The Central Madrasa Board: Should be or not be Constituted?

The madrasa as an ideological space has been, for one reason or another, in sharp focus for a few years. The present controversy regarding the establishment of the Central Madrasa Board has again provided an opportunity to re-articulate intricacies of the madrasa discourse anew.

The National Commission for Minority Education Institutions has been trying for some time to win the confidence of the Muslim community to constitute the Central Madrasa Board on the lines of CBSE or ICSE. In confidence building-gesture, Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui, Chairman of the NCMEI, has assured more than one time that affiliation to the proposed CMB will be voluntary. He has also stated that it will be set up through an Act of Parliament and will be free from all hues of the state control.

Despite all these assurances, Justice Siddiqui is encountering stiff resistance on the part of the ulama. It is seen as a potential channel through which the government seeks to interfere into the internal affairs of the madrasas. “We want the Government to leave the madrasas alone”, urged Kamal Faruqi, the 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 CMB as “antithesis to the soul of the madrasas”. Moreover, he appealed all Indian madrasas not to be entrapped in this state noose. He was addressing a meeting of the Rabita Madaris-e-Arabia on December 4, held in the seminary town.

Reports of the ulama gatherings in all parts of the country and their condemning statements flooded the Urdu media for a period. A constant monitoring of the media reportage on the issue reveals a shift in the position of the ulama regarding their opposition to the CMB. Earlier they were unanimously opposed to it while towards the end of the last month, a number of ulama gradually started coming fore in its support. Consequently, it caused fissures in certain organizations. For example, All India Milli Council got divided on the issue: Maulana Abdullah Moghaisi, the President of the AIMC, opposed the CMB while Maulana Abdul Ahad Qasmi Tarapuri, the vice-President, came to openly join the pro-CMB camp. Interestingly, “a silent majority of the Muslim community” through letters to the editor in Urdu dailies like Qaumi Awaz and Rashtriya Sahara, both from Delhi, increasingly expressed their solidarity with pro-CMB ulama.

Those who have reservations about the setting up of the CMB, should give a thought to the fact that in a number of states, madrasa boards already exist for years. The madrasas affiliated them, never pointed out to even a semblance of action aimed at interfering in their internal affairs on the part of their respective boards. This writer has never come across a single alim who has refused to join a government-aided madrasa as the salary package in such madrasas is lucratively better. At present, it will be difficult to find out two madrasas offering same syllabus. On contrary, the CMB 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 the affluent people in the madrasa administration. There are instances that despite funded by the public donations, heredity happens to form the basis to inherit the administrative control of some big madrasas. The establishment of the CMB will definitely be problematic to this breed of the madrasa bosses.

Another major argument of those who are against the CMB 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 all these, what worries the ulama is that through the CMB the government will be at a relatively better position to mount pressures to incorporate modern sciences in the core madrasas curriculum. Not only the conservative but some of the pro-reform ulama are also skeptical about the intention of the government regarding this particular issue.

During a fieldwork, I recently spent some time in the campus of Jameatul Hidaya, Jaipur. This madrasa is blazing a trail of reform in the domain of the madrasa curriculum as it trains its students in one of three professional trades (computer, mechanical and electrical), along with grooming them in the religious sciences. During interactions with its vice chancellor Maulana Ziyaur Rahim Mojaddidi, I learnt that the Jamea had a vision to come up with a campus as large as that of any government university. Though 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 Jamea 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 is too without any design?”, asks Yunus Shamsi, a graduate of Jameatul 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 has political will for the educational uplift of the Muslims, it should, instead of politicizing the CMB controversy, concentrate on the rest of the 96 per cent Muslim children.

Along the line of reforms proposed in the CMB draft, the Teachers Association Madaris-e-Arabiya, UP, demanded that New Delhi 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 the mind that acting on the recommendations of the Sanskrit Committee report, Sanskrit College, Varanasi has been raised in 1956 to the status of the Sanskrit University through Act no.28. 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 the regime of Pathshala education, the TAMA has been pushing for the same kind of experiment in madrasas since its inception in 1972.

