Ark Foundation is a socio-clinical research group of teachers and research scholars of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Observing the lack of effective schooling in slum areas so close to their own academic institution, the group was motivated to make a small beginning to use their knowledge and skills to provide learning centers for children of marginalized section of the society. It was started as a “Two Hours A Week Programme”. The programme was started with the help of volunteers from JNU in which every volunteer
has to give at least two hours in a week.
We started similar programme in other slums and villages. Ark understands the difficulty many children have in travelling from one village to another to attain school lessons and is aware that for many children education is secondary to contributing to economic activities at home. It is with this in mind that Ark began its project “Education At Doorsteps”
[1] with the idea that if children can't go to school, we'll bring school to them. Kataila School expereiment in Kataila village, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh was the fisrt initiative in 1995 to provide educational infrastructure in the village for the children of marginalized section of the society. The success of the experiment encouraged us to replicate the “Education At Doorstep” project in other villages.
There is a group of teachers and students who reached JNU via Madrasa Education System. Majority of them strongly feel to go back to their respective Madrasa and work with teahers and students of madrasas for their upgradation. Ark organized a meeting to discuss about aims and strategies for upgration. The meeting came to the conclusion that it is not fair to decide about the fate of madrasa children from this committee room.
[2] It was here Ark deceided for consultation with teachers and students of madrasas of India. National Univerastriy of Educational Planning And Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi supported us to organize two days national seminar on “Madrasa & Educational Needs of Indian Muslims”. More than 300 scholars from different background and experience participated in the sminar organized on March 29, 2008 and about 200 scholars participated on March 30, 2008.
The seminar was interactive and allotted more time for debate & discussion. Every session was followed by question-answer session. There were few scholars who had extreme views about their believes and understanding and it was difficult to calm them and bringn them to debate and discussion. The seminar generated heated discussion and come out with concrete suggestions.
Ark acknowledges Ifat Hamid, Dr. Sneha Singh, Dr. Yogi Sikand, Prof. V.K. Tripathi, Dr. Akhlaq A Ahan, Dr. Mohd. Athar and Zuber Hudwai for their scholarly inputs in organizing the seminar. I would like to thank Arshad Amanulah, Sugriv Juneja, Mayank Dhameja and Sara Wali for documentation, compilation and edititng of the report.
We could not post this report earlier due to some official restrictions. We will welcome comments and suggestion.
I take responsibility for any mistake in this report.
Dr. Shaheen Ansari
Team Leader
Seminar Organising Committee
Ark Foundation, New Delhi
CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE NO.
Preface................................................................................................................................ 2
Concept Note ...................................................................................................................... 7
Areas And Themes Discussed In The Seminar....................................................................... 10
Programme Schedules ........................................................................................................ 13
List of Participants ............................................................................................................... 19
Session-I: Inauguration ......................................................................................................... 21
Session-II: Scope And Relevance of Madrasa Reform........................................................... 32
Session-III: Modernization of Madrasas: State & Other Agencies’ Intervention.......................... 50
Session-IV: Experiments with Reforms Within Madrasa Institutions: Voices From The Ground... 66
Session-V: Exploring Uniformity in the Madrasa Education & Curriculum Changes.................... 85
Session-VI: MEDIA AND REFORM IN MADRASA EDUCATION SYSTEM................................. 109
Session-VII: National Consultation- Towards Drafting A Roadmap For Reform ......................... 120
Illustration (Selected Photograpths From The Seminar)........................................................... 129
Day-1 Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/SeminarOnMadrsaEducationSystem#http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/NationalSeminarMadrasaDay1Photos#Day-2 Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/ConsultationOnMadrasaEducationSystem# http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/NationalSeminarDay2#Concept Note
Madrasas are known for being traditional seats of Islamic learning in modern India. Irrespective of the connotations the generic term madrasa carries in the contemporary political culture, thousands of madrasas are busy in improving the literacy level of the masses, without incurring the Government any expense, in most of the cases.
Equipping Madrasas with modern educational infrastructure will contribute significantly towards making their role more effective in shaping young minds and their career. There is no denying the fact that they need to incorporate secular subjects in their curriculum. What is more important is to introduce student-friendly teaching methodology in the madrasa education system. Learning and then internalizing basic science, speailly computer skills, into the madrasa ethos will be of great help in this connection. These measures not only boost the morale of students, the madrasa graduates but also go a long way in enhancing their interface with the market economy. Consequently, they will be able to push their economic aspirations beyond the boundaries of madrasa-masjid.
Backwardness of Indian Muslims in the field of modern education makes chances of India to emerge as a developed nation bleaker. Modernization of Madrasas offers a solution for the problem.
The fact that madrasas still enjoy an important place in the immediate cosmological scheme of the majority of the Indian Muslims, spoke volumes about the relevance of the seminar. In the view of ongoing changes in different walks of national life, drastic restructuring is required in Madrasa education system so that the madrasa going sections of Indian Muslims can meaningfully respond to the changing needs of contemporary Indian society at large.
It was felt throughout the seminar that the madrasa education system has produced some scholars of international fame but majority of talaba is deprived of the job opportunities. How many madrasa graduates could be accommodated in mosques and madrasas? Majority of them fail to get jobs in other institutions or open market due to their ignorance of modern skills and knowledge. It should be borne in the mind that it is the economically backward sections of the society who send their children to madrasas. Those who could afford send their children to public schools to offer quality education for their children.
The seminar was a big leap towards developing a synthesis of the classical and the modern subjects. The focal accent was on exploring possibilities of using education as a mean to make Muslims familiar with the ways to integrate the revealed fundamentals and the ever transforming world of modern knowledge. It was also attempted to demonstrate how the changing realities of the physical world can be explained without diluting the core of the traditional thought.
Modernisation, in the context of the madrasas, is primarily understood in terms of the introduction of science and technology subjects in the Madrasa curriculum. A comprehensive course-structure for the discipline of history, for instance, may be one milestone towards achieving the goal. Likewise, the study of social sciences, at least one of vernacular languages and English may help the madrasa graduates in developing a symbiotic relation with the world they live in. At the primary and intermediate levels, the students need exposure to key subjects taught in the alternative system of education. An arrangement for professional training of the students should constitute an integral part of the madrasa modernization programme as the same will enable them to meet up the economic expectations of their family.
AREAS AND THEMES DISCUSSED IN THE SEMINAR
The seminar aimed at developing a roadmap for upgradtion of Madrasa Education System in India.
a) Role of Madrasa education in the context of Muslim society;
b) Factors which are responsible for pushing Muslim children to Madrasa education;
c) Consequences of the appeal to modernize Madrasa education.
d) Examine the practical feasibility of the modernization programme that lay emphasis on modification in the syllabus and teaching methodology.
e) Debated the position that Madrasa, given their nature of being specialized institutions for religious education and transmitting the Islamic scholarly tradition, should be preserved as they are.
f) The overall strength and limitations of the madrasa education system and juxtapose them with the role of the Muslims in nation-building
g) To design a practical strategy for introduction of vocational courses for the Madrasa students.
The Sub-themes:
a. Demystifying Madrasa Education
b. Historical evolution of Madrasa Education in India
c. Madrasa Syllabus- Past, Present and Future
d. Educational backwardness of Indian Muslims: A historical
perspective
e. Importance of Reform in Madrasa Education
f. Modernisation of Madras: A challenge to the nation
g. Madrasa: An institution for educational empowerment?
h. Conceptualizing Madrasa in modern context
i. Hurdles and Challenges in the Madrasa reform
j. Introduction of the computer technology in Madrasas: Need of the time
k. Theological education in Madrasa in the modern context
l. Vocational Training in Madrasa
m. Government programmes and policies for the Madrasa Education
n. Politics of Minority Education in India
o. Linking Madrasas to mainstream schooling
Programme Schedule
[3]March 29 & 30, 2008
Timings: 9:00am- 05:30pm
Venue: Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Day- 1
SESSION –I: 09:00 – 10:00 AM
INAUGURATION
Chief Guest: Prof. Shahid Mahdi, Deputy Chairperson, ICCR, New Delhi.
Chair: Prof. Basir Ahmad Khan, PVC, IGNOU, New Delhi.
Presentation: “Evolution of Madrasa Education System in India” by Ark
Research Team.
Vote of Thanks: Dr. Sneha Singh, Secretary, Ark Foundatio, New Delhi.
------------Tea Break: 10:00 AM -10:30 AM---------
SESSION –II: 10:30 AM- 1:00 PM
THEME: SCOPE AND RELEVANCE OF MADRASA REFORM
Chair: Prof. M .H. Qureshi, JNU, New Delhi.
Presentations By:
Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad: The State, the Madrasa and the Need for Reform.
Maulana Saud Alam Qasmi: Need for Introduction of Modern Education in Madrasa.
Dr. Yogender Sikand: Relevance of Reform in Madrasa Education System in Present Socio-Economic Context.
Dr Ishtiaq Danish: Reforms in Madrasa Education System: Problems and Prospects.
-------Lunch Break: 1: 00 PM - 2: 00 PM-----------
SESSION –III: 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM
THEME: MODERNIZATION OF MADRASAS: STATE & OTHER AGENCIES INTERVENTION
Chair & Discussant: Dr. S. Irfan Habib, NISTADS, Delhi.
Presentations By:
Justice M.S. A. Siddique: Government Initiatives to Modernize Madrasa Education
System & to Central Madrasa Board.
Prof. Basir Ahmad Khan: IGNOU’s Initiatives to Promote Modern Education in the Most Backward Areas & Offering of Professional Courses to Madrasa Graduates.
Dr. Nirja Shukla: NCERT’s Initiatives Towards Modernization of Madrasa
Education System.
Deepika: Jan Vikas and Jamiat-Ulama-I-Hind’s Experiment in
Gujarat.
Daya Ram: The Agha Khan Foundation Initiatives.
------------Tea Break: 03:30 PM -03:45 PM---------
SESSION –IV: 3:45 PM – 5:30 PM
THEME: EXPERIMENTS WITH REFORMS WITHIN MADRASA INSTITUTIONS: VOICES FROM THE GROUND
Chair: Dr. Yogender Sikand, Expert and Freelance Writer.
Presentations By:
Dr. Roger Jeffery: Need to Update Madrasa Curriculum: The Bijnor
Experience.
Maulana Haziq: Experiments in Higher Islamic Education.
Maulana F. R. Mojaddidi: Combining Religious and Technical Education: A
Cases Study of Jamiatul Hidaya, Jaipur.
Qasim Rasool Falahi: Experiences and Challenges in Educating Isolated
Communities.
Zubair Hudwai: Participatory approach of Ulama in Madrasa reform
:Kerala experience.
Sara Wali: The Tablighi Jama‘at and Madrasas in Mewat.
Day -2
SESSION –V: 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
THEME: EXPLORING UNIFORMITY IN THE MADRASA EDUCATION & CURRICULUM CHANGES.
Chair: Prof. Akhtar Mahdi, JNU, New Delhi.
Presentations By:
Prof. Aktharul Wasey : Relevance and scope of uniformity in Madrasa Education&
Curriculum Changes in Present Socio-Economic Context.
Maulana Salman Nadv i: Hamara Talimi Nisab Kaisa Ho?: In Search of a New
Curriculum.
Dr Mohmad Arshad : Major Trends in Madrasa Education and possibility of Reforms.
Arshad Alam: Understanding Madrasa Curriculum in the Present Time.
Dr. Fauzan Ahmad : Madrasa Curriculum: An Overview.
Dr. Mohd.Athar : Perspectives on the Madrasa Reform.
------------Tea Break: 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM---------
SESSION –VI: 11:15 AM – 01:00 PM
THEME: MEDIA AND REFORM IN MADRASA EDUCATION SYSTEM
Chair: Nilofar Sohrawardi, Freelance Journalist
Presentations By:
Zafar Agha What & Why of Madrasa Reform and Indifference of
Media.
Waris Mazhari: The Recent Deoband Conclave On Terrorism And Its Echo
In The Media.
Arshad Amanullah: The Madrasa Media: What Ails Them?
------------Lunch Break: 01:00 PM – 2:00 AM---------
NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON MADRASA EDUCATION SYSTEM: TOWARDS DRAFTING A ROADMAP FOR REFORM
2:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Chair: Dr.Akhtarul Wasey, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi .
AGENDA:
i. Recommendations of the Seminar.
ii. A New Syllabus for Madrasa Education System.
iii. Identifying Problems and Setting Goals.
iv. A time-bound Action Plan. v. Any other issue related to the development of Roadmap.
Discussant: Dr. Rizwan Qaiser, Associate Professor, JMI, New Delhi
Concluding Remark: Dr.Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Director General, NYKS, Delhi
Vote of Thanks: Dr. Shaheen Ansari, Chairman, Ark Foundation, New Delhi.
List of Participants
who accepted Ark Invitation
1. Prof.Syed Shahid Mahdi, Vice-Chairperson of ICCR, New Delhi.
2. Dr. Akhlaq Ahmad Aahan, Assistant Professor, Centre for Persian, JNU
3. Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, New Delhi
4. Prof. Aslam Mahmood, JNU, New Delhi
5. Prof.Yoginder Sikand, Bangalore
6. Prof. M.H.Qureshi, JNU, New Delhi
7. Dr. Ishtiaque Danish, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
8. Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui, JNU, New Delhi
9. Prof. S.Irfan Habib, NISTADS, Delhi
10. Deepika, Jan Vikas, Ahmadabad
11. Prof. Roger Jeffrey, University of Edinburgh, UK.
12. Maulana Haziq Nadwi, Darul Umoor, Mysore
13. Bazlur Rahman, Karimganj, Assam
14. Zubair Hudawi, Kerala
15. Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, UP
16. Dr.Daya Ram, Agha Khan Foundation, New Delhi
17. Dr Mujibur Rahman, JNU, New Delhi
18. Dr. Fauzan Ahmad, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
19. Dr. Mohd Athar, Mau, UP
20. Prof. Akhtar Mahdi, JNU, New Delhi
21. Nilofar Sohrawardi, Freelance Journalist, New Delhi
22. Zafar Agha, Freelance Journalist, New Delhi
23. Kashif-ul Huda, Florida, USA.
24.Arshad Amanullah, Documentary Filmmaker, New Delhi
25. Prof. .Akhtarul Wasey, JMI, New Delhi
26. Dr. Rizwan Qaiser, Associate Professor, JMI, New Delhi
27. Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Director General, NYKS, New Delhi
Session- I
Inauguration
Prof.Syed Shahid Mahdi
Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan
Dr. Akhlaq Ahmad Aahan Chair: Prof.Syed Shahid Mahdi
[4]Prof.Syed Shahid Mahdi:
Initially Prof. Syed Shahid Mahdi drew attention towards the difference between the maktab and the madrasa as two terms widely used in connection with the education of the Muslim community. Maktab means Muslim elementary school (small madrasa). Until the 20th century, boys were instructed in Qur’ān recitation, reading, writing, and grammar in maktabs, which were the only means of mass education. The teacher was not always highly qualified and had other religious duties, and the equipment of a maktab was often simple. Madrasa means Madrasa: Islamic school for teaching Islamic religion and law.
He emphasized on the fact that one should be clear about the different connotations of the terms prevalent in a particular discipline/discourse. He further referred to the Sachar Committee Report which had in the light of the NSSO statistics and other sources, pointed out that only 4 percent Muslim children went to the madrasa. He felt that the madrasas came into limelight in the wake of the 9/11 events and issues of the madrasa reforms very soon occupied the center-stage of the debate in the world. The question which should be discussed was: Which kind of reform should be effected in the madrasa system? What these reforms would aim at and to what extent they should go on?
Any initiative in this regard should be informed by the scholarship produced in this domain so far. The survey conducted by the Hamdard Education Society throws ample light on different aspects of the madrasa system of India. Likewise, a five-volume encyclopedia on the madrasa education has recently been published.
Curriculum of some madrasas, especially those of the South India, symbolizes an interesting convergence of the secular and religious sciences. Some scholars have made this point repeatedly in the light of the field work carried out across the country. The madrasas of North India have proved very reluctant in incorporating the modern sciences in their curriculum. But there are exceptions in this part of India also. Jameatul Hidaya, Jaipur which has included technical subjects in its core curriculum, is also a case in point in this regard. Situated in the outskirts, around 15 Kms away from the Sindhi Camp bus stand of the Pink City on the Jaipur-Tonk route, the Jameatul Hidaya, is a madrasa with difference. In the tranquil and serene ambience, it trains its students in professional trades and technology, along with grooming them in religious sciences. What further distinguishes it from other madrasas, is the equilibrium its curriculum offers regarding its emphasis on Islamic studies and modern sciences and technical training as well. They have incorporated the modern sciences and professional trades in their core curriculum and students have no option but to study all of them as a whole.
The significance of the Jameatul Hidaya experiment is thus not limited to the policy makers only. It has a human face too. It, after educating kids of a section of have-nots, helps them in eking their livelihood in a decent fashion.
The difference between a common madrasa and Jameatul Hidaya is that the former's curriculum consists merely of the Dars-e-Nizami that is purely a theological one in nature with Mantiq (logic), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Tasawwuf (spiritualism), Ilm-ul-Kalam (Islamic polemics), Balaghat (linguistics), Sarf-o-Nahw (Arabic grammar) and Hadith (Prophet Mohammed's traditions). Poor students who pass out from these madrasas quite unfortunately become misfits in the practical world since they can't decipher numbers on the buses or stations' names while travelling in a train. They are unable to read or write or fill simple forms. Thus they become maulvis (theologians), muaezzins (those who recite five-time prayers), khateebs (preachers), imams (those who lead prayers) and katibs (calligraphers). Fortunate ones are adjusted in these trades while the unlucky ones are deprived of even this and are left to the mercy of the community to feed them. Whereas the maulanas (teachers) of Jameatul Hidaya are in fact very well placed as in addition to these theological courses. Other courses include various diplomas and degrees in Computer Application, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Accounts and Business Management, Communication, Refrigeration, Leather/Footwear Technology, Air-conditioning and Offset
Jamia Hamdard Educational Society, New Delhi organises an annual workshop for the madrasa teachers for a month. It invites around 30-40 of them every year and tries to acquaint them with the tools and techniques helpful in teaching. Last year, I was invited in the concluding session of the workshop and heard their feedback. I found them very happy as they found the workshop very useful.
The current debate on the madrasa education should be situated in the backdrop of the en-masse educational backwardness of the Indian Muslims. Though the lack of the infrastructure for technical and vocational education has been affecting the country as a whole, its bearing on the Muslim community has been devastating.
India has emerged as a nation which has the maximum concentration of the youth population in the world. The fact that all of them can not go for higher education, calls for chalking out strategies to equip them with skills helpful in earning decent livelihood and also to create adequate job opportunities for them. In this regard, we need to be open for a public-private partnership. When we work in collaboration with the private players to achieve this goal, we will have, not before long, great potential to export skilled youth.
I do not subscribe to the theory that the madrasas are the breeding grounds of terrorism and hence its curriculum should be reformed. I think the main aim of the whole seminar is to ponder upon the issue of linking the madrasa graduates to the market and this aim calls for introduction of the vocational training in the madrasa space for the madrasa students. How it will be achieved, the seminar will discuss and try to arrive at some working plan.
Dr. Akhlaq Ahmad Aahan
[5]Speaking on the Evolution of Madrasa Education, Dr. Akhlaq Ahmad Aahan has mentioned milestones of the education history of the Muslim community. During the 11th century, the Muslims established elementary and secondary schools, "Madrasas" or colleges, and even universities at cities like Delhi, Lucknow and Allahabad, mostly using Arabic as the medium of instruction. During the medieval period, there was excellent interaction between Indian and Islamic traditions in all fields of knowledge like indology, religion, philosophy, fine arts, painting, architecture, mathematics, medicine and astronomy.
