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Throttling the madrasas in the name of
security
By Syed Shahabuddin
 Over
the last few years there has been a systematic campaign to vilify the
madrasas as dens of the ISI and as shelters for the terrorists and the
militants. This vilification became increasingly shrill and loud with the
participation of foreign nationals particularly Afghans and Pakistanis in
Kashmir insurgency and the emergence of the Taliban (‘the students’)
as the dominant political force in Afghanistan. One imagines that the
association of some madrasas in Pakistan as the recruiting ground for the
Taliban in Afghanistan and the so-called Mujahideen in Kashmir has made
our policy planners nervous and apprehensive about the role that the
madrasas in India may play, with their teaching and influence. Out of this
distrust and suspicion, came the Central Scheme for the Modernization of
Madrasas Education, which was lapped up by our well-meaning educationists
and secular sympathizers without pausing to inquire into its genesis.
The ostensible object and purpose of the Scheme administered by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development was to persuade the madrasas to
revise their conventional curriculum to add ‘modern’ subjects –
English, Hindi, Science, Mathematics and Social Studies including History
and Geography. On the face of it, there can be no theoretical or
ideological objection to the idea of reforming the madrasa curriculum.
Indeed well- known madrasas have been evolving their curriculum with the
times, ever since the beginning of the twentieth century, while keeping
the focus on religious subjects. But one wondered at this sudden interest
in upgradation of madrasas by the authorities which are reluctant to
provide modern educational facilities, even at the primary level, in
Muslim-concentration areas and which simply refuse to divulge available
data on Muslim educational backwardness and which, by carefully
manipulating the levers of power, change curricula, particularly related
to language, syllabi, school culture and medium of instruction so as to
make Muslim parents more and more reluctant to send their children to
government schools.
The scheme had not had many takers, as the madrasas are not equipped to
deal with the bureaucracy and comply with the plethora of rules and
regulations, forms and reports. Thus, the total annual outlay under the
scheme has been of the order of a few crores with a few hundred
beneficiaries.
Then the National Council of Educational Research and Training undertook a
study of existing curriculum in madrasas and published a report in the
year 2000 based on data collected from some madrasas, most of them
government-aided, from 3 states UP, MP and Kerala.
Again one wondered why madrasa education had suddenly become the target of
so much academic attention although, to put the problem in proper
perspective, no research has ever been conducted on the proportion of
Muslim children of school age studying exclusively in madrasas in various
states, and not for supplementary instruction as in Kerala.
However, the recent Report by the Group of Ministers of Reform of Internal
Security has linked madrasa education with national security and thus let
the cat out of the bag!
The report says: "Funded by Saudi and Gulf sources, many new madrasas
have come up all over the country in recent years, especially in large
numbers in the coastal areas of the West and in the border areas of West
Bengal and the North East…Madrasa education is a part of a Muslim
child’s religious tradition. Steps should be taken to encourage these
institutions to add inputs on modern education also. Efforts should be
made for providing increased facilities for modern education, particularly
for the border areas where such facilities are lacking… The Central
Sector Scheme for giving financial assistance for modernization of madrasa
education… should be strengthened… A Central Advisory Board may be set
up for madrasa education instead of leaving this critical matter to
different State Level Advisory Boards. The Ministry of HRD should take
necessary action in this regard."
The motive of the government largesse is clearly neither to benefit the
madrasa students to become more employable and more useful to society, by
not confining themselves to the vocations of Imam and Mudarris (teacher),
nor to upgrade the standard of madrasa education. It is to penetrate the
madrasa system, to monitor what goes on there, what is taught, whether the
students are motivated to become militants and trained in the use of fire
arms, whether the madrasas serve as shelters for the ISI! This explains
the persistent and well-orchestrated propaganda against the madrasas (and
the masjids) at the official level, with numerous searches and detentions
of teachers and students on trumped up charges. None has been convicted so
far.
The most dangerous proposal that the Group of Ministers has made now is
that a Central Advisory Board of Madrasa Education may be set up under the
Ministry of HRD. Obviously, the advisory role can be transformed gradually
into a regulatory and control role, in the name of upgradation and
uniformity of syllabus, standardization of education (e.g., in Bihar).
Since the financial bait is there, some Madrasas – at least some
management may fall for and accept official intrusion. One cannot help
them.
However, the A.I. Deeni Talimi Council and other Muslim organizations like
the Mushawarat, the Milli Council, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the
Jamiat-ul-Ulama owe it to the community to take the government proposal
more seriously, caution the madrasas against it and ask the government not
to impose an official regime on the madrasas – indeed to leave them
alone. The community must reject government control over religious
education.
They should consider the following questions:
» Does the government propose to ‘nationalize’ the madrasa system and
bring it under its control?
» Does the government propose to encourage the madrasa system as a
substitute for normal education for Muslim community?
» Does the government only wish to have a ‘presence’ in the madrasa
to keep an eye on the content of education and instruction being imparted
to the students?
If the answer to the above points is YES, then the government should be
asked to put a stop to its policy of intervention in the madrasa system.
Well-known madrasas including the three at Deoband, Lucknow and Saharanpur
which are recognized by the community, have refused to accept government
aid since 1947, though they had played a major role in mobilizing Muslims
for anti-British freedom struggle.
But the Muslim community should itself apply its mind to grade and
standardize the madrasa as maktabs, madrasas and Jamias, to change the
curriculum and syllabus in response to contemporary demands and to
introduce a system for linking, through recognition and affiliation, the
small madrasas to the major madrasas of various sects in the country. The
community must endeavor seriously to relate the madrasa system to the
two-fold objective of providing basic religious instruction to all Muslim
children as well as of preparing the scholars and the religious
functionaries the community needs tomorrow.
The core of the madrasa education must remain religious and, therefore, by
definition ‘modernization’ or ‘secularization’ has its measurable
limits. Only some elementary courses in languages like Hindi, English, (or
the regional language), arithmetic, geography, history and social studies
need to be added as the major madrasas have been doing by themselves over
the last century. The major madrasas have also been restructuring their
programme of studies in a manner so that if a student wishes to leave the
madrasa in mid-stream and take the middle or high school examination or
enter the universities for undergraduate or postgraduate education, he may
do so. Some madrasas have introduced vocational courses so that their
products do not depend solely on serving as teachers or Imamas.
For the general educational advancement of the Muslim Indians, the
community must aim at cent percent literacy and therefore, on cent percent
enrollment, lower drop out rate, quantitatively and qualitatively higher
output at the secondary and higher secondary level and higher level of
entry to degree courses. This calls for a division of work:
The community should provide basic Islamic instruction to all boys and
girls in maktabs as in Kerala and rationalize the madrasa system for
quality education and for producing the Islamic scholars it needs; This it
can do on its own.
The government should, on the other hand:
» Establish primary, middle and secondary government schools in villages,
Blocks, Mahallas of Muslim concentration in accordance with national
norms.
» Modify its policy on medium of instruction (in Urdu-speaking states)
and on languages, the contents of the textbooks and the school culture, so
that an orthodox Muslim does not apprehend any distortion of or threat to
his ward’s religious identity in government schools.
» And allow continued freedom to the community to establish and run its
madrasas. q |
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