Around the same time as the French state was telling women what they can or can't wear on its beaches, my family was enjoying a gorgeous Indian summer on the wonderful sands of Devon and Cornwall, also known as the English Riviera. While British beaches may not compare with the pristine sands of the French coastline, when it comes to liberté, egalité and fraternité, the Brits beat the French hands down!

On the quiet, lovely beach of Teignmouth in north Devon there were holidaymakers of all colours, wearing as much or as little as they felt like, and there was absolutely no tension. My mother's saree blended in sans a curious or distrustful glance. My sister in her burkini and a bikini-clad woman lay side by side, without causing any affront to each other, or anyone else. The young mothers chatted as their brown and white children built sandcastles, and neither felt offended, frightened or upset by what the other was wearing.

In the same week that the world was horrified by photographs of four burly French policemen forcing a burkini-clad woman to strip at gunpoint on the sands of Nice, the Scottish police force made the hijab the officially accepted uniform for those Muslim policewomen who wished to wear it.

Spelling out the new norms, Police Scotland chief constable Phil Gormley said: "I am delighted to make this announcement and welcome support from both the Muslim community and the wider community, as well as police officers and staff."

Police Scotland's decision comes 15 years after London's Metropolitan Police's move to accept the hijab as part of its official uniform in 2001. The Met even has tailors who stitch black headscarves with white checks along the border to match the rest of the police force's uniform.

Unlike France, Britain has been more accommodating of dress codes of different religions. Sikhs in the Metropolitan Police force were allowed to wear turbans, instead of helmets, as far back as 1969, and in 1976 an Act of Parliament formally exempted Sikh men from wearing crash helmets while riding a motorbike. In France even today, a Sikh man can't get a driving licence if his photograph shows him wearing a turban.

The British approach to immigrants entering its shores - most of them from its former colonies - has been predominantly one of acceptance and tolerance, excluding the recent Brexit vote, which many see as a huge mistake. Over the last three decades, Britain has allowed people from different ethnic backgrounds to follow their own cultural practices, making assimilation and integration into a British identity a matter of choice and consent.

The French on the other hand would like all its citizens to blend into one identity, with one acceptable culture. France too has many migrants from its former colonies - in fact it has the largest Muslim population in Europe as swathes of Africa were part of its empire. France's devotion to laïcité, which roughly translates as secularism, has meant keeping the state and religion completely separate.

Its fear of religion interfering with the state is so intense that the French government has banned overt display of faith in public life. In 2004, it passed laws prohibiting children from wearing Sikh turbans, Jewish kippa, large Christian crosses and the Muslim hijab in state-run schools. The same rule applies to anyone who works for the French government. In 2010, it banned Muslim women from wearing a burqa in public citing "threat to security".

Huda Jawad, a community co-ordinator with Standing Together Against Domestic Violence, a women's group in London, described laïcité as "fundamentalist secularism" and argued that the burkini ban illustrates the Frenchman's blindspot to his own racism and misogyny.

"The obsession to the point of fetishism with Muslim women's dress and covering curtails the most basic of human rights - that of self-determination and freedom of expression," said Jawad. She agreed with writer Arundhati Roy who said coercing a woman out of the burqa, instead of enabling her to choose, is an act of violence, humiliation and cultural imperialism.

While feminists in France were slow to condemn the burkini ban, women in the UK were furious. "We should be allowed to wear whatever the hell we want. What is the difference between men telling us to cover up and others telling us to bare all," said Kulsoom Raza, 20-year-old student at Warwick University.

Raza, whose father hails from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, called the ban both Islamophobic and misogynistic, as she attended the women-only "Wear What You Want Beach Party" outside the French Embassy in Knightsbridge in central London, the first in a series of protests against the ban.

"The French find the burkini offensive but not a wet-suit that scuba-divers wear, which is exactly like the burkini. If Nigella Lawson wears it then it is fine, but if a Muslim mum wears it then it is "enslavement of women". I found the picture of gun-toting policemen forcing a woman to undress more terrifying and enslaving than a woman enjoying herself in the sea wearing a burkini," said Nazneen Khan, a young woman who had come dressed in a skirt and top, and no headscarf.

In fact, burkinis are sold in many up-market department stores in London and many non-Muslims buy it. "Some are allergic to the sun or worried about cancer, others are overweight, or simply shy. Not everyone has a bikini-ready body or wants to wear one, this is oppression of another kind," explained Poppy Mortimore, a shop assistant.

Though France's top administrative court the State Council (Conseil d'Etat) has suspended one of the ordinances passed by the 26-odd mayors of French towns, resorts and communes, denouncing it as "manifestly illegal", French politicians have pledged to pass a law banning burkinis throughout the Republic.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has made matters worse by claiming "naked breasts represent France better than a headscarf". "After that stupid comment, I thank God that my father migrated to Britain and not France," said Raza, who incidentally, does not wear a headscarf out of personal choice.

KNOW YOUR BURKINI

Eureka: It’s the early 2000s. Lebanese origin Australian designer Aheda Zanetti (seen sitting in picture below) watches her niece play netball with the team uniform worn atop her Islamic attire

Hijood: Creates this cross between ‘hijab’ and ‘hood’ for Muslim sportswomen 

Burkini: In 2004, Zanetti comes up with the burkini (‘burqa’ plus ‘bikini’), a full-body covering swimsuit made of lycra and nylon; the material is chlorine- and UV ray-resistant  

Splash: The 2005 Cronulla race riots spark efforts to recruit Muslim lifeguards to patrol Sydney’s beaches. Zanetti is asked to create a burkini for Muslim women lifeguards

Stocktaking: More than 7,00,000 burkinis sold by Ahiida (Zanetti’s company) since 2008; costs Rs 2,500 and above

Bandwagon: London-based companies Modestly Active, Modestkini and mainstream retailers Marks & Spencer also sell burkinis

Banwagon: Mayors of about 30 French coastal resorts ban it after the Nice massacre. France’s highest court suspends ban on beach near Nice, sets legal precedent. Majority of places yet to lift it