Uproar as teacher asks kids to slap Muslim student in India's UP

Saying she wants the seven-year-old evicted because of his religion

UP, INDIA (Web Desk) - A schoolteacher in India has subjected a seven-year-old Muslim student to degrading treatment inside a classroom, asking his classmates to slap him and asking for him to be evicted due to his religion, revealed a video taking rounds on social media.

The video, which surfaced on Friday, showed Trapta Tyagi, the teacher at the school in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, making Islamophobic remarks in addition to encouraging other students to slap him harder.

A male voice in the background was heard agreeing with the teacher. “I have declared that all Muslim children should go,” Tyagi is heard saying in the video.

“You are correct, it ruins the education,” the male is heard saying as the victim stands in front of the class, wailing and terrified. Muslims constitute approximately a fifth of the 235 million population of Uttar Pradesh.

The incident took place on Thursday in Neha Public School in Kubbapur village, 30km from Muzaffarnagar town, said the parents of the seven-year-old Mohammad Altamash.

“Yesterday, my son came home crying,” Rubina, his mother, said. “He was traumatised. This is not how you treat kids.” According to his father Mohammad Irshad, the teacher “asked them [classmates] to slap my son one by one”.

“The teacher justified her actions by saying my son did not memorise his lessons. “My son is good at his studies. He takes tuitions. We fail to understand why the teacher treated him like this. It seems that the teacher is filled with hate,” the 42-year-old added.

Police in India have asked social media users not to share the video, prompting various users to remove it from their accounts.

Irshad, a farmer, said that the ill-treatment of his son was the result of “hate that is being spread against Muslims in the country”, illustrated by the teacher’s comments heard in the video.

Rubina added that the teacher reportedly had a habit of getting students slapped by their classmates. She added that just a few days ago, another student from their family was subjected to similar treatment after he failed to memorise his lessons.

A police officer said a case will be filed after recording the statement of the child and the parents. The school in question has students from the Hindu and Muslim communities in the area.

Irshad said that, although the teacher accepted her mistake and apologised for her behaviour, he will move his son to a different school. “She said she will never treat her students badly again,” he said. “But this is not the environment where I want my son to get an education and grow up in.”

As the video went viral, it sparked outrage on social media, with many pointing out the growing Islamophobia in schools. “A generation is growing up in a society that has normalised hostility and hate,” said Nazia Erum, author of, Mothering a Muslim.

She blamed the media and the state of politics for the growing hate in the country which she said “aims to only keep the minority Muslim population in negative light constantly”.

Ashok Swain, an Indian-origin academic and writer, also took to X and criticised the teacher and said Islamophobia in India has crossed all boundaries.

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) August 25, 2023

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the incident.

“Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like school into a marketplace of hatred — nothing worse a teacher can do for the country. This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP which has set every corner of India on fire. Children are the future of India — do not hate them, we all have to teach love together,” he said.