Karnataka Hijab Row: Hindu Groups Hand Out Saffron Shawls To Students; Here's What's Happening
The Karnataka high court today passed over the hijab row in the state, meaning that the current Karnataka rules and laws on college uniform will apply in the state. Hundreds of students clad in hijab and some in saffron shawls started protesting outside college campus this morning.
The Karnataka high court today passed over the hijab row in the state, meaning that the current Karnataka rules and laws on college uniforms will apply in the state.
Hundreds of students clad in hijab and some in saffron shawls started protesting outside the college campus this morning before the court started hearing the matter.
Karnataka hijab row | Karnataka High Court says - we will go by reason, by law, not by passion or emotions. We will go by what Constitution says. Constitution is the Bhagavad Gita for me.
¡ª ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2022
Protests erupted at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi as students wearing hijab & another group of students wearing saffron stoles-headgears raise slogans on the college campus.
#HijabRow: Students at MGM College, Udupi, arrive wearing saffron shawls and turbans
¡ª The Times Of India (@timesofindia) February 8, 2022
LIVE updates: https://t.co/44z0TIwZPi pic.twitter.com/wh1bcbZgEL
The entrance gates of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College were shut briefly due to protest.
According to NDTV, videos from Kundapur in the Udupi district show boys and girls donning saffron scarves over their college uniforms and raising slogans of ¡°Jai Shri Ram (praise Lord Ram)¡± while going to college.
The fringe group, Hindu Jagrana Vedike, was caught on camera asking some students of a college in the Udupi district to sneak saffron scarves into the college as a form of counter-protest, according to NDTV.
Karnataka CM says stick to dress code
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai called on students to adhere to rules issued by the state government on uniforms even as a college allowed students wearing the hijab to enter the premises but seated them in a separate room.
File Photo
The hijab ban was questioned in the High Court by a group of students from Udupi¡¯s government junior college. The students have said in a plea that the ban violates the right to freedom of religion enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution.
The controversy around the hijab
The controversy began in January with six girls of a Udupi college protesting a move by college authorities to prevent them from attending classes in hijabs. It soon spread to other colleges in Udupi and other districts, with several of them declaring a holiday on Monday as some students continued to wear hijabs and were countered by others wearing saffron shawls.
On Monday, a junior college in Udupi¡¯s Kundapura allowed 22 hijab-wearing students to enter the campus but seated them in a separate classroom.
The students had been denied entry for wearing the hijab on Friday and Saturday and had staged protests on the road outside the college.
Speaking to reporters, one of the hijab-wearing students said: ¡°We were made to sit in a separate room and were not allowed to attend any class. No one taught us, either. It (hijab) is part of Islamic tradition and it has been followed for ages. Our seniors in the college were wearing it and we do not know how suddenly the government decided to ban it.¡±
Muslim Voice/ Twitter
As the row intensified, Dalit students who wore blue shawls chanting 'Jai Bhim' came in support of Hijab-wearing girls at Karnataka's IDSG college in Chikkamagalur on Monday.
A standoff also broke between students wearing saffron shawls and students wearing blue shawls in Chikmagalur with "Jai Bhim" Vs "Jai Shree Ram" & other sloganeering inside the campus.
The Karnataka government issued an order and banned the wearing of any such clothes that "disturb equality, integrity, and public order in schools and colleges."
"Invoking 133 (2) of the Karnataka Education Act-1983, which says a uniform style of clothes has to be worn compulsorily. The private school administration can choose a uniform of their choice," the government order said.
It said the students have to wear the dress chosen by the College Development Committee or the appellate committee of the administrative board of the pre-university colleges, which come under the pre-university education department.
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