Colm Quinn* says India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is facing a test in State elections — and the latest row over a ban on Muslim headscarfs could energise its Hindu nationalist base.
Tensions between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities have flared following the State of Karnataka’s decision to ban the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in educational institutions.
The rule, already a point of protest in recent weeks, was brought to the fore when a viral video of a Muslim woman being harassed by a mob of Hindu men on her way to college forced the closure of schools and colleges for three days in a bid to bring calm.
The hijab ban, which the State’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argues is simply part of a wider ban on religious symbols in the classroom, has been attacked by activists.
They see it as another way the Hindu nationalist BJP seeks to degrade Muslims in the country.
The episode is the latest flashpoint over Muslim identity in a country with rising Hindu nationalist sentiment.
Although India is home to 200 million Muslims, they make up just 14 per cent of the overall population.
They have been targeted by several moves in recent years, including a 2019 citizenship law that discriminates against Muslims, as well as laws that discourage interfaith marriages.
Anti-Muslim sentiment has also boiled over into mob violence: 56 people were killed, 40 of whom were Muslims, during riots in New Delhi in March 2020.
Neighbouring Pakistan has lodged a diplomatic protest over the hijab ban, summoning the Indian chargé d’affaires in Islamabad to convey its “grave concern”.
Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi took this further, saying the ban was part of an “Indian State plan of ghettoisation of Muslims.”
The unrest in Karnataka is likely to fuel the BJP in its efforts much farther north in Uttar Pradesh.
India’s most populous State holds elections over the next few weeks, considered a major test of the BJP’s grip on power there and nationally.
The campaign has already carried barely veiled anti-Muslim undertones, with Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath saying the election would come down to the “80 per cent versus 20 per cent”.
This was read as taking a swipe at the State’s roughly 20 per cent Muslim population.
Without addressing the hijab controversy directly, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi told a rally in Saharanpur that the BJP stood with Muslim women who were victims.
He chastised Opposition figures for “trying to trick Muslim sisters to push them back in their lives”.
Foreign Policy columnist, Sumit Ganguly says the hijab controversy could become another way for the BJP to drum up votes with an electorate attracted to anti-Muslim rhetoric and help the party avoid tough questions on its economic record.
“This is the old ‘bread and circuses’ … except there’s no bread and only circuses,” Mr Ganguly said.
While life for Indian Muslims becomes tougher, it’s unlikely other countries with a professed commitment to safeguarding human rights will go beyond rhetoric in their attempts to steer India’s leaders to a more conciliatory path.
Mr Ganguly said India’s unique geopolitical value, as well as the prospects of a revived economy post-pandemic, mean the Indian Government is set to get a pass.
“A huge number of countries are just going to look the other way, simply because they will be salivating at the prospect of the Indian market,” he said.
For now, the only thing that appears capable of making the BJP soften its approach is an election loss. Current polls indicate the party has little to worry about.
*Colm Quinn is the newsletter writer at Foreign Policy. Previously he worked as a freelance journalist and was Director of New Media and Audience Development at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
This article first appeared on the Foreign Policy website.
