Row over wearing Hijab in Karnataka

The nearly three-week-long stand-off between a government college in Karnataka's Udupi district and a handful of Muslim students who want to wear a hijab during classes escalated after they protested at the college gates with placards. The students said stopping them from wearing a hijab - their seniors were allowed - violates their fundamental right, and that they feel uncomfortable without one when sitting before male lecturers. The fresh protests come a day after college authorities and district officials gave the students an ultimatum - fall in line with the dress code and receive an education, or wear one and go home. State's education minister BC Nagesh said that the practice amounted to "indiscipline" and that schools and colleges were "not a place to practice dharma".