Hijab row: A manufactured controversy

Let the girls go back to class, in uniform and hijab

The controversy that arose in a government pre-university college in Udupi over some students coming to college wearing the hijab has gone on for over a month without resolution. Seven Muslim students who wore the hijab have been denied entry into the classrooms by the principal who has maintained that wearing the hijab is a violation of the college’s uniform code. The girls have missed their classes all these days. The government has sided with the principal, calling the wearing of the hijab an act of indiscipline. It has formed a committee to look into setting up a strict uniform code for educational institutions. Why such a committee has become necessary now when the constitutional position on the matter is clear and has been so for decades is quite obvious.

All citizens of the country have the fundamental right to practise their religion, and as the girls have maintained, the use of the hijab should be considered a part of the practice of their religion. It is wrong to claim that this right cannot be exercised within a college campus or a classroom. Would a Sikh student wearing a turban be seen as violating the uniform code and prevented from attending class? Would a Brahmin boy with a tuft of hair on his head as a religious mark be seen as violating the uniform code? The girls turn up in college wearing the prescribed uniform and so they cannot be accused of violating the college’s uniform code. The hijab on the head does not take anything away from the uniform and does not hinder their identification in any way. In any case, no uniform rule imposed by a college or a state can override the right to freedom of religion granted by the Constitution.

India’s national and social life has been accommodative of all religious beliefs and practices. Public expression of religiosity and the use of marks of religion abound in public spaces and institutions in the country. The wearing of the hijab cannot be treated differently from the wearing of the mangalsutra, bindis, bangles, the cross or other commonly worn religious symbols. Unfortunately, a divisive political culture centred around religion and the targeting of religious minorities that has grown in recent years in the country has made this non-issue a controversy. It is unfortunate that the students are being denied their right to education also in the process. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai should intervene, let the girls return to class in uniform and hijab, and show that his government goes by the Constitution, not the diktats of party ideology and political convenience.