Headscarf bans are a fraught topic, but it’s hard to argue Modi is merely pushing secularism.

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Sadanand Dhume: For almost 20 years, Western Europeans have wrestled with the fraught question of whether headscarves and other forms of Islamic attire should be tolerated or curbed. Now India is caught up in the same debate.

Indian courts will soon determine whether government schools have the authority to ban the hijab, the Islamic headscarf. At 200 million, India’s Muslim population is the world’s second-largest, after Indonesia’s—roughly as many Muslims as Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia combined. The courts’ decisions will influence the debate about the hijab’s acceptability in public spaces in other nations with Muslim minorities.