The controversy over certain colleges refusing to allow the entry of Muslim female students wearing the hijab may have its roots in local politics, but has far-reaching ramifications for our polity as a whole. What began as an isolated incident in a government-run college in Udupi has escalated into a much wider issue. So far, five education institutes, of which three are government-run, have barred entry to hijab or head scarfed women students. Protests in solidarity by Muslim women students, many in hijab, met with counter-protests by saffron-scarfed youth have quickly escalated. With youth at the centre of the affray, and politicians and media fanning the flames, the situation now threatens to go out of control and develop into a tense communal confrontation. That this would suit the ruling BJP in Karnataka is evident from the Karnataka government’s less than neutral response to the issue. Rather than nipping the controversy in the bud and ensuring that the situation was not allowed to go out of hand, the Karnataka government invoked 133(2) of the Karnataka Education Act of 1983, which states that clothes which disturb equality and integrity and could create law-and-order problems should not be worn in schools and colleges. Issuing guidelines to colleges, the state education department has decreed that “all government schools should follow the uniform dress code, declared by the state government. Students from private institutions should follow the dress decided by the school management”. “Colleges that are under the dept of Pre-University, state government to follow the dress which was decided by the college's development board (CDC). If there is no such dress code, students can wear the dress which will not affect equality, integrity and law & order,” the department order adds. If media reports are to be gone by, the state’s home minister has reportedly asked police to investigate the protesting girls to see if they have been ‘influenced’ by antinational elements!
The victims in all this are the affected students themselves. For young women from conservative Muslim families, stepping out of their homes to secure a modern education is, in itself, an act of emancipation. Wearing the hijab in order to attend school may have been a matter of personal choice, or, as some have argued, may have been forced on them by conservative elements in their families and societies. However, the reasons do not matter. By suddenly choosing to impose a selective dress code, the college administrations concerned have, in effect, withdrawn these students’ right to education guaranteed by the Constitution. They have also chosen to reinforce, rather than try and bridge the communal divisions that exist in their society. By backing their actions, the Karnataka government has compounded the problem. It is now upto the Karnataka high court, which is hearing an appeal filed by one of the affected students that the hijab ban is violative of the right to religious freedom under Article 25 of the Constitution.