Reform in the madrasa curriculum and system is a must and setting up of the CMB or an Arabic university will definitely prove a big leap towards the same. It calls for strong political will and action on the part of the UPA government. Creating controversy on the issue betrays lack of the same determination on the part of the ruling alliance. More dangerously, it diverts the attention from the educational needs of the minus-madrasa Muslim civil society.

(This piece is also available at:

http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1502&Itemid=58)

Madrasa Education Boards

Though madrasas are mostly funded by the public donations, there are other sources from which they get funding. So, speaking in terms of finance, there are two kinds of madrasas in India: autonomous madrasas that are run by public donations and government affiliated madrasas that are financed by state governments.Madrasa Aliya in Kolkata, is the first example of such madrasas, which was started by the British regime in 1780.

In the last fifty years, Madrasas Education Boards have come up in Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. 110950 students are enrolled in 421 madrasas affiliated to West Bengal Madrasa Education Board, Kolkata.<1> In 1991, 13406 students appeared in different examinations conducted by the Board.

Table: Number of students and madrasas affiliated to the West Bengal Madrasa Board

Type of the Affiliated Madrasas	No of Madrasas (till March 1992)	No of Students
Senior Madrasa	93	19450
High Madrasa	174	56500
Junior High Madrasa	140	32500
Junior Madrasa	13	2500

(Source: Report of Education Commission, West Bengal, August, 1992.)

Senior madrasa is considered to be the equivalent to 12^th standard of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. In Bihar, about 1600 madrasas are affililiated to the Bihar Madrasa Education Board which arranges for the salary of those who teach in these madrasas. Number of madrasas affiliated to UP Madrasa Education Board stands at 375.Their educational system comes under its supervision. Faculties of 229 madrasas draw their salary from the Board. The Orissa Madrasa Board, an employer of 254 teachers, has 79 madrasas under its control. Its annual budget (1994-95) is estimated at Rs.63, 83,300. Unlike other states, madrasas in Assam, like other secular educational institutions, are directly affiliated to the Secondary Board and Senior Secondary Board. So; both the Boards conduct examinations for madrasas.In the state, there are three types of madrasas: High madrasas (standard V to X), Aaliya Madrasas (class I to BA.) and Title Madrasas (from B.A. onwards).<2> Similarly, in Maharashtra some have got themselves recognized by the Maharashtra Board of Secondary Education and their students appear in the common SSC Examination of the Board. The certificates issued by all the above-mentioned Board are recognized with some of the government universities and enable the certificate holder to get higher modern education also. The teachers of madrasa board’s affiliated madrasas usually get their salary from the respective boards.<3>

---

<1> The new Budhadeb government in West Bengal has raised the status of the West Bengal Madrasa Board to that of a separate misnistry.Earlier the Board used to work under the Ministry of Education.Abdus Sattar; the CPM MLA from Aamdanga has been sworn as the first minister of this newly constituted Ministry for Madrasa Education. Of more than thousand madrasas of the State, only 506 are affiliated to the Board while 70 % of the Muslims of the State rely on madrasas for their primary and secondary education. (Rashtriya Sahara, the Urdu Daily, New Delhi edition, dated: May21, 05.06).

<2> Qamruddin, Dr. (1996), Hindustan KI Deeni Darsgahen (Kul Hind Survey), Hamdard Education Society, New Delhi.p78-80.

