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.[1] 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.[2][3] 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.
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[a] 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.[5][4]
Muslims constitute 13% of the population of the state Karnataka.[6] Many Muslim women consider hijab to be a part of the Islamic faith.[7] In India, the public display of religious symbols is common,[8] including the wearing of hijab and burqa.[9][8][7] Several colleges in Karnataka reported that a small number of Muslim students have "always" worn the hijab in classroom.[10] 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.[11]
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.[12]
Since 2019, Karnataka has been ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[6] It has adopted the popular Hindu nationalist policies such as banning cow slaughter,[13][14] 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.[13][14]
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.[1] Six Muslim female students insisted on wearing hijab to classes on top of their college uniform.[8] The college said its uniform policy did not allow for the hijab.[1] 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.[1][15] The college allowed them to wear the hijab on campus, but did not allow them into classes.[16][8] They were found sitting in corridors and working with their notebooks.[15]
The case was brought to the attention of the media by Ansar Ahmed, the district president of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, a voluntary organisation.[1] The student wing of Popular Front of India (PFI),[b] called Campus Front of India, threatened a protest, prompting the college to arrange a police presence.[1] The political wing of PFI, called Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), is also said to have threatened with protests.[19] The college authorities met and talked with the parents, but remained firm in their resolution not to allow religious attire.[20][21]
Later it was revealed[by whom?] that the protesting students had apparently[vague] attended the previous year of college following its rules of removing hijab inside classrooms, but this fact was not appreciated by their parents. After the parents discovered the true situation, they as well as the students came to the decision to insist upon hijab.[10]
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.[10] 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.[22] Thus the matter was escalated to the state government level.
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 scarves[c]to the college to protest the allowance of hijab.[24] The college asked the Muslim students to remove hijab in classrooms in order to deflect the crisis.[25] 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.[15]
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.[26] The protests were supported by the Hindu nationalist organizations ABVP, VHP and Bajrang Dal.[26] On 3 February, Hindu students wearing saffron shawls prevented hijab-wearing Muslim students from entering Dr BB Hegde College near Udupi.[27]
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.[22] The uniform had been present for over three decades and there had been no problem with it till this point, he said.[28] He blamed "political leaders", an apparent reference to the PFI, for provoking the students, who were allegedly "playing politics".[29] 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.[30]
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".[30] 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.[30] The CDC chairman Raghupati Bhat called a meeting with parents and told them that the students should remove hijab in classroom.[31]
On either 3 February or 4 February,[d] the government issued an order stating that the uniforms mandated by college development committees must be worn "compulsorily".[33] 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".[34]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.[2][3][35]
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.[27] Bhandarkars' Arts & Science College also banned the hijab; some of its female Muslim students found their college's treatment "humiliating".[27]
At a college in Kundapur, 28 students wearing hijab were barred from entering the college premises.[36] 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".[29]
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.[37][38]
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.[39]
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.[40] The students were allowed in only after they complied with the request.[41][42][43][40][44][excessive citations]
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).[45]
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.[46][47][13] A video of the incident went viral.[48] The treatment of Muskan Khan was condemned by many notable figures, including by actors John Cusack,[49] Pooja Bhatt,[49] Fakhre Alam,[49] and footballer Paul Pogba.[50]
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.[51][52] The Bangalore Police prohibited protests and agitations from 9 February until 22 February within the vicinity of any educational institution.[53] Two Muslim men were arrested when they were found carrying lethal weapons during a protest. Three others managed to flee.[54]
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.[13][55][2]
On 9 February, a single judge hearing the case referred the matter to a larger bench.[56][57]
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.[58][59]