autonomous thinking.

 

In a world increasingly torn apart day by day, maybe this vision — of kids educated to think, not merely to obey — is the sort of hope we need.