To wear or not to wear a hat, a cap, a turban, a gamchha, a scarf, a ghunghat, a hijab, or even shaving your head is a choice that need not ever be the cause for a controversy. It is in the same league as wanting to have the freedom to wear torn jeans, short skirts, low-cut blouses, or sleeveless tees. Let me add here that cartoonists and satirists too have the right to make fun of any of these if they choose to do so. But to prevent college girls from attending their classes in a college or school because some people do not like a form of dress is ridiculous. This definitely is not the way to prove that we in India care about ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ or wanting to co-exist peacefully to march unperturbed towards our goal to be a developed nation.
The hijab, as we all know by now, is the center of a massive hullaballoo in one of our states. Besides jeering hordes with their meaningless chants, we have the politicians in the fray. As usual, the judiciary has been called upon to decide who is right and what is not. The social media is over-flowing with thoughtless words and half-baked ideas that cannot possibly be considered social at all. All this surely does not sound so secular. I remember reading a book by Saeed Naqvi where, during his interview with Bhaurao Deoras, he said that if he was ‘allergic to the term secular let us find another term – India’s composite culture.’ Culture has everything to do with behavior and the ability to have a good relationship with diverse opinions. Culture is all about acceptance.
Let me put this hijab discussion aside for a while… just to point out that there are many other issues that bother me more than just an individual’s dress sensibility. For instance, I do not appreciate the noise that slogan mongering creates. Noises compel my thoughts to cower and go into hiding. I do not mean just the decibels from temples, mosques, and even gurudwaras rushing towards me to splinter my focus. I also mean the loud band-baja of baraats, election slogans blaring through loudspeakers, and processions with Jai Shri Ram, Allah-O-Akbar, or Jo Bole So Nihal hurtling towards you like a charged-up platoon at some border skirmish. Yes, there are more important things that need to be taken care of… for instance, our rush of adrenalin on the social media, being trolled mercilessly if an opinion does not reflect similarity, road rage incidents, pathetic work ethics, back-biting and bitching, malicious gossip, forwarding unsolicited fake news. The list is long but what I mean is that with so much to take care of, let us leave the poor hijab alone.
Coming back to hijab, let me begin by saying that if some Muslim women believe it is for protection and not a sign of oppression, let it be. After all, adopting a method to retain one’s modesty and morals is a personal choice. Freedom of choice. Why must anyone brand a hijab-wearing girl student a terror sympathizer? This is almost like throwing the sedition law at me if I say that I do not like to wear a saffron pagri. This reminds me of the CEO of a company sacking an employee because he was not wearing a tie while in office. You have read of that restaurant where a woman wearing a sari was barred from entering, haven’t you? Or those clubs during the British rule where any Indian dress was open to censure. Don’t you think that the hijab-imbroglio is somewhat similar to these incidents? The hijab is as charming as any other accessory of which you can think. I recollect an incident from our trip to Kargil when Specky, my wife suddenly asked the cab driver to stop. She got out and went towards a woman in hijab who was standing outside her home. The next few moments had her teaching her how to wear it. Their smiles with Specky wearing a hijab is captured on my camera. The truth is that every form of dress has the power to make us happy, but only is we accept it.
Opposing a way of life is different from opposing an action, an opinion, or an amendment to some law. Even Mr. Modi agrees to this when he said during his recent address in the Lok Sabha that the Congress seems to be bent upon opposing everything, including a fit democracy. This is simply fine because opposing simply to get attention can be as disruptive as opposing to divert attention from what is really meaningful. This is the time we all get down to focus on coming together to march into the heart of prosperity… especially after all these past months of the disruption blitz of a mere virus. The hijab is not a virus.
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Arvind Passey
10 February 2022
