Must education and India's future be hostage to dress and attire?

The decision of some colleges in Karnataka to prevent their hijab wearing girl students from attending classes is spreading to other states. Paradoxically, to attract potential students, colleges in Karnataka erect billboards that display photos of their meritorious students who incidentally are in hijab.

There are many shades to this issue. Besides the discourse on the unconstitutionality of the order is the debate on religious practices; the timing of the decision of these colleges; the Hindu-Muslim divide; social and religious patriarchy versus women’s emancipation; the definition of women’s emancipation and who defines it; the question of choices for women, the Karnataka High Courts interim order and finally the changing face of India.

Restricting these young women from receiving education on account of their attire follows a recognised trajectory. The Hindutva brigade has called for the genocide of Muslims, their socio-economic boycott, and murder and rape of Muslim women. Muslims are also being prevented from continuing the practice of offering Friday prayers in open grounds.

The hijab controversy indicates that anti-Muslim rhetoric has now officially entered schools and colleges. But before this, thanks to the exploits of Modi and his government over the last few years, youth have had an opportunity for immersive schooling on democracy and politics, history, and moral science. This has very real implications for the country’s future.

The BJP undermining the Election Commission-a Constitutionally appointed body; coercing and buying politicians has a takeaway for the youth - working within the Constitution is a barrier to coming to power and retaining it. Youth are also learning that democracy can be subverted if one has plenty of money and no conscience.

The actions of the Hindutva brigade on Indian history suggest that one need not learn from history because one can change it. Though this is an illusion, the effect is potent enough for people to forget their real needs of the present. The rightwing’s method of coming to terms with the past is not to heal historical rifts. History is reframed to create fake victimhood which is used to exact revenge. They hope their actions in the present will undo what they believe is the historical damage caused to this lands pride. Consequently, youth are being told that pride and self-worth is not linked to one’s own contributions and ability but linked to events of a distant past in which one had nothing to contribute to.

This brings us to the subject of Moral Science and indeed the concept of leadership. Modi and his government are teaching youth that leaders need to be thorough liars, unaccountable, unrepentant and have the ability, and shamelessness, to blame their failures on the dead or those unable to defend themselves. The PM’s leadership tutorials for the youth define leaders as those able to use subtle prejudice and dogwhistles to inspire rabid bigotry in their followers. Mr. Modi’s leadership is informing youth that a leader’s words and actions should be diametrically opposite. For example, Modi and the BJP promise sab ke saath, sab ka vikas, and Beti Bachao, Beti Padao but their divisive ideology and policy is splitting the country and targeting young women.

The youth are learning that Modi’s, and his government’s, aversion to data and facts stands them in good stead. It is one thing for the future of India to be taught how to lie. It is altogether another if they are shown that lying is not the only way to escape accountability. The claimed absence of statistics on migrant deaths caused by the lockdown, or on deaths caused by lack of oxygen during the Covid second wave or on unemployment is a way for the government to abscond from its constitutional responsibility without appearing to do so.

But then what can be expected from a government and its leaders who do not deal with reality and believe in theatrics. It could be said that Mr. Modi with his various headgears and attire is giving a modern rendition, with an Indian twist, to the youth of the classic tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Or it could be his way of instructing the youth about the Shakespearean adage of ‘apparel oft proclaims the man’. Ignoring data and the reality it depicts is an act of self-preservation for the PM. This vein of thought extends to his denying science because it is the easiest path to pump up vacuous pride. Without proof, Modi has made claims about cloning and plastic surgery being practised in ancient India. Inspired by him, junior members of the BJP have made similar claims. This has been given credence in the Indian Science Congress. Educational and research institutions now have curriculum and research projects on these lines. This will undeniably have a deleterious impact on scientific enquiry in the country which has major techno-socio-economic ramifications.

This kind of schooling perforce needs special institutions of higher education. The BJP’s parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) already runs thousands of schools and holds weekly shakha meets.

Modi’s team has created the NaMo app so that he can personally tutor youth. There is also Whatsapp University which plies false information and bigoted drivel to reinforce what is being taught in real time.

Simultaneously, the government is lowering the standards of educational institutions by selecting apologists of their ideology who also possess traits similar to the rightwing leadership. The most recent being the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor of JNU, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit. She claims that the bigotry spewed from the twitter handle with her name is not hers, she states ‘somebody internally from JNU has done this’. She is replacing Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar who has been appointed as Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC).

The appointment of such individuals will ensure that graduating students are equipped to meet the low standards and expectations being put in place by the BJP.

These low standards therefore require career guidance because even at Rs 2 per tweet not everyone can be employed by the BJP IT Cell. So, it comes as no surprise that PM Modi suggested that unemployed youth take up selling pakodas.

The BJP’s monochromatic world needs standardisation of youth. Unlike the youth development programmes of the RSS, the BJP has special personality development and character-building methods for the general young population. It prepares them for life’s hard knocks and to take on the mantle of India’s future.

Therefore, the government has indiscriminately charged young protesters under UAPA and imprisoned many. While those demanding jobs have been beaten black and blue.

BJP concentrating on their bigoted agenda is giving India’s future a raw deal. The youth and the country are the unwitting collateral damage to the realisation of the Hindutva dystopia. There is only one potential positive outcome of this prejudice. Finally undoing the damage will take more than the oft parroted 70 years and will ensure secure employment for many.

Views are personal