The word madrasa shares a common root with the term dars, which means ‘lesson’ or ‘instruction’. It is a specialized institution for the training of ulama (literally ‘scholars’). The word ulama (singular, alim), too, does not denote a class of specialists in the Islamic disciplines, for early Islamic tradition did not countenance any distinction between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ education. However, today the term ulama are used to refer to a class of scholars who are well-versed in the intricacies of the Islamic legal tradition.The emergence of the institution of the madrasa—as distinct from the mosque—as a centre for religious learning, and of the ulama as a class of religious specialists, coincided with the spread of Islam outside the Arabian peninsula in the years after the death of the Prophet. By the eighth century, large parts of West and Central Asia, in addition to almost the whole of North Africa, had been brought under Muslim rule.
Under the Caliphates of the Umayyad in Damascus, and, then later, the Abbasid in Baghdad, while political power rested with the Caliphs, religious authority gradually began being exercised by a special class of men—the ulama—set apart from the general body of Muslims as experts in Islamic theology and law. The two classes worked in tandem, the Caliphs providing the ulama with protection and official patronage, and the ulama seeking to interpret the Islamic tradition in order to legitimise the rule of the Caliphs, which, as the historical records tell us, rarely, if ever, accorded with the foundational principles of Islam.It was in this period that madrasas as specialised institutions for the training of ulama emerged, first in West Asia, and then, as Muslim rule spread, in Africa, southern Europe and South Asia. Madrasas were subsidised with permanent sources of income, such as land grants by the state (inam) or by endowments (awqaf) by rich Muslims. Although madrasas, as distinct from elementary mosque-schools (makatib), were known before the tenth century, the first major madrasa dates to as late as 1065, when Nizam-ul Mulk, the Seljuq wazir, ordered the construction of the grand Nizamiah madrasa in Baghdad. It appears that the multiple challenges posed to the Sunni religious and political establishment at the time, in the form of the Ithna Ashari Shi’as (fierce opponents of Sunni claims to orthodoxy), the Batini Isma’ilis (with their belief in the abrogation of the shariat) and the Mutazilite rationalists (who insisted that religion must be understood through the intellect), prompted Nizam-ul Mulk to set up the Baghdad madrasa to train a class of loyal ulama who could effectively deal with what were seen as challenges to the state in the form of dissenting religious sects and movements.The Nizamiah school, like the madrasas which, following it, were set up in other parts of the Muslim world, was intended to train bureaucrats for the royal courts and the administration, as well as judges (qazis), jurisprudents (fuqaha) and muftis qualified to issue fatawa or legal opinions, all of whom were appointed by the state to staff various levels of the bureaucracy. Typically, teachers as well as students were drawn from the elite, and there seems to have been little provision for the education of children from the poorer classes. The thirteenth century commentator, Ziauddin Barani, a Turkish noble attached to the court of the Delhi Sultans, insisted in his Fatawa-i-Jahandari that higher religious education and top religious and administrative posts were to be kept as a closely-guarded preserve of the foreign-born Turkish, Central Asian, Iranian and Arab Muslim elite. The poorer classes of the Muslims, in India consisting largely of ‘low’ caste indigenous converts and their descendants, were to be content merely with knowledge of the basic principles of the faith.
Till 11th century when the Abbasid Caliphate came to an end, scientific methodology of education was very much in vogue. Likewise, the study of different religions and civilizations constituted a vital part of the vibrant intellectual culture. It was after the establishment of chain of Madrasa Nizamiya, a tendency to avoid new ideas and trends started creeping in the Muslim world. Ghazali’s contestations regarding the objective of acquisition of knowledge served as a catalyst to exacerbate the situation. As the history embarks on the 12th century Hijri, thinkers like Averroes, Avicenna, etc becomes a rarity.
The education system which the Muslims developed in India during the early period of their stay in the sub-continent was defective in many senses. Especially after 1857, the ulama recoiled to the corners of the madrasas and declined to accept any new idea/object which was associated with the British. Many ulama have also warned against this psychology of rejection and abhorrence. On contrary, the beneficiaries of the Macaulay education have also developed a tendency to hate the eastern traditions and to consider them inferior to the western ones. However, some of them presented an engaging critique of the modernity long ago. Renowned poet Mohammad Iqbal was one of them.
As the madrasas were busy in making Muslims ‘scripturalist creature’, they defined the objective of knowledge-acquisition in a way that excluded any engagement with the current and modern ideas and trends. The madrasa curriculum failed to nurture critical approach among its students. Some of the old rational sciences which constituted a significant portion of the madrasa curriculum till recent times were also remained devoid of argumentative orientation. According to Maulana Abdus Salam Khan, Islamic madrasas have, consciously or unconsciously, tried to overlook the needs and trends of the contemporary times. Moreover, they chose to remain ignorant of current developments in the domain of philosophy and knowledge. We need to discuss factors responsible for the same. We also need to ruminate on whether the prevalent government education system in the country engages the local intellectual traditions and cultural expressions in a meaningful fashion.
Critics of the madrasa system think that the madrasa graduates add to the problems of the society as they are incapable of either generating thoughts or earning a decent livelihood. The criticism gives way to three kinds of views regarding the madrasa system:
1. The madrasa system should be abandoned.
2. It should be left as it is because it is important to preserve cultural and religious identity in a multi-cultural society. The knowledge should not always be linked with the economy-generation.
3. It should continue but it calls for reforms as well.
According to the third view, the madrasa curriculum has been reformed time and again. The process starts with Mulla Nizamuddin who lived in the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. In near past, Shibli Nomani, Monazir Ahsan Gilani, Asif Faizi, Moosa Jarullah and Abdus Salam Khan are the prominent among those who made their contribution regarding the re-thinking and redesigning the madrasa curriculum. The curriculum prepared by the Central Waqf Council is also worth mentioning here. The panel which worked for the CWC project includes among others: Qari Mohammad Taiyab, Syed Ali Naqi, Asif Faizi, Mohammad Miyan Farouqui, Saeed Akbarabadi, etc. The most recent effort in this domain materialized under the auspices of the Jamia Hamdard and several ulama and secular educationists took part in reworking the madrasa curriculum for the Allahabad Arabic Persian Board, Allahabad. The society and polity of India feels again the need to have a fresh look on text-books and pedagogy of the madrasas.
I would like to draw attention of an august audience to the aspirations of some beneficiaries of the secular education to familiarize themselves with the basics of Islam and Muslim philosophy. There should be some arrangement to offer diploma or certificate courses to cater to the educational need of this section of the Muslim demography.
Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan
[6]Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan started with a brief introduction to his academic trajectory to justify his authority to speak on the ongoing madrasa debate. Then, he asked a very pertinent question: Why is it so that the mushrooming growth of the madrasas is to be found only in the sub-continent? This trend has no parallel outside the subcontinent. There is a concept of ‘osmosis’ in the natural science. The same is present in the social sciences as well. It is very crucial to develop a proper understanding of the phenomenon. Dr.Tara Chand has written a book on the influences of Islam on the Indian civilization. Similarly, Prof. Mohd. Umar of Aligarh Muslim University has studied influences of Hinduism and Indian Civilizations on the Muslims. This is osmosis. The Muslims have been in India for last thousand years. It is impossible that they have not influenced the Hindus, the majority community and the latter have not had any influenced the Muslims. They have definitely influenced each other. I think this madrasa business which has become nowadays an economic cycle has much relevance to that. There is no room for the clergy system in Islam. There is a provision of the clergy system in Christianity. Hinduism provides a religious sanctity to such a class. It is only in the subcontinent that the term “Maulana” which means “Our Lord” is used to refer to the ulama. This is the impact of the Brahmanic culture on the Muslim religious experts.
Nowadays madrasas are receiving so much attention that they seem to be the only problem of the Muslim community. Everybody is talking about the madrasa reform, without taking the madrasa authorities into confidence. If they are not ready to effect any change in their curriculum or system, how an agency/person from outside the madrasa can reform the madrasas. The government should understand this. Unfortunately, there is so much influence of the clergy in Muslim society that almost all Urdu newspapers are full with the news of and about the madrasas. To provide a meaningful and long-term solution to the madrasa question the government needs to provide an alternate to the madrasa education. It has to open different levels of schools in the Muslim localities. On the contrary, we find a police station in almost every Muslim locality. 75% of the Muslim youths are behind the bars in Muzaffarnagar and the neighbouring localities. There are no post-offices and banks in the Muslim areas.
Political parties are using the clergy and the issue of the madrasas to consolidate their vote-bank and ulama are playing in their hands. Political parties along with ulama are responsible for the backwardness of the Indian Muslims. More than a thousand applications seeking permission to establish new Muslim Housing Societies are pending with Delhi Development Authorities. Since Independence, only 3-4 Muslim Housing Societies are allowed to be founded in Delhi. Representation of the Muslims in the Police force is almost negligible. Attitude of the Police towards the Muslim community has come under sever criticism time and again. Instead of directing attention to lack of these civil amenities in the Muslim localities, everybody is expressing concerns with the madrasa alone.
The dualism regarding the education was not there in the classical period of Islam. Companions of the Prophet received education from the captive of the Battle of Badr though the latter were non-Muslims. It is wrong to restrict the madrasa modernisation project to computerization only. Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was 'holding back' progress and replacing it with new, progressive and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end. Modernity lies in scientific temperament and critical thinking which needs to be made essential part of the intellectual culture of the madrasas.
Despite losing their relevance to the present times, Persian and Greek Logic are still part of the Madrasa curriculum. Hindi should replace Persian there. But the reform in the madrasa education system can be achieved only after taking the ulama into confidence. The madrasa authorities will not agree to reform their curricula as the same has direct relationship with the economy of the madrasa system and also with the clout the ulama enjoy in the society. Hence, it is better to come up with an alternate education system. In this regard, the government should establish model madrasas where it will be possible to teach some modern subjects also, along with the religious sciences.
We need to think about the educational progress of the non-madrasa going 96 percent of Muslim population as well. Moreover, the government should ensure the admission of the Muslim children in its educational institutions.
Session – II
Scope & Relevance of Madrasa Reform
Prof. M.H.Qureshi
Prof. Aslam Mahmood
Dr. Yoginder Sikand
Dr. Ishtiaque Danish
Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan
Chair: Prof. M.H.Qureshi, JNU, New Delhi.
Prof. Aslam Mahmood
[7]Prof. Aslam Mahmood enlightens the spectators that Jawaharlal Nehru University has constituted a sub-committee to look into the problems of those madrasa graduates who seek admission in its language courses. The committee has started visiting madrasas so that a mechanism to recognize their certificates can be devised. What these madrasa graduates do now is that they go to Jamia Millia Islamia which recognizes certificates of some of the madrasas and get admission there in the first year of the B.A. programme of the Arabic language. After that they come to JNU to seek admission in the second year of the BA programme and JNU admits them on the basis of their mark sheet of the BA first year. So, within JNU there was a sort of consensus why not look into problem and try to remove it.
While discussing dynamics of the madrasa education, we should focus on the core issues, rather than digressing from them. Here the main issue is taking stock of the madrasa education and making it as optimal for the society as possible. Any exercise of this nature should have a greater participation from the people of whom we are talking. JNU wants to organize a seminar which will be open to only madrasa authorities.
We are in an era when education has become a buzzword. UNESCO has launched the programme Education for All where they are aiming at universal enrollment. Similarly, programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, are also helping in achieving the goal of total literacy. However, despite our commendable success in this domain since Independence, we have to go a long way. To provide education to our masses, we have to tap all existing channels of the education. Madrasas exemplify a well-knitted, widespread chain of education. This chain has yet to be optimally utilized. Though they cater to the educational need of only 4 per cent of the Muslim youth, even this is no small a number. In a situation where the Muslim community suffers from lack of enrollment or insufficient enrollment, this 4 percent forms a very crucial chunk of our demography.
The madrasa education is not something which exists in isolation. Like other systems of education, the madrasa education has deep roots in the history of the subcontinent. We should think in terms of integrating the madrasa system into the modern system of education so that it keeps on moving with the march of time. Madrasa system, Gurukl/Pathshala system and modern Macaulay system of education can coexist and job opportunities relevant to them can be created.
There is a need to renovate Dars-i-Nizami, the madrasa syllabus, without altering its core subjects. Changing circumstances call for inclusion of social sciences, modern Indian languages, etc in the madrasa curriculum. Some madrasas have provision for teaching history but its scope needs to be broadened to include into it history of India as well. There should be a training programme for the madrasa teachers. Such an arrangement will be helpful in facilitating the reform in the pedagogy and text-books of the madrasas. Madrasas for girls are very few in number. There should be more girl madrasas as one can not think of co-education in the domain of the madrasa education.
The madrasa authorities are not averse to the affiliation to the Madrasa Boards in states where they exist. They want some sort of centrality and need patronage. But it should be right kind of patronage. The madrasa authorities are open to enter into a contract with modern educational institutions provided that the terms and conditions are acceptable to them as well. Number of independent madrasas is very small and as they have plenty of funds available to them, they do not have any economic compulsion to join Madrasa Boards.
In the end of his speech he emphasized on the problems of the functioning with the Madrasa Boards. He said that they (Madrasa Boards), like any other agency of the government, need to work more efficiently and appear friendly to the clients. Moreover, they also need to be corruption-free.
Dr. Yoginder Sikand
[8] Instead of critiquing ulama/madrasas, Dr. Yoginder Sikand starts with the importance of madrasas. He articulates that madrasas have become a subject of considerable debate in the mass media. There is a need to have dialogue with madrasas and find out ways to work with them.
Prof. Sikand feels that the small but interesting initiatives are taken by several madrasas in the length and breadth of the country to reform their curriculum but they generally go unnoticed. He notes that two factors are mainly responsible for the same: lack of the field-work culture in the department of Islamic Studies in the Government Universities and penchant of the media to look at the madrasa discourse from a certain vantage-point. The latter has vested interests in portraying the madrasas in negative light. Reporting on the Muslims has always been in the context of some sensational episode, whether imaginary or real. That is why we hardly get positive stories to hear about the community in the mainstream media. At the same time he criticized the media on Muslim issues.
He remarkes that the ulema have sought to rebut these allegations, but, because they have failed to reach out significantly to non-Muslims, their views continue to go unheard outside the community. To add to this is the fact that large sections of the media appear to have a vested interest in perpetuating negative stereotypical images of the madrasas as 'dens of terror' despite evidence to the contrary. At the same time, Sikand noted that the relentless anti-madrasa propaganda has had some unintended positive fall-outs
The whole issue of reform is a challenging theme. Different agencies/people have different agenda/understanding of the madrasa reform. There is pressure from the US Government on different countries including India to “reform” the madrasas. Thus, one should, instead of naively harping back on the reform issue, be aware of the politics behind the whole exercise.
Nudged by persistent and growing identification of Islam and Muslims with terrorism at the national as well as global levels since September 9, 2001, Indian Muslim clerics of all hues finally came together to pronounce an unequivocal fatwa against terrorism of all kinds. In an event organised by Dau-ul-Uloom, Deoband, 6,000, heads of madrassas from across the country along with the heads of organisations sponsoring their institutions, joined hands despite their sectarian differences to say with one voice that terrorism of all kinds was against the peaceful principles of Islam and to exhort Muslims to stay away from such dastardly activities as in Islam even the killing of just one innocent person amounted to the killing entire humanity.
The sleepy town of Deoband, 140 kms east of Delhi, famous around the world primarily for hosting this premier Muslim religious educational institution, the Darul Uloom, came alive on February 25, with tens of thousands of Muslims, clerics and ordinary souls, streaming in from all over the country, to support the historic anti-terrorism declaration that the Muslim religious community was about to make in a rare display of unity across the otherwise widening sectarian divide. The Deobandis, Bareilwis, Wahhabis, Ahl-e-Hadees, in short the Sunnis of all hues were all there. The Shias had already participated in another get-together organised by Jamia-ul-ulema for the same purpose in Delhi over a year ago at a smaller level.
What exactly they said is important and needs to be quoted at some length before one tries to judge its significance. The Declaration announced: "This All India Anti-Terrorism Conference attended by the representatives of all Muslim schools of thought organised by Rabta Madaris Islamiah Arabia (Islamic Madrasas Association), Darul Uloom Deoband, condemns all kinds of violence and terrorism in the strongest possible terms."
As a prelude to this declaration, the convention stated: "Islam is the religion of mercy for all humanity. It is the fountainhead of eternal peace, tranquillity, security. Islam has given so much importance to human beings that it regards the killing of a single person the killing of entire humanity, without differentiation based on creed and caste. Its teaching of peace encompasses all humanity. Islam has taught its followers to treat all mankind with equality, mercy, tolerance, justice. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism. It has regarded oppression, mischief, rioting and murdering among severest sins and crimes."
More significant than this and indicative of the mood and inspiration of the conference was this exhortation: "Moreover, this All India anti-Terrorism Conference attended by the representatives of all schools of thought appeal to all Muslims to continue, as they always did in the past, their loyalty towards the dear motherland and love and respect towards humanity. It appeals to them to fully understand the present alarming situation, the gravity and intensity of the time, and feel the pulse of the present world so that they might not be employed as tools of evils by anti-Islamic or anti-national forces. It appeals to them to live with dignity and pride being faithful to the country, to keep full trust in their leadership…"
The obsession of the central government of India with the madrasa reform, despite the fact that only 4% of the Muslim demography attends madrasas, betrays lack of seriousness on the part of the government to fulfill its responsibility of making arrangement of the modern education for general Muslims.
Dr. Sikand explains that the madrasas are established with the aim to produce specialists in various disciplines of the Islamic Studies. Hence, any reform initiative to reform the madrasas has to take this nature of the madrasas into account. There should be reform within the madrasa system to make its products play their role in the society in a better and engaged fashion. It is not wise to restrict the reform debate only to the curriculum. There are other related issues which call for modification as well. For instance, the salary of the madrasa staff is very low. Likewise, most of the madrasas, due to paucity of the adequate funds, can not offer balanced diet to their students. Living condition prevailing in majority of the madrasas can not be categorised as good for the health of the boarders as well as the day-scholars.
The current writings on the Indian Muslims betray conspicuous absence of field-work. Consequently, they fail in most of the cases to capture the contemporary realities and trends of the community. It is the Hindutva brigade which harks on the fictitious links between the Indian madrasas and terrorism. Even the Government, in a way, gets threatened from the autonomy of the madrasas. Those among the madrasa authorities, who are against any sort of reform in the madrasa system, constitute a minority but they are influential and articulate enough to get their message through. The whole debate of the madrasa reform has been so far very North-centric. Madrasas of the South have been the least studied phenomenon. It is high time to sink the maslaki differences so that important issues should be accorded priority.
We can learn from the ulama a lot of things which the modern education system does not teach us. During my field-works and encounters to the madrasa people, I enriched my experiences in many ways. That is why we should try to engage the ulama, rather than maintaining a patronizing approach to them.
The Ulema have one advantage over secular Muslims. Poor Muslims who are the larger part of the community listen to them. Their declaration against terrorism will be heard by that group of Muslim community.
He sheared his experiences (during field work) with the spectators. He emphasized that what the Ulema can do and must do in the end is to learn to live in the modern world with science, technology, philosophy and logic. Unless they do that they will not be able to communicate with Muslim youth which is slowly getting educated and out of bounds of their influence.
Dr. Ishtiaque Danish, Jamia Hamdard
[9] Prof. Ishtiaque Danish starts his speech with the definitions of the madrasas and the maktabs he elaborated that there are more maktabs in India than madrasas. The latter are largely concentrated in the urban settlements. The maktabs function like primary schools and spread literacy in rural localities where there are no government schools. The government should take note of their service to the common people and really do something to integrate them into the mainstream education, extending to them all what they require.
If the madrasas lack uniformity of curriculum, it should not be considered problematic as India is a country of innumerable diversities. Why should there be only one sort of syllabus for the madrasas? Why all those who want reform in the madrasa curriculum, should come up with one programme of action?
