Muslims and Christians have been suffering incidents such as the vandalism of churches, the harassment and exclusion of women who wear the hijab and the lynching of Muslim men.
In September 2004, when France announced and subsequently passed legislation banning Sikh turbans, Christian crosses, Muslim hijabs and burqas and the religious symbols of the Jews in all government-run educational institutions, there were loud protests by the global Sikh community.
The present situation in India, in which reprehensible forces harass Muslim women in hijabs, intensified after a notification by the Karnataka government that banned ‘religious symbols’, specifically the hijab, in schools and other educational institutions.
However, in India, the ruling BJP has not so far come up with a single statement on uniformity in educational institutions in keeping with the secular character of the country.
There is no hiding the lack of secularity in the Delhi police force: the way they dealt with the complaints of the victims of the February 2020 riots in the northeast of Delhi is a major case in point.
The onus of what is right and what is wrong in the maintenance of the country’s secular character in government-run or even private educational institutions is on the respective state governments, because education is a state subject according to the constitution of India.
The authorities of Mount Carmel College where the Sikh girl studies stated that the girl is now allowed to wear her turban on the premises.
The second last paragraph of this letter states: “The Karnataka high court interim order dated February 10, 2022, barring religious symbols in colleges is being misinterpreted as the order did not bar ‘Sikh turban’ and neither does the government order say anything about the turbans ”.
The SGPC played selfishly in this letter, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
Muslims, as equal citizens of India, have every right to call for a level playing field.
“On February 14 itself, much before the two incidents involving Sikh children, we had issued a statement that the Karnataka notification banning the hijab is the equivalent of an attack on the Sikh religious identity.
On November 11, 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur, a principled and fearless warrior, stopped the forceful religious conversion of the Kashmiri pundits and was beheaded and thus martyred for the cause of religious freedom.
The other incident concerns the Nawab of Malerkotla, Sher Mohammad Khan.
These two episodes in Sikh history are iconic.