Press Release | February 13, 2022 | Subscribe  

"India’s Relentless March Towards Fascism”

" Banning of Hijab for Muslims"

Aligarh Muslim University students protest ban on the hijab in Karnataka, ROI.
(Credit: Telegraph India, Swapan Mahapatra)

The American Sikh Council (ASC) is particularly concerned about the Hindutva virus rearing its ugly head again last week in the form of violence against young female Muslim students at a regional high school in city of Udupi, in Karnataka, Republic of India (ROI). Some schools and colleges have unilaterally come up with policies banning hijabs within campuses and/or classrooms, directly in violation of the law which protects religious freedom including religious attire.

Multiple colleges and school across India have prevented Muslim students from attending their classes and mass protests are being held across India to oppose this blatant violation of religious rights. The Indian PM Modi as usual is silent on this issue because the rise of the entire Hindutva hate campaign, especially against Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other minorities is primarily due to him. Karnataka is a stronghold of the RSS/BJP an extreme right wing political party and according to Raviraj an academic who teaches media studies who stated, “They are soft targets, this is the R.S.S. and B.J.P.’s way of stamping their authority in the universities and targeting first-time young voters.”

The foot soldiers of the RSS/BJP who come in all sizes and shapes and are constantly looking for an excuse to belittle and insult Muslims and other minorities on the tiniest of pretexts. Afreen Fatima, a young activist from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh stated, "This is a massive attempt by the BJP to homogenize Indian culture, to make it a Hindu-only state," is absolutely true because that has been Indian PM Modi’s mandate for nearly eight years. Modi is a card-carrying member of the RSS, an extremist Hindu organization with over five million volunteers in ROI which has carried out numerous massacres against minorities in the past.

In January 2022 Hindu men were arrested for creating a fake online website which was allegedly auctioning off Muslim women. They also created some sickening phone apps called ‘Bulli Bai’ and ‘Sulli Deals’, which were clearly meant to demean Muslim women and create an environment of religious intolerance.

The ripple effects of religious fanaticism by the large rightwing Hindutva fringe will and are impacting other minorities as well. Today it is the Muslims, tomorrow it will be the Sikhs and then others. All secular and sane citizens need to wake up and stop this unnecessary radicalism by the Hindutva criminals. 

According to the very obtuse Indian Constitution the state cannot interfere in anyone’s personal religion and/or in the wearing of religious attire of any kind, unless of course law is only on paper. Furthermore, Muslims have their own personal law from birth to death which includes the freedom to practice their faith.

For Sikhs and particularly men, the dastaar (turban) is a commandment by the Sikh Enlighteners to cover their uncut hair and a Sikh can never be separated from his/her dastaar. The dastaar is not only very personal attire but also a public statement to uphold all those cherished values of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, which include protecting the rights of everyone to practice their religion freely.

 Similarly, regarding religious attire for Muslim women the Islamic Society of North America states, “For women, the headscarf is considered obligatory.” It is very common for Muslim women to wear the ‘hijab’ in public all across India. The forces of divisiveness at this particular institution in Karnataka made the hijab into a polarizing issue simply to ferment trouble and insult Muslims and nothing else. The Court has ordered the temporary ban on the hijab and has ordered all schools shut for three days which is a clear case of bias. The vast majority of judges from the lower courts to the Supreme Court are not only Hindu but all upper-caste with a very tiny minority who are Muslim or Sikh. The judiciary in India is by and large infected with the same Hindutva sickness.

Sikhs have gone through the long-drawn pogrom called the “Sustained Sikh Genocide 1984 – 1998” www.thirdsikhgenocide.org in large part due to the similar hate propaganda currently being perpetuated on the Muslims. Sikhs are still subjected to random public humiliations regarding their dastaars, in schools while appearing for public exams, at airports, for job opportunities, etc.

The Republic of India (ROI) is creating more fissures within, rather than taking care of all its minorities which will not bode well for the near future. It is sad but true, that the Brahminical-Hindu chanakya-niti continues today, i.e., “The politics of divide and rule,” which is enshrined in their Vedas and religious texts such as Manu-smriti. ASC can only hope that sanity and good sense prevails upon the rulers of the day, otherwise the pluralistic façade of being the largest democracy in the world becomes a mockery.

American Sikh Council strongly objects to the Republic of India’s interference in the religious freedom of any faith tradition, because it directly contravenes the constitution of India.

The American Sikh Council (ASC) stands in solidarity with our Muslims brothers and sisters for their right to practice their religion as they deem fit, without any infringement by the public or government, especially in the case of wearing the hijab, as it does not impinge on anyone else at all.

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The American Sikh Council is the umbrella organization representative of Sikhs in the United States. It is an elected body of Sikh Gurdwaras and institutions. Currently 74 Gurdwaras and other Sikh institutions across the nation are members of ASC. The major governing purpose of the organization is to represent the collective view of Sikhs in the United States. ASC works to promote Sikh interests at the national and international level focusing on issues of advocacy, education, and well-being of humankind.

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