Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
Many times when I hear about debates on what students prefer to wear at the campus, I get reminded of how it used to be during our early college years. It was a Saturday evening, when I and Amir were seated across the table in our Irani restaurant. He asked me, “What do you make of this hijab row that is brewing?” Our conversation went somewhat like this.
Amir: Why on earth does anyone have to bother about what a college going student chooses to wear? Things can’t get more ridiculous.
Me: Amir, it’s more to do with what our government at the Centre wants to do to promote sale of modern dresses in the campus. It’s actually meant to give an impetus to the domestic garment industry.
Amir: Your statements make no sense. Why on earth would anyone want to switch over from their prescribed dress style just because a bunch of miscreants create ruckus over it?
Me: That’s exactly the point, Amir! The strategy is two-fold. Our government is very progressive in its thought culture. It wants all women to feel safe wearing modern or Western style dress. That will also serve to enhance the modern image many Indian women would love to embrace. Secondly, the government also feels inclined to help our textile industry that is suffering from a sharp fall in export figures.
Amir: It smacks of outright fascism. France and other Western countries started this trend about Islamic dress culture of women. It seems we copy everything negative and intolerant from the West. An India that could boast about its diversity is now towing the same line towards discrimination against communities.
Me: It’s for tapping the untapped markets Amir. As we all know, our country’s greatest strength is its demographic dividend. There are a lot of young people both male and female, who belong to the aspiring category. Give a little thought to what these students aspire for? Just to fulfil their aspirations, the people who are serving our nation have taken this bold revolutionary step.
Amir: I want to draw your attention to the fact that members of the minority community are feeling unsafe and clueless as to how long such persecutions will last. It seems you are very callous about the religious sentiments of other communities. Or I would say you sound a bit insensitive towards minority sentiments.
Me: I assure you Amir it’s not a wee bit true. On the other hand, I feel it would help both males and females in our younger lot to cultivate a political consciousness. The main reason for trouble that keeps brewing in our country is the youth’s insensitive and apathetic behaviour towards politics and political developments. Once the youth learns to be politically sensitive, our demographic dividend that is the key asset of our country will work towards and earn this consciousness. This will be the next step towards change.
Amir: You mean to say that the only concern of our government should be what dress people wear or what meals they prefer to eat?
Me: You miss the bigger picture Amir. As the government keeps focusing on our food and attire, we should be able to focus on ourselves and thus develop more confidence in expressing our political choices.
