School Prayers as a Curricular Activity

School prayers in India are not merely routine elements within morning assemblies but structured curricular activities that occupy a significant place within the school timetable. They are moments of collective performance in which students engage in songs, recitations and moral instruction, subtly transmitting institutional and civic values. Far from being neutral or purely devotional, these daily practices function as pedagogical spaces that shape students’ moral, civic, spiritual and epistemological sensibilities. This article investigates the content of school prayers across four types of institutions in the Delhi-NCR region: government, private, government-aided religious (GAR) and Tibetan refugee schools. Using content analysis, the article examines how distinct values, emotions and ideas are communicated through these prayers. The comparative analysis reveals that each school type draws on different ideological and cultural frameworks in selecting or composing its prayer texts. The article thus calls for students to critically analyse the prayers they sing daily, transforming a repetitive ritual into a reflective learning practice that enables them to recognise how values, emotions and ideologies are reproduced through seemingly simple acts of collective devotion.