Creating a controversy on the issue of the Board betrays a lack of determination on the part of the government. More dangerously, it diverts public attention from the educational needs of the millions of Muslim children from impoverished families who do not attend madrasas.
By Arshad Amanullah
Madrasas have been a hotly-discussed topic in the media for some years now. The ongoing controversy regarding the establishment of an All-India Central Madrasa Board has again brought madrasas to the attention of the media. The National Commission for Minority Education Institutions has been trying for some time to popularize the idea of such a Board on the lines of the CBSE or ICSE. Justice Siddiqui, Chairman of the Commission, has insisted that affiliation to the proposed Board will be voluntary and that the Board will be free from state control.
Yet, many ulama have stiffly opposed the proposal. They argue that the Board might be a means through which the government would seek to interfere in the internal affairs of the madrasas. “We want the Government to leave the madrasas alone”, urged Kamal Faruqi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board member. In the same vein, Maulana Marghubur Rehman Qasmi, Vice Chancellor of the Deoband madrasa, has also declared the Board as “the antithesis of the soul of the madrasas”. He has appealed to madrasas not to be trapped by the bait offered by the proposed Board.
Reports of the ulama gatherings in all parts of the country and their statements condemning the proposed Board have flooded the Urdu media. Earlier, the ulama were unanimously opposed to it while of late some ulama have gradually started coming forth in its support. Interestingly, several ‘ordinary’ Muslims, as appears from a perusal of letters to the editors of various Urdu newspapers, have expressed
their solidarity with pro-Board ulama.
Those who have reservations about the setting up of the Board should give a thought to the fact that in a number of states, madrasa boards already exist for years. The madrasas affiliated them have never complained of even a semblance of action aimed at interfering in their internal affairs on the part of their respective boards. Many ulema would agree to join a government-aided madrasa as the salary package in such madrasas is much better. Further, the proposed Board will also will pave the way for the uniformity of the madrasa curriculum, making it easy for the government universities to recognize the degrees of the madrasas. Moreover, it will reduce the dominance of affluent people in the madrasa administration. In some cases, despite madrasas being funded through public donations, heredity happens to form the basis to inherit their administrative control. The establishment of the Board will definitely be problematic to this breed of the madrasa managers.
Another argument of those who are against the Board is that the quality of the education in the state board-affiliated madrasas is disturbingly appalling and, therefore, their graduates command less respect and reverence in the society. It goes without saying that the teaching staff, not the government, should to be blamed for this. Apart from this, what worries many ulama is that through the Board the government will be at a relatively better position to mount pressure to incorporate modern sciences in the core madrasa curriculum. Not only the conservative but some of the pro-reform ulama are also skeptical about the intentions of the government regarding this particular issue.
Jamiat ul-Hidaya, Jaipur, which I recently visited, is blazing a trail of reform in the domain of the madrasa curriculum. Besides providing religious education, it also trains its students in professional trades. From its Vice-Chancellor Maulana Mujaddidi, I learnt that the Jamia had a vision to come up with a campus as large as that of any government university. Although it has enough money to do so, the Rajasthan government does not let it go ahead with its plan. “If the government is not allowing the Jamia to construct buildings with its own money on its on land, how can one believe that it will spend money for the betterment of the madrasa community and that too without any design?”, asks Yunus Shamsi, a graduate of Jamiat ul- Hidaya. He further asks why the government is so worried about the madrasas while only about 4 per cent of the Muslim children attend them. If the government really cares for the educational progress of the Muslims, he says, it should, instead of politicizing the Central Madrasa Board controversy, concentrate on helping the rest 96 per cent Muslim children. There is certainly considerable merit in this argument.
Along the lines of reforms proposed by advocates of the Central Madrasa Board, the Arabic Madrasa Teachers’ Association in Uttar Pradesh has demanded that the Government should set up an Arabic university which should recognize the highest degree of madrasas affiliated to the state madrasa boards. It should be borne in mind that, acting on the recommendations of the Sanskrit Committee Report, in 1956 the Sanskrit College in Varanasi was provided the status of Sanskrit University. Now, all Pathshalas of the country which offer a reformed syllabus, are linked to it and their degrees are considered equivalent to those of other government universities. Citing this experiment in Pathshala education, the Arabic Madrasa Teachers’ Association has been pushing for the same kind of experiment in the case of madrasas.
Reform in the madrasa curriculum and system is a must and the setting up of Board or an Arabic university on the above lines will definitely prove a big leap towards the same. This calls for strong political will and action on the part of the government. Creating a controversy on the issue of the Board betrays a lack of determination on the part of the government. More dangerously, it diverts public attention from the educational needs of the millions of Muslim children from impoverished families who do not attend madrasas.
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Arshad Amanullah is a graduate of the Jamia Salafiya, Varanasi and the Mass Communications Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Based in New Delhi, he works as a freelance writer and documentary film maker. He can be contacted on [email protected]