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NEW DELHI – As the world debates whether the burkini is appropriate beachwear, a new fight is brewing in India over burqa-wearing students on college campuses.
This week, some Hindu students began wearing saffron-colored scarves to the classroom in a college in the southern state of Karnataka in protest against the hijab and burqas that Muslim students are allowed to wear on campus.
Saffron, or deep orange, is considered to be an auspicious color in Hinduism and is also the color that members of many Hindu nationalist groups in India use in their flags, bandanas and scarves to assert their religious identity.
It all started last week when a pharmacy college in the southern city of Mangalore banned its first-year female students from wearing the hijab or burqa and the male students from sporting long beards on campus.
Almost immediately, the Muslim student group, the Campus Front of India, began protesting the ban, saying the Indian constitution allows them the right to practice their religion.
Groups of burqa-clad students pressed against the gate of the college shouting slogans and holding placards saying: “We are not silent, we want justice.” Some parents of students joined the protests against the ban as well.
The college responded by ending the ban – angering many Hindu students in the region.
Since Monday, some Hindu students have begun wearing orange scarves to college in the small town of Bellare.
Across Indian campuses, Hindu nationalist student groups have been on the rise, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party came to power two years ago.
B.V. Seetaram, the editor of a local newspaper called Karavali Ale called it “a tug-of-war” on campuses.
“It is an attempt by both sides to push college managements into a corner. Both sides want to assert their religious identity and muscle power through their attire,” Seetaram told news portal Firstpost.com on Friday.
Tensions between Hindus and Muslims have been on the rise in Karnataka state in recent years. Conservative Hindu and Muslim groups in the region have opposed romantic relationships between the two religions, and are also against women going to bars in recent years.
A noted writer who attacked Hindu orthodoxy was killed last year by unidentified men. Investigations are still ongoing.
Muslims constitute over 12 percent of the state’s population, Indian census says.
Last year, the government’s board of education imposed a ban on students wearing hijabs, burqas and long sleeved clothes to medical school entrance exams. The ban was imposed to prevent cheating in tests. Several Muslim groups protested against the ban at the time as well and petitioned the court. But the Supreme Court upheld the ban.
“Your faith won’t disappear if you appear for exam on one day without a head scarf,” said the judge.
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