How India’s Religious Headwear Ban Affects Muslims And Not Hindus
Muslim girls wear white hijabs as part of their school uniforms in Srinagar, Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state in India. Photo by Adam Jones/Creative Commons
An Indian court upheld a state “hijab ban” on March 15 that prevents girls from wearing the head covering at schools. The ruling could set a precedent for other states governed by the ruling Hindu-first Bharatiya Janata Party.
“We are of the considered opinion that wearing of hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice,” Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi of the Karnataka High Court said in a judgment on Tuesday.
An earlier court ruling in India that banned students in the southern state of Karnataka from wearing religious garments in schools has become a religious freedom issue for many minorities across the country.
The Karnataka government’s Department for Pre-University Education in India issued an order on Feb. 5 that called for a ban of headscarves and hijabs. In response, Muslim women in India sent petitions to the Karnataka High Court to reverse the order. While the government’s headscarf ban at schools includes the Muslim hijab and Hindu ghunghat, Hindu women are not opposed to the new order. About 81% of Indians are Hindu, while 13% are Muslim.
As a religious minority, India’s Muslim population has struggled to prove that the ban on hijab violates their religious freedom guaranteed under India’s constitution. Hindus, who represent a majority in the country, have done little to combat the ban. As a result, the country’s Muslim population — largely spearheaded by women — has been protesting the ruling.
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“Around 13 of us were taken to a separate room because we were wearing a headscarf over the school uniform,” Aliya Meher, a student at Karnataka Public School, told Al Jazeera. “They told us that we cannot write the pre-board exam if we don’t remove our hijab. We responded by saying. ‘In that case, we will not write the exam. We cannot compromise on the hijab.’”
In fact, most people who practice Hinduism have no religious issue with the order. The lack of protest may have something to do with the origin of head coverings for Indian women.
According to Pew Research Center, head coverings are worn by most women in India, including around 6 in 10 Hindus. It is most common for Muslim and Sikh women to wear head coverings, closely followed by Hindu women.
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But for those who practice Hinduism, head coverings and veiling the face are more of a cultural act than a religious one. Still, many Hindu texts have mentioned head coverings and why they are important for women.
The Valmiki Ramayana is an Indian poem about the journey of virtue to annihilate vice. From an understanding of virtue, one of the verses reads, “In times of adversity, on the occasions of physical or mental suffering, in war, in self-interest, in marriage, the presence of women in Yajna appearing to others is not a matter of blame.”
The text also says, “O Lord, today I do not have a veil on my face, I have come here on foot from the city gate. Why do not you get angry by seeing me in this condition?”
These verses imply that the presence of a woman may be blameless, and the use of a veil to cover a woman’s face was a practice at the time.
Hindu women gather in a village in Rajasthan to discuss and find solutions to problems such as alcoholism, lack of roads or drinking water. Many Hindu women in Rajasthan wear head coverings and veils. Photo by UN Women/Ashutosh Negi
Additionally, the Rig Veda, one of Hinduism’s sacred texts, mentions women's face coverings: “When Brahma has made you a woman, you should lower your gaze and should not look up. You should put your feet together and you should not reveal what the garment and the veil conceal.”
These mentions in Sanskrit texts support the use of the ghunghat in contemporary Hinduism.
On the other hand, according to the Quran, there are specific and clear instructions on the hijab for Muslim women. The Muslim holy book says, “Tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which (necessarily) appears thereof and to wrap (a portion of) their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment.”
Wearing the hijab is often considered a personal decision too rather than the only way to be devout. Many Muslims around the world do not believe that wearing a head covering is a required command from God. In South India for example, 83% of Muslim women wear a head covering, according to Pew Research.
The same Pew survey found that around 59% of Hindu women in India cover their heads outside their homes. Furthermore, in southern India, where the head covering ban was issued, only 22% are inclined to wear a head covering. Fewer Hindu women choose to cover their heads outside their homes since there is no specific instruction to do so.
Many of the ritual practices of Hinduism are based on the tradition passed down from generation to generation. For this reason, most Hindu women are less inclined to protest against the ban of hijabs and ghunghat.
Myrian Garcia is a student at The King’s College majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society. She is participating in the New York City Semester in Journalism Program, where she is interning at the daily amNY.