A test case of living with pluralism in Karnataka

There is little chance that the issues raised by them will be covered up. Hijab controversy in Karnataka and elsewhere in India through the administrative and judicial initiatives that are underway. The temporary closure of academic educational institutions has brought some relief to some young Muslim girls demanding that they be allowed to wear the hijab in college, which was opposed by supporters of Hindutva outfits wearing saffron outfits. The Karnataka High Court in an interim order has also made it clear that “all students, regardless of their religion or belief, are prohibited from wearing saffron shawls (saffron), scarves, hijabs, religious flags or “Till further orders” in respect of “pending consideration” petitions on the issue of right to wear Hijab in classrooms. This order has also been limited to those institutions where the student dress code/uniform has been prescribed. In addition, the police have conducted flag marches in some cities and towns which may result in communal flare-ups as a result of the opposing stand.

The hijab as a differentiating marker has been an explosive issue in the context of pluralism, along with other political societies. But what is it that makes hijab a testament to living with pluralism in Karnataka? The approach we use to tackle this issue will have implications elsewhere.

While an average person in India, including students, wears one or several insignia (sports) that have or have a strong religious affiliation, it is social and political faults that have served as the springboard for pitting saffron against hijab in Karnataka. worked as.

social outreach, integration

Although the issue had been simmering in other parts of the state for some time, it could not have had a better social anchor than the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts of southern coastal Karnataka. These two districts have been in the grip of the Sangh Parivar for more than a dozen years through institutional interventions and initiatives aimed at strengthening the Hindu identity. The Muslim minority in these two districts constitute about 20% of the population – 25% in Dakshina Kannada alone – and is much higher than the 13% in the entire state (2011 census).

While, traditionally, most of them have been small traders, merchants and informal workers, the community has undergone significant changes since the early years of the oil boom following large-scale migration to West Asia. In recent years there has been an impressive growth in terms of enterprise and initiative in the community in various fields including health, education, housing, literature and cultural production. This wide social reach has gone along with religious consolidation.

Although this religious collection is complex, for many young men and women it is exposed to extensive churning, it is nothing against the modern, but a new way of being and acting in the world. The political marginalization that he has been placed on after the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the region only makes such a craving all the more important. They see education as a key resource not only to reach out to the world but to find a complete place in it. The complex brainstorming that these new mappings of the world threw off conservative tendencies such as a re-evaluation of conservatism or a shallow imitation of what was perceived as the Arab way of life. New institutions have also emerged: the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the student body, the Campus Front of India, which is closely associated with the radical group, the Popular Front of India, also made significant progress in this area. Is. The last few years. They are clearly on the edge of a broader aspirational endeavour.

Centrality of Caste

Muslims in the rest of Karnataka have not made the same progress; There are some sections across Karnataka where their living/social conditions are similar to those who are socially lowest. However, they are more concentrated in urban areas, and more in some localities than others. One of the biggest challenges facing the BJP’s Hindutva project in Karnataka is the centrality of caste as a key anchor of electoral politics. His attempt to subjugate it to the Hindutva project has not made much progress among politically significant communities such as the Lingayats. Many Lingayat saints still hold to the belief that they are a separate religion.

While the Sangh Parivar has campaigned against love jihad, cow slaughter etc., their influence has been limited. Hijab issue provides the best opportunity for Muslims to polarize against Hindus. Whereas in this wider region, Muslims become the scapegoat for the failure of Hindutva to reinvent themselves, in the case of coastal Karnataka, it is the stagnant nature of Hindutva nationalism and its failure to reach a vibrant community that is social. responsible for the cracks. Shedding light on the hijab controversy.

Christians, mainly Roman Catholics – other religious minorities in southern coastal Karnataka – who make up about 8.5% of the population – have also been targeted by Hindutva organizations – by renaming public places, attacking small temples, fringe Christian congregations attacks etc. The Karnataka Anti-Conversion Bill – or the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill – introduced recently but not yet passed into law in the state, is clearly directed against churches. But the community’s wider response has been limited to withdrawing and reclaiming a formal secular constitutional project.

attack on freedom

Given these flaws, any approach to the hijab question that limits it to religious insignia is not only archaic, but misses out on its importance to those who do. For a lot of young Muslim women in coastal Karnataka and perhaps elsewhere in Karnataka, especially drawn from the lower social strata, the hijab is not an archaic and patriarchal imposition, but a choice through which they are exposed to the world. Want to make your presence felt and define yourself? Access to education is closely related to this quest for self-definition. In such an effort, refusing to wear the hijab is not a progressive measure – as some good old people believe it – but an attack on their self-worth and dignity. Binding them to a prescriptive dress code subject them to a uniformity that not only narrows their differences but also reinforces the prevailing political dominance. It is not necessary to reiterate the impact of such code on maintaining freedom of choice and its context. The hijab may have other meanings for the elders of the community to which one belongs, and may be integral to one’s own religious beliefs, but they are largely subsidiary cots.

Recognizance

In this context it is important to differentiate between burqa and hijab. The burqa is strongly linked to the religious code. Most young Muslim students in the coastal region of Karnataka may wear the burqa outside educational institutions, but will continue to wear the hijab, putting it aside when they are on their campus. But as a teacher I have also found that sometimes they can even remove the burqa depending on their comfort level in the class and the feeling of companionship. Clearly, these dispositions cannot be imposed through a single rule of the code.

How does a person wearing a hijab with a school uniform impress another student or teacher or academic administrator? Fortunately very few, unless one regards school as turning the cogs in the wheel, and not a person with the ability to make choices and take responsibility for themselves.

In a deeply diverse society like India – and such diversity is common to most large political societies today – the only way we can build our shared future is by inviting people who feel different to interact and through Make mangoes continuously.

Valerian Rodrigues was Professor at Mangalore University and Jawaharlal Nehru University