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At the beginning of January 2022, a dispute erupted in the Indian state of Karnataka, when Muslim students wearing hijab in a junior college were denied entry to classes. Over the following weeks, it spread to several other schools and colleges across the state. Around 5 February 2022, the Karnataka government issued an order stating that uniforms must be worn compulsorily where policies exist and no exception can be made for the wearing of hijab. Several schools cited this order and denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab. Following this, petitions with regard to this issue were filed in the Karnataka High Court. The High Court issued an interim order restraining all students from wearing any form of religious attire. On 8 February 2022, the Government of Karnataka announced the closure of high schools and colleges for three days after protests and disputes over the wearing of hijab intensified. When the schools reopened on 14 February, the High Court order was implemented in all schools and colleges of Karnataka, asking the students to remove hijabs at the school gates.

The hijab ban was criticized inside India and internationally by officials in the United States and Pakistan, by Human Rights Watch, and by figures like Malala Yousafzai and Noam Chomsky. The ban was defended inside India by politicians, such as Aaditya Thackeray and Vishva Hindu Parishad.

Background

The education system of Karanataka involves 10 years of school and two years of Pre-University college. On the basis of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 the Government of Karnataka has empowered the school management committees (SMCs) and college development committees (CDCs) to decide on uniforms for their students. For school students, uniforms are said to be mandatory. For pre-University colleges, uniforms were not mandated by the government, but, over time, the majority of college CDCs have adopted them. The rise in student numbers is said to have been a factor in this trend.

Muslims constitute 13% of the population of the state Karnataka. Many Muslim women consider hijab to be a part of the Islamic faith. In India, the public display of religious symbols is common, including the wearing of hijab and burqa. Several colleges in Karnataka reported that a small number of Muslim students have "always" worn the hijab in classroom. M Raghupathy, who was Karnataka's education minister in a Janata Party government in the 1980s, said that the government's uniform mandates had allowed both the hijab and the Christian nun's habit. He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had not objected to hijab back then.

The Indian Express reports that in 2018 some students wore saffron shawls to protest against the hijab and burqa in a college in Chikmagalur district. According to the newspaper, the issue was resolved when the principal decided to allow the hijab, but not the burqa.

Since 2019, Karnataka has been ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has adopted the popular Hindu nationalist policies such as banning cow slaughter, and passing an "anti-conversion bill" that critics say makes it difficult for interfaith couples to marry or for individuals to convert to Christianity or Islam.

Events

Udupi dispute

In early January 2022, a dispute over the wearing of hijab was reported at a government-run pre-University college at Udupi that had disallowed the wearing of hijab as being in violation of its uniform policy. Six Muslim female students insisted on wearing hijab to classes on top of their college uniform. The college said its uniform policy did not allow for the hijab. The girls offered to use the existing uniform's dupatta to cover their head, arguing they didn't need to wear a separate hijab of a different colour or material, but the college refused. The college allowed them to wear the hijab on campus, but did not allow them into classes. They were found sitting in corridors and working with their notebooks.

The case was brought to the attention of the media by Ansar Ahmed, the district president of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, a voluntary organisation. The student wing of Popular Front of India (PFI), called Campus Front of India, threatened a protest, prompting the college to arrange a police presence. The political wing of PFI, called Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), is also said to have threatened with protests. The college authorities met and talked with the parents, but remained firm in their resolution not to allow religious attire.

The protesting students had been removing hijabs inside classrooms. But after realising during the pandemic closures that it was merely a guidance from the college authorities and there was no mandatory rule about hijabs in classrooms, they came to the decision to insist upon wearing hijabs.

The college development committee, which is responsible for setting the uniform policy, was headed by K. Raghupati Bhat, an MLA belonging to the ruling BJP. Its 21 members did not include any Muslims. CFI and SDPI took the position that, since uniforms were not mandated by the government, they could not violate the students' religious rights. Bhat told the media that the college had written to the Pre-University Education Department of the state government to clarify the matter. Thus the matter was escalated to the state government level.

