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In the Udupi controversy, the girls are being crushed in a grip between the college administration as well as the custodians of Islam who, in the name of secularism and Constitution, are fanning the flames. (File) WHERE was the “hijab issue” just a few months ago? Why has it suddenly erupted? These are important questions that we need to address as it’s unfortunate and of great concern that young men and women are being divided along religious lines. A dispute over uniforms has been blown out of proportion by being politicised and communalised. A matter between the administrators of educational institutions and the community should not be turned into a mandir-masjid kind of a wrangle. We have seen enough of them and they have sapped a lot of the nation’s energy.
Justice Krishna S Dixit of the Karnataka High Court has rightly emphasised that the court will have to decide the issue early as it is not a happy scene to see students marching on the roads every day. He has underlined the primacy of the Constitution over hot-headed emotions. Voices of sanity and reason must get primacy over those advocating an impassioned approach.
The protesting young women in Karnataka say that wearing “hijab” is their personal choice and key to their religious practice. That matter is also being contested in the court but in an educational institution, it’s rule, and not just personal choice, that has to be followed. Interestingly, regarding the dress code, a cleric of Hyderabad once issued a “fatwa” (Islamic decree) that it was un-Islamic on the part of Sania Mirza to play tennis in skirts and she must use a “naqab” and cover her legs. A judge was a pious Muslim at home where she covered her face with a “hijab” but while on duty on the bench, she didn’t. There are several examples like her. Many Muslim women are working in hospitals, with the government, as players and pilots. It’s not possible to work in a hijab. These Karnataka girls, too, will be our future doctors, justices, teachers, pilots.
In the Udupi controversy, the girls are being crushed between the college administration and the custodians of Islam who, in the name of secularism and Constitution, are fanning the flames. On the other hand, are ministers like Giriraj Singh, who too have not left a stone unturned by calling the deteriorating law and order situation “Ghazwa-e-Hind” (capturing of India by Muslims). Both sides are using these hapless and helpless girls as fodder for their political ambitions.
Each institution has a set of rules and regulations, norms and values. In a school or college, religious identity should not be the defining identity. An important question to ask is: Where are the other girls who are comfortable entering the classroom without the hijab and who wear it once they leave the school? The protesters are few, the silent students are many.
All those drawing and deepening the dividing lines over “hijab,” chanting Jai Shri Ram and Allah-u-Akbar as a rallying cry, must know that this country will not be ruled either by “Sharia” or “Sanatan Dharma” but by the Constitution of India as drafted by Bhim Rao Ambedkar. The strain of radicalism among Hindus and Muslims — wearing religion on their sleeves — will cause further schisms in society and expand the influence of those indulging in the politics of religion.
It’s high time that the government steps in and calms the waters lest the Opposition put the BJP government in the dock for fanning the Hindu-Muslim divide. As always, that has been a plank for the Opposition and it’s time to wake up if this government wants India to make the “Vishwa Guru.”
The writer is former chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
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