#158 Avoiding The Usual Distractions

India Policy Watch #1: On Hijab And Freedom<br/><br/>Insights on burning policy issues in India<br/><br/>&#8212; RSJ<br/><br/>The hijab row roiling colleges in the Udupi district of Karnataka reached the courts this week. A full bench of the Karnataka High Court ruled on Thursday that all students are restrained from wearing clothes with religious symbolism within classrooms in institutions that have a prescribed dress code or uniform. The bench adjourned the hearing to Monday while requesting the state government to reopen the educational institutions. The government meanwhile declared holidays till Feb 16 to avoid the burden of opening up the colleges in the interim.&#160;<br/><br/>The order has some interesting passages including this:<br/><br/>&#8220;It hardly needs to be mentioned that ours is a country of plural cultures, religions, and languages. Being a secular State, it does not identify itself with any religion as its own. Every citizen has the right to profess and practice any faith of choice is true. However, such a right not being absolute is susceptible to reasonable restrictions as provided by the Constitution of India. Whether wearing of hijab in the classroom is part of the essential religious practice of Islam in the light of constitutional guarantees, needs a deeper examination.&#8221;<br/><br/>This is an old conflict from the time of enlightenment when reason, empiricism and individual liberty were placed on the pedestal by the leading thinkers of the time. Industrialisation, the weakening of traditional social structures because of population shifts to urban centres, and the loosening of the grip of religion in everyday lives meant the questions about the place of religion in civil society and the relation between church and state animated the political and social discourse. Over time though doubts emerged about the benefits of such progressivism. The anxiety over losing a sense of community, the guilt of turning away from one&#8217;s religion and a kind of longing for a past that was preciou