Hindu hard-line groups have called for restrictions on the wearing of headscarves in classrooms in many Indian states, after a court upheld a ban on headscarves in the southern state of Karnataka, alarming India’s Muslims.
The Karnataka Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the state’s decision last month to ban headscarves in classrooms has been backed and welcomed by prominent federal ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who say students do not have to wear religious clothing in school.
“We are a Hindu nation, and we don’t want to see any kind of religious dress in the country’s educational institutions. We welcome the court ruling, and we want similar rulings to follow across the country,” said Rishi Trivedi, head of the Hindu nationalist group Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.
The ban imposed by the southern state last month sparked protests from some Muslim students and parents, and against Hindu students.
Opponents of the ban say it is another way to marginalize Muslims, who make up 13 percent of India’s 1.35 billion population.
Leaders of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, an organization that supports the ruling party, said they had demanded a ban on headscarves in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, and would soon send the same request to the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP is the ruling party in the two states as well, as it is in the state where the ban was imposed.
The Karnataka state court, located on the southwestern coast of India, overlooking the Arabian Sea, had rejected a petition filed by lawyers on behalf of Muslim students in the state against the government’s decision to ban the wearing of headscarves in its schools and universities.
