Karnataka no longer liberal, hijab issue has hijacked state’s reputation

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Karnataka was seen as a liberal state. With Bengaluru’s famed temperate climate, the state’s natural resources and a cosmopolitan mix of communities, the entire country desired to descend here to set up shop and home. And they did. People are still coming in from all over, influenced by past reputation, but the character of the state has changed, for the worse.

After lying low for many years, a once-marginal conservative section that hated the liberal social environment has crawled out of the woodwork, to wield power. The Sangh Parivar fronted by the BJP-led state government is having a go at everything that Karnataka was known for – tolerance, accommodation and inclusion.

First came the restriction on eating beef with the cattle slaughter ban, then arrived the legislative bill to ban so-called forced conversion, along with the attempt to delegitimise inter-faith marriage – all this complemented by a slew of vigilante attacks on churches and Christian practitioners in their own homes. Unsurprisingly, very few of the attackers have been prosecuted, with reports pointing to the collusion of the state police with the ruling dispensation.

The latest in the cross-hairs of the right-wing is the innocuous hijab (or, the headscarf) worn by some Muslim women. A harmless attire, dictated by the customs of the minority community, has overnight become a provocative red rag to be cowed down by the saffron brigade.

In educational institutions, for years, a small section of Muslim girls have always worn the hijab along with the stipulated uniform. No one ever had a problem. After all, it was part of the personal attire of an individual. It did not come in anyone’s way nor did it impede friendships and social interactions among the youngsters.

Also read: HC refers hijab matter to larger bench; govt to wait for court verdict

Overnight, the hijab has been yanked into the limelight. A few weeks ago, right wing pro-Hindutva groups singled them out on the spurious grounds of inequality, as non-secular and what have you… In earlier liberal times, such a claim would not have the currency to spread beyond a few feet from the college or school compound, and would have faded into oblivion. But now, under a pliant BJP dispensation headed by the once-secular politician Basavaraj Bommai, the non-issue has been fanned by questionable arguments. The result: the delicate hijab has assumed monstrous proportions.

The issue is not merely about the hijab or religious conversions, but the larger narrative of browbeating the minority communities. In the process, constitutionally guaranteed individual freedoms and the right to privacy have been given the short shrift. The state government has listed examples of court rulings that have allegedly favoured the move to ban hijab in educational institutions. But, a closer look at these judgments show that the rulings were made in other contexts in cases that had little similarity to the issue at hand.

The legal website Leaflet, for example, points out that the state’s justification on banning the hijab rests on the case Asha Ranjan v/s the State of Bihar which has to do with a plea for transfer of cases relating to the accused in the murder of a journalist. In another much-quoted Kerala case Nadha Raheem vs CBSE (2015), the court allowed the two petitioners to wear the hijab and full sleeve dress for an all –India medical entrance test, but with the proviso that she acquiesces to the physical check by an invigilator.

In the Amnah Bint Basheer vs CBSE (2016) case again regarding wearing the hijab and full sleeve for the all-India medical entrance test, the court examined the issue of regulating religious practice on grounds of public order, morality and ruled that the dress code was not related to any of these grounds and allowed the petitioner to wear the hijab provided she allowed herself to be physically frisked by the invigilator.

Also read: Bommai orders closure of schools, colleges as hijab row hots up

The more nuanced case was the third one Fathima Thasneem vs State of Kerala (2018), where the petitioners sought wearing of the hijab in the private educational institution they were studying. The court ruled there were two competing fundamental rights, that of Article 25 (concerning the right to religious practices of an individual) and Article 19 (concerning the right to establish, manage and administer by a private institution). The court ruled that the girl students had to abide by the rule framed by the private management.

The implication, from the court ruling, is that where private institutions are concerned, students are bound to follow instructions while in the case of state-run institutions the right of the individual (under Article 25 of the Constitution) takes precedence. The controversy in Karnataka relates to wearing of the hijab in government-run educational institutions.

In the current situation, five girls from Karnataka have moved the court which is seized of the matter.

It is ironical that the right-wing government has targeted education. Already suffering from several infirmities and difficulties in ensuring education to all, particularly girl-children, the anti-hijab diktat is a big blow to making India a fully-educated nation. For a party whose leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of “Beti bachao beti padhao” (Save the girl child, educate the girl child), to block the very same girls from attending classes, for whatever reason, borders on the tragic.

Unlike Kerala, Karnataka is still far away from 100 per cent literacy. According to census figures, female literacy is still around 70 per cent. Already, the state faces myriad challenges in holding students and ensuring they continue with their college education (starting from Std 11). According to the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA) figures, Karnataka witnessed a huge dropout rate of 99.93 per cent in the higher secondary level for 2016-17, the highest in the country. A sizeable proportion of this was female.

All that the controversies like the one on hijab will end up is discouraging even those who brave it and continue with their education. More than the merit or otherwise of the hijab, the spirit of magnanimity is sadly missing and, in its place, a vituperative state is now breathing down the neck of hapless girl students.

The response of the secular opposition to the state’s marked rightward turn has been at best sporadic. While the Congress has protested against the controversy over the hijab, it has not been as forthcoming or forceful of the kind that should reflect its status as the main challenger to the ruling BJP in the state.

As for the Janata Dal (Secular), its response is even more paradoxical, its suffix emptied of any meaning. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda of the JD(S) spoke at length on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha without once mentioning the hijab controversy. He came out of Parliament house and told reporters the controversy was instigated by a small party in coastal Karnataka for the 2023 elections. By default, he absolved the BJP of any responsibility – not surprising since the JD(S) is reportedly tying up with the saffron party.

Even more irony is found within the ruling BJP. Its ousted Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had, during the COVID-19 first wave, refused to give a communal slant despite being egged on by his own colleagues, when a Muslim-dominated locality in Bangalore was hit by the coronavirus. Today, the state has a Chief Minister in Bommai with a secular Janata Dal background, seemingly doing the bidding of hardcore Sangh Parivar sections within his party.

Lest this piece gives the impression that Karnataka of yore was always a land at peace, it would be worthwhile to remember that there have indeed been communal flare ups in the past – in cities like Hubli and Bengaluru, among others. There have been violent Hindu-Muslim stand offs on issues like the Idgah Maidan controversy in Hubli or concerning the Bababudangiri Sufi shrine in Chikmagalur. But the difference in the hijab issue is that vulnerable people particularly adolescent girls have been targeted for their beliefs.

A taste of things to come was seen in the assassinations of the Lingayat scholar MM Kalburgi in Dharwad city followed by the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017 in the heart of Bengaluru – both widely acknowledged to have fallen prey for their critical views of the right wing and their opposition to rising communalism in the state.

That Karnataka is in danger of sacrificing whatever remains of its positives would have been unthinkable even a few months ago before the Bommai dispensation took office in July 2021. Sensing the alarmingly conservative direction the state was taking in the context of the recent attacks on Christians and their institutions, a group of 75 academics, journalists and intellectuals wrote a letter to Bommai on Republic Day warning him of “these negative trends”.

Also read: Students in Karnataka flout govt order & wear banned saffron scarves to college

They requested him to “ensure rule of law, the principles of the Constitution, the rights of all citizens and the basic norms of humaneness”. Interestingly, the hijab issue that had been simmering locally for a few weeks blew up into a major controversy just a few days after the letter was delivered to the chief minister – so much for the BJP government’s empathy to the concerns raised by respected individuals in the state. What now remains is a new sobering reality that people of Karnataka have to contend with.