A multiple-choice question in an English half-yearly examination for Class IV students in government schools in Mahasamund district triggered protests on Thursday, January 8th, after Ram was included as one of the options for the name of a dog, officials said.
The question, set in the paper held on Wednesday, asked students to identify the name of Mona’s dog. The options listed were ‘Bala,’ ‘Sheru,’ ‘No One,’ and ‘Ram,’ sparking an immediate backlash from local Hindu groups who said the inclusion of the name hurt religious sentiments.
According to the Times of India reports, right-wing organizations staged a protest outside the office of the District Education Officer (DEO) and demanded strict action against those responsible for preparing and clearing the question paper. Vishva Hindu Parishad district head Harshwardhan Chandrakar sought the arrest and dismissal of the persons involved, calling the question inappropriate for a school examination.
Protesters alleged that such content reflected poor oversight in the examination process and insisted that educational material must remain sensitive to the beliefs and cultural sentiments of students and the wider community.
District Education Officer Vijay Kumar Lahre expressed regret over the incident and assured that steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence. He said the department had moved quickly once the matter came to light.
According to the DEO, the question that had been selected and sent for printing was not the one that ultimately appeared in the exam paper. He stated that the issue surfaced only after the sealed paper was opened at the examination center due to the confidentiality protocols around exam papers.
Officials said the disputed option was removed and replaced with a new one. The education department also sought an explanation from the printing vendor and asked for the printed manuscript to determine how and why the question paper was altered.
Many dismissed it as just a name or just a mistake. However, in a civilization that reveres Shri Ram as Maryada Purushottam, honors Ayodhya as Ram Janmabhoomi, and carries his name far beyond our shores, reducing Ram to a casual label for ridicule, especially in a Class 4 examination paper, cannot be dismissed as harmless. Ram is not merely a word; for millions, he is emotion, devotion, and identity, woven into our blood and upbringing. Any institutional act that diminishes that sanctity is felt as an insult, and such an insult can never be normalized or tolerated in the name of education.
What makes this episode even more troubling is the question of how such a name could have entered an official exam paper at all. Question papers don’t appear from thin air. They are drafted, formatted, proofread, vetted, and printed. If common pet names like Tommy, Bruno, or Sheru exist in abundance, why did Ram find its way into the options? Even if someone argues that it was accidental, an accident of this kind signals a deeper problem: a careless system that fails to understand the sensitivity of what it publishes for children.
The defenders of the paper say, “Some people name dogs Ram.” That may be true in isolated instances. But official education is not the place to normalize such provocation. Schools are meant to cultivate respect, curiosity, and social harmony, rather than creating avoidable flashpoints. When a child sees a sacred name used as a punchline in an exam, the message is subtle but real: what is holy for one community can be mocked in public spaces. That is not education; that is social conditioning.
The larger issue is not just one question, but a pattern of casual disrespect seeping into institutions, followed by predictable polarization. It is also worth asking: who benefits when school papers contain such provocations? Not the child. Not the teacher. Not the school. The only outcome is public anger, distrust in institutions, and social division. Whether this happened due to negligence or intent, the result is the same: an avoidable insult delivered through a state-linked channel. Finally, we must protect children from becoming targets of anti-Hindu, Islamic ideological games. A child should not carry social conflict into the classroom through exam papers. Education must teach language and values, not plant anti-Hindu mockery into the minds of young students.