The necessity of the reform will differ from madrasa to madrasa. It may depend, among other things, on the perception and intensity of the madrasa authorities for the reform. The reform should come from within. We can help them in reaching at certain conclusions and also in clarifying certain issues. The final word will come from the madrasa authorities who know better of the human and material resources they have.
It is an uphill task to convince the madrasa demography that reform will be beneficial to them and will add to their relevance. Moreover, the reform in the syllabus is not something which is peculiar to the contemporary times but there has been a history of the same throughout the Muslim existence on the globe. From Al Ghazali to Shibli, every Muslim intellectual of some worth has advocated for constant modification in the curriculum.
Dr. Danish makes distinguish between North and South Indian madrasas. The case of madrasas in Kerala differs from that of North because All India Muslim League is part of the ruling alliance there for last ten years. Moreover, it is the Muslim politicians who look after the ministry of education. They have creatively incorporated the madrasa education into the government education system. The Kerala Madrasa Board has set a good example which deserves a serious thinking from the independent madrasas.
The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER) is a wing of one of the largest Islamic movements in Kerala, the Kerala Nadwat ul-Mujahidin (KNM). The KNM runs some three hundred and fifty part-time coeducational madrasas across Kerala, and the CIER’s work is to prepare books for these schools and to train their teachers. Established in 2002, the CIER is headed by Dr. E.K.Ahmad Kutty, former Head of the Department of Arabic in Calicut University.
Dr. Danish explains that they have a set of new textbooks for their madrasas, which are probably one of their kinds in the whole of India. The madrasa texts used previously, he says, were at least half a century old and badly need to be reformed. They retained the basic content of the earlier curriculum as it broadly was, he relates, but made major changes in style and presentation, drawing on modern, child-centric, activity-based and story-telling teaching methods that encourage students to think for themselves rather than simply assailing them with information. A set of the CIER’s new madrasa texts--brightly coloured cartoons and pictures splayed on every page, the Malayalam and Arabic lettering large and bold and reader-friendly for children, each chapter ending with a set of questions, puzzles, and fill-in-the-blank exercises and so on.‘Learning should not be a drab affair. It should be fun’, he says as he flips through the texts and tells me what they contain. ‘The old books were somewhat drab and boring and very preachy’, he goes on. In addition, Dr. Danish says, the CIER has prepared a set of audio CDs of rhymes contained in its new textbooks, and plans to prepare visual CDs of lessons as teaching aids for madrasa instructors. Half of these instructors, he tells, are women.
After giving an example of CIER’s work he emphasizes that there is a need to respond to modern challenges and produce an enormous quantity of literature in the Arabic literature. But since our madrasa students do not read their books and are not taught modern Arabic, they do not have access to these literary treasures. Nor are they aware of these new understandings of society, humanity and religion that these progressive Arab writers have been articulating. They are thus still stuck in the medieval groove, reading texts that were written centuries ago.
Further he explains that it is a taxing job for the independent madrasas to get their certificates recognized with the government universities. Jamiatul Falah madrasa of Azamgarh really had a tough time to get its certificate recognized with the Poorvanchal University. A good number of the students from the Falah madrasa have now become the part of the UP academia. Thus, recognizing certificates of the madrasas plays crucial role in bringing the madrasa graduates into the mainstream of the education.
The madrasa curriculum still tends to attach more importance to the text-books than the academic needs of the students. This is the legacy of dars-i-Nizami. Before that, each scholar used to have his own book/s on the branch of knowledge he had specialization in. The students should be brought back to the center of the madrasa education, rather than books. Jamia Hamdard every year organizes for the madrasa teachers a workshop which continues for a month and half.
According to the madrasa modernisation scheme of the government, every madrasa will receive an annual assistance of Rs.30000. It shows how serious the government is with reference to its madrasa modernisation scheme as this amount will hardly be sufficient for the salary of a single teacher for a year.
Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan
Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan informed the audience that those madrasa graduates who have a degree of Fazilat from Darul Uloom, Deoband and several other madrasas, can get admission in M.A. As they do not have a B.A. degree, they find it difficult to apply for government vacancies where graduation is a prerequisite. Likewise, they can not get admission in many courses which ask to produce graduation degree. Further Prof Baseer informed that they have proposed in Indira Gandhi National Open University a six-month course called Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP). Any person, who clears BPP, will be eligible to get direct admission in any bachelor programme. IGNOU has been offering BPP through distance mode in Hindi and English medium.
Bachelor's Preparatory Programme is offered by the University to those students who wish to do Bachelor's Degree but do not have the essential qualifications of having passed 10+2. In the absence of such a qualifying certificate these students are deprived of higher education. To enable such students to enter higher education stream IGNOU has designed this programme. We are making effort to introduce it through Urdu, Persian and Arabic also. We expect that it will help talaba, in major way, in getting a B.A. degree. So that madrasa can unite to the mainstream of the modern education.
In addition to around 2,500 study centres which it has in India and abroad, IGNOU is also interested in opening such centres in madrasas which, without interfering in their core academic activities, will facilitate for the madrasa students to pursue vocational courses like Computer Learning Programme (CLP), etc.. The Computer Learning Programme (CLP) aims to develop technologies that encourage talaba to work collaboratively in the classroom. As the madrasas cater to the poorest of the poor of the Muslim community, talaba lack purchasing power for such technical skills.
The reforms in madrasas aim to explore the development of new technologies that make madrasas students job-oriented. Encouraging collaboration is more proactive than merely enabling collaboration. Something new is gained by choosing to work together, although the children may work independently if they wish. On the other hand, it is not as rigid as enforcing collaboration, for example by demanding that two children have to synchronize their actions in order to succeed.
Finally he recommended that there is a need for judicial allocation of funds as per the present requirement of reformation /upgradation of the madrasa education system.
Question-Answer Session
Q. Could Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan, tell us briefly about Bachelor Preparatory Programme? And how can madrasa student take benefit from this programme?
A. Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan: as I have already mentioned about BPP ( Bachelor Preparatory Programme in my paper presentation that we have proposed in Indira Gandhi National Open University a six-month course called Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP). Any person, who clears BPP, will be eligible to get direct admission in any bachelor programme. IGNOU has been offering BPP through distance mode in Hindi and English medium. Bachelor's Preparatory Programme is offered by the University to those students who wish to do Bachelor's Degree but do not have the essential qualifications of having passed ten plus two. In the absence of such a qualifying certificate these students are deprived of higher education. To enable such students to enter higher education stream IGNOU has designed this programme. We are making effort to introduce it through Urdu, Persian and Arabic also. We expect that it will help madrasa students in major way, in getting a B.A. degree.
Q: Prof. Ishtiaque Danish, What reforms would you suggest in the upgradation of Madrasa Education?
A: Dr. Ishtiaque Danish: For the up-gradation of the madrasas we also need to shift from the rote method to comprehension and conversational competence. For this we should use new audio-visual methods, language laboratories and so on. Off course we need new books also. Unfortunately, not many teachers in the madrasas are aware of these new tools and methods, and, even if they are, often their madrasas cannot afford the cost of the equipment required for introducing these methods. Also, there is this problem that some conservative ulema think that to introduce new methods would be tantamount to deviating from the path of their predecessors. They believe that the latter were particularly pious and great, and hence should be imitated as closely as possible.
Here I would like to mention the syllabi of the madrasa boards of Assam, Bengal and Kerala are ideal ones from the point of view of integration of the Muslim community into the so-called mainstream. Only problem is that the madrasas affiliated to these boards do not perform at all. If there are private madrasas in the locality, even the Muslim parents prefer to send their kids to them, rather than to the Board madrasas.
Q: A report recently appeared in the English weekly Outlook, asked for details about the madrasas which are affiliated to the West Bengal Madrasa Board and which cater to the Hindu students also. What is the reality behind it?
A: Dr. Yoginder Sikand: Outlook has presented only one side of the picture. If you go through a report published in the English fortnightly Milli Gazette, New Delhi, you will get the complete picture. The fortnightly reports that the condition of these madrasas is really pathetic and the state government does not pay any attention to their condition. Moreover, these educational institutions are not madrasas in the generic sense of the term. Their emphasis is on the modern education though they offer Islamiyaat (Basics of Islam) and majority of the students there happens to be Muslim. Ulama will not agree to do that as they envision madrasas to produce specialists in Islamic Sciences while the madrasas affiliated to the West Bengal Madrasa Board have not produced any such specialists.
A: Prof. M.H.Qureshi: I happened to visit Madrasa Mujibia, Phulwari Sharif, Patna. I was surprised to learn that Raja Ram Mohan Roy had come to it to learn Persian from the madrasa of Bengal.
Q: Prof. M.H.Qureshi, Why the government universities had not developed any uniform mechanism/criteria to recognize the madrasa certificates.
A: Prof. M.H.Qureshi: Unlike all universities of the country, the madrasas are neither member of the Association of Indian Universities nor their degrees are recognized by it. Moreover, each university is an autonomous body and, hence, decisions of the Academic Council of a particular university do not have binding effects for others. That is why some universities like Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, etc recognize some degrees of a number of madrasas while other universities have not such a provision.
Jawaharlal Nehru University had constituted a Committee under the chairmanship of Prof.Bariam Singh, for Evaluation of Madrasa Degrees. The Committee has three members: Prof. M.H.Qureshi, Prof. Faizanullah Farouqui and Prof. Aslam Mahmood. Based on findings of survey conducted in 20-22 madrasas of UP and Bihar, It has recently submitted its first report to the JNU authorities. It will accomplish its task in phases. Moreover, it will not extend blanket recognition to all madrasas.
Every madrasa has its own parameter of evaluating the ability of students and issuing degrees which is in complete contrast to what is prevalent in the government universities. Some of them issue degree of BA, without knowing the fact that they do not have the authority to do the same. Interestingly, the Alamiyat degree of Allahabad Arabic Persian Board mentions only three papers and the corresponding marks a particular student has obtained in its examination. The degree is recognized equivalent to the degree of 10+2 in some universities. During its communication with the authorities of the Board, the JNU Committee for Evaluation of Madrasa Degrees found out that the former conducted examinations in nine papers but it had a practice that it clubbed them under broad categories of three themes in the marks-sheet.
A: Prof. Aslam Mahmood: Madrasas should take initiative in this regard. They should consult the Association of Indian Universities or different universities separately and try to convince the latter to recognize their degrees.
Q: Whether it is possible for the Committee for Recognition of the Madrasa Certificates? Should JNU to recommend the Central Government for constituting a National Committee to study degrees and syllabus of madrasas ?
A: Prof. M.H.Qureshi: We are not authorized to do that.
Q: Prof. Akhtar Mahdi: But we can convey the message from the platform of this seminar.
A: Prof. M.H.Qureshi: Yes, that one can do. We have submitted the report to JNU. HRD Ministry and other institutions are waiting for our decision in this connection.
Dr. Ishtiaque Danish: The Central Government has passed two policies through enactment of an act in the Parliament in this regard: first of them deals with the recognition of the certificate while another one is related to the recognition of the school. Unfortunately, very few people are aware of them. The government has constituted two committees for each task. It is good that the government has bound the concerned authority to reply within 90 days whether its institution will provide recognition to the applying school. Though there is no such strict provision regarding the application for the recognition of a certificate, the concerned authorities are required to take some measures like inspection, etc. in this connection.
Chairman’s Remarks:
JNU has a tradition to have such madrasa graduates who happen to be leading scholars in their respective disciplines. I see the network of the madrasas as a great asset of the country which does not only contribute to boost the literacy level but also capable of nurturing intellectual culture in its students. As far as reform is concerned, it is not anathema to any system of education. We keep on upgrading/modifying our syllabus in the universities at the interval of every 2-3 years. The dilemma of the madrasas is that dars-i-nizami, syllabus of the madrasas has not been changed for last 3-4 centuries.
The society and polity of India feels again the need to have a fresh look on text-books and pedagogy of the madrasas. I would like to draw attention of an eminent audience to the aspirations of some beneficiaries of the secular education to familiarize themselves with the basics of Islam and Muslim philosophy. There should be some arrangement to offer diploma or certificate courses to cater to the educational need of this section of the Muslim demography.
Everybody is talking about the madrasa reform, without taking the madrasa authorities into confidence. If they are not ready to effect any change in their curriculum or system, how an agency/person from outside the madrasa can reform the madrasas. The government should understand this. But the reform in the madrasa education system can be achieved only after taking the ulama into confidence. There is a need to renovate Dars-i-Nizami, the madrasa syllabus, without altering its core subjects.
There is a pressing need for an engaged dialogue between the ulama and secular educationists so that an idiom acceptable and comprehendible for both can be invented. Profound diversity characterizes network of the madrasas present in the country. There are madrasas for girls also but they are few in number as their presence in the mainstream education is also much below than that of the boys.
On the madrasa question the government needs to provide an alternate to the madrasa education. It has to open different levels of schools in the Muslim localities.
There is an immense need for official allocation of funds from the central government as per the present requirement of reformation /upgradation of the madrasa education system.
Session- III
Modernization of Madrasas:
State & Other Agencies’ Intervention
Prof. S. Irfan Habib
Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui
Deepika
Chairman: S. Irfan Habib, NISTADS
Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui
[10]Prof. Faizanullah Farouqui starts his speech with the importance of the madrasa. He puts emphasis on that Madrasas should remain madrasas and keep teaching what they teach. An arrangement should be worked out for combined education till Munshi (secondary level of schooling). Then, there should be provision for students to choose whether between a programme of religious sciences (offered in madrasas) and secular sciences (offered in government schools/colleges).
Religious education has lost its link with the job market. Not long before, the madrasas used to churn out man power for the bureaucracy and other courtly needs. The situation has changed after introduction of Macaulay’s policies. There is a great need to bridge the gap between the religious education and the job economy.
I am a member of the committee constituted by JNU to evaluate the madrasa degrees so that it can find out a mechanism to recognize them. Other universities have recognized them a few years ago, relying on the documents furnished by the madrasa authorities to the universities. We are engaging the issue in a rather different fashion. We have plans to visit madrasas in phases. We have already surveyed madrasas of UP and Bihar and submitted our report to the JNU. Our criteria are to see how many modern subjects are parts of the curriculum in a certain madrasa and to what extent they are taught there.
The madrasa students are also well-read but the problem is that they can not articulate themselves through the language of English which has become the lingua-franca of the world intelligentsia and secular literary. The ulama are still reluctant to learn the English language as it comes with its whole cultural baggage. We could start with establishing a sort of central madrasa teachers’ training institute, which could offer short-term courses, covering such issues as child psychology, pedagogy, and basic ‘modern’ subjects such as Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, International Relations, Elementary Science and so on. Alternately, lectures on these subjects can be held within the madrasas to graduating students. University lecturers can be hired for this purpose. Who will do it—the government or NGOs or Muslim community organizations—is another matter, but obviously this can happen only if the ulema themselves realize the importance of this and take the initiative. I feel the younger generation ulema, especially those who have also studied in madrasas, might be more amenable to the idea.
Prof. S.Irfan Habib
[11]Prof. S.Irfan Habib begins his speech with the historical background of the education. He gives attention on the efforts of Jamaluddin Afghani and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the freedom struggle. Jamaluddin Afghani and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan were though at logger heads when it came to the strategy to deal with imperialism, they shared with each other the concern for the modernity and modern scientific education for the community. They were aware of the fact that they could hate and fight imperialism but could not do away with the knowledge which accompanied the colonizers.
Jamaluddin was considered ‘new traditionalist’ as well as ‘Islamic reformist; because of Afghani’s teaching today most of the Muslims reject rigid traditionalist as well as pure westernism, as once Sir Sayed Ahmad founder of Aligarh University wanted the Muslims to follow. The middle of the road policy of Jamaluddin is a proper way for the Muslims to be the followed even at present time.
As Prof. Habib states, it was mainly political activities of Jamaluddin which has attracted International and world wide attention because during the 19th century he was the greatest champion of liberty and self-determination for oppressed people of the East and a great fighter against European imperialism.
In India his efforts to unite Hindu and Muslims to fight the British was realized, and all his political and social principles were followed by Muslim and Hindu leaders such as Abdul Kalam Azad and Alama Iqbal as well as Gandhi and Pandit Nehru.
During the two years stay in India (1880-1882) Afghani was appealing to the nationalist and cultural, feelings of the Indians. Afghani noticed that in India it was not possible to rely on Islamic principals or Pan-Islamism, but to ask the Indians to fight the British through the unity between the Hindu and Muslims. Having this in mind he wrote a series of articles in Hyderabad which was published in “Muallim-i-Shafiq” edited by Muhib Hussain. During Afghani’s stay, in India, he was surprised to see a growing feeling among the Indian Muslims to cooperate rather than to fight, the British. The leader of this group was “Sir Sayed Ahmad” the founder of the “Aligarh Party” In the meantime the British was supporting and encouraging other Muslim sects as well, such as Qadyams, and Ismaeli’s (Agha khan’s)and Wahabi’s because they were supporting the idea of cooperation with the British and ignoring “Jehad”against the colonial powers. It was for this reason that Afghani attacked harshly Sayed Ahmad in his famous article entitled “Tafsir Moufasir” and also he published in 1881 “refutation of the materialists” or “Radd ala ad-dahreyyan”.
Further Prof. Habib, draws attention on Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s work on education. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur, commonly known as Sir Syed, was an
Indian educator and
politician, and an
Islamic reformer and modernist. Sir Syed pioneered modern education for the
Muslim community in India by founding the
Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which later developed into the
Aligarh Muslim University. His work gave rise to a new generation of Muslim intellectuals and politicians who composed the
Aligarh movement to secure the political future of Muslims in India.
Born into
Mughal nobility, Sir Syed earned a reputation as a distinguished scholar while working as a jurist for the
British East India Company. During the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 he remained loyal to the British and was noted for his actions in saving European lives. After the rebellion he penned the booklet Asbab-e-Bhaghawath-e-Hind (The Causes of the Indian Mutiny) — a daring critique, at the time, of
British policies that he blamed for causing the revolt. Believing that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook, Sir Syed began promoting Western-style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organizing Muslim intellectuals. Towards this goal, Sir Syed founded the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875 with the aim of promoting social and economic development of Indian Muslims.
One of the most influential Muslim politicians of his time, Sir Syed was suspicious of the
Indian independence movement and called upon Muslims to loyally serve the
British Raj. He denounced nationalist organizations such as the
Indian National Congress, instead forming organisations to promote Muslim unity and pro-British attitudes and activities. Sir Syed promoted the adoption of Urdu as the lingua franca of all Indian Muslims, and mentored a rising generation of Muslim politicians and intellectuals. Although hailed as a great Muslim leader and social reformer.
Through the 1850s, Syed Ahmed Khan began developing a strong passion for education. Sir Syed began to realise the advantages of Western-style education, which was being offered at newly-established colleges across India. Despite being a devout Muslim, Sir Syed criticized the influence of traditional dogma and religious orthodoxy, which had made most Indian Muslims suspicious of British influences. Sir Syed began feeling increasingly concerned for the future of Muslim communities.
Committed to working for the upliftment of Muslims, Sir Syed founded a modern Madrasa in Muradabad in 1859; this was one of the first religious schools to impart scientific education. He established another modern school in Ghazipur in 1863.
Upon his transfer toAligarh in 1864, Sir Syed began working wholeheartedly as an educator. He founded the Scientific Socity of Aligarh the first scientific association of its kind in India. Sir Syed assembled Muslim scholars from different parts of the country. The Society held annual conferences, disbursed funds for educational causes and regularly published a journal on scientific subjects in English and Urdu. Sir Syed felt that the socio-economic future of Muslims was threatened by their orthodox aversions to modern science and technology. Sir Syed avoided discussing religious subjects in his writings, focusing instead on promoting education.
