A high court in the south Indian state of Karnataka on Tuesday upheld a government order banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in schools, a ruling likely to heighten tensions at a time when India is increasingly polarized along religious lines.
The court said that wearing the hijab is not part of the essential religious practice under Islam. The ruling came at a time when members of the Indian minority community have come under increasing fire as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has adopted a Hindu policy.
Religious freedom is protected by the country’s constitution, but there has been an increase in religion-based hate crimes, particularly against members of the Muslim community. Their members and right-wing Hindu activists have also clashed on school campuses around Karnataka.
The dispute started in September at a girls’ preparatory school in Udupi, a town in southwestern Karnataka, when teachers there barred several Muslim students from their classrooms while wearing hijabs.
In previous years, headscarves were not a problem, according to one of the petitioners who wanted the ban to be lifted. The school ban, which was later upheld by the state government, sparked unrest and violence that spread to other schools in the state, forcing the government to close the schools for days.
When the students defied the ban, they were met on campus by dozens of boys wearing saffron, the color most associated with Hinduism, chanting slogans such as “Hail Lord Ram,” an important Hindu god.
Several of the students’ parents filed a petition, which the judges considered before deciding. The three judges heard arguments from lawyers to overturn the hijab ban, while student lawyers argued that it violates the girls’ right to education and their freedom of religion. The Indian Constitution affirms “the right to freely practice, practice and propagate religion.”
The court previously issued an interim order banning students from wearing religious clothing, including saffron scarves, until its decision on Tuesday.
Pralhad Joshi, a federal minister of parliamentary affairs, welcomed the court’s decision and said the “basic work of the students is studying”.
Also Mr Joshi told Indian news agency ANI: “Everyone must keep the peace by accepting the order of the Supreme Court.”
In recent weeks, restrictions on students’ headscarves had become a flashpoint over minority rights in India. Critics of Modi say his Bharatiya Janata party is taking increasing steps to marginalize the country’s 200 million Muslims, one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.
Right-wing Hindu monks have called on other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims. And there has been an increase in violence against Muslims in India under Mr Modi, part of a wider shift in which minorities feel less safe.
Recently, a prominent Muslim member of parliament survived an apparent assassination attempt while campaigning in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. After police arrested two people accused of shooting at the lawmaker’s vehicle, members of Mr Modi’s party visited a suspect’s home and declared him innocent.
Karnataka, where the hijab controversy is set, is controlled by Mr. Modi’s party. The protest by the students there has inspired Muslim women to march elsewhere in India for their right to wear headscarves and other Islamic clothing.
“The hijab is not a time when freedom or equality are being tested,” wrote Pratap Bhanu Mehta, columnist for The Indian Express. “It comes when there is an attempt to visibly erase Muslims from the public culture of India.”
Karnataka residents said some Muslim women wearing headscarves were unable to enter the shops or were reprimanded on public transport. In another state, a hijab-wearing woman was not allowed to withdraw money from a bank, Indian news media reported.
“When you get on a bus, everyone starts staring at you,” said Huzaifa Kulsum, a housewife in Karnataka who said she’d been wearing the hijab since childhood. “Looks like suddenly everyone is interested in knowing why we’re wearing it.”
Video imagery Bee some schools in Karnataka, Muslim students and teachers showed that they must remove the head covering before entering the campus. Many parents chose not to send their children to school.
On Tuesday, authorities in Karnataka closed schools and colleges for a day and police officers were seen patrolling the streets. Before the court’s ruling, the regional government banned large gatherings for a week in Bengaluru, the state capital of Karnataka, to “maintain law and order”.
The girls who filed a petition with the court have decided, according to their lawyer, Anas Tanwir, that they will appeal the ban to the highest Indian court.
Aiman Mohiuddin, a student banned from wearing a hijab at the Rotary School in Mandya, a town in Karnataka, said before the ruling she had felt that someone had cut off part of her body.
During the hearings, a top government lawyer told judges that banning the wearing of the hijab at school does not violate the guarantees of religious freedom under the Indian constitution.
Prabhuling Navadgi, a lawyer representing the government of Karnataka, told the court that educational institutions had the right to set rules for school wear.
“There is no question of hijab in the command of the government,” he said. “The government order is harmless in nature. It does not affect the rights of the petitioners.”