Why Hijab Has Become a Big Issue in India?

Why  is it that muslim girl students wearing hijab has suddenly become an issue today  in India ?

 by N.S.Venkataraman   -25 February 2022

While , for the last several decades , section of muslim women in India have been wearing burkha  ( covering themselves except the face ) and hijab  ( piece of cloth covering the head and neck)  , the fact is that section of muslim women, particularly belonging to middle  and upper  income group  and  those reasonably well educated and employed, have not been using this attire.  

Of course,  there could also be section of  muslim women  who believe that burkha and hijab are necessary  ,  as per the religious  practice and feel comfortable with such attire.

In any case, there have been practically no issues in India with regard to muslim women having burkha and hijab for the last several decades.

Why  is it that muslim girl students wearing hijab has suddenly become an issue today  in India ?

On careful study, it would become  amply clear that there are deep rooted reasons for this.

It is reported that amongst  India’s  population,  around 79% is constituted by Hindus, around 14.6%  (around 209 million) by Muslims and the remaining by other religions such as Christians, Sikhs  and so on  at present.  Against this,  in the year 1961 ,  muslim population was 10.7% and that of Hindus 83.4  % in  total Indian population.

Muslim population in India  is  steadily  increasing  over the last several decades.  According to census of India , Islam population rises by 3 to 5 million annually based on their  past growth figures.

While Islam entered India by 12th century  and Christianity entered a few centuries later, the fact is that population of both these religions have been steadily increasing in India. Such increase in population has largely happened at the cost of Hindu population.

There were religions like Buddhism, Jainism in India centuries back but population percentage of these religions in India now have become miniscule and negligible.  There is genuine apprehension amongst Hindus in India that Hindu religion may also go in the same way as Buddhism and Jainism in the course of time.  if muslim population and christian population would steadily increase more than the growth rate of Hindu population. There is certainly logic for this apprehension.

In the case of Islam, muslim population has been increasing mainly by births, particularly since muslim men are allowed to marry several women and muslim families are large in size and encouraged to do so .  However, there is not much of conversion of Hindus to Muslims and Christians to Muslims.

In the case of Christianity, population has  not been increasing significantly by births but only by conversion. Many Hindus have been converted to Christianity in the past which is still continuing,    largely  by enticing the poor Hindus with some benefits , gifts and other strategies.

What is disturbing the Hindus is that both Christianity and Islam adopt aggressive approach  to expand their population. Both these religions are known to get support by way of money and other means from international sources.  Muslims and Christians are not concealing their objective of increasing their population.

On the other hand, historically , Hindus have been a passive lot and conversion from other religions to Hinduism has not been practiced  as a policy.  Further, historically,  the Hindu religious heads  advocate respect for those belonging to all religions  and recognise the values in other religions. .

The ongoing hijab controversy is viewed all over India as an aggressive strategy of Islamic extremists to promote  Islamic way of life and further strengthen their religious base in India . Hijab insistence by muslim  clergy  is indication of sign and signal of the shape  of things to come , now by creating an issue out of no issue.

All schools  in India have prescribed uniform for students.  While a few schools may have insisted that muslim girls should not wear hijab while attending classes  as a part of school dress discipline, there are thousands of schools in India managed by Hindus, Christians , Muslims and government,  where  there is no restriction on the use of hijab by muslim girl students.  Then, why take a few isolated cases and launch big agitation  creating religious conflicts?  If necessary , the muslim girl  students  have the option of going to some other schools,  who permit the wearing of hijab.

 While  section of muslims want the hijab culture to spread among muslim women as a strategy for promoting Islamic culture and expanding Islam base , a section of those belonging to other religions  want to resist such approach, as a strategy to check the aggressive insistence on  Islamic way of life and population expansion strategy of muslims.

The recent demand  for ban on conversion by leaders of Hindu community is due to the fact that Christian religious leaders are trying to aggressively convert Hindus to Christianity  and they have succeeded in several instances.

In all probability, all religious conflicts in India will end, if  the religious leaders belonging to   Islam and Christianity will give up their goal and objective to spread the population of their  religions in India.

The symbolic  protest against  the agitation that muslim girls should be allowed to wear  hijab  in class rooms is only due to the  fear that muslim clergy are furthering the cause of spreading Islam and in the process  expand the muslim population  , when the  Hindu population will severely shrink in the total population of the country in the next few  centuries, as it happened to both Buddhism and Jainism.  Obviously, many Hindus think that  the population expansion plan of Islam and consequently Hindus losing their share in the Indian population, need to be checked effectively.

The ball is clearly in the court of Islam and Christianity to ensure religious harmony in India , as Hindus do not have the practice of poaching the  population of other religions.

In  any country, maintenance of demographic balance over length of time is vitally necessary to ensure social harmony and peace.

In other words, most of the muslim women wearing burkha and hijab belong to lower income group ,  who could not avail adequate educational opportunities. Whether they like it or not, these women  simply obey  the dictates of muslim clergy and male muslim members ,possibly fearing violence and harassment if they would not obey the dictates.