One should remember that this knowledge was not developed by the Europeans in isolation from rest of the world. It was transmitted to them by the Muslims from 12th century onwards in a process of cross-fertilization of the civilizations. Of course, they contributed to it and repackaged it in the shape of modern sciences but one can easily trace the elements of Muslim contributions and Greek contributions to it. If the case is so, one can not see why ulama are against the knowledge which comes along with the Europeans. It is dangerous to divide knowledge in terms of religion and culture. Most of the problems begin when people start relativising knowledge as Hindu Science, Muslim Science, etc. It is the heritage of 19th century which the people are still carrying. The problem of the Muslim community started when the ulama began dividing knowledge. It is a legacy of the 19th century which the community is still carrying. The community has to rise above these labels and categories if it wants its problems to end. The madrasa phenomenon is just a tip of the ice-berg. Madrasas need reforms but it is not the task of non-madrasa people. The process should start from within.
According to the Euro-centric view which was prevalent in the academic world till recently, the Muslims translated knowledge from the Greek, Indian, Chinese and Hellenistic civilizations into Arabic and kept it with them until Europe was ready to receive it. The Muslims did just the transmission of knowledge; they did not make any contribution to the existing body of knowledge. It was quite a false notion. Through translations and through other creative processes, the Muslims contributed to the enrichment and advancement of the human civilization and hence human knowledge.
The madrasa in its contemporary sense of the term came into existence when the decline of the Muslim civilization has already set in and cross-borrowings of knowledge have come to a standstill. The prototypes of the madrasa curricula had different kinds of sciences and arts as their intrinsic parts. Gradually, a process of ‘othering’ of the knowledge began and non-transmitted sciences were considered alien to Islam and the Muslims. This tendency to dichotomise the knowledge proved disastrous for the community and also a source of a lot of complex problems which still dog the progress and intellectual flourishing of the community.
Deepika, Jan Vikas Udan, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Kachh Mahila Parivar Sangthan, Jan Vikas Udan and Jamiatul Ulama-i-Hind have come together to start an initiative to look into the issue of access to education and also of the quality of education, with special reference to the Muslim children in Gujarat. According to the Sachar Committee Report, 25% Muslim children have till date no access to the education. So, our effort is largely to respond to the problem of access to education among the Muslim community. Maktabs and madrasas differ significantly from each other. The latter provide more holistic kind of education while the former restricts them to the teaching of basics of religion.
In far-flung areas of the state, the government schools do not function and if they function, teachers do not visit them, or visit them just for an hour to mark the attention.
Our intervention which is called “Jivan Talim Centre” is concentrated in the region of Kuchh. Here we started a pilot project. We function in small villages which we call Vands and where 15-20 families live together. Such settlements are called Dhanis in Rajasthan. These small Vands were never recognized by the government. Hence, they have no infrastructure for the education. Moreover, they do not have any other basic facilities like water-supply, electricity, etc.
Though these Vands have maktabs but they, as usually happens, largely engage in imparting basic religious education. So, there is a need to expand the scope of the maktab and introduce education of modern subjects in it, to make it more holistic. In addition, members of the local community also increasingly demand for making pluralistic sort of education available to their children. Moreover, the community is becoming sensitive to the need for educating its girl child as well.
We are looking at how to introduce mainstream education in the infrastructure of maktabs, how to prepare an adequate curriculum for various regions which can be implemented at large scale to cater to the need of almost all of our centres, how to train Maulanas/Maktab teachers to teach mainstream text-books, or how to bring some other person/s of the village to teach children there. We hope to gain some experiences in dealing with Muslim children with special reference to access to education.
We have selected three states: Gujarat, Rajasthan and UP. In Gujarat, our activities are restricted to two districts: Kutchh and Panchmahal. Kutchh makes an exceptional case as the whole district does not have access to education and the Muslim majority areas are very backward because Muslims here lead a sort of nomadic life. Panchmahal witnessed worst kind of violence during the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom. Presently the communities here are highly polarized along communal lines. Rajasthan and UP have been selected because there is a large presence of the Muslims in these two states.
We are working to develop a sort of approaches which can be replicated on the national level as Jamiatul Ulama-i-Hind runs more than 3000 maktabs all over India. We see it as a strategy to reach out to those many children if we are successful in our pilot project. We are also looking at how to make the technology needed for education can be made available at the minimum cost so that these maktabs can be self-reliant in this respect. We are also looking at how to expand the scope of maktabs to encompass students from other communities in this sort of education and bring them to the space of the maktabs and make them more open.
The Jivan Talim centres are functioning in those villages or those hamlets which either do not have government schools or where there is a government school but the teachers do not turn up for educational purposes or the school building is in dilapidated condition. As we are doing it with Jami’at, so we are looking at whether Jami’at has a maktab there or is supporting a maktab there. In certain villages, even if there is no maktab, we have started the intervention. The first step to begin the intervention is to have educators in place. We are working in villages which have in most cases no person who has passed 7th standard. We try to get young educators from the neighbouring Vands and test their skills in language, Arithmetic and environment. We also provide them some training in Child-centered education method, in activity-based method, in generating materials so that they can generate their materials as per need as well as in some basic class-room management.
Each Jivan Talim Centre has 20-25 children which is the minimum number of students to run a center. The curriculum which we follow in Jivan Talim Centres, has three main components: language, mathematics and environment. We do not follow the content of the state text-books but we borrow from them skills and instructions for the teachers. Based on them, we develop our own curriculum and activities. Here talim is not been bifurcated into religious and modern education. During the capacity-building programmes with the educators, we use techniques of creative drama, group-work, self-reflection activities and individual works.
Presently we are working in 32 villages of Kutchh, catering to around 800 students, 417 of them happen to be girl. We incur annual expenditure of Rs.2, 333 per child which is much less than what the government spends on each child.
Question and Answer session:
Q: Prof. Syed Irfan Habib said that madrasas were first appeared on the intellectual landscape of the Muslims in the 19th century while collection of the Prophetic traditions inform us that “Suffa”, which existed during the period of the Prophet, was the first madrasa of Islam. Please clear this confusion.
Prof. Syed Irfan Habib: No, I said madrasas, in the present sense of the term, started when decline of the civilization has already set in.
“Suffa” The name comes from Ashab (Ahl) al-Suffa. "Al-Suffa" was the first Islamic School in the history of Islam. Its teacher was no other than Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Their students, “Ahl-Suffa” was known to have given up worldly desires and was in a perpetual state of learning their deen. This school was in Prophet's masjid in Medina. ‘Suffa’ was not a madrasa in the modern meaning of the term. This was the time when within the Muslim world knowledge was divided into two: blameworthy sciences and praiseworthy sciences. Blameworthy sciences are those which are product of human mind while the praiseworthy sciences are Islamic sciences, which have been revealed from Allah. This was done by Muslim scholars themselves. No body came from outside to do the same. Blameworthy sciences have never been part of the madrasa curriculum. Praiseworthy sciences alone are included in it: the Qur’an, the Hadith, jurisprudence, Arabic literature, etc. The part whose knowledge, even to the limit of thoroughness, is praiseworthy is the science of knowing God - Allah, His attributes and works as well as His law which governs His creatures and His wisdom in ordaining the superiority of the hereafter to this life. The knowledge of this is incumbent upon man both for itself and also for attaining thereby the bliss of the Hereafter. This is the hidden science which is never revealed in books but whose knowledge maybe at first promoted by learning and by contemplating the states, of this learned man in the science of the Hereafter whose characteristics we shall discuss later. Its knowledge may be furthered through selfmortification (mujâhadah), discipline and through purifying the heart and freeing it from the affairs of this world as well as through emulating the Prophets and the Saints so that it may be revealed to every seeker in proportion to God's mercy (rizq) on him rather than in proportion to his efforts and labours (fahd).
Q: Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui, there are many such younger ulema, who have also had a university education, have they gone back to teaching in madrasas?
A. Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui: unfortunately, not. Very few of them, indeed none that I know of, have done so. Once they join universities, they have their own new expectations about their careers, about earning a better salary than they would get in madrasas, where teachers’ salaries are generally quite modest. They want a materially more comfortable life than they would if they went back to the madrasas to teach. Many of them come from relatively poor or lower-middle class families, and their families expect that now that they have a university degree they would take up well-paying jobs, rather than teaching in a madrasa. I don’t think a single of the several madrasa graduates who have done their M.Phil.s or Ph.D.s from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, for instance, is now teaching in a madrasa. Rather, most are working as translators in Arab embassies, teachers in schools and universities in India and the Gulf and as employees in firms and Islamic institutions abroad.To add to this, many madrasas will not welcome these students back because they might feel that they have become misled or influenced by what they see as the ‘un-Islamic’ environment of the universities, and thus fear might negatively impact on the madrasa students. They might think that after having joined universities these students do not remain maulvis any more and, therefore, are not qualified to teach in madrasas.And then there is also the question of whether university-trained madrasa graduates can adjust to the regimen in the madrasas again. Q: Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui, what do we mean by religious education? Is it the same education, which our institutions of higher learning have been offering for the last so many years? If so, then why the desired results have not been achieved?
A: Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui: This would clearly suggest that there is some basic flaw in the educational system that has been prevalent in our madrasas educational institutions for centuries. It is definitely not the same education, which was imparted to the earlier generations of the Muslims. Had it been the same education it would have yielded the same results. Clearly, we have lost the track of that true Islamic education which was the distinctive feature of the early history of Islam and which took our earlier generations to the heights of glory. It was in fact the glorious Qur’an that had made all the difference.
The need of imparting material education to the students had always been recognized at educational institutions. The teaching of English should include in the syllabus of the Madrasah almost from the very beginning and the management should stick to it in spite of stiff opposition from some sections. At this time it is an unprecedented step in the realm of religious education. In recent years need for the reform of the syllabus of the Muslim religious institutions has been widely felt. The changed situation of the country and the world at large makes a change in madrasas’ perspective also necessary.
Q:Prof Faroqui, Some maulvis dismiss even the most well-meaning suggestions for reform as a reflection of what they claim is an ‘anti-Islamic’ conspiracy, alleging that these are a means to secularise madrasas and rob them of their Islamic identity. What are your views on this?
A: Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui: Different people might have different motives when talking about madrasa reforms, but surely the sort of reforms that some younger generation ulema like us, who are genuinely concerned about improving the madrasas, are calling for cannot or should not be branded as a 'conspiracy'! We are not calling for the secularisation of the madrasas or suggesting that they should teach secular subjects to such an extent that their Islamic identity is threatened. But surely there should be a revision of some aspects of the madrasa that are no longer relevant and the inclusion of basic English, Social Sciences and so on, while making the Quran and the Hadith the centre of the curriculum, which they were not in the case of the traditional madrasas, which gave more stress to the then current 'rational' sciences
Q: Ms. Deepika, How Jan Vikas started working with Jamiatul Ulama-i-Hind? What are the possibilities of arriving at such arrangements for other NGOs?
A: Deepika: Jamiatul Ulama-i-Hind started working in the region of Kutchh in the wake the earthquake which had rocked the state in 2001. After the 2002 state-sponsored pogrom in Gujarat, civil society was reluctant in taking initiatives to rehabilitate the affected-ones. Few secular NGOs and some religious organisations came forward for relief and rehabilitation works. Jamiatul Ulama was one of them. It was during this period we came into contact and started reflecting upon the basic need of the Muslim community. After deliberations for more than a year, we narrowed down the primary school education as an area which needs the most attention and we can collaborate in working towards achieving this goal. During the course of our engagement, I felt that Muslim NGOs were not well-managed. They do a lot of hard work but they are not able to put it across and showcase it as the professionals do.
Q: How much time your educators spend with the children?
A: Deepika, Jan Vikas Udan: They engage with students for 2-3 hours per day. First of all, Maulana does dini talim. Then, according to the convenience of the local children, the educator teach them language, arithmetic, basics of environment, action-song, story-telling, drama and arts & crafts. These are the basic things which we are trying to teach them.
Q: How do you train your educators?
A: Deepika: We do not train them in a tailor-cut fashion. We have designed a 15 day long course for the purpose. Whenever some new teachers join, we train them for 15 days. Generally we do it in the summer vacation. In addition, they have 2-3 days capacity building programme every month where they do their monthly planning and lesson-plan. Moreover, during Diwali vacation also, we organize a 10-day workshop for educators. Every time when we assess that some educator is not able to keep the classes clean or to deal with group-level activities then we design a programme to meet the specific demand.
Q: Are Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programmes not operational in the villages where you have made educational interventions?
A: Deepika: The Vands where we are working are not recognized by the government. As they do not exist in the government data, it has not provided any sort of infrastructure there. Moreover, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has a very interesting clause that the state will help NGOs to reach to those far-flung areas where state can not reach. If the state thinks so then Civil Society organisations should feel proud that they are doing better job than the state. So, many areas are left out for the reason. Moreover, if the number of students in a certain place is below what is required for setting up a school, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan can not operate there. If there are schools, teachers do not turn up. We are figuring out how do we collaborate at the district level and mainstream the children. We are still planning to get a circular from the district education officer.
Q: Which areas of UP and Rajasthan you are working in?
A:Deepika: We have not started in UP and Rajasthan. Kutchh is our pilot project. When we complete three years, we will have a full- fledged assessment. If we are successful, we will start working in Rajasthan also where we have already done a primary survey. In UP, we have not done any survey yet.
Q: Do you have any programme to make such interventions in Assam and West Bengal? According to the Sachar Committee Report, conditions of the Muslim community in these two states are worst.
A:Deepika:I am from Jan Vikas Udan which is a resource center for primary education. If any organisation which is directly working from Assam and is ready to implement our model there then as a resource center we do not see any reason to not intervene in the state. But West Bengal is yet not proposed by Jami’atul Ulama-i-Hind. So, presently we are looking at only these three states.
Session- IV
Experiments with Reforms Within Madrasa Institutions:
Voices From The Ground
Dr.Yogender Sikand
Prof. Roger Jeffrey
Maulana Haziq Nadwi
Bazlur Rahman
Zubair Hudawi
Sara Wali
Chair: Dr.Yogender Sikand
Prof. Roger Jeffrey
[12] I am going to talk about some of the research which I have been involved in Bijnor over the last 25 years now. In the light of my extensive and meticulous research in Bijnor, I would like to make four points:
1. There is a big variety of institutions which call themselves madrasas. Every proposal to reform the madrasas, should have taken into account all these varieties. However, I would like to suggest that only those institutions which produce high-quality ulama, ought to be considered as madrasas. If we allow people themselves to define what they mean by madrasas, we need to take a rather different approach to understand madrasas.
2. Main driver of sending children to the madrasas is the pathetic condition of the government infrastructure of education in Bijnor and in most of the country. Further more, one should not look to the government for improving the schooling system so that people stop sending their children to the madrasas. What happens in the market place, has its effects on the madrasas. This is happening over the last 15-20 years.
3. Schooling in Bijnor is increasingly differentiated/ separated across lines of class and religion. Around 20 years ago, education was mostly in the hand of the state or it was partly funded by the state. Marketisation of education and turning schools into something which is largely private is forcing students to enroll into schools which are mostly or completely Hindu on one hand and into schools which are mostly or completely Muslims and Dalits on the other. Any proposal to introduce reform in the madrasas should also take into account what will happen to the society if students get education in religiously segregated groups.
4. To earn a decent livelihood in the modern society, a person needs a certain set of skills/expertise which a madrasa does not equip its students with.
Bijnor is a district in Western UP. I have tried to see the world through the prism of Bijnor. It has a settled agrarian society. Sugarcane, wheat and rice are the main vegetation here. Whatever industry it has, is related to the agrarian needs. Unlike other parts of the country, it has high percentage of rural Muslims who amount to 35 percent of the rural population of the district. Around 60 per cent of its Muslim population lives in urban pockets. Overall percentage of the Muslims in the urban localities is 40.
Most of the Muslim population of the district belongs to the Deobandi denomination of Indian Islam. Most of the ulama of the district are trained in the Deoband madrasa and they maintain an active relationship with their alma mater. In this sense, it is a very Deobandi area. In some villages of the district, around 60-70 percent children attend madrasas. In local parlance, they can be described as maktabs but the board which hang outside the building, establish the identity of those institutions as madrasas.
In the town there are 15-16 small madrasas. Most of them have day scholars who come from the nearby areas though some of them provide boarding facilities for a very small number of students. Management of many madrasas runs schools or junior high schools which offer secular curriculum. Thus, the madrasa education is a locally political activity.
To understand the nature of the training these madrasas provide, one needs to understand the system. The system there is that they prepare the students for joining the Deoband madrasa. Those who do well in the examinations, are considered eligible to enroll in Deoband madrasa. However, only 5-6 students manage to go to Deoband. For the rest lot of the students, this madrasa education remains the only academic experience. There is no evidence that the output of these madrasas are in any way worse than the education offered in the Government-run education institutions. Most of the boys, who leave education after the madrasas, go to manage their farms, do agriculture or go to big towns to get some manual labour. Thus, the religious education gives non-religious output.
Maulana Haziq Nadwi
[13]This paper is an attempt to provide foundational information about Islamic Perspective of Darul Umroor. The author started with the historical background of Darul Umoor. The Darul Umoor at Srirangapattan which was established in 2002 aims at creating a breed of ulama who will be the leaders of future. Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, prominent Deobandi alim, laid the foundation stone of the institution at the occasion of the 200th martyrdom anniversary of Tipu Sultan. The institution is a brainchild of Mr. Ziaullah Sheriff, a builder of great repute in the Deobandi circle. The inaugural function of Darul Umoor was held on May 5, 2002, a day after the death anniversary of Tipu Sultan. A campus sprawling over an area of 40 acres of land is under construction. Maulana Syed Mohammed Rabe Hassani Nadwi, the principal of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, heads the Academic Council of Darul Umoor as well. The driving force behind the whole project is Abdul Rahman Kamruddin. Abdul Rahman Kamruddin a former advisor to UNESCO, UNIDO and IDB.
The institution symbolizes a significant leap towards materializing dreams of Tipu Sultan who was craving for advancement of learning, rising above hair-splitting debates of intra-Muslim rivalries and artificial divisions of the knowledge into old and modern. Along with brushing up the religious knowledge of its students, an important objective of the institution is to familiarize madrasa graduates with basics of information technology, management, comparative religion, etc. so that they can dispense their da’wah work with confidence, precision and success. The programme of study at Darul Umoor was designed after consultation with prominent Deobandi ulama and educationists of the country. For this one-year PG course in Islamic Studies and Community Service, only those students will be eligible who have already completed their Alamiyat and Fazilat courses. Like other madrasas, academic calendar of Darul Umoor commences from Shawwal, the 10th month of the lunar calendar. Only 25 intakes are allowed for each session.
The curriculum of Darul Umoor has been revised 14 times in last seven years to keep itself apace with the march of the time. Academic activities start here at five in the morning and continue till eleven in the night. The schedule is so rigorous that it does not provide weekend holidays to the students. The academic engagement of the students here does not overlap what they have already learnt in the madrasas. It focuses on the practical aspect of the religious education. It is mandatory for the students to deliver Friday sermon, lead prayers, survey some locality to assess feasibility of the Da’wah work there, etc as part of the weekly schedule.
It offers daily classes for English and information technology. In addition, it periodically invites specialists from different fields to deliver lectures on the themes prescribed in the curriculum. It arranges inter-active sessions with prominent scholars of the other religious traditions and takes the students to the worship places of major religions as well, to familiarize them with the basics of religions found in India. Darul Umoor has set up Sultan Tipu Shaheed Fund where students learn practical aspects of Islamic Banking.
According to Mulana Haziq Nadwi innovative madrasas like Darul Umoor are increasingly visible today, although the media rarely, refers to them. These institutions indicate the possibility of bridging the rigid dualism between modern education and Ulema. This is crucial for promoting modern education among Muslims more generally.
