Bangalore bans protests after hijab row escalates
India's tech hub Bangalore banned protests around schools and other educational institutions for two weeks Wednesday, a day after all high schools in Karnataka state were shut as a row over an Islamic headscarf ban intensified.
Muslim students and community members have mounted protests across the southern state since a government-run high school last month told girls to not wear hijabs in class -- an edict that soon spread to other institutions -- triggering counter-demonstrations in turn.
Footage has gone viral of one hijab-wearing student being pursued by Hindu men yelling "Jai Shri Ram" (Hail Lord Ram) as she arrives at PES College in Mandya, and shouting "Allah-u Akbar" in response.
Many from India's 200 million strong minority Muslim community see the latest stand-off as part of a larger trend of persecution under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government.
"Restricting these girls to exercise their right to freedom of religion is against the fundamental rights that are guaranteed under the constitution and forcing the students to remove hijab is denying them the dignity that is also a constitutional right," said Sumayya Roushan, President of the Girls Islamic Organisation in Karnataka.
"Moreover, here the right to education of the students is at stake."
Bangalore police commissioner Kamal Pant issued an order restricting protests around educational institutions in the state capital for two weeks as protests elsewhere "have led to violence, disturbing public peace and order."
A judge at Karnataka's top court began hearing a petition challenging the legality of the headscarf ban Tuesday, but on Wednesday passed it to a larger panel to consider.
Many leaders from Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules Karnataka, have backed the ban, which has also triggered communal confrontations on campuses as many Hindu classmates blame protests for disrupting their education, and insist they too should be allowed to wear religious symbols.
At Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi one student said: "Those students who wore the hijab started this row first.
"If they end it, we will also end it. If they wear a hijab then we are also forced to wear saffron to compete with them."
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday appealed for calm after state police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd at one government-run campus before announcing a three-day shutdown of all state high schools.
"I appeal to all the students, teachers and management of schools and colleges... to maintain peace and harmony," he said.