Madrasas Produce Maulvis, Not Job Seekers
By Mohammed Wajihuddin
Oct 28, 2012
Most Ulema Don’t Want Government Aid Because It Demands Secular Syllabi in Their Schools
A familiar Urdu couplet that’s chanted in madrasas goes:
Hamein Duniya Se Kya Matlab, Madrasa Hai Watan Mera
Marenge Hum Kitabon Par, Waraq Hoga Kafan Mera
(I am not concerned with the world, the madrasa is my country/
I will die for the books, and the pages will be my shroud).
Although exaggerated, the message in the couplet captures the extreme isolation of the madrasa or religious school for Muslims. Trapped in a medieval mindset, most madrasas in India abhor change. Little wonder then that the state government’s recent proposal to bring madrasas into the mainstream through monetary aid is set to be rebuffed, especially by the Deobandi group. This, despite the fact that the government has made it clear that it will not interfere in the curricula or management.
“We just want them to avail of this financial opportunity and teach their students modern subjects,” says minority affairs minister Naseem Khan, detailing the plan, which is to initially give an annual grant of Rs 2 lakh for infrastructure development and Rs 80,000 to appoint teachers for secular subjects like science, maths and English. The grants will be given to the approximately 3,000 madrasas registered with the state.
Overloaded as it is with Islam—Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic philosophy, Quran and Hadith (traditions of the Prophet)—the madrasa curriculum turns students into Maulvis who are largely unemployable and unemployed in the mainstream job market. Some of them get by as low-paid imams, muezzins and teachers in madrasas; the rest open their own madrasas. There is also a lack of transparency in the running of madrasas, a trend that some Muslim intellectuals and reformists want to change. “Madrasas don’t want reforms and reject the government’s aid because they fear opening their account books to it. Barring a few big madrasas, most don’t want to share the source of their funding. That’s why they insist on maintaining status quo in every aspect of their functioning,” says a reputed educationist.
Votaries of the status quo in madrasa managements counter that reformists fail to understand the purpose of madrasas. “Madrasas are established to produce scholars and experts to promote and protect Islam,” says Mufti Obaidullah Qasmi, a product of Darul Uloom Deoband. “Madrasa students are not meant to be in the queue of job-seekers.”
Qasmi and his ilk refer to the eight-point constitution of Deoband framed by Maulana Qasim Nanautvi, founder of the Deoband seminary, in 1866. “One of the points is that Deoband will not accept government aid and it will not create any permanent source of income. All the madrasas inspired by Deoband ideology follow this—they don’t own properties other than their buildings,” explains Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, director of Markaz ul Maarif, a research centre that teaches madrasa graduates basic English. Burhanuddin adds that once the madrasas start taking government grants, they will cut themselves off the Muslim masses. “Madrasas must run from the donations of the common Muslims, not by funds from business houses or government coffers,” he says.
Maulana Abdus Salam Qasmi, another Deoband graduate, smells a “conspiracy” in the idea of teaching secular subjects in madrasas. “The Sachar Commission said that only four per cent of Muslim children go to madrasas. Why is the government so concerned about them while ignoring the 96 per cent?” he asks.
The conspiracy theorists need to be told that it isn’t the government alone that’s rooting for modernity—a scholar from a Riyadh-based Islamic University also pitched the same when he visited Mumbai recently. Dr Saad Saeed Alqarni wants Indian madrasas to emulate Saudi Arabia, which has incorporated subjects like science, maths, geography and history in madrasa curricula, and got a pilot project approved in two Indian madrasas. “Madrasas should not teach religion alone,” he says. “They must prepare students for both Deen (religion) and Duniya(world).”
Not every madrasa is against modernisation. The Sunnis are more flexible than the Deobandis. “There is no harm in getting a grant to teach modern subjects in madrasas, provided the government ensures non-interference. A Maulvi should know things beyond Islam,” says Maulana Moin Ashraf Qadri, who patronises several madrasas in Maharashtra and UP. However, the likes of Qadri will have to work overtime to change the medieval mindset of most madrasa managers.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/madrasas-produce-maulvis,-job-seekers/d/9129