Bazlur Rahman
[14]The informal kind of Madrasa Education System developed in south Assam (also known as Barak Valley) from the fourteenth century. But formal sort of Madrasa education started its journey only after the establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband (1866 AD). In 1873 Darul Uloom Baghbari in the Karimganj district was established to become the first such institution of the region. Later, after the Independence, many provonicalised madrasas began to come up in large numbers in the Barak Valley. Nowadays, the region has more then one hundred madrasas.
Today madrasas of south Assam can be divided broadly into two categories: Govt. affiliated madrasas and non Government madrasas (Qaumi or Khariji). Government madrasas are mainly of two types: the first of them (the Middle English Madrasa and the High Madrasa) mainly imparts general education while the religious subjects are taught there for the sake of name only. These schools cum madrasas have been functioning since the end of the first quarter of the 20th century. The second type of Government madrasas are of the three-tier set up: Title Madrasas, Senior Madrasas and Pre-Senior Madrasas. The career growth of the Middle English Madrasas (M.E) and High Madrasas is good, almost the same as of the High Schools. They have no problem in higher education and neither is there any special need to change their syllabus or course curriculum.
A separate Directorate is being created to ensure smooth functioning of Assam State Madrasa Education Board. Maulana Abdul Jalil Choudhory, a legislative member of Indian National Congress and a freedom fighter, has been actively involved in the provincialisation of the large number of Qaumi madrasas. As the Jamiat Ulema Hind was opposed to the idea of provincialisation, he left the organisation he had been associated with for long time and formed a new religious outfit named “Nadwat-ut-Taamir” in North East India.
Pre-Senior can be compared to middle school. At this level, students learn Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali along with little bit of Islamic education. After Pre-Senior, students are promoted to the Senior Madrasa level which has minimum seven years study period. Faizul Maarif (or F.M.), final exam of senior madrasas, is usually compared with the Bachelor programme of the general education. Those who have the F.M. degree, are eligible for M.A. Arabic programme of Guwahati University and Dibrugarh University. However, Assam University which falls in south Assam, denies such a facility to the madrasa graduates. Jamia Hamdard, Delhi considers F.M. as eligibility for appearing in the qualifying examination of B.U.M.S. course. In Assam, F.M. degree is generally perceived as an equivalent to the Matriculation. So, the madrasa graduates, besides having F.M. certificate, need to clear Higher Secondary Examinations if they want to take Degree level courses. The curriculum at the Senior level madrasas offers Arabic literature, translation and interpretation of the Qur’anic verses, commentary of Hadith; Islamic jurisprudence and logic. The syllabus of the Arabic literature has a classical slant, so even after spending ten years, students of these madrasas lack proficiency in Modern Arabic.
Title Madrasas offer Mumtazul Muhaddis (M.M) of a minimum duration of two years. Its students are required to study Tafsir (exegesis of the Qur’an), Hadith and Tarikh (History). M.M. is considered equivalent to M.A. for the purpose of appointment in Senior Secondary School Arabic posts and Senior Madrasa teaching posts. However, the absence of specialisation in any discipline of Islamic Sciences, puts the utility of the course in question. Most of the provincialised madrasas do not have boarding facilities for students. There are more then 20 Senior, 3 Title and many Pre-Senior Madrasas functioning in the valley.
Non Government Madrasas or Qaumi madrasas which are numerically much higher than the govt. madrasas are found everywhere in south Assam. They are divided into three categories: Alimiya and Fazilat Madrasas, exclusive Hafizia Madrasa and mohalla-centric Maktabs. If one wants to specialize in any discipline of Islamic Sciences, one has to come all the way to Darul Uloom Deoband. My interaction with students revealed that students of those madrasas desperately want introduction of the specialized courses in their institutions.
It is ironic that the official medium of instruction and education in these madrasas is Urdu. So, the students are required to learn Arabic through Urdu medium while their mother tongue is Sylheti Bangla, the local dialect. This bizarre arrangement language has its bearings on the quality of the education and also on the overall performance of the students. These madrasas are run by the community members through charity and donation. Students are also engaged in fund mobilization. Every year students spend more then fifteen days in fund collection.
Some of the Hafizia madrasas have now opened their door for girl students also but classes are held in a different building. But there is no room for girl students in Qaumi and Senior Madrasas. Maktab education provides the basic religious knowledge to the Muslim children. Due to the effort of Nadwat-ut Ta’amir, Jamiatul Ulema-i-Hind and, off late, Ahle Sunnat wal Jama’at, maktabs have become an integral part of Muslim-majority villages. Urdu as a language is taught in maktabs but teaching and examinations are conducted in Bengali. Children up to twelve years of age attend maktabs from six to nine in the morning.
If the state agencies and NGOs convince madrasa authorities to let their infrastructures be used for vocational training of madrasa students and members of the weaker sections of the community, it will add to the overall development of the region in a major way.
Zubair Hudawi
[15]It is interesting to know that since the arrival of Islam in India, Kerala has never been under any ruler who happened to be a Muslim. However, unlike other parts of the country, especially the North India, the Keralite Muslims have hardly had any experience of religious intolerance or suppression. Denominationally speaking, they are divided into three major groups: Sunnis, (who are Shafiites in their jurisprudential outlook and also follow teachings of Abul Hasan Ash’ari), Mojahid Movement (Ahl-i-Hadis Movement) and Jama’at-i-Islami. What characterizes the Keralite Muslims is the collaboration of the ulama and umara (businessmen and also the secularly educated persons) for the cause of education.
Samasta Kerala Jamiat-i-Ulama represent the majority of the Keralite Muslims. The organization focused on defending the traditional religious education against the onslaught of the modernity and worked hard for its progress. As a response to the ban the state government imposed on the education of religious papers in the government-sponsored educational institutions in the first decade after the Independence, Samasta started establishing its own network of schools in the length and breadth of Kerala. In the Samasta schools, all Muslim boys and girls get regular school education, along with the religious education, at the primary, secondary and senior secondary levels. Samasta Education Board presently runs more than 8,500 such schools/madrasas. The Board publishes text-books, holds examination and conducts inspection also. The system of religious education among Muslims of Kerala is, thus, different from what is in vogue in North India.
Full-time religious madrasas are rapidly becoming out of fashion in Kerala. The madrasa here stands for what is called maktab in North India. Students attend it for two hours daily, early in the morning or in the evening. After that, students study secular curriculum (CBSE) in the same premises. Most Kerala madrasas are affiliated to centralized bodies which help in terms of efficient management and uniform standards. Arabic as a language is taught in almost all government schools of the state. Several Arabic Colleges are affiliated to the Government Universities. The curriculum of these colleges attaches importance to Islamic Studies also, along with Arabic language.
The Sunnis have established Dar al Huda Islamic Academy in Malapuram in 1986, which has now branches in different parts of Kerala. Bashir Muslihul Baqi, the guiding soul behind the experiment, envisioned Dar al Huda Islamic Academy as a space to produce specialized ulama that would be able to propagate Islam in the modern world. The course that the Academy offers is a unique blending of secular and religious sciences and is spread over a period of 12 years. The whole curriculum is divided into four stages: Preparatory (2 years), Secondary (4years), Degree (4 years) and PG (2 years). It follows syllabus of CBSE/Kerala Education Board for secular subjects. Out of hundreds of applicants, it admits 80 students of 11-12 age groups each year. Here students, who have completed 18 years, are encouraged to appear in the University examinations, especially through papers of social sciences. Thus, a sort of novelty and uniqueness characterize this approach to experiment with the religious and the secular in the domain of Muslim education.
Sara Wali
[16]The author examines the reformist project of Tablighi Jamaat as it has come to be expressed among the Meos of Mewat. It begins with a brief description of the Meos and the early twentieth century Meo popular religion. It then discusses the intervention of the Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat.
Mewat, land of the Meos, has its genesis in its tribal inhabitants, the Meo tribals, who are agriculturalists. The area is a distinct ethnic and socio-cultural tract. The Meos, who trace their roots to the early Aryans of North India, call themselves Kshatriyas and have preserved their social and cultural traits to a surprisingly large extent, unlike the other tribes of nearby areas. During the regime of the Tughlak dynasty in the 14th century A.D., these people embraced Islam but till today, they have maintained their age-old distinctive ethno-cultural identity.
Mewat has 491 villages and its population is nearly 10 lakh. The MeoMuslims constitute about 70 per cent of the Mewat population. Thenumber of madrasas is thus considered to be high.
The average size of a family in Mewat villages is on thehigher side of 9. The fundamentalist forces continue to oppose familyplanning or even oppose visiting medical practitioners.
According to the Census of India 2001, the total population of Mewat district was 9,93,617 of which 46,122 (4.64%) lived in urban areas and the major chunk 95.36% of the population lived in rural areas. Out of the total population of 9,93,617, the district has 5,24,872 males and 4,68,745 females. The literacy rate in Mewat comparatively low particularly in the case of Female literacy. Female literacy rate in Mewat Region is about 2% which is the lowest in all over India. People of Mewat are most interested in sending their children either male or female to madrasas.
Mewat is most neglected area, but it is an important place for the madrasas . There are simply too many madrasas in mewat region. According to official sources, there are 214 madrasas in the Mewat Area. The most interesting thing about Mewat is that Ilyas’ reformist project (Tablighi Jamaat ) was first launched in Mewat from Ghasera village.
The Tablighi Jamaat was founded in the late 1920s. The inspiration for devoting his life to Islam came to Ilyas during his second pilgrimage to the Hijaz in 1926. Maulana Ilyas put forward the slogan, ‘Aye Musalmano! Musalman bano’ ('Come O Muslims! Become Muslims'). This expressed the central focus of Tablighi Jamat, which has been renewing Muslim society by renewing Muslim practice in those it feels have lost their Muslim-ness.
After the Tablighi Jamaat Movement, many madrasas in Mewat have been built. . The products of these places have been replacing the young Moullanas from U.P., which used to predominate in these matters. The whole gamut on these madrasas is a national problem needing to be resolved at the macro level.
Question and Answer Session
Q: Maulana Haziq Nadwi Sahab, how is it possible for you to introduce so many diverse disciplines to your students at Darul Umoor? Does this approach not divert attention of your students from their area of specialization which is da’wah?
A: Maulana Haziq Nadwi: No. As I have mentioned that we do not teach our students theology. They have learnt it in madrasas. We have allocated an hour of our schedule for revision of the same. Students utilize this time for writing papers or executing other projects, so that their relation with the theological knowledge can not be discontinued. Around 80 % of our graduates are engaged in the da’wah work. Rest of them has gone into different fields like publishing, journalism, computer application, etc.
Q: Do you have any course for those educated people who want to learn basics of Islam?
A: Maulana Haziq Nadwi: We offer a 45-days long course for such persons. We call it “IT Square” which stands for Information Technology vs Iman and Taqwa. We put every student under the guidance of an alim who is responsible for the former religious education while the former is expected to familiarize the alim with the modern technology and English. Five batches have so far benefited from the course.
Q: What are you doing for the education of the women?
A: Maulana Haziq Nadwi: We have not done any thing regarding the women education due to lack of human resources. However, in the city of Bangaluru, Maulana Shabbir Nadwi runs Jamia al Salihaat which apart from being a full-fledged girl madrasa, also offers a course for those girls/women who want to informs themselves with the basics of Islam. Its duration is 40 days.
Q: How do you look at the present madrasa syllabus, its strengths and weaknesses?
A: Maulana Haziq Nadwi: I think the biggest strength of the present syllabus is that it enables the student to connect solidly to the past and to preserve the Islamic tradition. Its biggest weakness, however, is that it does not provide the student with an adequate understanding of today’s conditions and demands. In this regard I would like to refer to the work of our madrasa, where modern subjects have, to an extent, been integrated into the madrasa syllabus.
Q: Bazlur Rahman Sir, When a Hindu is born his parents dream that one day he would be a Doctor , Engineer or IAS officer . When Muslim is born in India his parents’ dream that one day he would become a Auto driver or Open his own Tea Stall or have a Road side Kabab stall. Why they don’t think that their children would be a doctor,engineer or IAS?
A: Bazlur Rahman: The main reason for this backwardness is lack of education. Unfortunately we Muslims are not aware of the modern education. Most of Muslims in India is economically backward. They can not afford their children to send in schools. They send their children in madrasas. These madrasas are run by the community members through charity and donation. Unfortunately ulema are reluctant to modernize the Madrasas. It is also a high time that muslim ullema have to come up with solution for the problem of modernization of madrasas. I realize the need for conscious efforts to be made to bridge the gap between the ulema and educated Muslims. And the government should take note of their service to the common people and really do something to integrate them into the mainstream education, extending to them all what they require.
Therefore an important objective of this institution is that students of Islamic Madrasas along with religious and Islamic knowledge should also be familiarized with information technology, management, comparative study of religions, history, science and other modern subjects so that they are capable to solve social, economic, political, national and other problems of the community. After getting modern education within madrasa, the Madrasa students can dream that one day he would be a Doctor, Engineer or IAS officer.
Q:Ms. Sara Wali, you have talked about reformist movement of Tblighi Jamaat in Mewat but what kind of reform would you suggest for the madrasas to adopt?
A: Sara Wali: Madrasa and Maktab have been very important institutions of Muslim societies in the promotion of education and knowledge. Muslims have set up a large number of Madarsas and Maktab apart from the old ones and lesser number of secular educational institutions. No doubt Madrasas played a very important role in promoting literacy and women’s education at lower levels but could neither provide them livelihood not help in broadening their worldview largely because of their outdated and obscurantist nature.
First of all, they should be registered with the District Educational Officer- not the police or DC who is also a magistrate and therefore an officer under the crimal procedure code. The DEO must be a visitor to the madrasas having all powers to inspect the training and teaching at any time. There is a central government scheme for providing madrasas with providing madrasas with computers. It not only would a computer help the madrasas but it would maintain madrasas’ accounts easily and more correctly and will produce better qualified Imams.
The syllabus and course material must be published and known to all. While the main teaching in these madrasas is prayer techniques etc. would be of a secular nature, the madrasas managers must be encouraged to bring some secular education also.
After all, with the pay scales of the Imams all over the country being a very low, imparting them a few skills of this world to help them make both ends meet. It will be surly an Islamic concept that there should not be a clash of civilizations. Everybody should get their share. Thus if an imam of a mosque can also give private tuitions not only on Qur’an for a pittance, his ability in arithmetic, geography, hindi and even in English make them a more worthy Imam.
Modernization of madrasas education would not be an attack on their freedom or a threat to an existence but it would provide them better livelihoods.
Q: Zubair Hudawi, What are known as ‘Sunnis’ in Kerala, that is Muslims other than those affiliated to the reformist Jamaat-e Islami and the Nadwat ul-Mujahidin who are critical of some aspects of ‘Sunni’ tradition, are often thought to be less enthusiastic about modern education. Do you agree with this view?
A: Zubair Hudawi: A few traditionalist Sunni ulema and organizations might feel this way, but I do not think it is true for the Kerala Sunnis in general. Things are rapidly changing today, and traditionalist Sunni groups are as involved in promoting Islamic as well as modern education as other Muslim groups in the state.
The Dar ul-Huda Islamic Academy, where I studied, is a Sunni organization, and is a good example of how traditionalist Sunni ulema in Kerala are now increasingly willing to incorporate modern education in the madrasa system. It is a unique institution of its kind, and is a sort of model that other Sunni groups are trying to emulate today. At the Academy we studied the general Islamic subjects, along with subjects like English, Mathematics, Science and History till the twelfth grade level. This allowed us to appear as external candidates in the government secondary school examination. In addition, we also learnt Urdu, Malayalam, or mother tongue, and Comparative Religions. Besides, we had to learn computers and take part in a range of extra-curricular activities, such as games and literary and public discussion groups.
In the eighth year of the course at the Academy students enroll for a Bachelor’s degree correspondence course in a regular university, so that by the time they finish the twelve year course at the Academy they also have a regular BA degree. Students can select from a range of subjects what they want to major in.
By combining traditional Islamic and modern education in this way, the Academy trains ulema who choose from a range of careers, and thus need not only work as imams or preachers in mosques. Some of the Academy’s graduates are abroad, working in the Gulf. Some have joined various newspapers. Several of them are now studying at regular universities, many of them in higher Arabic and Islamic studies, but a few in other fields which madrasa graduates earlier rarely entered. Thus, for instance, a graduate of the Academy is presently doing his M.Phil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where he is working on ‘The Crisis of Tradition and Modernity among Muslims’ for his thesis. Several of the Academy’s graduates do become religious specialists, but they are quite distinct from the traditional ulema in that they are able to relate to the world around them in a far more relevant manner as they have a reasonably good grounding in modern disciplines as well.
Q: Zubair Hudawi, what is the reason that the Kerala model of Islamic education is so little known in the rest of India, particularly in north India?
A: Zubair Hudawi: The main reason for this is that Kerala is the only state in India where Urdu is not used as the medium of instruction in the madrasas. In fact, very few Muslims in Kerala understand Urdu at all. Because of this, there has been little interaction between ulema in Kerala and elsewhere in India. This also explains why the writings of Kerala Muslim scholars, which are almost all in Malayalam, the state’s official language, are almost wholly unknown in the rest of India.
Another reason why many Muslims outside Kerala are not familiar with the Kerala experience in modernizing madrasas is the deeply rooted, yet misplaced, belief that north Indian Muslims represent, in a sense, normative Islam. Hence, many north Indians feel that they have little, if anything, to learn from the south Indian example. There is this feeling that real Islam is to be found in the north, and that south Indian Muslims do not fully measure up to that standard. When I came to Delhi I was amazed to find some north Indian Muslim students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is considered to be one of the premier universities in the country, also appeared to share this opinion. When they learnt that I was from Kerala, they asked me, in all seriousness, if I knew how to pray in the proper Islamic fashion! One of them even asked that if we were Muslims how is it that we cannot speak Urdu properly! When I answered them and told them about Kerala’s unique madrasa system and pointed out the fact that Kerala is among the few states in India where Arabic is taught in government schools and in all our universities, they were really surprised and embarrassed.
But things are changing gradually now. In recent years there has been growing interaction between Muslim educational groups in Kerala and other parts of India, through visits and conferences, and this has helped others to learn about the Kerala system of madrasa education. The Academy where I studied has taken a significant step in this regard by setting up a separate unit, where education is imparted in the Urdu medium. This unit caters to Muslim children from other Indian states who speak Urdu, and it is hoped that once they finish their education they would return to their homes and set up similar modernised madrasas there as well. In addition, the Academy is now working with the authorities of a madrasa in Mumbai to help it modernize and impart both Islamic as well as modern education. Of course, a lot more needs to be done in this regard. I think one really productive way of doing this is to organize groups of younger ulema and Muslim community activists from other parts of India to visit madrasas and Muslim educational institutions in Kerala, so that they can go back to their states and start similar experiments.
Q: Zubair, traditional madrasas have been heavily criticised for promoting inter-sectarian rivalry. How do you react to this charge?
A: Zubair Hudawi: It is an undeniable fact that many madrasas have been actively involved in promoting sectarian strife. Some of them go so far as to brand other Muslim groups as ‘infidels’ or at least as ‘aberrant’. I think this approach is completely misplaced. Even if you believe that your own sect represents the truth, it does not mean that you should violently denounce other sects. The way forward is through dialogue, not through heated polemics. I think everybody has the right to believe what he or she wants, and no one has the right to forcibly impose his or her views on others. This applies to both intra-Muslim relations as well as to relations between Muslims and other communities. After all, the Quran very clearly teaches us that everyone is free to believe whatever he or she wants and that there can be no compulsion in religion.
2nd Day
Session- V
Exploring Uniformity in the Madrasa Education & Curriculum Changes
Prof.Akhtar Mahdi
Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi
Dr.Daya Ram
Dr Mujibur Rahman
Dr. Fauzan Ahmad
Dr.Mohd.Athar Afzal
Chair: Prof.Akhtar Mahdi, JNU
Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow :
I want to congratulate the Ark Foundation for making efforts to bridge the gap between the ulama and the secular intelligentsia so that an informed debate on the reform of the madrasa curriculum can be possible. I think that the seminar is a meaningful intervention to ponder upon the educational problems of the Indian Muslims.