<3>.Ibid,p78

Madrasas in Contemporary India

As none have surveyed all the madrasas of the country and collected the information, the exact number of madrasas in India is shrouded in mystery. However, some surveys conducted by renowned organizations like Hamdard Education Foundation, Institute of Objective Studies and National Council for Educational Research Training (1973) differ in their findings. Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, quoting the government sources, puts it at something around 25,000 <1> while according to Yoginder Sikand their number is estimated at some thirty-forty thousand.<2> Another reason of the controversy regarding the number of the madrasas is that there is no standard definition of madrasas in India. They defy any particular pattern in terms of the education, infrastructure, number of intakes and funding but in common all are called madrasa.Muhammuadullah Khalili Qasmi has divided all these Islamic educational institutions into four types:

1. Maktab

2. Madrasa

3. Jamia and

4. Darul Qur’an. <3>

Madrasas in India are, mostly, run by donations from Muslim community and even some receive foreign donations also. The teachers are paid their salary from the donations the madrasas collect. They get a meager amount as remuneration .Madrasas, apart from free education; provide the students with free food, free lodgings and other facilities like clothe, medicine, shoe and so on if they need.<4>

Any generalization regarding the Madrasa curriculum will distort the reality as every madrasa follows its own pattern in the matter of curriculum. There is no uniformity with regard to subjects, books or emphasis. Likewise, the numbers of years for preparing students for the various degrees differ from madrasa to madrasa.All Hanafi madrasas follow modified/distorted Dars-e-Nizami with difference in emphasis as in the Deoband madrasa, the emphasis is on Hanafi jurisprudence while Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow attach importance to Arabic literature. After 1948, a large number of madrasas came up under the aegis of Jamat –e-Islami following their own pattern of curriculum. It prepares students simultaneously for both a modern degree examination and for the madrasa examination for the degrees of Aalimiat, Fazeelat etc.<5> In 1986, came up a new institution at Jaipur called Jamiatul Hidaya,<6> which in fact signified the latest trend in the madrasa curriculum. The accent on the technical education in the curriculum has made it distinct from other madrasas. Owing to its utility and relevance to the present circumstances, the Jamiatul Hidaya curriculum has begun to be followed by other madrasas like Madrasa Falah-e-Darain at Turkesar in Surat and Jamia Sabilus Salam at Barkus in Hyderabad.<7>

The following are the subjects taught in madrasas to enable the students to understand Islam from its original sources:

a. Translation of the Glorious Qur’an

b.Tafseer (Commentary of the Qur’an or Exegesis)

c.Usul-e-Tafseer (principles related to Commentary of the Glorious Qur’an)

d.Tajweed (Art of Qur’anic pronunciation)

e. Qira’at (Art of Recitation of the Qur’an)

f.Hadith, Science of Traditions

g.Usul-e-Hadith (principles related to Science of Traditions)

h.Fiqh (jurisprudence or Islamic Law)

i.Usul-e-Fiqh (Principles related to Islamic jurisprudence)

j.Nahv and Sarf (Arabic Grammar, Syntax)

k.Arabic Language with essay writing and composition to develop the understanding of Arabic

l.Arabic literature

m.Mantiq (Logic)

n.Islamic History, History of Arabic Literature etc.

o.Ma’ani and Balaghat (Articulation of Arabic)

p.Philosophy

q.Kalam (Scholasticism)

r.Aqaid (Beliefs)

s.Tasawwuf (Sufism)

t.Geography

u.Arithmatic

v.Rhetoric

w.Philology

x.Calligraphy

The specialization courses that are called takhassus, provide the students with education in a specific field. Generally there are specialization courses for Arabic Literature, Fiqh, Hadith, Tafseer, Islamic Studies and Tajweed.

*****

<1> Bhaumik, Saba Naqvi (2001), “Old-School Ties”, Outlook, 31December, New Delhi.

<2> Sikand, Yoginder (2002), Madrasas in a Morass: Between Medievalism and Muslimophobia-1, 19 June, www.ercwilcom.net. See also by the same author: Bastions of the Believers: Madrasas and Islamic Education in India, Penguin, New Delhi.2005.

<3> Qasmi, Muhammadullah Khalili (2005), Madrasa Education: Its Strength and Weakness.Manak.Delhi.P.72-73.

<4> Qari Mohammad Usman Qasmi, the pro VC of the Deoband madrasa told: Students are given books. And two pairs of clothes every six months. Apart from this, the madrasa also honors its meritorious students with scholarships”(An interview with Qari Mohammad Usman at Darul Uloom on May 18,2006.).