Other locations

Soon after the Udupi episode became public, at a co-educational first grade college in Koppa in the Chikmagalur district, where hijabs were being allowed, Hindu students started wearing saffron scarvesto the college to protest the allowance of hijab. The college asked the Muslim students to remove hijab in classrooms in order to deflect the crisis. The matter was resolved a few days later at a parent–teacher meeting where it was decided to allow Muslim girls with hijab. The parents of the Hindu students did not support their wards donning saffron scarves.

During the rest of January , the row over hijab has spilled over to other institutions in the Udupi district. On 6 January, Hindu students wore saffron shawls to protest against the hijab at Pompei College in Mangalore. The protests were supported by the Hindu nationalist organizations ABVP, VHP and Bajrang Dal. On 3 February, Hindu students wearing saffron shawls prevented hijab-wearing Muslim students from entering Dr BB Hegde College near Udupi.

Government reaction

The ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-led Karnataka government reacted to the incidents with apparent distaste. The education minister B. C. Nagesh termed it as an "act of indiscipline". The students could not practise their "religion" in public educational institutions, in his view. The uniform had been present for over three decades and there had been no problem with it till this point, he said. He blamed "political leaders", an apparent reference to the PFI, for provoking the students, who were allegedly "playing politics". The Home minster Araga Jnanendra said that there must be a universal feeling in schools and colleges that "we are all Indians", which required that the uniform code set by colleges be followed.

On 27 January, the government announced the setting up of an expert committee to study the issue. Until its decision was made, the government urged the students to maintain the "status quo". For the Udupi PU College students, the "status quo" apparently meant that they should "adhere to the uniform rule". The government issued an order to this effect. The CDC chairman Raghupati Bhat called a meeting with parents and told them that the students should remove hijab in classroom.

On either 3 February or 4 February, the government issued an order stating that the uniforms mandated by college development committees must be worn "compulsorily". Students following religious tenents adversely impacted "equality and unity" in colleges, according to the order. The preamble stated that a ban on hijab was "not illegal", and cited three court orders from Kerala, Bombay and Madras High Courts. For those colleges where the CDCs did not mandate a uniform, the students must still wear attire that maintains "equality and unity and doesn’t hamper public order".The order mentioned that the uniform were to be decided by the state government in government schools, and by the school management in private schools. Several schools cited this order and denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the burqa.

Fallout

At the Dr BB Hegde College, where the hijab-wearing students were blocked the previous day, the college administration banned the hijab citing the government order. The students had apparently been wearing hijab for three years at the school without issue. Bhandarkars' Arts & Science College also banned the hijab; some of its female Muslim students found their college's treatment "humiliating".

At a college in Kundapur, 28 students wearing hijab were barred from entering the college premises. The students were very anxious because their public exams were just two months away. The Telegraph commented that their "tearful pleas fell on deaf ears".

On 8 February, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College prevented students in hijab from entering, even though multiple students said the college had not objected to her hijab in the past.

The dispute then began to spread to other institutions across Karnataka, between Muslim students wanting to wear hijab and the administrations barring them. The controversy intensified in early February 2022.

Between 4 and 7 February, counter-protests led by students who were against allowing students wearing the hijab to enter the college. These students marched to the college wearing saffron shawls. However, authorities stopped them from entering the premises and asked the students to remove the shawls. The students were allowed in only after they complied with the request.

On 7 February, some students wore blue shawls and chanted Jai Bhim at a college in Chikmagalur in support of Muslim girls in hijab (as opposed to the saffron shawls that were against the wearing of hijab).

On 10 February 2022, a lone Muslim woman, named Muskan Khan, clad in a burqa was heckled on her college grounds in Mandya by a crowd of male Hindu students wearing saffron shawls and chanting "Jai Shri Ram". She responded back shouting "Allahu Akbar", while the college staff controlled the crowd and escorted her into the building. A video of the incident went viral. The treatment of Muskan Khan was condemned by many notable figures, including by actors John Cusack, Pooja Bhatt, Fakhre Alam, and footballer Paul Pogba.

On 8 February 2022, the Government of Karnataka announced the closure of high schools and colleges for three days, after the controversy over the wearing of hijab by Muslim students intensified. The Bangalore Police prohibited protests and agitations from 9 February until 22 February within the vicinity of any educational institution. Two Muslim men were arrested when they were found carrying lethal weapons during a protest. Three others managed to flee.