However, I feel that whenever the government makes some announcement regarding issues pertaining to the minority community, the latter receives it with suspicion and fear. Why is it so? According to me, the reason is that we have not worked hard to cement the bonding of humanity which all of us share. We really need to do our best to win the hearts of all religious groups and to sink our differences so that we can sit together to ruminate on problems of the country and of the humanity at large. Illiteracy and lack of access to education is one of such problems.
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama was established on the principle of a balanced synthesis of the classical education with the modern. Its chief purpose was (a) to evolve a proper integration between the eternal fundamentals of the faith and ever-changing values of human knowledge and learning and (b) to bring about harmony and cohesion among the different groups and schools of thought of Ahl-i-Sunnat Muslims. As Islamic sciences are living, evolving and progressive and education was subject to the law of change and reform, hence it was essential that the system of education too, should change and evolve with time for needs of Islamic Millat.
Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi described the silent features of the syllabus. The Darul Uloom concentrated particularly on the holy Qur'an and introduced it into syllabus as a living book and an eternal message. At the initial stages a simple study of the Qur'an was prescribed. For moral training and discipline a course of the Traditions of the holy Prophet dealing with his noble virtues and ethical and social conduct was included in the curriculum. For secondary and higher classes the commentary of the Qur'an (Tafsir) and selected books of Traditions and fundamentals were prescribed for study. Full attention was paid to the Arabic language since it held the key to the understanding of the Book and the Sunnah. Without knowledge of it, it was not possible to avail oneself of the vast treasurehouse of Islamic thought and learning. Moreover, it was the sole medium of contact with the entire Muslim world. The Darul Uloom thus, included Arabic in its syllabus both as a classical and a modern language. Many books were specially got written by it for the purpose of promoting the study of Arabic language. The importance and usefulness of the endeavours of the Nadwatul 'Ulama in this respect have been acknowledged not only throughout India but in the Arab world also. Thanks to these efforts, the Darul Uloom has been able to produce a number of Arabic scholars and writers whose proficiency and merit has won whole-hearted praise even from the literary circles of the Arab countries.
The Nadwatul 'Ulama also brought about certain far-reaching changes in the traditional curriculum of the Arabic Madrasas of India in the context of the changed circumstances and needs of the age. Some of the medieval sciences which had lost their utility in the present times were excluded from the curriculum. A large part of the scholistical sciences, that had grown out-of-date and had ceased to have any value owing to the disappearance of those sects and philosophical disputes which had sprung up in the earlier days, was discarded and in its place certain modern sciences and languages were introduced. It was felt that without a knowledge of these it was not possible for a Muslim evangelist and missionary to serve the cause of Islam in the modern world. These alterations were deemed necessary with a view to ensuring that they should not be lagging behind any one in the race of knowledge and learning and that the students passing out of the portals of Nadwatul -Ulama should be fully alive to the spirit of the age and properly equipped with the latest intellectual weapons for the defense of the faith.
In brief, the Darul Uloom has tried to produce such broad-minded scholars who could effectively discharge the duty of the propagation of Islam in the modern world; who could expound the eternal nature of the Divine Message, the distinguishing features of the Islamic Shariat and the way of life envisaged by it in such an attractive manner and easy and simple language as might appeal to the modern mind, and serve as a sort of confluence of the old and the new.
Though the purpose of the seminar is to discuss the madrasa curriculum and explore possibilities of introducing reform in it, I feel that the representation of the ulama in the seminar should be much higher. Madrasas have sent a large number of its graduates to the secular universities as the ulama do not see any contradiction between the secular and the religious education. It is sad to see that the universities have been producing people who play in the hands of the political class while the same is not true with the madrasa graduates. All sorts of crime are reported from the university campuses and about their students on the one hand while news media find much less stories regarding the madrasas and talaba.
Job-oriented education is a slur on the humanity. Knowledge has never been for earning just bread and butter. It has been a medium to recognize the self and the Creator and also to seek union with Him. Knowledge is pious because it adds to the human flourishing. Modernization is a meaningless word. It needs to be defined to do away with its vagueness. Only clarity of vision leads to meaningful actions. As far as the madrasas are concerned, they are much modernized and they have always been modernized. Every intelligent person keeps him/herself aware of the latest technology. The question is not of coming up with some new departments or incorporating some disciplines in the curriculum of the madrasas. The question is of autonomy and freedom.
An Arabic and an Urdu University need to be established. All madrasas should be affiliated to the Arabic University. Urdu is the medium of instruction in almost all madrasas. They want an Urdu medium University. Whenever we demand for being granted the permission to impart education in the mother tongue of the students, the political class starts furnishing lamb excuses.
As far as the issue of madrasa reform is concerned, it can not be done in isolation. If I say something here in this regard, nothing will change on the ground. To engage the authorities of prominent madrasas (Darul Uloom, Deoband; Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow; Jamia Salafia, Varanasi; Jamiatul Falah, Azamgarh and Jamia Ashrafia, Azamgarh) is a pre-requisite for any change in the madrasa curriculum. It can be achieved through reaching out to them and organize a series of small workshops in prestigious madrasas of the country. We have organised a seminar long back which continued for three days and witnessed participation of delegates from India and abroad. That was an effort from within. We have documented the deliberations of the seminar and we are ready to share our experiences in this regard with you.
I invite you to the campus of my madrasa to establish there all sorts of faculties and departments. I am not against modernization. I invite Ark Foundation to visit my madrasa and organize such a workshop there as well so that the process of dialogue can move further ahead.
Dr.Daya Ram, The Agha Khan Foundation
The debate on the Muslim education has been overshadowed by the madrasa reform discourse. There may be differences regarding the actual percentage of the Muslim children who attend madrasas but one can not contest the fact that they have always been a minority of the lot. During my engagement with different projects related to education, I felt that a large number of Muslim girls are out of the schools.
I, as a representative of Agha Khan Foundation, started my first project with the Muslims, in 1993 in the region of Mewat, Rajasthan. The initiative was taken by Lokjumbish. When we initiated dialogue with the local folk, they clearly said that they would not send their children outside the village and hence whatever we wanted to do, we needed to do within the boundary of the village. The villagers put fore three demands: education of Urdu as a subject, local teacher and there was a lack of confidence. The local community itself engaged local teachers and the Foundation provided the facility to learn Urdu as a language too. Not before long, it succeeded in winning the confidence of the local community. Maktabs serve well the purpose of primary schools. However, they are ill-equipped to meet the requirements of the post-primary stage of education.
The first question we need to ask to ourselves is: what we want to do with the children? Or, what we want the children to do after getting educated? 30-40 types of education-system are prevalent in the country. Even the government education system is also characterized by much hierarchy. The Parliament on the one hand promulgates laws against child-labour while on the other, the government regularly makes arrangements for night-schools for disseminating literacy to the working children. Contradictions of this sort make the state education system a butt of jokes. Inequality and discrepancy characterize the education system prevalent in the country. The Central Government, through the chain of Kendriya Vidyalayas, spends around Rs.45, 000 on the education of each child of its employees while per student annual expenditure in a general government school does not cross the limit of Rs.3000. One should remember that majority of the students who attend the latter, are the first generation learners. They need more attention and facilities. So, more money should be spent on them but the situation on the ground is quite reverse. The question is: why there can not be uniformity in terms of teachers and infrastructure in all government-run schools?
In a consultation session with HRD Minister Shri Arjun Singh, I told that children attended madrasas because the government education system is very inefficient. Even spending four years, they do not know how to write or read. Teachers do not know how to treat a first-generation learner. In this regard, madrasa is much better than a government school. A modarris, a madrasa teacher, is not only concerned but also very honest regarding his/her responsibility. So, if you improve the functioning of the schools, a good majority of the children will not go to the madrasas. Shri Singh replied that the school education falls under the category of the State-subjects.
I have worked with around 600 localities of different parts of India. Wherever the teacher of the government schools ensured that he would care for the future of the students and he would not discriminate against any of them, the maktab authorities adjusted their time so that children could attend school in the day time and go to the maktab in the evening or morning. I did not come across any instance where the villagers refused to do so when the school ensured quality education.
I do not subscribe to the conspiracy theory regarding the imposition of the language of English in India. English education is the public demand. We can not always doubt the popular wisdom. The general masses understand the economic value of the English education. The government is under severe public pressure to introduce English as a subject at the earliest possible stage of schooling. Consequently, almost all states of the Republic of India started teaching the language if not from standard one then latest by standard three. On the other hand, it is also fact that they do not have resources to teach English at this very early stage of education. Though the government of West Bengal struggled for long for the cause of the education through the mother tongue, it did succumb to the public pressure as well.
We underestimate children, among other things, regarding their learning potentials. There are enough research which show that children are capable of learning many languages simultaneously. Hence, it is not wise to limit them to the learning of only one language. In fact, a multi-language class-room is the best class-room for learning purposes.
I do not agree with the general misconception that Muslims do not want to send their children to the institutions of secular learning. The Agha Khan Foundation conducted in this regard a survey in six states under the supervision of Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad. These states include: UP, Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. They have a good concentration of the Muslim population. Its findings have proved that “The term ‘school’, to 90 % Muslims, stands for the government school”. During an interactive session with the Muslim slum-dwellers of Hyderabad, I discovered that people had a desire to acquaint their kids with basics of their religion but that was not at the cost of the modern education.
Instead of reducing the issue of the educational backwardness of the Muslim community to the madrasa reform, we should demand that every Muslim habitation should have a Kendriya Vidayalaya. For this, we need to think afresh.
A total commercialization of the education proves as counter-productive as its complete de-linking from the market. The Constitution talks about ten years of basic education for every citizen to inform him/her about basics of everything. After that, one has to go for specialization, either in academics or in some vocational trade. During frequent interactions with parents across the country, I learnt that they linked the education with the betterment in life which could only come with economic prosperity which, in turn, presupposed a better job. It does not mean that they do not want their children to be ignorant of ethical values. I do not see any contradiction between their two expectations from the education.
We need to develop new framework, instead of getting trapped into frameworks created by others, if new goals had to be achieved in the domain of the Muslim education in general and madrasa education in particular.
Dr Mujibur Rahman
[17]:
I feel that there is no significant churning among Indian Muslims for the educational development of the community. I do not find any questioning within the community in this regard. If some people talk of reforms in the infrastructure of the madrasas, others start questioning their intentions. I am a madrasa graduate. I feel some drawbacks in my personality which I have inherited from my madrasa days. For example, my wife, who has received secular education, is more helpful to my children than me as I do not know mathematics and fundamentals of natural and social sciences.
We tend to frequent to the history and talk eloquently about the golden days of the Muslim civilizations whenever we encounter any criticism of the contemporary system of the madrasa education. We are not ready to have deliberations on: why the network of madrasas spread in the country has been failed for long to produce scholars who could match the intellectual stature of Al Ghazali, Abu Ali Sina, Ibn-i-Rushd, Ibn al Haitham, Al Farabi, etc.
As far as the issue of madrasa reform is concerned, I would like to say that ulama do not care a damn of whatever resolutions you pass here. Moreover, the madrasa authorities have always doubts in their mind regarding the same. It may be due to lack of communication between them and the secular intelligentsia or the government representatives.
Another point which I would like to make is how to meet education-related legitimate demands of the Muslim community. I would like to ask why there can not be a network of Muslim-managed educational institutions which can be at par with the Christian missionary schools in terms of quality of output. Webbed with it, another question is: who will do that? Will the government do it? The government schools are in shambles as the previous speaker has pointed out. So, we can not expect moon from the government. Then, who will do it? The community, with whatever meager resources it has, can do it but the community leaders have not even started thinking about the same.
The last point which I would like to discuss is: where do women figure in the whole scheme of the Muslim education? They are nowhere in the scene. Islamically speaking, the Muslims have problem with co-education. The community does not have women exclusive educational institutions as well. Can we claim to be a developed folk without educating half of our society?
These are some of the questions which call for immediate attention. If we are able to find an answer for them then we will achieve something great.
Dr. Fauzan Ahmad
[18] It should not be lost of the sight that madrasas were generally established to function as a production-house of the religious specialists who can, through their guidance, be helpful to the masses in following the path of Islam. We should examine the arguments of those who advocate for change in the madrasa curricula and try to find out their feasibility. While so doing, we must keep in mind the real objective of the madrasa, the work-load on the students and their utility to the society at large. We should try to learn from various experiments which took place in different parts of the country. For example, the model of madrasa education prevalent in states of South India like Kerala can be a good option in this regard.
I think madrasas should make arrangements for the education of all subjects till the Secondary level and specialization should be introduced only at post-Secondary stage. I am saying this on the basis of the experiences I had during interactions with my students who happened to be the madrasa graduates as well. A madrasa graduate generally lacks the ability to express himself in Arabic, a language which he learns for around ten years. So, there should be some arrangements to brush up the spoken skills of the madrasa students. Likewise, the madrasa authorities should accord preference to making their students efficient in the language of English as well.
The salary structure of the madrasa teachers and clerical staff seldom finds mention in the madrasa reform discourse. It is well-known that the honorarium which they receive is hardly enough to lead a decent life. Madrasa authorities should take the issue into consideration and try to channelize the fund they have in a way that the academic fraternity and the managerial class, who constitute an important part of the madrasa demography, should not feel betrayed.
The madrasa pedagogy has been books-centric, not the subjects/themes centric. Hence, there is a need to put emphasis on teaching themes. Almost all big madrasas are equipped with the printing press. If they feel any requirement for new text-books, they should design them and make them available for their students as early as possible. Another issue which merits immediate attention from the authorities of the madrasas is constitution of an All India Board which all the madrasas of the country should be affiliated with. Drafting a framework for the madrasa education as well as assessment of the actual need to establish new madrasas should also be within the jurisdiction of the proposed board.
Dr.Mohd.Athar Afzal
[19] It is not that madrasas have been totally immune to change. They have been changing over time, although the pace and scope of these changes may not be as spectacular as some of us would wish. When we talk of madras reforms, we must keep in mind their basic character and goals. They are meant to train religious specialists and so reforms must be in accordance with their goals, to enable the madrasas to achieve their aim in a better way. This is why I feel that the demand- that is often made- that madrasas should incorporate detailed teaching of science and mathematics in their curriculum misses the point completely. I think that rather than the hard sciences, we should be thinking in terms of incorporating the social sciences into the curriculum, along with basic mathematics. Education of social sciences in the madrasas is important as it will help the students in furnishing a socially engaged interpretation of Islam. You cannot provide meaningful legal opinions or fatwas if you have no idea of the social realities of the country, of which the madrasa students, by and large, know little. A sound mooring into the social sciences is necessary in order to develop new perspectives on the principles of jurisprudence (‘usul-i fiqh) which will pave the way towards coming up with relevant jurisprudential responses to a range of contemporary issues. To meet this demand, students should be aware of current affairs and socio-cultural developments in the country and the world at large. Some madrasas have tried to do this but the same has not really taken off. For instance, some years ago the Jamia Salafia, Varanasi arranged for a visit of the professors from the Jami‘a Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University to the madrasa so that they could interact with the students on a range of issues of contemporary concern. The students really benefited from the programme, but, sadly, this was discontinued due to opposition by some teachers.
I also feel that madrasas should familiarise their students with the writings of modern Islamic scholars and Qur’anic commentators, including liberal and progressive Muslim thinkers. As of now, most madrasas teach only the commentaries of early and medieval scholars, whose understanding was influenced by their own times. We, however, need new interpretations of the faith that reflect the circumstances of contemporary India. To illustrate its importance, let me refer to the debate on dar ul harb (“the abode of war”) and dar ul-islam (“the abode of Islam”) that goes back to the classical jurists and which is still taught in most madrasas although the concept of division of the world into two dars is not Qur’anic at all. Today, there is no dar ul-harb or dar ul-islam and so it is simply meaningless to teach the discourse.
Education of the English language in the madrasas is need of the hour. In addition, I think Hindi and the vernacular languages also must be taught. Some madrasas now teach English, but the teaching standard leaves much to be desired. And then there are numerous ‘ulama who fiercely oppose the same in the madrasas, claiming that this would lead the students astray! This is one of the reasons for their opposition to the idea of madrasa graduates joining universities. I think this argument is wrong. I know scores of madrasa graduates- now studying in universities - who are still committed and practicing Muslims. I also know scores of students in the madrasas who routinely skip their prayers. The point I want to make is that this notion that modern or English education will cause the students to abandon Islam is completely erroneous. Further, I think that if the ‘ulama knew English they would be in a far better position to preach Islam, to alley misconceptions and to present the faith in a more relevant manner before the public.
Question and Answer Session
Q: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, Why the laity of the Muslim community is still not aware of the academic contribution of the ulama class? If you introduce a sort of uniformity in the syllabus which you teach in the madrasas, will it not multiply the benefits of the curriculum?
A: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi: I think your question is based on wrong information. I travel a lot in the length and breadth of the country. I personally know that network of madrasas is spread in every nook and corner of India. People held these seats of religious learning in high esteem. Only an appeal from the Deoband madrasa is enough to gather huge crowds. Madrasas are not against cooperation in knowledge production and sharing expertise in the field of education. We want the secular intelligentsia to visit our institutions and share with our students their knowledge and also invite our intellectuals to do the same in the space of the government universities. I run Jamia Syed Ahmad Barelwi and have established in the same campus agricultural college, Tibbiya College, etc. We are also experimenting with opening schools of different mediums at different places. If media does not report our contribution to the nation-building then who we should turn to lodge our complaint to?
Q: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, you talked about establishing an Urdu University. You also talked about opening professional colleges in the campus of the madrasas. Which kind of experts you want to produce: those who will work in the religious sector or in some other sector? Does it not lead towards mediocrity, rather than excellence?
A: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi: In this regard I would like to suggest you to go through Maulana Monazir Ahsan Gilani’s book “Hindustan Ka Nizam-i-Talim wa Tarbiyat”. The title has two volumes. Maulana has suggested- and I agree with him- that there should be a provision of combined education (religious and secular) till the secondary level of schooling. This is the pattern which is in vogue in most of the Muslim countries and they call it Thanwiya Aamma (General Secondary). Likewise, we teach all secular subjects along with Arabic and Islamic Studies. So, the government should recognize our syllabus till the secondary level. After that, students may opt for whatever stream they prefer for specialization. Urdu is our medium and the second language after Arabic which has amazing mass of Islamic literature. I would like to request the government to open an Urdu University so that students from our madrasas can go there and get enrollment in any discipline they prefer. As he/she has already studied NCERT text-books till standard 12 through Urdu medium, he/she should be considered eligible for the same. My question is: why English has been imposed as the medium of education on the students of the higher education? We may acquire it through Hindi which is the official language of the Union of India but why English is made compulsory at the stage of higher education.
Q: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, I think you are talking in vacuum. Is it possible to use Urdu as the medium of higher learning when all countries, even China and Japan, are switching to English?
A: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi: If any representative of the government is present here, he constitutes a committee to allow this and I will show that I am not talking in vacuum. We have a lot of efficient people in Urdu. Pakistan’s experiences in providing higher education through Urdu may prove helpful in this connection. NCERT is also getting text-books translated into Urdu. Osmania University, Hyderabad and Dayera al Ma’arif have almost completed translation of major text-books of all disciplines into Urdu a century ago. There are many other institutions which are constantly working to achieve the same goal. This should be done immediately as it will help in mainstreaming crores of citizens of the country.
Q: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi, Why there is so much stress on Urdu? Urdu is not the mother tongue of all Muslims. What will a Muslim from Kashmir or Assam or Kerala do in the Urdu University? Does this universalistion of Urdu not bear resemblance to what BJP talks in terms of imposing Hindi on the whole country?
