A Catholic school in a southern Indian state has started a program to train students to promote inter-religious harmony amid reports of increasing intolerance in the Hindu-majority nation.

The idea is to train students as ‘peace builders’ to “spread the message of harmony among their friends, families and neighbourhood,” said Father Mark Monfort, principal of St. Joseph Higher Secondary School in Erode district in southern Tamil Nadu.

Two Catholic schools in the district have joined hands with St. Joseph school. Already, 30 students from Christian, Hindu and Muslim backgrounds have been trained, Montfort added.

The trained students attended a gathering of 500 students at St. Joseph school on Oct. 25 at a program titled, ‘Empowering the Young as Peace Builders.’

The program started with readings from Christian, Muslim and Hindu holy books.

Kevin, a peace builder, told the gathering that religious discrimination was “harming the growth of people in India as one nation. We as Indians are one and no religion should divide us.”

Christians and Muslims in India accuse pro-Hindu groups of violently curtailing religious freedom since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Modi is seeking a consecutive third term with the polls next year.

Hindu groups that support the BJP work to make India a theocratic Hindu nation, though the current Indian constitution, made after independence from Britain in 1947, envisages a secular nation.

Sister Stella Balthazar, provincial of the Ooty province of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who was the chief guest at the gathering of peacebuilders, asked students to learn India’s constitution and its basic tenets of democracy, secularism and fraternity.

“We see a rise in hostility and intolerance in many parts of the country,” the nun said.

Kruthiharini G. C, a Hindu peace builder, wanted to eliminate the urban-rural divide in the country.

“Unless we remove this, there is little chance for peace and harmony,” Kruthiharini said.

Monfort said the school was planning to organize similar programs.

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