Court case

Several students from the Government Pre University College for Girls, Udupi, petitioned the Karnataka High Court against the ban, stating that wearing the burqa was their religious right.

On 9 February, a single judge hearing the case referred the matter to a larger bench.

A three judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi passed a interim order on 11 February. It requested the State to re-open the educational institutions and restrained students from wearing any sort of religious clothes in classrooms until court decided the matter.

Reactions

Domestic

• Apoorvanand, a professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi, called the controversy a part of a larger project in which “Muslim identity markers are being declared as sectarian and undesirable in public spaces". He said "It is telling Muslims and non-Hindus that the state will dictate their appearance and their practices,".
• Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Indian National Congress party criticized the government and said "By letting students' hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India. Prohibiting hijab-wearing students from entering school is a violation of fundamental rights."
• Aaditya Thackeray, state minister of Maharashtra, told journalists that if there was a uniform at schools, there should not be a place for any other dress other than that, saying, "Schools and colleges are the Centres of education, only education should be imparted there".
• Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), the Muslim wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-
  • In a statement, Anil Singh, the Prant Sanchalak (Awadh) of the MRM backed the burqa-clad student who was heckled by youth shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans at a Karnataka college, saying ‘purdah’ is part of Indian culture.
  • The MRM distanced itself from Singh's statement and said that it does not support such "fanaticism and religious frenzy" and supported the enforcement of dress code in educational institutions in Karnataka.
• Vishva Hindu Parishad - Dr Surendra Jain, joint secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad termed the hijab row “a conspiracy to propagate jihadi terrorism” and said that Muslim students were attempting “hijab jihad” in college campuses.
• Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar (BJP) said "Hijab is not a part of uniform and, therefore, I feel it should be banned". The Madhya Pradesh government clarified that no proposal to ban the hijab was under consideration.
• Education ministers in BJP ruled Himachal Pradesh and Tripura said their governments currently had no plans for a uniform dress code.
• Education ministers of Maharashtra and West Bengal, both states ruled by opposition parties, accused the BJP of "politicising" the school uniform. West Bengal education minister promised his state would "never" implement a hijab ban. Maharashtra education minister maintained the Indian Constitution gave freedom of religion. Rajasthan Education Minister Bulaki Das Kalla said his state doesn't restrict the hijab and accused the BJP of "mak issues out of non-issues".
• Sonam Kapoor – She shared a Instagram picture of a man in a turban and a woman in a hijab, and it questions why can a turban be a choice but a hijab can't.

International

• The United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain said the hijab ban was a violation of freedom of religion.
• Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed that Muslim girls are being denied the right to education in India.
• Taliban Spokesperson Inamullah Samangani praised the college girls for wearing hijab and defending their religious values.
• Human Rights Watch criticized the ban as a violation of the right to education without discrimination.
• Malala Yousafzai, in her tweet, said that it is terrible to prevent girls wearing hijab from entering school. She said that there were still objections against women in the matter of dressing more or less and demanded that Indian leaders should stop the process of separating Muslim women from the mainstream.
• Paul Pogba slammed Hindu mob for harassing Muslim girls in hijab by sharing a Instagram story.
• Noam Chomsky said that Islamophobia has taken a “most lethal form” in India, turning some 250 million Indian Muslims into a “persecuted minority”.
• Rezaul Karim, president of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, said that It is the violation of religious and civil rights.

Notes

1. The Act seems to have been amended in 2013 and 2018.
2. Often described as an extremist Islamic organisation.
3. Saffron is a holy colour in Hinduism, but there is no religious requirement to wear it in scarves. More significantly, the saffron colour is promoted by the Hindu nationalist organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad as an emblem of their ideology.
4. The order did not come into public view till 5 February. But the institutions citing the order were already implementing it on Thursday, 3 February and Friday, 4 February.

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• Politics of Karnataka
• Hijab
• 2022 in India
• Islam in Karnataka
• Controversies in India