Pardon my insolence at borrowing a line from one of my favourite poems penned by one of India’s greatest writers. Sadly, the poem comes across as an idealistic pipedream that seems to get ever more unreal with every passing day.

But the lines speak of a simple yet profound truth that has drowned in the cacophony of discord and has got silenced amidst the slogans of shallow nationalist propaganda. The debates rage on, about the purpose of education and how the sole aim of sending a child to school is to study. It entails uniformity and norms, about deciding what our children should learn, and ensuring that they conform to our ideas and perspectives.

The freedom Tagore imagined was all about freeing the mind from man-made barriers and making access to knowledge unconditional for every citizen of the country. I think this means creating learning spaces that are inclusive, accepting, and respectful of the diversity of thought, dress, belief, and appearance. Children do not go to school to merely memorize concepts, facts, figures and regurgitate them at exams so they get sufficient marks to “get ahead” in life. 

A school is a place that should teach children to accept differences, expose them to diverse ways of living, thinking, and encourage them to form friendships that transcend man-made barriers of religion, caste, social status. Children go to school to make sense of the world, to get exposed to fellow students from varied backgrounds, to encounter the complexities of thoughts and points of view, and successfully make peace with them.

These are truly the wonder years where the mind should grow and expand unfettered by narrow prejudices and hatred. It’s the time to discover that beneath the head coverings and the saffron shawls, breathes the same humanity that lives a similar life, feels similar pain, experiences similar struggles, and rejoices in similar joys.

At the end of their formative years, we want them to be able to walk out of the portals of their institution as proud Indians who are comfortable in dealing with a pluralistic world full of diversity. To go a step further, let’s aim to raise the next generation to be global citizens bound together in a common thread of harmony, compassion, and goodwill.

Yet, how can this be achieved if we close the doors of educational institutions to girls that choose to dress according to their cultural upbringing? Why should they have to choose one or the other? Will it not make better sense to integrate them with their classmates, rather than alienating them and creating lifelong scars and divisions, and risk radicalizing them?

Our great women reformists strived to make education accessible to all girls, surely they did not ever contemplate putting conditions or impediments in their path. For many girls, the coverings are something they have grown up with and they cannot as yet imagine discarding them. However, they too deserve the right to empowerment and financial independence. Should we as a society, not help them achieve that? At the end of the day a woman’s choice has to be respected. Just like no one has the right to impose a dress code on her, it would be a violation of her dignity to force her out of a garment that she feels safe in. 

A school is a place of learning and therefore it is within the scope of the authorities to put a stop to anything that impedes learning – prayer breaks, or any other religious activities. But restricting access based solely on an additional piece of attire worn for cultural reasons violates the most basic human rights –  the right to equality and knowledge.

Even if we concede to the argument that the girls might be falling prey to propaganda, the mature and dignified behaviour would be to uphold the principle of free knowledge to all. By ignoring all the unnecessary cacophony, we would prevent conflict and foil the plans of divisive agendas that don’t mind creating discord for petty political gains.

It would be just one small step towards getting a wee bit closer to Tagore’s vision for India.

Image credits: Knowledge is Freedom by Darius Foroux.