Last week, a Muslim student wore a hijab to her school, St Rita’s Public School, an institution in Ernakulam district, Kerala, run by the Catholic Church. The school authorities told her that the hijab is not part of the school uniform and, therefore, could not be permitted. The incident quickly snowballed into a controversy, prompting responses from social media users, television channels, and the state’s education minister. The Education Minister, V Sivankutty, initially opined that students should adhere to the school uniform and that no one should cover it with other clothing materials. However, he reversed his stance a day later, saying that there had been a serious lapse on the part of the school authorities. The following day, he refined his position once again after the school resolved the issue with the student’s parents. According to media reports, the student agreed to attend future classes without wearing the hijab. The parents of the student and the school authorities handled the matter with utmost seriousness and commendably reached a solution, ensuring that religiously motivated fringe elements would not view this incident as an opportunity to advance their agendas.

A few years ago, when the issue of “the hijab and the uniform" blew up into a major controversy in Karnataka, it seemed that Kerala had rightly recognised the politics behind it and taken a firm stand. The media, politicians, and social media in general were united in opposing any ban on the hijab. The general consensus was that the hijab/headscarf was acceptable and could be worn along with the uniform, although the burqa and niqab were not, as they cover the wearer’s entire face.

However, the reality does not quite align with this dominant narrative. Schools have their own dress codes, and many schools run by non-Muslim managements do not permit headscarves. In 2018, two Muslim students of Christ Nagar Senior Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram, approached the Kerala High Court, seeking permission to attend classes wearing the hijab. The Court observed that the students “cannot seek imposition of their individual right as against the larger right of the institution," and held that it is for the institution to decide whether the petitioners can be permitted to attend classes with the headscarf. The Court further stated that “it is purely within the domain of the institution to decide on the matter of the dress code," and that it could not even direct the institution to consider such a request.

Sadly, that did not settle the issue. In 2022, Providence Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode was at the centre of a similar trouble, when a student complained that she was not allowed to wear a hijab. The school, for its part, stated that the uniform requirements had been clearly communicated at the time of admission. The hijab issue surfaced again in the same year, when a student requested the government to allow her to wear a hijab as part of the uniform of the Student Police Cadets. The government, nevertheless, refused the request. In its carefully drafted order, the government stated that “it is not appropriate to give any indication such that religious symbols are highlighted in the uniform under the Student Police Cadet project."

Nothing supports the demand for a headscarf over the school uniform, except the appeal to a misplaced notion of secularism held by some. If one goes through the various court orders issued during the Karnataka hijab row, one can see that courts across the country generally do not consider wearing the hijab an essential religious practice. As mentioned above, there is a judgment from the High Court of Kerala that clearly upholds a stipulated dress code over the wearing of the hijab. A Kerala government order also states that highlighting religious symbols can be problematic. Yet, why does this issue crop up in Kerala every now and then?

School uniforms have a long history. Historian Kate Stephenson notes in her book on the history of school uniforms — the only study in recent times on the subject, and probably the only one that systematically examines it — that uniforms were first introduced to clothe poor students in late medieval England. They were later adopted by public schools in England, where they briefly became a symbol of elitism when a few elite schools opted for exclusive dress codes. This use of uniforms as a tool of exclusivity was eventually reversed when most schools began using them widely. Uniforms then helped mask class differences by standardising clothing. Considering that uniforms were a colonial influence in India, this history is directly relevant to us as well. Uniforms remained a mark of exclusivity in India until recently, when convent and private schools often had colourful and elaborate attire.

If you look at images of schools and school........

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