Why the hijab row is not an identity issue
Categories: DAILY NEWS
The religious-political mix has historically yielded great short-term benefits, but always for the majority. In independent India’s history, there has been no instance of any minority group ever having benefitted from competitive communalism. Yet, navigating the path strewn with the carcasses of past failures, Muslims continue to blunder their way into trap after trap. Citing precedence, the girls insisted on their right to wear the hijab. According to them, some among their predecessors wore hijab in classrooms. The principal denied the precedence. And the stand-off commenced. One of the protesting girls, Almas A.H., told a BBC journalist that once the principal dug in his heels, she contacted the Muslim students’ body Campus Front of India (CFI). Thereafter, supported by the CFI, the girls dug in their heels too. Word spread. As did the scent of an opportunity. By the end of the first week of February, several colleges in and outside Udupi district had imposed the hijab ban. Invoking Article 133 (2) of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government threw its weight behind the hijab ban. It said that “a uniform style of clothes has to be worn compulsorily”.