GEARING FOR TROUBLE: (From above) While Hindus stick to the turbans and ghaghras, more and more Muslims are opting for skullcaps and the salwar-kameez

Madeena Shoro, 22, stays in Shoro ki Dhani, a Muslim colony on the outskirts of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. After six years of attending a nearby madarsa, Shoro can now read the Koran. She no longer wears the armful of bright bangles, an essential accessory of the traditional desert garb.

About 60 km away in Sam, men ride the sand dunes with tourists astride their camels. Till about five years ago, it wasn't easy to tell a Muslim guide from a Hindu one, dressed as they all were in lungis and safas (turbans). Today, the Muslims are easy to spot with their skullcaps and salwars.

A land as sterile as Rajasthan has had much to thank its people-with their flaming ghaghras and safas they provide colour where none exists. It is, however, no longer the only purpose that clothes serve here. In a country fast cleaving on religious lines, garments have come to symbolise the growing Hindu-Muslim divide in the state's border districts of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner. The region has managed to skirt communal tension primarily because of the secular influence of Rajput rulers and Pir Pagaro, a Sufi mazaar just across the border in Pakistan. But today, while Hindu women continue to strut about in 52-yard ghaghras, Barmeri print dupattas and loads of jewellery, more and more Muslim women are forsaking them for salwar-kameez and burqas. The Muslim men too are opting for salwars and skullcaps. The change is not limited to dress alone. An increasing number of Muslims who had offered namaz more as a casual practice than an inviolable ritual are praying more frequently.

CATCH'EM YOUNG: Maulvis deny madarsas are being used to forge a Muslim identity

"The change has been rather rapid along two-thirds of the 1,040-km Indo-Pakistan border in the state," says Lokendra Singh Kalvi, a Rajput leader who contested unsuccessfully from the Barmer-Jaisalmer parliamentary constituency in 1998. These are the areas that saw a mushrooming of madarsas in the 1980s and 1990s which are now being blamed for the rapid cultural transformation. Says S. Sengathir, SP, Barmer: "There are 95 madarsas in Barmer, 60 in Jaisalmer, 65 in Bikaner and 24 in Ganganagar".

The maulvis of the religious schools, however, deny a deliberate attempt at communalising society. "We do not issue diktats. I don't instruct my students that Islam demands wearing of skullcaps," says Maulvi Rashid Ahmed, sadar of Madarsa Islamia Dar-ul-Ulum in Pokhran and president, Rajasthan Madarsa Board. "I tell them that wisdom comes not from wearing a safa but through education."

Then, of course, there are more pragmatic considerations. Kesar Khan, a shepherd from Ramgarh village in Jaisalmer, says he bought a cap because at Rs 20 it is much cheaper than a safa that costs Rs 300. Not only does he consider it more trendy but says it can be easily carried around in a pocket and used for namaz when required.

Shoro has discarded jewellery for much the same reasons. After all, insist the madarsas, the Muslim community has been spending on jewellery at the expense of health and hygiene. As for the swirling ghaghras, the maulvis have compromised by suggesting smaller lehngas for married women. The new dress code is also favoured by the youth despite being ridiculed by the elderly. "They call us hijras (eunuchs)," moans Hafiz Shakoor, a teacher at a madarsa in Chacha village on the Pokhran-Jaisalmer road, who sports a cap.

"Don't view these changes in isolation," says Ismailul, a maulvi at Pokhran, stressing on the social betterment that the madarsas are involved in. Adds Chacha's Mohammad Isaaf: "The madarsa taught me how to filter water before drinking it." Many maulvis have also taken to tackling social ills like gami, a ceremony involving protracted entertainment following a death, and encouraging widow remarriage. Despite these efforts, many believe the madarsas have only sought to deepen the Hindu-Muslim rift by carving distinct Muslim identities. "This is not a happy trend," says Nasir Ali Naqvi, chairman of the Rajasthan Waqf Board.

Suspicion among Hindus is deeper as they draw a parallel with the Hindu revivalism brought about by the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. Says Nand Kishore Sharma, an expert on desert living and founder of the museum Desert Culture Centre, Jaisalmer: "At Jamalsa Pir, a mazaar in Jaisalmer, the number of Hindu devotees declined after a green sheet was spread. But after protests by older Muslims and Hindus the sheet was removed." However, hardliners like Fatan Khan, a dhaba-owner at Sam, take a rigid stance against those who blame the madarsas, "They are jealous of our uprising."

Though some consider the region's social fabric too strong to be ruptured by hardliners such as Khan, intelligence agencies are apprehensive that the changed sentiments will be exploited by fundamentalist Islamists. Warns a police official posted on the border: "I foresee serious communal trouble over the next decade."

To contain the tension, Fateh Mohammad-Congress zila pramukh of Jaisalmer and brother of Gazi Faqir who is the Indian representative of Pir Pagaro-suggests that "education in a madarsa should be confined to the teachings of Koran". The Waqf Board, meanwhile, has begun to register madarsas and offer them help to begin regular schools. In a deliberate effort to reaffirm their nationalism, some madarsas have also begun to celebrate the Republic Day and include patriotic songs in their curriculum. "We love our religion as much as our country," asserts Ahmed. For now, though, the former seems to be manifesting in a more visible fashion.