A: Maulana Syed Salman Nadwi: Urdu is mother-tongue of crores of citizens. I would like to know why the same argument is not furnished against the universalization of English. Why a person from Assam or Bengal should learn English? It is not his/her mother tongue. Imposition of Hindi makes sense but I do not understand the logic behind imposition of English which is mother tongue of none. It is not wise to turn a blind eye to the need of crores of people. Moreover, you people should not feel pity on the madrasa graduates. None of them, like the graduates of the secular universities, remains unemployed. We believe in Allah and by His Grace, we play in millions.
Q: Dr.Daya Ram, If you are in a position to effect reforms in the madrasas, which three initiatives will top in your priority list?
A: Dr.Daya Ram: I would like to make three comments. First, I am fully aware of the fact that madrasas have played very significant role in the freedom struggle. Second, I see madrasas as one of options available in the country for education, not the only option. Last, I will not impose any reform on them from the above. I will not suggest any reform sitting here in Delhi. I would prefer to go to the madrasas and ask their authorities whether they feel any need for reforms, and if yes, then what and in which direction. I will be available for their help in the process.
Q: Dr.Daya Ram, do you think reservation to the Muslim community will help in coming out of the morass of educational backwardness?
A: Dr.Daya Ram: Reservation is a useful tool to eliminated exclusion in the society. But the reservation in the present form has its limitations too. It is proved through various sources that 45 percent children do not meet the aim of primary education. What miracle reservation can do for them? Can we not say that along with the reservation, ten years of quality basic education for every citizen should be compulsory? Quality basic education is not need of only Muslim community. It has its utility for other weaker sections of the society as well.
Q: Dr Mujibur Rahman, Curriculum of some madrasa boards like that of Bihar or West Bengal has incorporated all subjects of the secular curriculum in the core of their syllabus, without reducing the content of religious sciences. To what extent, in your opinion, will be successful this sort of experiment which multiplies the burden of the students?
A: Dr Mujibur Rahman:I am aware of the situation. I know couple of students who have studied the curriculum of the West Bengal Madrasa Board. They complain that it is very difficult for the students to cope up with such kind of syllabus. I do not think this type of syllabus will be successful as it will cause loss of the focus among the students as well as the teachers. The madrasa reform means introduction of some useful secular subjects in the madrasa curriculum, without disturbing its harmony and focus on the religious sciences. The need for the same arises to make the madrasa graduates worldly-wise also. One should not forget that madrasas are meant to produce religious experts.
Q: Dr. Fauzan, There is also considerable debate about the need for introducing vocational training in the madrasas. Some traditionalists are fiercely opposed to this. What do you feel?
A: Dr. Fauzan: I think vocational training is very important. Ideally, although this is not always the case, one should choose to become an alim not for the sake of a job but as a religious calling. In other words, ideally, imamat in a mosque or delivering sermons should not be a paid profession. It should be an honorary, voluntary thing. This is how it was in the distant past. For instance, Imam Abu Hanifa, whose school of law most South Asian Sunni Muslims follow, was not a professional alim—he earned his livelihood as a businessman. Today, however, the general feeling is that large sections of the ulema live off the donations of others. If one is dependent on others how will one earn the respect due to him? The ulema can gain proper respect only when they are seen as providing benefits, in terms of proper leadership and guidance, to others, rather than, as now, benefitting from them. And, for that, financial independence of the ulema is a must, and hence the need for introducing vocational training in the madrasas.
Q: Mohd. Athar, How have your years at the Jawaharlal Nehru University influenced your own way of thinking about Islam?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: I think these years have been really valuable. They have helped me broaden my own way of looking at the world, which, in turn, has forced me to reshape my own understanding of Islam. For instance, while I was in the madrasa I had no Hindu acquaintances, but now at the university I have many Hindu friends. We live together and there is no problem, and that has made me realise how similar we all are in so many respects. My Hindu friends have helped me remove many misunderstandings about Hinduism, and I think I have also helped to clear some of their prejudices against Islam. There is no better way of dialogue than personal friendships. Many of my Hindu friends tell me that through me they have learnt to see a different Islam, one that is liberal and accommodative, not conflictual or narrow-minded. Of course, my own approach is not liked by some Muslims, who accuse me of being a communist just because I sympathise with the Left’s commitment to social justice and communal harmony, although I am also a practising Muslim.
Q: What do you feel about the approach that is adopted in teaching other religions in the madrasas?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: Very few madrasas actually teach their students anything about other religions. At the Jamia Salafiya we learnt something about Christianity and Judaism, but nothing at all about Hinduism. Most ulema know as little about Hinduism as most Hindu priests know about Islam, and on both sides this is mixed with tremendous misunderstanding and prejudice. This is unfortunate, since we in India live alongside with Hindus and have been doing so for centuries. Also, the teaching of Christianity and Judaism leaves much to be desired. We are not taught to study them as their adherents understand them. Rather, we study them simply in order to refute them, which means we bring our own preconceived notions and prejudices into play. We are guilty of the same sin that we accuse the Christian missionaries and Orientalists of when they study or write about Islam. I think madrasas should invite Hindu, Christian and other scholars to speak to the students about their own religions so that the students can understand these religions as their adherents themselves do.
Q: Having received both a madrasa as well as university training, how do you see the sort of education that you received at the madrasa?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: I think that, on the whole, madrasas are averse to looking at or interpreting Islam in a new, more relevant way. With notable exceptions, they are characterised by a nostalgic hankering after the past, which leads to a certain narrow mindedness. Their way of understanding Islam does not take into account the social context in which we live today. In the Ahl-e Hadith case, with which I am most familiar, there is also a marked tendency to accept the views of Saudi scholars as normative and to impose their legal opinions, in the form of fatwas, on Muslims living in India. This, to my mind, is wrong. In matters of worship the rules do not change across space and time, but in some other social affairs they can, so fatwas on the latter sort of issues that might be appropriate in the Saudi context may not be so in the Indian case. So, for instance, a Saudi mufti may declare that it is wrong to have close relations with people of other faiths, but in India, where Muslims live along with other people, this is ridiculous. Fatwas are specific to time and place, and a fatwa given somewhere at a certain point in time may not be applicable in a totally different context.
This aversion to change and openness is also reflected in the fact that madrasas in general focus overwhelmingly on medieval jurisprudence. They teach their students almost nothing about contemporary social issues, although numerous Islamic scholars, most notably those associated with the Delhi-based Islamic Fiqh Academy, have written extensively on these matters. The books of the Academy are not, however, taught in any madrasa as far as I know. I think, in a sense, this reflects the erroneous assumption of a rigid separation between religious and secular knowledge, which was absent in the early Islamic period.
Q: What measures of reform would you suggest for the madrasas to adopt?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: It is not that madrasas have been totally immune to change. They have been changing over time, although the pace and scope of these changes may not be as spectacular as some of us would wish. When we talk about reforming the madrasas we must keep in mind their actual goals and purpose. They are meant to train religious specialists and so reforms must be such that can help the madrasas better fulfill their purpose. This is why I feel that the demand that is often made that madrasas should incorporate detailed teaching of Science and Mathematics in their curriculum misses the point completely. I think that rather than the ‘hard’ sciences, we should be thinking in terms of incorporating the social sciences into the curriculum, along with basic Maths and English. Teaching social sciences in the madrasas is important in order that the students can go on to interpret Islam in a socially and contextually relevant manner. You cannot provide meaningful legal opinions or fatwas if you have no idea of the social realities of the country, of which the madrasa students, by and large, know little. A good grounding in the social sciences is necessary in order to develop new perspectives on the principles of jurisprudence to come up with relevant jurisprudential responses to a range of contemporary issues. For this the students should know about current affairs, about the developments in the country and the world at large.
Some madrasas have tried to do this but this has not really taken off. For instance, some years ago the Jamia Salafia arranged for professors from the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University to visit the madrasa and speak to the students on a range of issues of contemporary concern. The students really benefited from the programme, but, sadly, this was discontinued due to opposition by some teachers.
I also feel that madrasas should familiarise their students with the writings of modern Islamic scholars and Quranic commentators, including liberal and progressive Muslim thinkers. As of now, most madrasas teach only the commentaries of early and medieval scholars, whose understanding was influenced by their own times. We, however, need new interpretations of the faith that reflect the circumstances of contemporary India. To illustrate the importance of this let me refer to the debates on dar ul-harb or ‘the abode of war’ and dar ul-islam, ‘the abode of Islam’ that goes back to the classical commentators and which is still taught in most madrasas, although these notions are not Quranic at all. Today, there is no dar ul-harb or dar ul-islam and so it is simply meaningless to teach all this.
Q: What about including English in the madrasa curriculum?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: I think this is really essential. In addition, I think Hindi and the local regional language also must be taught. Some madrasas now teach English, but the standard of teaching leaves much to be desired. And then there are numerous ulema who fiercely oppose the teaching of English in the madrasas, claiming that this would lead the students astray! This is also why they oppose the idea of madrasa graduates joining universities. I think this argument is wrong. I know of scores of madrasa graduates now studying in universities who are still committed and practising Muslims. I also know of scores of students in the madrasas who routinely skip their prayers. The point I want to make is that this notion that modern or English education will cause the students to abandon Islam is completely erroneous.
Further, I think that if the ulema knew English they would be in a far better position to tell others about Islam, to clear their misunderstandings and to present the faith in a more relevant manner before the general public.
Q: How do you look at the response of the ulema to demands for gender equality now being voiced by a growing number of Muslim women?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: I think that equality of the genders is mandated by the Quran. I believe that women have as much right to study or work as men do. My own elder sister is a post-graduate and teaches in a government school, and I think there is nothing wrong with that at all. It is fine by me if men and women work together provided they both dress modestly and preserve their dignity. You cannot lock up women in their homes and expect society to progress. Women’s rights can be protected not by men or male ulema alone but by educated women themselves. This is why I believe that women should study Islam for themselves and why we should have many more women Islamic scholars than we now do.Male scholars or activists alone cannot ensure gender equality. We need women to be equal partners in this project. Men will keep talking about how they are committed to women’s rights, but much of this is simply hot air. Take the case of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, which claims to be the leading Muslim organisation in the country. The Board could have taken up the issue of social reform in a major way, but it has not, and it is hardly visible at the grassroots. It could have mobilised public opinion against caste discrimination, dowry, denial of inheritance rights to women or arbitrary divorce, but it has not done so. One reason is that it is male-dominated, and the few women on the Board do not have much say.
Q: Mohd.Athar, Do you see yourself as an exception among the ulema, or are there many others like you?
A: Dr. Mohd. Athar: I am certainly not an exception. There are many young madrasa graduates who think on similar lines, especially among those who have also had a university education. However, our voices are rarely, if ever, highlighted in the media, because the media seems to have a vested interest in promoting the stereotypical image of the ulema as fanatics thoroughly opposed to modernity. That said, I think people like us are also to blame in part, because we have not got together to form a movement or even a forum to share our views. One reason is that many of us are too scared to speak out for fear that we might lose our jobs, being condemned as ‘agents’ of one ‘enemy of Islam’ or the other just because we might dissent from the views of those who claim to speak for the entire community. But in addition to that is sheer apathy, for which we alone are responsible.
Chairman’s Remarks
Prof. Akhtar Mahdi :
It gives me immense pleasure to see that the universities have started discussing the madrasa curriculum. I hope that the discussion will be fruitful and will pave the way for the educational progress of the Muslim community. The ulama have contributed a lot to the freedom struggle and the process of nation-building. We need to highlight their sacrifices. Ulama have never been against the education and learning if they are sure that the same will not have negative impacts on the religion.
This seminar should ask the government one question: Why the government gives a cold shoulder to those who have already made amendments in the curriculum of the madrasas? Maulana Salman Nadwi, as he narrated today, has prepared a combined curriculum till standard 12 and he wants approval from the government to implement it in his school but he is yet to listen from the competent authorities. His experiments demonstrate that the government is not serious in its madrasa modernisation scheme. CCIM is sitting over his application to establish a Tibbiya College for last three years.
SESSION –VI
MEDIA AND REFORM IN MADRASA EDUCATION SYSTEM
Nilofar Sohrawardi
Zafar Agha
Kashif-ul Huda
Arshad Amanullah
Chair: Nilofar Sohrawardi, Freelance Journalist
Nilofar Sohrawardi, Freelance Journalist , New Delhi
The theme of the session has come to represent a complex scenario as the media; especially Indian media is replete with stereotype images of the Muslim community. All pervasive television culture has added to the complication of the problem. Is it possible for the madrasas and its graduates to work for removing those stereotypes from the popular consciousness and memory? Moreover, media by its inherent nature is supposed to play a disseminating pad for informations and also a debating platform for issues concerning the humanity. It needs to be monitored whether Indian media does its job properly and if not, what went wrong and where. The concern assumes alarming importance as words like Muslims, Terrorism, Islam, Madrasa, etc have come to be increasingly portrayed as intertwined ideas and entities. Editorialisation of news regarding Muslims is on increase. There are accusations that mainstream media does not adhere to journalistic praxis of cross-verification of Police handouts when the latter pertain to so-called involvement of the Muslim youth in terror acts. It is also observed that Indian media tends to blow negative news about some Muslims or a group of the community out of proportion. Muslims constitute 12 % of the population of India. So, it is quite natural that every Hindu does not get chance to interact with Muslims while the same is not the case with the latter community. Here comes role of media in a multi-religious society. Disseminating positive stories about the minority communities, it should bridge information gap between the citizens of the country and help in breaking the stereotypes. Not excluding madrasas, the education systems prevalent in India need reform in their basic arrangements. So, instead of singling out the madrasas, we need to look at the issue of education in totality.
Zafar Agha, Freelance Journalist,New Delhi
Media informs about only those activities/events which occur in the society. It can not discuss/ report/ distort /exaggerate what is non-existent. Thus, it is not wise to expect from media to play the leader as it falls beyond the purview of the media. That is why it should be asked whether the madrasa authorities are ready for reform and whether the Muslim society has started debating the issue of madrasa reform. In a meeting arranged by HRD Ministry on the madrasa reform, I had a heated exchange with ulama, especially with Maulana Arshad Madani of Jamiatul Ulama-i-Hind. Ulama as a class are against any sort of reform and they regard it as a conspiracy against their culture, religion and identity.
In the same session, I asked the present ulama a question: why the Christian missionaries who run quality educational institutions across India do not feel threatened while running institutions of modern education? They do not perceive modern education as a conspiracy to obsolete their identity, culture and religion. They also are religious experts. Why do only ulama buy the conspiracy theory? It is true that the Muslims have been suffering from several crises for last two hundred years and consequently they have developed a complex which encourages them to take all initiatives for change as conspiracy. This issue has assumed a critical importance in the contemporary debate on the Muslim situation in the world. One needs to understand it in totality.
As a result of failure of the 1857 revolts, the world of Muslims was turned upside down. Their institutions became redundant and the ulama turned irrelevant. They launched two movements at this critical juncture of history to save their religion, culture and identity: Deoband Movement and Aligarh Movement. The ulama spearheaded the Deoband Movement which resulted in establishing the Deoband madrasa and then a chain of madrasas in the length and breadth of the country. On the other hand, Syed Ahmad Khan established a Scientific Society which continued to bring out a journal for long. Through the journal and other mediums he exhorted Muslims to acquire modern education and develop scientific temperament if they had to save their existence. Then, he founded MAO College in Aligarh.
It will be interesting to know that before embarking upon this venture, Syed Ahmad Khan had translated a book called “On Governance”. It was written by Abul Fazal, a famous member of the Nav Ratan of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Khan translated it in Urdu and requested Ghalib, renowned Urdu poet to write the preface on the translation. He advised Khan to understand the industrial revolution. This exchange between them proved to be a turning point in the life of Syed Ahmad Khan. Then, he went to England to understand the secret of the British success. He was intelligent enough to go to the roots of industrial revolution and the change which it caused in the mode of production. It was this industrial economy and mass-production which had provided the British an edge on the entire East which was still to come out of feudal economy.
These facts remained obscure to the ulama. The ulama found it difficult to understand why Syed Ahmad Khan had advocated for the modern education. Moreover, they had problems with the worldview he had come to represent through his institutions and university. They opposed him bitterly and issued 18 fatwas against him. For them, he was a collaborator with the British who had snatched political power from the Mughals. Thus, madrasas became centres of opposition for the industrial revolution and its by-products. They stood opposed to all those which came with the British, irrespective of their utility. It is this mentality which is responsible for the current backwardness of the Muslim community in India. It will be wrong to hold the government sole responsible for the same.
When we start interrogating orthodoxy and also take initiatives to develop scientific temperament within the Muslim society, I am sure; the media will certainly report this churning.
Kashif-ul Huda, Florida:
I would like to share my views on how to use the networks of the mosques to run open schools and tutorial centers to provide educational guidance to the needy Muslim students. We have been discussing the question of the educational backwardness of the Muslim community for two days. It is also learnt that absence of good educational institutions in Muslim localities as well as lack of purchasing power, among others, are two crucial reasons which are at the heart of the problem. Moreover, we need to think about those children who are outside the sphere of influence of any educational institutions. Such children form 30 percent of the Muslim children.
Almost all villages/localities where Muslims live in a sizeable number, has at least a mosque. Generally a maktab is run in the morning/evening in the premises of the mosque to impart basic religious education to the Muslim children. In the remaining time, the infrastructure remains unused. Moreover, there are mosques where no such arrangement for maktab exists. These networks of mosques can be conveniently used as tutorial centres where students can come to do their home-works under the supervision of a tutor/s. These centres will really go a long way to benefit those students who are the first-generation learners. Such centres will provide them atmosphere conducive for human flourishing and academic excellence. Given the percentage of the school drop-outs or of those children who never attend schools, any arrangement of this sort assumes immense importance.
In addition, the network of mosques can be used as guidance points for those students who are pursuing some course through Open Schooling System. One may not need to incur any expenditure on the infrastructure. In this regard, unemployed educated youth of the locality will be very helpful. Till the time they find some other opportunity, their engagement with these study-circles will solve their economic problem to a certain extent.
Coming to the media component of my presentation, I would like to say that there are issues and events which may be important for the Muslim community but are of no interest to the mainstream media. Hence, we need a community media. I am associated with two websites (www.indianmulims.info and www.twocircles.net ) which are two attempts to fill this gap. They serve as platforms to keep the netizens informed regarding the issues of Indian Muslims and to have debates on them.
Chair’s Comments (Nilofar Suhrawardi) :
What lies at the heart of the proposal floated by Kashiful Huda is the fact that the Muslim community should, instead of relying on the government aid and accusing it for its indifference to the problems of the community, be creative enough to multiply the usage of its own infrastructure and resources to the maximum level. The community should understand that neither the West nor the West Asia has enough monetary resources to solve the problems of Indian Muslims. Moreover, it is not easy for Muslims to go to the US to earn their livelihood, given the political culture that prevails there. So, they have to do so only by using their indigenous resources, human and material both.
24. Arshad Amanullah, Documentary Filmmaker, New Delhi
I will speak on the politics and sociology of the journals which are brought out by the madrasas in the light of the survey I did in five states of North India. These journals are very important as an untapped source of the lived Islam in South Asia. Every big madrasa, irrespective of its denominational location in the Muslim society, brings out a journal. Ideological leanings of the editor or the madrasa shape the orientation as well as presentation of a particular madrasa magazine. It, consequently, decides its readers/consumers in turn.
Content of these magazines varies from metaphysics to religious practices to the government policies. Apart from providing religious guidance, they offer critique of the political trends of the country if the latter will have any direct consequences to the Muslim community. News from the Muslim world also forms a constant part of their content. Interviews of those who embrace Islam make headlines in the world of the madrasa journalism. Comments on the trends of the Muslim society also find mention here. However, most of the opinion-pieces discuss the issues at normative plane.
