The leading candidate for the Indian presidency has enraged Muslim leaders by urging her fellow women to stop wearing the veil.

Pratibha Patil claimed that veils were only introduced to India in the 16th century to protect women from Muslim invaders, and were no longer needed.

Ms Pratil, 72, a moderate Hindu and Congress party member who is one of the governors of the state of Rajasthan, has been selected by India's governing coalition as its nominee for the mainly ceremonial role of head of state.

But today several Muslim leaders were calling for the Indian Prime Minister to find another candidate before the nominations deadline, accusing Ms Pratil of of insulting Islam.

Maulana Khalid Rashid, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said that it was God who had asked women to wear a veil and that this was enshrined in the Koran, the Muslim holy book. The board is the highest authority for Muslims in India on laws governing personal matters.

“Any statement against the veil means an opinion against Allah and the Koran which no Muslim will tolerate,” Rashid told the Associated Press news agency.

Ms Pratil made her remark at the weekend at a conference in the northwestern city of Udaipur. She told delegates that women started using veils in India to save themselves from Mughal invaders in the 16th century, and that it was time to drop the practice, The Times of India newspaper reported.

Historians do not agree with Ms Patil's analysis, however, claiming that the practice started as much as 300 years before the Mughal invasion.

Satish Chandra, in his book “Medieval India,” said that the practice of women using veils in the presence of outsiders became widespread in the 13th century.

Muslims account for 14 per cent of India’s 1.1. billion people. Conservative Muslim women wear headscarves and face-covering veils.

Orthodox Hindu women also cover their faces in the presence of elderly male members of the family, but their religion does not mandate the practice.

Relations between Hindus and Muslims have been hostile since the bloody partition of the subcontinent into predominantly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan at independence from Britain in 1947.

Maulana Hasanul Badr, a Muslim cleric, said it was the duty of Muslim women to cover their bodies.

“Why do politicians interfere in our religious matters? It has become a fashion to pass judgment on Islam,” he said.

“The statement is a clear reflection of Patil’s mind-set about Islam and Muslims. It is better that the United Progressive Alliance change its presidential candidate and opt for a more secular person for this post,” he said.

Maulana Mehmood Madani, general secretary of Ulema-i-Hind, a Muslim organization, accused Patil of twisting history.

“She must apologise and withdraw her observations,” The Times Of India newspaper quoted Madani as saying.

Hindu religious leaders have not reacted to Ms Patil’s call to drop the veil.

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