This College Marked Independence Day By Declaring Burqa Critics As 'Hijras', 'Dogs' And Enemies Of Islam. It Is Now Under Police Lens

On 15 August, that is Indian Independence Day, a private degree college in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh held a programme in the premises.

In one of the performances, a group of ten women, covered from head to toe in a burqa with even the eyes not visible, are seen dancing on a song that sings glory of ‘purdah’ in Islam and declares anybody opposing it as an enemy of Islam.

The nearly 5-minute song, sung in a male voice, says, (roughly translated by Swarajya from Urdu-Hindi to English):

Dear Muslim sisters, don’t fear the oppressors, stay firm on Islam. Removing purdah is a sign of an attempt to finish Islam. We will never let you remove purdah, we will never let you finish Islam.

Purdah is a Muslim woman’s affirmation of Islam. Dear princess of Islam, show to the world how firm you are on your religion…let that education go to hell that takes you away from Islam.

Hijras (eunuchs) and dogs will try to stop the march of Islam, but you must rise for your religion.

After the video emerged on social media (watch here), several Hindu organisations and activists raised objections to it. Eventually, on the complaint of one of the activists, the Mau police registered a case against the college’s management for hurting sentiments and creating enmity.

The FIR, number 316 filed at Kotwali Mau police station on 25 August, accessed by Swarajya, mentions IPC sections 295A (deliberately hurting religious sentiments), 505 (intent to incite any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc).

The suspects are the college’s manager, principal, and unknown persons. None of them have been identified by names.

The college is Talimuddin Niswan (Girls) degree college, affiliated as per its website to Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University in UP’s Jaunpur.

The website states that the institute offers three courses, namely Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science, and Master of Arts in Urdu, Education, Sociology and Hindi. The photo gallery or ‘about’ section of the website has no content.

A call made by Swarajya to the number mentioned on the website went answered.

The complainant, Atul Rai, told Swarajya he is president of the Mau unit of Hindu Jagran Manch, an organisation that he said works against forced conversion of Hindus.

Giving his reasons for filing the complaint, Rai said that what irked him and his team the most is that the event was organised on Independence Day of India.

“How are Islam zindabad-type songs relevant on this day?" he said, and added, "This is a deliberate attempt to take children away from patriotism by putting religion first over nation.”

He said that some of the words used in the song such as “zaalim”, “hijra” and “kutte” were targetted at non-followers of Islam, particularly Hindus.

Mau Superintendent of Police Avinash Pandey released a statement in the matter through Mau police’s official Twitter account.

He said: “A case has come from light from Talimuddin Niswan college where some girls gave a performance, in which some objectionable remarks were made on other religions. Hindu organisations have given a complaint regarding it. We have filed a case based on the complaint. We have deployed an officer to investigate the matter. We have also prepared a plan on how to proceed in the case, including what to ask the girls if they are minors or if they majors, and what to ask the college management.”

The last couple of years has witnessed Muslim organisations promoting purdah, or veil, in the community in a big way, often by glorifying it as a symbol of Islam and a weapon against “anti-Islam forces”.

Swarajya has earlier reported about another song promoting purdah that has become hugely popular in Muslim educational institutes and madrassas in India in recent times.

The lyrics say, 

Main Muslim qaum ki beti hun, main parda karti hun

(I am a woman of Muslim faith, I draw a veil)

Allah rasul ke huqmon ki, main parwaah karti hun

(I care about the orders of Allah and Prophet)

…Kuffar ki aadat hai be dharmo aba rehna

(It is the habit of disbelievers to stay without faith)

shaitani bagawat hai besharmo haya rehna

(It is a rebellious evil to stay without decency)

Kuffar ke harbe jhaanso ki main chinta karti hun…”

(I am worried about the traps of disbelievers).

The song is believed to have released in Pakistan in 2020. One can find several videos of performances on this song in Muslim institutes across India, including in Karnataka.

In the last couple of years, the push for purdah has gone beyond Muslim-only institutes. It became a centerstage issue in Karnataka last year when demands were made that purdah should be allowed in government-run schools and colleges so that Muslim women can “practice their religion”. 

The term used in these agitations was ‘hijab’, an Arabic term that literally means a curtain or barrier. The term purdah, which is far more popular in the Indian subcontinent, is derived from Persian word ‘pardeh’ and also means a curtain.

After several schools and colleges in the state turned down these demands, especially after Hindu students began sporting saffron scarves in retaliation, the matter went to High Court. 

In March 2022, the Karnataka High Court held that hijab was not an essential religious practice in Islam as claimed by petitioners, and upheld a state government order enforcing a dress code without overt religious symbols.

The petitioners appealed against this verdict in Supreme Court, which gave a split verdict in August. The matter is now pending to be heard by a special bench to be formed by the Chief Justice of India. Till the special bench gives its verdict, the state order is legally valid.

At the peak of the hijab-related agitations by the Muslim community in Karnataka, a Hindu man named Harsha was killed by a mob from the Muslim community in February. Harsha was also a volunteer for Bajrang Dal, the young wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. 

The National Investing Agency that probed the case said in April that Harsha was killed with the “intent of inciting communal violence”.

Even as the petitions are pending to be heard by a larger bench to be formed by the Chief Justice of India, demand for purdah has risen in many schools and colleges outside Karnataka since the apex court verdict. 

In mid-October, a minor controversy erupted in a college in Bihar after some Muslim girl students accused a Hindu male teacher of forcibly removing their ‘hijab’ during examination.

The teacher and the principal however refuted the allegations. An eye-witness student, incidentally a Muslim, supported the management, saying that all that the teacher had done was ask the girls to remove their headscarf during routine checking of any Bluetooth devices for cheating, but the girls had made it a communal issue.

In the last week of November 2022, a hijab versus saffron row, on the same lines as Karnataka, erupted in a state-run school in West Bengal after Hindu students turned up in saffron scarves in protest of special privilege given to Muslim women to sport religious attire. 

In December 2022, a controversy erupted in a private post-graduate degree college in Bulandshahr district of western UP, where some Muslim students accused the college of religious discrimination for barring burqa-clad students from entering classes. 

The incident took place in JS post-graduate College in Sikandrabad, and members of the Muslim community staged a protest against the college authorities. Police had to be called in to maintain peace.