These journals are not available on the news-stands. They reach to their niche readers by postal service. The circulation of these magazines seldom rises higher than five thousands. If they are brought out with missionary aims, I wonder, then why the competent authorities do not try to push up its circulation. These journals can play a major role in galvanizing the support for the cause of the madrasa reforms and also in dispelling misconceptions regarding the madrasas if the madrasa authorities agree to effect some changes in their journalistic praxis to make their magazines popular. Formation of a guild of the madrasa magazine editors, payment of small honorarium to the contributors, adherence to a proper lay-out and content-design, etc may prove helpful in this regard.
Recently some new initiatives mark a sort of change in the domain of the religious journalism. Some madrasa graduates who married the secular education or who took some journalism course are behind these initiatives. They are trying their best to introduce the mainstream journalistic praxis in their magazines. This new approach is slowly gaining popularity and has caused a sharp rise in their readership.
Question and Answer Session
Q. What makes an alim a model or ideal in your opinion?
A: Zafar Agha: Neither am I an alim nor do I present a model. In my presentation, I tried to analyse two movements which emerged among Muslims during the later half of the 19th century. My analysis leads me to the conclusion that the ulama-led-Madaris Movement failed to solve any problem of the Muslim community. That is why the Sir Syed Model is more feasible and promising for the community. It is sad to know that the ulama issued 18 fatwas against him. They declared him Kafir who deserved the capital punishment. Whenever someone talks about reform, the Muslim society responds to him/her in the same fashion.
Q. What do you think of the madrasa hype regarding the madrasa reform in the post-Sachar India?
A: Zafar Agha, Freelance: The Sachar Report has made it clear that the Muslims constitute a very backward section of the Indian society. It also says that only 4 percent of the community attends madrasas. Now one should notice that the state, instead of opening modern educational institutions in the Muslim-majority localities, start talking about the madrasa reform. This is a sheer shameful vote-bank politics. The media instead of interrogating this attempt by the state to cleverly engage the Muslim community in non-issues, it is just parroting what the state machinery is feeding into it. It has become a tool to implement the agenda of the state.
Q: You have mentioned that Jamia Salafia, Varanasi had introduced journalism in its syllabus in 2006. I would like to inform you that even before Jamia Salafia, Darul Uloom, Deoband started a full-fledged one year journalism course under Shaikhul Hind Academy.
A: Arshad Amanullah: I would like to clarify that the Deoband madrasa has not included journalism in its core syllabus. It offers a course which its graduates may take to. On contrary, Jamia Salafia has incorporated journalism as a paper in the core of its curriculum. Hence, it is mandatory for all students to study the paper. That is why I made it a point to mention it.
Q: The 'mainstream' media often depicts the ulema in a very negative light. Ulema such as yourself are rarely, if ever, mentioned by the media. Why is this so?
A: Arshad Amanullah: Yes, unfortunately, there is this tendency on the part of large sections of the 'mainstream' media to portray the ulema as if they were some archaic, monstrous creatures. Part of the reason lies in deeply-rooted historical prejudices. And then there are weird people in every community, and the media often picks on some weird mullah who issues some sensational and irrational fatwas and presents him as speaking for all the ulema, which is, of course, not the case. So, part of the fault also lies with such mullahs. I feel that one way to solve this problem is to encourage what is known as collective ijtihad, through which ulema and experts in various 'secular' branches of learning work together to provide proper responses to people's questions. Only then can the problem of outlandish fatwas, which have given the whole class of ulema such a bad name, be put an end to.
I strongly think that reforms in the curriculum and methods of teaching are essential to help madrasas relate better to others, including non-Muslims, the media and the government, and also to counter misunderstandings that many people have about them. Only then will people come to realise that madrasas are constructive, not destructive, institutions. For that we also need to encourage tolerance for other points of view, for other understandings of Islam and for other religions and their adherents.
Q: As the head of an important Islamic Centre in America, what do you see as the major challenges before the ulema in the post-9/11 world?
A: Arshad Amanullah: The most pressing need today is for the ulema to act as a bridge between Muslims and other communities, rather than to add to on-going conflicts. We have tried to do this in our own small way in the United States. After 9/11, in a climate of increasing hostility towards Muslims and Islam, we began outreach programmes with Christians and Jews, speaking on and answering questions about Islam in colleges, universities and other public places. We also helped establish a group to promote dialogue between Muslims and Jews, which is called "Jews, Arabs and Muslims", or JAMS for short. We plan to have our first big gathering this coming February, and expect some 10,000 people, Muslims, Jews and others, to attend it. Our purpose is to state that the American Muslims are indeed willing to live peacefully with their Jewish compatriots, despite the differences they have.
I think 9/11 came as a major wake-up call for us in America. We are much more active now in inter-faith dialogue and outreach work than we ever were before. Earlier, we adopted the same approach that the ulema in India continue to adopt—we were satisfied living in own little cocoons and not making the effort to reach out to people of other faiths, to listen to them and to speak to them. This is what 9/11 forced us to wake up to. And, based on my own experiences in the field of dialogue in the last few years, I must say that the vast majority of Americans are indeed tolerant and willing to listen to what we say, if approached properly.
Q: Some Muslims argue that America is an 'enemy of Islam'. How do you react to this?
A: I think this is pure hypocrisy. Many of those who make this claim would be the first to migrate to America if they were provided with an American passport or visa! There are numerous fiercely anti-American Muslims, including even some mullahs, whose own children live comfortably in America! I may not agree with some aspects of the foreign policy of the present American government or the attitude of sections of the American media, but nor do millions of non-Muslim Americans. You cannot equate the American government with the American people. The average American on the street cannot be said to be anti-Islam. We have over three thousand mosques in America and enjoy freedom to practice our faith.
I think all of us, Muslims and others, urgently need to shed our parochialism, and seek to reach out to each other if the world is to be saved from catastrophe in the name of religion. Needless to add, there are well-meaning people in every community and in every country, America included, and our task is to work together with them for the sake of our common humanity.
Session- VII
NATIONAL CONSULTATION
On
MADRASA EDUCATION SYSTEM: TOWARDS DRAFTING A ROADMAP FOR REFORM
Dr.Akhtarul Wasey
Dr. Rizwan Qaiser
Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan
Dr. Shaheen Ansari
Chair: Dr.Akhtarul Wasey
[20]We want to work with the ulama as friends on the project of the madrasa reform and our intention is not to interfere with their activities. This seminar should be seen as an expression of the concerns of the secular intelligentsia for the educational development of the Indian Muslim community for the betterment of which madrasas had been working for centuries.
The debate of madrasa reform is no new. Only 30 years after the establishment of the Deoband madrasa, ulama felt the need to reform and assembled in Madrasa Faiz-i-Aam, Kanpur for deliberations. Here they, under the chairmanship of Maulvi Lutfullah, agreed to come up with a new madrasa, Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, which would offer the reformed curriculum. Not before long, Maulana Shibli Nomani, one of driving forces behind the new madrasa, got disheartened with the Nadwa programme of reforms. It failed to meet his expectations and standards of reform. Around hundred years ago from now, he started expressing his dissatisfaction and concerns in this regard, through his writings and speeches.
We should acknowledge contribution of the madrasas in making Muslims literate. A major section of the present Urdu readers have got their education in madrasas.
Some universities have opened their doors to the madrasa graduates so that they, apart from their mastery over the Oriental sciences, can also excel in social sciences and other modern subjects
Discussant: Dr. Rizwan Qaiser
[21]As a student of the history of Modern India, I would like to talk about the history of the madrasa education in India, especially in the modern period of the country. I feel the need for an independent session to discuss history of the madrasa education in different centuries. I would like to share with you some findings of the extensive readings I have been doing on and about 1857.
All big institutions are product of their time. Hence, to understand their nature, to evaluate their contribution and to assess relevance of their curriculum and system, one needs to refer to the history and situate all of them in their historical context. That is why efforts to revive a particular institution or to bring a certain by-gone period back into the present time, are doomed to fail.
It is interesting that all three big madrasas which came into existence in the second half of the 19th century, are situated in North India. Darul Uloom, Deoband was one of them. Here, we need to differentiate between its historical role and its educational role. They were aimed at creating a distinct cultural space for the Muslims. Dominant historiography of modern India has neglected role of ulama in the freedom struggle of India. Here I would like to critique William Dalrymple who, in his latest essay “In Defense of Faith”, argued that ulama in the 1857 revolts were fighting only for the sake of religion. I disagree with him and see his writing as an extension of the dominant historiography on the 1857 studies. I feel that religion has been a priority of the ulama. However, their participation in the freedom struggle was also a manifestation of the fact that they loved their country as much as their contemporaries from other religious groups could do. When ulama used name of Islam in the context of freedom struggle then it meant that they were fighting for their religion and country both.
Establishment of Darul Uloom, Deoband was the acknowledgement of the ulama that they could not combat with the English hegemony through armed struggle and hence they changed their warfare and transformed the domain of education into the battlefield. The Deoband madrasa was not an isolated instance to signify this change in the perception of the Indian intelligentsia regarding the hegemony of the British state. This period witnessed establishment of educational institutions by other religious groups also.
Arya Samaj movement’s initiatives on the educational front got manifested into two forms: establishment of a chain of DAV schools and opening of Gurukuls. I see similarities between the Arya Samaj Movement and the Madaris Movement. I feel that founders of the Deoband madrasa had anticipated the model of the Gurukuls long ago, to carve out for the Muslim community a space where they could continue their religio-cultural studies. Almost after a decade, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan established Muslim Anglo Oriental College which later on evolved to be Aligarh Muslim University. Nadwatul Ulama madrasa, Lucknow took quarter a century more to emerge on the intellectual landscape of the Muslim community. A perusal of the historical role of these three Muslim institutions, of their larger goal and of their politics will be enough to convince us that the Indian Muslims are too varied and stratified a group to think alike and unite on a single platform.
Whenever we talk of the madrasas, we tend to emphasise on their role in the post-1947 India. Educational role of the madrasas in the pre-Independence India has been a least studied area. Another point which I want to make is that madrasas were not the sole source of education for the Muslim community in the British India. Significant representation of the Muslims in different walks of life in the colonial India can not be only due to the madrasa education. Modern educational institutions also played an important role in this regard. So, we need to differentiate between role of Madaris in the pre-Independence India and in the post-Independence India. Moreover, if the Muslims used to run parallel education systems: religious and secular both before Independence, they could do so in the Independent India also.
In the light of the insights we gain from the history of Muslim engagement with the education in the sub-continent, I will not be exaggerating if I express doubts regarding the possibilities of having a uniform syllabus for all the madrasas of India. I would like to question the general perception that computerization of the madrasa system would definitely lead to its modernisation, without effecting any changes in the madrasa pedagogy. Are the madrasa authorities in favour of the same?
Consulation: All the Participants
Having said this much, Dr. Rizwan Qaiser opened the floor for consultation which continued for an hour. According to the participants in the session, the following measures can be taken to introduce reform in the madrasa system and curriculum:
A. General
1. The Communication gap between the madrasas and government universities calls for immediate attention. It should be bridged by initiating a process of dialogue between them.
2. A team consisting of ulama and secular intelligentsia should be constituted to study the issue and come up with some concrete suggestions. The team should visit prominent madrasas of India and present its views before authorities of these insititutions.
3. The madrasa curriculum should be refashioned in a way that theology relating to the contemporary issues should receive more time in the academic schedule of the madrasas.
4. Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow had organised a seminar on Issues in the Madrasa Curriculum. All the papers presented in it are available in a printed volume titled Rudad-i-Chaman.
5. The Central Madrasa Board should be an autonomous institution although affiliation to it should be voluntary.
6. Madrasas should incorporate in their curriculum some courses/modules on domestic violence or women rights to sensitize talaba with concerned issues/themes.
7. Ark Foundation may open a training center where ulama can acquaint them with the modern issues while students of secular education can learn basics of religious sciences.
8. Creation of Minority Education and Employment Fund
9. Establishment of Minority Education and Employment Exchange Centre to provide:
· Educational facilities
· Coaching Centre for preparation of entrance test in various professional courses like medical, engineering, BCA, BBA, MCA, MBA,etc.
· Coaching and guidance for preparation of government jobs like civil cervices, police department, defense, information, statistics, etc.
· Vocational and Technical Training Centre
· Customized Training of students as per the requirement of particular company or industry
· Links with industrialists and corporate bodies for placement of trained students
· Teachers Training for Madrasas and other minority institutions
· Updating the syllabus to match the demand of job market
· Monitoring and Evaluation of ongoing programmes
· Research and Survey
· Social Audit of all the Waqf Boards of India
B. Following suggestions were made with special reference to the madrasas situated in the state of Assam:
11. A State Level Council for Educational Research and Training in the pattern of NCERT is necessary for writing, translating and publishing books mentioned in the madrasa syllabus. It should also decide the length of the syllabus at least for the government madrasas Eminent Muslim and non-Muslim Academicians, Senior and experienced prominent Madrasa teachers can be taken as members of the Council.
12. Separate Teachers Training Colleges—at least a couple of them—should be established in the state for madrasa teachers. These colleges should conduct B. Ed or E.T.E. degrees for the teachers of Senior, Title, and if possible Qaumi madrasas. These degrees should be made necessary eligibility for the appointment of madrasa teachers.
13. Arabic or the mother tongue should be made as the medium of instruction in the provincialised and Qaumi madrassas. Special focus should be laid on the learning of modern communicative Arabic. The contents of the syllabus of Arabic language needs urgent reconsideration at least for the provincialised madrasas.
14. A Central Madrassa Board in the pattern of C.B.S.E is required for the proper conduct of examination and smooth functioning of madrassas. Different types of vocational and professional courses should be introduced at the initiative of central and state governments in the provincialised and community-run madrassas to avoid increasing number of unemployment among the madrassa graduates. The Assam government should launch Pre-Tibia courses in selected madrasas so that madrasa students become eligible for direct admission into medical courses like B.U.M.S. and so on.
15. In this era of latest technology modern teaching instruments/electronic equipments which make teaching easier and understandable for students should be granted to madrassas. The Government, NGOs, and the madrasa management committees should organize vocational training for existing teachers on different vocational and life skill education.
16. At least one Counseling and Guidance centre for madrassa students should be opened in each district at the initiative of community and government agencies.
17. Since Qaumi madrassas are run by different Muslim organisations with different interests, a coordination committee should be set up to maintain good relationship between these madrasas.
Concluding Remark: Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan
[22] I would like to start my presentation on a rather personal note. I have been, in a way or other, interacting with ulama at different phases of my student and political career. In this regard, I like to mention name of Maulana Wali Rahmani, a renowned Deobandi alim.I have frequent encounters with Maulana Rahmani and visited his institution Khanqah-i-Rahmania, Monghyre on several occasions.
Here I like to cite example of a technical institute run by the madrasa authorities to impart technical skills to their graduates in Gujarat. As students of the institute have earned a reputation of being deft technicians in the market, they are in great demand despite the fact that polity and society of state exhibit unprecedented polarization along communal lines in the wake of 2003 pogrom.
I like to request the university graduates to go to the madrasas and help the madrasa authorities, offering their services to them. He also suggested that there should be institutions to train the madrasa teachers in teaching methodology. The madrasa infrastructure should be used, I suggest, to impart different streams of education in different shifts. The government universities, in a gesture to connect the madrasa education to the job market, should find a way to recognize the madrasa certificates.
Vote of Thanks: Dr. Shaheen Ansari
[23] Dr. Shaheen Ansari, Ark Foundation, New Delhi, presented his vote of thanks to all the participants and the audiences. He took the opportunity to announce that Ark Foundation would very soon constitute a committee of experts to visit the madrasas and meet ulama so that the process of the dialogue initiated by the seminar could continue unabated. He was hopeful that the committee would, not before long, be able to draft a roadmap for the reform in the madrasa education system.
ILLUSTRATION
Day-1 Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/SeminarOnMadrsaEducationSystem#http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/NationalSeminarMadrasaDay1Photos#Day-2 Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/ConsultationOnMadrasaEducationSystem# http://picasaweb.google.co.in/arkitect95/NationalSeminarDay2#[1] For detail please visit http://educationatdoorsteps.blogspot.com & http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/message/936s
[2] SL Committee Room, J.N.U., New Delhi.
[3] The list has names of all the scholars whose participation was confirmed by 6:00 PM, March 28, 2008. This is the copy of the programme schedule distributed in the morning of March 29, 2008. Some of them could not attend the seminar because of sudden change in their prograramme.
[4] Prof.Syed Shahid Mahdi, former Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia and Vice-Chairperson of ICCR, New Delhi
[5] Dr. Akhlaq Ahmad Aahan, Assistant Professor, Centre for Persian, Jahwaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
[6] Prof. Baseer Ahmad Khan Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, New Delhi
[7] Aslam Mahmood is Professor in the Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD) at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,India
[8] Dr. Yoginder Sikand is the author of several books on Islam-related issues in India. He is the editor and primary writer of Qalandar, a monthly electronic publication covering relations between Muslims and followers of other religions, holds a Master Degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a PhD in history from the University of London. He currently lives in Bangalore.
[9] Dr Ishtiaq Danish, a senior reader at Jamia Hamdard’s Department of Islamic Studies,New Delhi.
[10] Prof.Faizanullah Farouqui is professor in the centre of Arabic and African Studies (CAAS), School of Languages, Jawaharlal University, New Delhi. He is a member of the committee constituted by JNU to evaluate the madrasa degrees.
[11] S.Irfan Habib, historian of science at the National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi. Irfan Habib’s latest book is To Make the Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and His Comrades.
[12] Roger Jeffrey is professor in Sociology, School of Social and Political Studies University of Edinburgh For the past 25 years, he has been conducting research in village and small-town north India on the relationships between on the one hand religious group membership and caste, and on the other childbearing, fertility behaviour, gender politics and schooling, in the context of agrarian change and the decline of the state.
[13] Maulana Haziq Nadwi is from Darul Umroo Mysore. The Darul Umoor, in Srirangapattan, is an Islamic theology school with a difference. It exposes its students to the sciences, humanities and even other religions.
[14] Bazlur Rahman Khan (PGDM in NGO, M.A., and M.Phil History) is an Academic Associate at Hamdard Study Circle, New Delhi and General Secretary of Barak Valley Students and Youth Association.
[15] Zubair Hudawi is a graduate of a Sunni madrasa in Kerala, a southern Indian state where Muslims account for almost a quarter of the population. He did his M.Phil. from the Department of Arabic at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, having worked on the role of traditionalist ulema in promoting modern education in Kerala. He is presently pursuing his doctoral studies at the same university and on the same topic. He can be contacted on zubyjnu@gmail.com
[16] Ms. Sara Wali is a Ph.D student from JNU, her Ph.D topic is based on Muslim women’s Empowerment. She belongs to Mewat Region.
[17] Dr Mujibur Rahman is an assistant professor in the school of languages, CAAS at Jnu. He is also a madrasa graduate.
[18] Dr. Fauzan Ahmad is Professor in Jamial Millia Islamia,New Delhi. He is expert of Islamic studies and has many publications.
[19]Athar Afzal is a graduate of the Jamia Salafia, Varanasi, the apex madrasa of the Ahl-e Hadith in India. He completed his doctoral studies from the Department of Arabic at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and his thesis being on the role of madrasas in the state of Uttar Pradesh in promoting Arabic and Islamic studies.
[20] Prof. Akhtarul Wasey, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi is an eminent scholar of Islamic studies.
[21] Dr. Rizwan Qaiser is Associate Professor, Department of History, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He has been source of inspiration for youths tobring change in their community. He has been actively involved many developemt projects.
[22] Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan is the Director General of The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. He was President of JNUSU and closely worked with Sunil Dutt for development of the most deprived section of our society.
[23] Dr. Shaheen Ansari is leading a team of researchers to work for integration of madrasa education system with mainstream schooling system. He belives that it is important to equip madrasa graduates with both religious and job oriented knowledge. This seminar was conceptualized and organized by Dr. Ansari. He can be contacted at ansarishaheen@gmail.com .
