Upon his arrival in New Delhi, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has been deluged with protests. His government’s decision to ban all “conspicuous” religious symbols from public schools has been controversial all through. Among these symbols are believed to be Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans and Christian crosses. All this, aver French officials, is in pursuit of equality and integration. Others fear the move is simply a ruse to stigmatise minorities and segregate them out of the public arena. The true picture perhaps lies somewhere between these two extremes. De Villepin highlighted the complexity of the issue when he assured Indian officials that his regime would find a way of resolving it, by respecting the sentiments of the Sikh community and the constraints of “our situation in France”.In the manner in which France approaches the task will lie valuable instruction to societies elsewhere on the challenges of multiculturalism. France’s way of honouring secularism has been somewhat unique. Its history is replete with endeavours to deliver equality to all by banishing religious distinctions from public life. Integration is equated with affirmative action, it is thought to be best served by removing overt ethno-religious markers. The other secular way, of course, is to desist from imposing too many restrictions on a citizen, whatever his religious affiliation. In the past the merits of the two modes could have been debated endlessly. Migration has been with human societies for ever but movement of peoples tended to be a slow process. That gradualism made for a more seamless process of integration. Today movement is quick and rapid. Technology allows a migrant to keep in touch with the home country; it enables her to nurture sub-identities — among them religious — across national boundaries. The French law, thus, asks them to make a completely unwarranted choice between an overarching national identity and a personally valued sub-identity.Now that he’s here in India, Foreign Minister de Villepin just has to glance around to realise the absurdity of the ban on Sikh turbans. But as he zips around the lecture circuit as the poster boy of an alternative, un-American worldview, he must also know that imposing sameness is too anachronistic a task in these multicultural times.