<5> Syed Salman Husain Nadwi is of the opinion that nowadays only two types of syllabus are in vogue in the madrasas of the subcontinent: Deobandi syllabus which is based on the Dars-e-Nizami and Nadwi syllabus .Madrasas of Jama’at-e-Islami and those of the Ahl-e-Hadees sect also follow the Nadwi syllabus in a way or the other. See: Nadwi, Syed Salman Husaini (2004), Hamara Nisab-e-Ta’lim Kya Ho? Jamia Syed Ahmed Shaheed, Lucknow.p121.

<6>See: http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15072002/1507200258.htm

<7>. Siddiqui, Mohammad Akhtar (1998)”Developments and Trends in Madrasa Education”, in Education &Muslims in India since Independence, pp83, 84, IOS, New Delhi.

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[Islah-e-Samaj(an Ahl-e-Hadis madrasa Hindi monthly),Delhi,May 2007, p23].

Grappling With ‘The West’ Question

“Compared to such Hindu and Buddhist modernists as Vivekananda and Dharampala, the Muslim intellectuals were more divided in their attitudes towards the West. Some of them, such as the young Turkish intellectuals of the early twentieth century, wished to totally remake their countries along western lines so as to achieve the power and affluence that the West possessed. There were many others who chose the way of suspicion or antipathy. Iqbal stressed the need of Indian Muslims to form their own state where they could follow Islam in its most spiritual form and resist the material ways of the West. Qutb advocated a return to the Koran and preached revolutionary violence against the West and its values, which he saw incarnated in Arab nation states.

“But whether choosing nationalism or revolution, almost all of these intellectuals from colonized countries seemed inadvertently to admit that the West had become the best source of ideas about effecting large-scale change and organizing human society. They admitted the need for modernization, even the sphere of religion, and for cultivating a rational and scientific outlook.”

(Mishra, Pankaj, An End To Suffering: The Buddha In The World, p 144, Picador, London,2004 ).

Reflections On The Madrasa Education

View 10

“Why should zakat and fitra donations be for religious studies alone? Why not modern education? Why should poor Muslim students have to go to madrasahs? If modern residential schools are set up with zakat and fitra money, do you think most of our children would be drawn to religious studies? It is said that a Muslim has to learn and follow defined guidelines of personal conduct. One must go to a madrasah to know the rules. Are we to assume that Muslims alone have rules of conduct, and others don’t? Must Hindus then go to tols and muths to learn such rules?”

View 11

“…Many madrasahs have Hindu students also. When a Hindu boy comes out of a madrasah and pursues studies elsewhere, is he converted to Islam? Similarly, many Muslim students study in Hindu schools. Do they become Hindus? So what is the problem? What’s wrong with having many different systems of education? A particular community may very well think that it wishes to impart religious education. The Ramakrishna Mission boys in spite of their religious training turn out to be good students too. I think criticism of separate education of Muslims arises because we are suspicious of Muslims, we think they are terrorists and unpatriotic. So there (?) education system is bad too”.

Dasgupta, Subhendu (compiler), Muslim-Hindu Dialogue: Issues-Queries-Arguments,p6, Ebong Alap, Kolkata, (2005).

Role of Wahabism in the Freedom Struggle of India

Raj historian Charles Allen in his latest book, God’s Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult And The Hidden Roots Of Modern Jihad,  argues that acts of terror across the globe have their roots in the more militant Wahabi sect of Muslims. He now has to face criticism from India’s Deobandis, whom he links to Wahabism and therefore to terrorism as well. The same is evident from his answer to one of the questions asked by Labonita Ghosh during an interview for the daily newspaper DNA.

You see elements of Wahabism even in the 1857 uprising?

The founders of the Wahabi school undoubtedly fought the British, even though the British didn’t know it. They didn’t fight as freedom fighters, but as part of an attempt to restore Islam to the whole of India. In India, Wahabism found its proponents in the Deobandhi school in Delhi. Today there are 10,000 Deobandhi madrassahs around the world, and many of them unfortunately preach jihad. Critics say you are pandering to a modern prejudice about Muslims, and ratifying a conservative view through your book.

