2 Bengal madrasas turn a chapter, more Hindus than Muslims on rolls

Islam and Pluralism

02 Feb 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

2 Bengal madrasas turn a chapter, more Hindus than Muslims on rolls

Kolkata: Madrasas across the country may be under the scanner for imparting Islamic fundamentalist teachings and accused of being factories of narrow orthodoxy, but in West Bengal, there are at least two where Hindu students outnumber Muslims. Located about 110 km from Kolkata, the Orgram Chatuspalli High Madrasa in Burdwan district and Kasba MM High Madrasa in Uttar Dinajpur district are known for their academic excellence and secular credentials. While at Orgram, 64 per cent — 555 of the 883 students — are Hindus, at Kasba, 647 of 1,069 students, or 60 per cent, are Hindus. -- Shiv Sahay Singh --- There are some pre-requisites for the policy of equivalence to succeed. First of all there has to be an all India madrasa Board. All madrasas, including the independent ones, have to be compulsorily part of this board. This Board should adopt a common curriculum for all madrasas, which would include modern subjects and English. Sufficient numbers of trained teachers for this purpose should be provided for the Board. -- Arshad Alam ------------     2 Bengal madrasas turn a chapter, more Hindus than Muslims on rolls Shiv Sahay Singh http://www.indianexpress.com/story_print.php?storyid=412421 Posted online: Jan 19, 2009 at 0945 hrs   Kolkata: Madrasas across the country may be under the scanner for imparting Islamic fundamentalist teachings and accused of being factories of narrow orthodoxy, but in West Bengal, there are at least two where Hindu students outnumber Muslims. Located about 110 km from Kolkata, the Orgram Chatuspalli High Madrasa in Burdwan district and Kasba MM High Madrasa in Uttar Dinajpur district are known for their academic excellence and secular credentials. While at Orgram, 64 per cent — 555 of the 883 students — are Hindus, at Kasba, 647 of 1,069 students, or 60 per cent, are Hindus.   "It is not that lack of school facilities has forced the Hindu students in the village to fall back on the madrasa," says Md Younus Ali Baidya, a teacher at Orgram. The Orgram High School, which is Bengali-medium, up to Class XII and affiliated to the West Bengal State Board, is in fact just a stone's throw away. "It is the secular ambience and excellent standard of teaching which draw students," he says. Students leaving the madrasa have a degree equal to higher secondary status.   Even teachers at the madrasa come from both the communities. Of the 11 teachers at the Orgram madrasa, six teachers are Hindus and five Muslim.   Most of the students belong to families of agricultural labourers or daily wage earners. The guardians, who themselves lack formal education, have no hesitation in sending their wards to these institutes or having them study Arabic or Islamic Studies. These two subjects are compulsory in senior classes in madrasas and students have to appear for them in their Class X exam under the West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education.   Kanika Roy, studying in Class X, is one of the best students in Arabic at the Orgram Chatuspalli Madrasa. She can recite "suras" from the Quran and read Arabic as well as her Muslim friends. She also knows the biographies of Islamic saints and one of her favourites is Begum Rokeya, a Muslim social reformer from Bengal.   At the madrasa, students in lower classes get books free of cost while all girl students are given school uniforms in each session.   "What will the children do studying only religious scripts? Instead, we lay more emphasis on teaching science and mathematics," says Headmaster Anwar Hussain.   The madrasa started in a thatched hut in 1975 on land donated by locals. It was affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education in 1980, and in 2005 was granted the status of a High madrasa.   "When I got a job in the madrasa, I was a little hesitant. But working here I realised how different this place is, a very secular institution," says Suprabhat De, a senior teacher at the madrasa.   According to the Headmaster of Kasba MM High Madrasa, Md Gulam Mustafa, the institution since its inception in 1980 has drawn students from all segments. "Guardians from the locality prefer putting their wards in the madrasa becaue of its academic excellence. The students are also open to Arabic language and Islamic Studies," he says.   Like at Orgram, in Dinajpur too, there is a government higher secondary school, Hemtabad, about a kilometre from the Kasba madrasa. However, parents prefer the madrasa. Out of the 11 teachers, three are Hindus.   "We have students who pull rickshaws to earn their livelihood. We keep in constant touch with the parents and guardians and hold regular meetings to help them with books so that they do not drop out," says the headmaster.   West Bengal Minister for Minority Development and Madrasa Education Abduss Sattar says the two institutes only highlight the broadbased nature of all madrasas in the state. "As per the figures, about 15 per cent students and 12 per cent teachers in madrasas across the state are Hindus," he says.   And it's not just in their composition that Orgram and Kasba madrasas are like any other good school. The uniform is fixed, for both girls and boys, and they begin their day hailing the motherland in Bengali and singing the national anthem. --- Degrees Of Populism   Without spending a penny, the government wants to show the Muslims that it is doing something for them -- its move to legally recognise madrasa degrees is a regressive and measure that was tried, with disastrous results, in Pakistan by the Zia ul Haq regime ............ Arshad Alam   One of the key recommendations of the Sachar Committee report was to open quality schools in areas of Muslim concentration. Stating that only about three percent Muslims access madrasa education and that by and large Muslims prefer to enrol their wards in government schools, the recommendation, if made into a policy, would have gone a long way in correcting the abysmal state of education among the Muslims. Rather than doing this, the present government is content to dole out sops, primarily aimed at the madrasas. The recent government announcement of making madrasa degrees at par with a college or university degree is one such example.   There is a lot to be said about this exercise in electoral populism. But first, the economics of it which seems to be fairly clear. The move is targeted at 7000 madrasas controlled by various madrasa boards in India which enrol around 3.5 lakh students. Without spending a penny, the government wants to show the Muslims that it is doing something for them. Providing quality education for the Muslims would have cost the government much more which it clearly does not want to do. The whole exercise of making madrasa degrees equivalent to a regular degree is thus an exercise in vacuous symbolism and will not lead to any substantive benefits to madrasa students.   It is important to understand that there are roughly two kinds of madrasas in India. Some madrasas are affiliated to madrasa boards in various states and apart from teaching Islam, they also teach subjects such as sciences and social sciences. On the other hand, the vast majority of madrasas are independent of these various madrasa boards. They have their own system of examination and they teach their students nothing except Islam. These independent madrasas have successfully resisted attempts from various quarters, including the state, to change their curriculum. Now, the government measure of equivalence of madrasa certificates will only apply to madrasas controlled by the various boards which form only a small part of the madrasa network in India. What is the government doing about the students enrolled in independent madrasas?   There are other problems which should have been thought about before making a policy announcement. Where will the madrasa students gain admission? Madrasa certificates are already recognized for admission in the undergraduate programs of universities such as Jamia, Aligarh and JNU. The latest government move is thus not a novel instrument of policy but merely an extension of something which is already in practice. That apart, most of the madrasa graduates get admission in Urdu, Persian and Arabic departments of these universities. The equivalence criteria will do nothing to change such a state of affairs. If anything else, this academic ghettoisation of Muslim students will only increase in the near future. Without effective curricular reforms, madrasa students would not be admitted in the science or social science departments. As stated earlier, madrasa controlled by the boards do teach modern subjects, but not in English. A madrasa student, entering a university, without even a working knowledge of English, is bound to be involved in a frustrating struggle to cope up with his more fortunate peers.   This frustration can have various political implications. It is important to understand that only few madrasa graduates access regular higher education. Part of the reason is their self-elimination through strategic thinking which tells them that it is futile to think about entering the domain of regular colleges or universities. They have their own religious economy which somehow is able to sustain them. The equivalence criterion gives them false hopes without substantially enhancing their educational capabilities.   They would come to institutions of higher learning only to be disappointed with their inability to crack the code of modern pedagogy. The universities and colleges in turn will label them as 'failures'. Cumulatively this will lead to new kinds of frustrations which could be channelised for a political mobilisation of a not so benign nature. It is important to recall here that a similar exercise was done in Pakistan by the Zia ul Haq regime. While the move allowed madrasa graduates to apply for jobs, the market rejected them as they did not have the requisite educational capital. The fallout of such a policy is there for all to see: Madrasa graduates form an important part of the landscape of terrorism in that country.   There are some pre-requisites for the policy of equivalence to succeed. First of all there has to be an all India madrasa Board. All madrasas, including the independent ones, have to be compulsorily part of this board. This Board should adopt a common curriculum for all madrasas, which would include modern subjects and English. Sufficient numbers of trained teachers for this purpose should be provided for the Board. But for all this to happen, one needs to have a genuine political will. It is true that the government did initiate a measure to form an all India Madrasa Board. But sensing opposition from the Ulama, the plan was shelved in no time. It requires no deep thinking that the Ulama would always oppose such a move by the government: After all why would they surrender their autonomy, more importantly, their financial autonomy? The state, however, needs to look beyond the sectarian interests of the Ulama and focus on the interests of poor and destitute students of the madrasa, even if that means bypassing the madrasa system altogether. The Ulama have been playing with the future of madrasa students for a long time. One can only hope that the state does not do so. Arshad Alam teaches at the Center for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia