Cover Stories

Haute Hijab

Lhendup G Bhutia

When It’s a Fashion Statement

France Shows the Way

Sudeep Paul

From the 2011 veil ban law to the recent senate vote on the hijab, the French remain institutionally and instinctively committed to laïcité, the original model of secularism

The Rage of the Campus Front

Ullekh NP

Behind the mysterious appeal of the student arm of the Popular Front of India lies its aggressive posturing and the fear it evokes

Of a Uniform Dress Code

J Sai Deepak

When Individual Interest Must Yield To Institutional Interest

‘There is a conspiracy to prevent Muslim girls from accessing mainstream education’

Rajeev Deshpande

The minister of minority affairs speaks to Rajeev Deshpande on the hijab controversy, calling it

Shah Bano 2.0

PR Ramesh

The hijab controversy can take the country into dangerous territory but, unlike the 1980s, it will not take people years to grasp its import

Indian Muslims Need to Emulate the Indonesian Model

Ram Madhav

The humanitarianism of eastern Islam

What the Headscarf Reveals

S Prasannarajan

Reading Orhan Pamuk's Snow in the time of hijab politics

The Heart of the Song

Rachel Dwyer

Lata sang for all of us. Her voice was instantly recognisable. Whoever the star, she brought us into the heroine’s inner life

She showed me a gramophone record made of gold. All the songs she sang in the UK were on it. Could I give her a letter for the Bombay Customs Commissioner, asking him not to charge any duty as the record had been presented to her?