Veil as a symbol

While our jurists deliberate on the essential religious practices doctrine, perhaps a case may be made to buttress the need to recognize the interdependence of religion and secularism in our democracy too. If it is legit for some girls in Udupi college to insist on putting on a hijab, Aroosa Parvaiz who topped this year's 10+2 board exams from J&K choosing not to wear one is legit too. Hijab is a dress in which national and liberal identities overlap, exposing the paradox that while it may be an affront to liberal values, its suppression is equally illiberal. The shallowness of the debate risks running into a rather illiberal liberalism