It is a matter for regret that neo-cons in the US have responded to my book and seen that as more evidence to show that Muslims are not to be trusted, and so on. This causes me great distress. But I don’t think my book is inaccurate. It is up to my critics now to prove that the early Deobandhi movement was not violent and to show that the Deobandhi movement in Pakistan was not linked to Wahabism.

For full interveiw:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1064782&CatID=23

John Walsh, Assistant Professor at Shinawatra International University, Bangkok, perhaps moved by this controversy regarding God’s Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult And The Hidden Roots Of Modern Jihad, suggests : “This book should be compulsory reading for anyone with any influence in shaping international policies and relations”.

For full review:

http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/arb/article.php?article=748

ITI Centers in Madrasas

Dr. Abdul Bari Madani has established in Domaria Ganj, a town in the district of Siddhartha Nagar, UP, a madrasa called Khairul Uloom.Under its aegis, runs a technical center known as “Khair Technical Centre”. It is famous in the region for the free technical education it provides to the madrasa graduates as well as whosoever is interested in learning technical know-how of a particular type of machine. A good number of madrasa students prefer to learn the technical expertise as it ensures them job which can fetch a constant and handsome income at the end of every month. Such technical centers, along with madrasas, are becoming rather more visible phenomena. In this connection, mention of technical centre running under Jamiatul Tauheed,Kishan Ganj,Bihar and of the center under Jamia Ibn-e-Taimiya, Chandanwara,West Champaran, Bihar should be made. Construction of the three-storied building for M.A.K.Azad Technical Institute is near completion in the campus of Jamia Ibne Taimiya. Under the government scheme of N.C.V.T., the Institute will offer ITI courses in the these trades: 1.Plumbering 2.Electrician 3.Computer software and hardware 4.Tailoring 5.Air conditioners 6.Mechanical 7.Electronics.(Hyder, Mohd.Razi (2003), “Jamia me Asri Uloom aur Science wa Technology ki Talim”,p110-11.Tooba (monthly), Special issue on Jamia Ibn-e-Taimiya, Nov-Dec, 2003).

The madrasa graduates are not out of the sphere of influence of the BPO industry. Having honed their communication skills and attained command on the modern Arabic, they are joining the pack of those youth who are benefiting from the boom in the ITEs jobs.

Physical Training for Students in the Deoband Madrasa

“The curriculum provides a sort of physical training for all students. In the beginning, it consisted of some quasi military exercises which led people to remark sarcastically that the Darul Ulum was a ‘madrasah-i-harbiyah  (Military School) instead of a ‘madrasah-i- Arabiyah’ ( Arabic School).  Mawlana Nanawtawi was ready for the retort and explained the measure in terms of its worldly usefulness and ‘ shar’I’ validity for an active social life. But it seems that later it ceased to attract the attention of the management and gradually became a neglected optional aspect of the Darul Ulum life”.

(Faruqi , Ziya-ul-hasan (1963), The Deoband School And The Demand For Pakistan, P 37, Asia Publishing House, Bombay).

The Biggest Lie Of the Muslim Society

“It’s the biggest lie to claim that there’s no discrimination among Muslims.” he( Ali Anwar) says. “This was the claim on whose basis a very beneficial social legislation   enacted by  the British in 1935 was struck down by the Indian   government in  1950.  Despite  backward caste and dalit Muslims forming  the overwhelming  majority of  the Muslims  of Bihar,  they  have historically remained  victims  of  deep-rooted  discrimination.  Instead  of taking measures for the welfare of this huge population, the State has been promoting the ashrafs, who are only a tiny minority, as Muslim ‘leaders’. ” Anwar is himself a backward Muslim from the Ansari caste.

For details:

http://tehelka.com/story_main28.asp?filename=Cr140407Shadow_lines.asp