We all know the story of Nobel Laureate, Ms. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani hijab clad girl who took a bullet in her head, just so that she could go to school. The plight of Indian Muslim women students in Udupi, Karnataka, is near about the same, who’ve been asked to choose between their religion or education, in light of the recent judgment passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka. The Court has held that “hijab is not an ‘essential religious practice’ in Islam”, and have upheld the Government Order in question which prescribes a uniform to be worn, if prescribed by the schools concerned. 

The Court has held that schools have the authority to prescribe a curriculum and as such, schools and the educational institutions have the power to insist on a uniform sans any kind of religious attire, apparel or symbol, as directed by the assailed Government order. If that be the take, then is the recent decision of the Gujarat government to include Shrimad Bhagavad Gita in the school syllabus for Classes 6-12, justified in being advancement of a culture or religious ethos? A circular issued by the Gujarat Sate government in this regard said the idea is to "cultivate a sense of pride and connection to traditions". Therefore, if an Order may resort to preserving non-Islamic traditions legitimate, then can the practice of a veil/scarf over the head, too difficult to palate to the Indian Constitutional aphorism.

IN conclusion, there is an old African adage that if you educate a man, you educate an individual; but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. It remains to be seen what weighs more with the Court : freedom of education irrespective of conscience or belief and or for an exclusive world of education bereft of any real world diversity by means of complete uniformity.