EDITORIAL: Hindu extremists ruling India find ever new way to push the country’s Muslims to the wall. Whilst anti-Muslim violence, hate speech including threats to kill all Muslims, and discriminatory laws constitute the new normal, the BJP government in Karnataka state has introduced a measure aimed at stigmatising Muslim women and girls.
Girl students in government-run high schools and colleges have been told that they must not wear hijab (headscarf). Unsurprisingly for today’s India, the rule came after some women linked to right-wing Hindu organisations sporting saffron shawls — a symbol used by Hindu extremist groups — started protesting against students wearing hijab.
Social media videos show school gates being shut on the faces of hijab-clad students trying to enter their school. Some colleges have since permitted them entry but only to sit in separate classes. This ‘othering’ of Muslims has ignited fresh fears among them about life under ultra-Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many people have been staging protest demonstrations against the restriction.
In case the argument is that if France can place a ban on hijab in public educational institutions so can India; the fact of the matter is that India’s is no France. That country has a long-standing tradition of maintaining religious neutrality.
Its constitutional secularity prohibits wearing of ANY conspicuous religious symbols in government-owned educational institutions. Even so, when last month the Senate voted to ban wearing of hijab in sports, proposed by a right-wing party, President Emmanuel Macron and his party opposed the move.
It is incredible to see this happening in India where the ruling BJP leaders themselves wear tilaks and other things emblematic of their faith. For one, chief minister of the country’s largest population state, UP, Ajay Mohan Bisht who assumed a religious sounding name Yogi Adityanath on venturing into politics, dresses only in saffron robes.
And of course followers of Sikhism wear turbans and metal wrist bracelets as symbols of their faith. Muslims are being purposely singled out by the ruling BJP-RSS combine and their thugs for physical and verbal attacks, discriminatory laws and harassment tactics.
For the promotion of their Hindutva ideology they use the victimhood card to demonise Muslims for the perceived or concocted wrongs committed by Muslim rulers centuries ago against the Hindu population of India. The strategy has worked well for them; setting Hindus on Muslims has helped them win elections.
The ban on hijab is to further deepen Muslim community’s sense of insecurity. The Karnataka High Court is to hear two petitions challenging the denials of right to female students to attend classes while wearing what they believe is in accordance their religious requirement.
The court is expected to annul the measure as it is not backed by any law. But relentless targeting of Muslim community can severely undermine India’s much-tempted secularism, even if it now exists only inside the pages of the country’s constitution.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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