MADRASA EDUCATION IN INDIA

Madrasa is an institution of learning, where Islamic sciences including literary and philosophical ones are taught. Their aim is to inculcate the belief and practice of Islam among its followers and guide them to follow Quran and traditions of the Prophet.  The foundation of Madrasa education is therefore, basically standing on two pillars of Quran (Collection of God's revelations to Prophet Mohammad) and Sunna (Tradition of Prophet Mohammad). Now how can that be inappropriate and why is this method of education in the eye of the storm today?

We do not need a Rajendra Sachar Committee to tell us that education is the only mechanism that enhances the process of social, economic, and cultural development of communities and along all these three parameters Muslims in India are faring worst. There are several reasons for their backwardness such as large family size, economic poverty, negative attitude towards girl’s education, high school dropout rates among Muslim students, lack of adult education among them, but along with all these reasons a major reason remains the lack of link between madrasa education and modern education which involves proficiency in English language and learning of new skills and technology relevant to the needs of changing world.                                                                                                                                                                                               

Madrasas and Maktabs were built across the country during two centuries of Mogul rule and there are more than 40,000 of them today. Initially their principal function was to train personnel for government service and accordingly curriculum was formulated to cater the administrative needs of Muslim rulers. Times have changed since then but Madrasas have failed to keep pace with the changing times. That is the reason why post Muslim rule these educational institutions have been at best objects of curiosity and at worst suspicious sleeper cells of orthodoxy, religious conservatism, obsession with medieval identity and now anti-national terror. They are today blamed for playing a prominent role in keeping the movement of Muslim separatism alive in this country. The question one needs to ask is that is it Muslim separatism or Muslim identity that they are trying to uphold.

When modern education was introduced during the British Raj Madrasa teachers became restive and developed a more rigid attitude towards religion-centric education for Muslims. The historic participation of madrasa leaders in 1857 revolt against British regime proved that the main objective of traditional Islamic education was to attune the Indian Muslims with aspiration for regaining of political power.  With Ulema playing significant role in the revolt, the British started suspecting madrasas as possible centres of disaffection. 

The British introduced modern education was a threat to the Persho-Arab legacy, which was being propagated only through the madrasas. Rattled by the British system, the Muslims launched a renewed madrasa movement by establishing an Islamic seminary known as Darul Uloom at Deoband in 1866 and by the close of nineteenth century madrasas like Farangi Mahal (Lucknow), and Nadwat-al-Ulama (Lucknow) emerged as vibrant symbols for Muslim separatist movement in India. 

But all Muslims did not think along the same lines. Contrary to Deoband movement Sir Syed Ahmad a British loyalist launched Aligarh movement and established Madrastul Ulum at Aligarh in 1873 for imparting education in modern branches of learning, which later became Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College and then Aligarh Muslim University. So when today we talk of modernizing the mardasas, this is a no new political bogey, the eminent educationist Sir Syed Ahmed knew even then the gross inadequacies of madrasa education! He criticized them for encouraging memorizing rather than real understanding and felt that by organically relating all forms of knowledge and gearing these to dogmatic theology the very sources of intellectual fecundity were blighted and possibility of original thinking stifled.

While Sir Syed Ahmed’s basic aim was to fashion the education policy for Indian Muslims and encourage them towards the mainstream of western education there was a major offshoot. An attitude of social exclusivism developed among the Muslims and it worked as catalyst in fostering Muslim communal consciousness causing major damage to Hindu-Muslim unity in the Indian sub-continent. Later it gave birth to the All India Muslim League and its two-nation theory, which ultimately resulted in the partition of India.

So the future of madrasa education in Hindu dominated secular and democratic Indian polity became an issue of primary concern for both the Nation as well as the madrasas. The Nation could not forget the pain of partition and remained always suspicious about what was cooking inside the madrasas. The madrasas in post-colonial India were plagued with the wrong impression about alleged Hindu-biased education.  Instead of joining hands with Hindus in national reconstruction programmes, Indian Muslims took up the problem of their separate identity as primary concern and failed to avail the equal opportunity provided to all the Indian citizens under constitution. Instead of being Indian first and Muslims next, they chose to become Muslims first and Indians next, insisted on an education system which will foster their religious identity rather than their national identity!

Even Islamic institutions like Deoband and Nadwa, which had maintained strategic opposition to partition of the country hardly, made any change in their courses of study and method of teaching even after Independence. They have, along with very many lesser known madrasas produced thousands of graduates, religiously and theologically strong and inflexible but practically unskilled and unemployable. They are therefore, equally responsible for the material plight of the Indian Muslims and for their economic, social and educational backwardness as we see today. Even the contemporary rationalist Muslim thinkers, who talk about Islamic modernism, have hardly overcome their medieval attitude of intellectual subjugation. They have in fact ignored the real problem that how far madrasa education would be relevant in contemporary social advancement of the country. If they still enjoy remaining under the subjugation of radical Islamists no one can stop them from slipping rapidly down the educational and economic scale. With fewer madrasas for girls and strict segregation of sexes the education of the girl child is worse hit and so automatically 50% of the future work force is remaining uneducated and obviously unemployable.

Memorization of Islamic scriptures without any rational understanding befitting to the contemporary cultural and social environment will surely not serve the real purpose of education. In view of the ongoing changes in the social, cultural, economic, and political environment drastic changes are required in madrasa system of education so that Indian Muslims could come to terms with the changing needs of contemporary Indian society. Computer science, Mathematics, foreign languages, vocational training, skill development, all need to go into this education system to make it socially relevant and make the students employable.

Without any concern for the material progress of Indian Muslims madrasas are only producing Alims and Fazils who are Islamic zealots so that they could remain loyal to Islam and to the political interest of Muslim community.  Emphasis on Islamic education at the cost of secular education is detrimental to national interest. There is no harm in having Quran in one hand if they have computer in the other and have a world view instead of a tubular vision, a medieval mindset and a rigid and sclerotic outlook.