India's hijab ban controversy snowballs as politicians wade in

Several colleges in Karnataka state have barred entry to students wearing the traditional Islamic head covering

Students wearing the hijab walk down a street in Bengaluru, capital of India's Karnataka state. Several colleges in the southern state barred students for wearing the Muslim headscarf to class. EPA

A row over hijab bans imposed by colleges in India's southern Karnataka state became more heated on Saturday, as leaders of Indian opposition parties attacked the local government for defending the policy.

The controversy began in December when a women’s college in the state’s Udupi district banned six students from classes for wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf, sparking weeks of protests.

Karnataka's state government, run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, defended the ban introduced by about six government-run educational centres — leading to a nationwide outcry.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's main opposition Congress party, on Saturday accused the government of “robbing” the girls of their future.

“By letting students’ hijab come in the way of their education, we are robbing the future of the daughters of India,” Mr Gandhi wrote on Twitter.

Congress member and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the government of “planning to deprive female students of education”.

Several opposition parties in parliament also criticised the state government's defence of the ban.

“Women, children wearing hijabs were not allowed inside the college gates in Karnataka …the government should at once take action upon them,” said S Senthilkumar of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party.

The political furore was sparked by video on social media that showed officials at Bhandarkars' Arts and Science Degree College in Kundapur denying entry to dozens of female students wearing the hijab on Friday.

Students say the no-hijab policy was introduced suddenly when the college reopened on January 21, after a pandemic lockdown.

Five students challenged the ban in a petition to the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, arguing that it violated their constitutional right to practise their religious beliefs.

The hijab ban followed male Hindu students coming to college wearing saffron scarves — a colour associated with right-wing Hindu nationalists — in December, in a protest against female students wearing headscarves.

In recent days, hundreds of students wearing saffron scarves have paraded on the streets after being denied entry to class by education authorities for violating the dress code.

The state government has maintained that the colleges have the right to decide student dress codes to maintain uniformity and harmony.

BC Nagesh, the state’s junior education minister, claimed the students were being manipulated by the Muslim community.

“No girls have been stopped, but asked to follow the uniform decided by the colleges for years. It [hijab] is against uniformity,” Mr Nagesh told The National. “They can wear burqa and hijab but have to remove it once inside the classroom.

“They were following these rules so far and were disciplined; there is a hand against the education of women from the particular community,” he said.

In remarks echoing Hindu nationalist rhetoric, BJP member of parliament Pratap Sinha, who represents Mysore in Karnataka, said students could “wear a skull cap or hijab in a madrassa but not in government or private educational institutions”.

If students did not want to abide by that, Mr Sinha said they could go to a “separate country given in 1947" — a reference to Pakistan, where Islam is the state religion.