Page 17 - EW FEB 2022

recently, BJP sympathiser Jagdish Since 2014, when the
Kumar, hitherto controversial vice Hindu majoritarian BJP
chancellor of JNU, was appointed was elected to power at
chairman of the University Grants the Centre, party cadres
Commission while Santishree Pan- in the state have made
dit, political science professor of Sa- Udupi a laboratory of
vitribai Phule Pune University, was majoritarian hindutva
appointed as JNU’s first woman vice politics. Once a cosmo-
chancellor. Politics has struck very politan, peace-loving
deep roots in Indian education,” says district known for its
Chandrashekhar Kulkarni, senate scenic beaches, Udupi,
member, Mumbai University. which hosts the conspic-
With politicians intent on packing uously secular Manipal
universities with their hand-picked University — repeatedly
selected nominees — even if under- Barred students: minority backlash ranked India’s #1 private
qualified — it’s hardly surprising that university in the annual
not even one of India’s 1,005 univer- classes XI-XII education, college EducationWorld league tables — is
sities, some of them of over 150 years development committees and/or now heavily polarised along religious
vintage, are ranked in the globally re- School Development Monitoring lines. There have been repeated in-
spected Top 200 league tables of the Committees (SDMCs) are empow- stances of hate speech against Mus-
London-based varsity rating agencies, ered to prescribe students’ dress lims, incidents of political murders,
QS and Times Higher Education. On code and uniforms under the Karna- communal riots, ‘moral policing’ by
the other hand, China has five. taka State Education Act, 1983. How- right-wing vigilante groups and a
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) ever, the convention in the state’s sangh parivar-led campaign against
51,084 government schools and ‘love jihad’. Moreover, since a BJP
KARNATAKA junior colleges for the past several government was elected to office
Headscarves row years has been to turn a blind eye to in the state in 2019, pro-hindutva
Muslim girl students wearing heads-
vigilante groups have become em-
carves in addition to their uniforms. boldened to implement their divisive
itherto one of india’s most In the Government Girls PU College Hindu votes consolidation agenda.
secular states with a 8-mil- (estb.1952), the college development nsurprisingly, the activism of
Hlion strong and prosperous committee, currently presided by the Uhindutva vigilantes has pro-
Muslim minority, Karnataka (pop.68 local BJP MLA, suddenly prescribed voked a backlash. Several Muslim
million) is experiencing slow spread a uniform that “does not include the minority groups have sprung up
of religious communalism. hijab”. to take on the BJP/RSS vigilante
Since December 31, 2021, six hi- Comments Snehal Rayamane, organisations. The BJP and the op-
jab (headscarf)-wearing Muslim girl director, Department of Pre-univer- position Congress parties allege that
students of the Government Girls PU sity Education, Karnataka: “We have the six protesting girl students have
College (classes XI-XII), Kundapur spoken with the college principal and been propped up and supported by
in the state’s coastal Udupi district, he says that a common uniform rule the Social Democratic Party of India
have been prevented from attend- has been observed for 20 years. The (SDPI), political arm of the Popular
ing classes by the management for protesting girls were not wearing the Front of India, an Islamic organisa-
violating the college’s “dress code” hijab until December. The change tion, which has lately made political
and insistence on wearing the hijab. came all of a sudden. The PU depart- gains in the Udupi municipal elec-
This hijab ban has quickly spread to ment does not prescribe any uniform tions.
other education institutions in the for any college statewide. That duty With the hijab row snow-balling
district with several other govern- is of college development commit- into a major controversy at a time
ment colleges suddenly denying tees.” when students are returning to
entry to hijab-wearing girl students Political commentators and aca- campus after the prolonged Covid
even as Hindu male students in some demics ascribe the sudden eruption lockdown, the state’s education min-
colleges are registering their counter- of the hijab controversy to rising ister B.C. Nagesh has constituted a
protest by wearing saffron shawls. communal polarisation in Udupi high-level committee to investigate
In Karnataka’s 1,233 government- — one of three districts (Dakshina the issue. Moreover on February 5,
run pre-university colleges, actually and Uttara Kannada) in Karnataka's the Karnataka government issued an
higher secondary schools providing hitherto strongly secular coastal belt. order directing all students to adhere

FEBRUARY 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 17