{"id":104634,"date":"2018-01-08T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=104634"},"modified":"2018-01-07T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T14:58:12","slug":"the-madrasa-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/01\/the-madrasa-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Madrasa Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

4 Jan 2018 – <\/em>The silhouette of the large mosque, brick-like but for a bulbous dome, looks\u00a0blurry in the downpour\u00a0past the minarets as the imposing wide red brick gates, herald you into the hallowed precincts of an institution\u2014one of the most influential\u00a0institutions in the world that frames Islamic discourse in the subcontinent. The\u00a0occasional rain is heavy, lending a sparkle to the green paddies and a scent of the moist earth to the air.<\/p>\n

This is Darul Uloom, the hallowed seminary, now in its 150th year,\u00a0the beacon for Asian\u00a0madrasas<\/em> (Islamic seminaries).\u00a0\u00a0It is the spiritual lodestar for South Asia\u2019s 500 million Muslims and considered a \u201ccitadel of Islam\u201d amid the westernisation of the subcontinent. The town is Deoband, a placid north Indian habitation where Hindus and Muslims peacefully coexist to the eternal rhythms of sowing and harvesting. Inside, room after room is filled with students wrapped in shawls against the winter chill and wearing crocheted skullcaps. They sit cross-legged on carpets, reading from Qur\u2019ans that lay open before them, resting on low wooden bookstands.\u00a0They are supervised by teachers, most of them respected elders, with shaved upper lips and faces framed by\u00a0\u00a0 scraggly\u00a0\u00a0 beards, many of them dyed with henna. Several of them flaunt, on their foreheads, puffy, nickel-sized\u00a0 \u00a0bruises that pious Muslims acquire from intense and regular prayers. Every waking hour of the day is geared to an exercise called\u00a0tahfiz\u2014<\/em>learning the Qur\u2019an by heart. A Muslim who has memorized all 6,236 verses of the Qur\u2019an earns the right to be called a\u00a0hafiz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>across the world have suffered a\u00a0great loss of reputation recently, primarily owing to a wave of extremism.\u00a0These Islamic schools have been maliciously projected as incubators of\u00a0holy warriors\u00a0or\u00a0what has been derisorily called as \u2018jihad machines\u2019. \u00a0However, the negative stereotypes that we get to read in sections of the media do not present the true picture. The majority of\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>actually present an opportunity, not a threat. For young village kids, they may be their only path to literacy.\u00a0For parents mired in poverty,\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>serve a vital role in ensuring their children are supervised, fed and taught. Madrasas fulfil a vital function by helping develop leaders capable of leading the Muslim community in religious matters.<\/p>\n

Maulana Qasim Nomani, the present Vice Chancellor or Rector of the Deoband seminary is at pains to point out the patriotic zeal of the seminary\u2019s early leaders. Maulana Mahmood-ul-Hasan\u2014widely regarded as the first student and who later taught at the seminary\u2014was a part of the nationalist government-in-exile, set up in 1915 in Kabul which was headed by Raja Mahendra Pratap and had Maulana Barkatullah as foreign minister in what is known as the Silk Letter Conspiracy. Deoband\u2019s early leaders such as Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani and Maulana Ozair Gul were arrested and kept under detention on the island of Malta for a number of years.\u00a0\u00a0 Mahmood-ul-Hasan gave the fatwa of \u201ctark-e-mawalat<\/em>\u00a0(boycott of goods)\u201d to boycott every English product. This was one of the effective instruments against the colonial rulers which later even Mahatma Gandhi adopted. Nomani \u00a0debunks charges of extremism\u00a0\u00a0 as farfetched ,rolling his eyes as he lets out a dismissive laugh. He considers it a very facile stereotype. His students who proudly love to be called \u201cDeobandis\u201d are clear about one conviction. \u201dIndia is our motherland and we love it.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0system is a thousand years old. The first major academic institution in the Muslim world, however, was founded by Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi (1018-1092), the celebrated Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Later, Nizam al-Mulk established numerous\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>all over the empire that, in addition to providing Islamic knowledge, imparted secular education in the fields of science, philosophy, public administration, and governance. The earliest recorded South Asian madrasa was established in Ajmer, India in 1191.<\/p>\n

The spread\u00a0of\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>played a key role\u00a0in the consolidation of doctrinal positions and legal thinking which now form the dominant position among Sunnis. In time, the Shias developed their own religious seminaries, called\u00a0hawzas<\/em>, which play a similar role. Some of the most famous\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0are the Deoband in India, al-Azhar in Egypt, Hawzas of Qum in Iran and the Zaytunia in Tunisia.<\/p>\n

From the 18th century, large parts of the Muslim world engaged with modernity in its colonial form\u2014an encounter that transformed almost all aspects of Muslim societies. Modern schools, higher education institutions, new official languages, and, above all, a new epistemology was introduced.\u00a0Madrasas<\/em>\u00a0continued to provide religious instructions, though in the process they went through remarkable transformations in form, teaching and, to some extent, content.<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0the 18th-century scholar\u00a0Mulla Nizamuddin Sahalvi who designed the educational curriculum for\u00a0the mainstream Indian madrasas. Thus, the curriculum was named after him as \u201cDars-e-Nizami\u201d.<\/p>\n

The first War of Indian independence of 1856 marked a division of the composite\u00a0madrasa <\/em>education into secular and religious spaces. This division can be seen in the Deoband and Aligarh traditions, where Sir Syed Ahmed Khan emphasised the development of an educational system according to the need of the time while Deoband insisted on preserving religious values and tradition in the Indian subcontinent.<\/p>\n

Darul Uloom was founded in 1866 to preserve Muslim identity and heritage in the face of British imperialism, which had replaced the rule of the Mughals, India\u2019s Muslim conquerors.\u00a0Feeling that their backs were against the wall, the\u00a0<\/em>madrasa<\/em>\u2019s<\/em> founders reacted against what they saw as the degenerate ways of the old elite. The leaders of Deoband, therefore, went back to Qur\u2019anic basics and rigorously stripped out anything Hindu or European from the curriculum.\u00a0Deoband\u2019s founders made it the centre for a \u201cnewfound scriptural conservatism in Islam\u201d, according to Alexander Evans, a British diplomat who researched South Asian\u00a0madrasas<\/em>. \u201c<\/em>The foundation of Darul Uloom also marked a closing of doors to modern knowledge, which was now seen as polluting because of its association with the British,<\/em>\u201d he wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ideological foundations of the seminary have been distilled in a set of seven cardinal principles that define the school\u2019s charter (maslak<\/em>). \u00a0These are: (1) conformity with Islamic law (shari\u2019a), (2) Sufi-inspired self-purification and the search for spiritual perfection (suluk-i batin), (3) conformity to the principles that guided the Prophet and his companions (sunna),(4) reliance on the Hanafi law school, (5) certitude and stability in true beliefs with reference to the Hanafi theologian al-Maturidi, (6) removal of unlawful things (munkirat), and especially the refutation of polytheism, innovations, atheism and materialism, and (7) adherence to the principles personally embodied by the founders of the school, Muhammad Qasim and Rashid Gangohi.<\/p>\n

While Deoband and its clones did not compromise on puritanism, there was a movement of educational reforms from within the realms of Islamic educationists that strongly believed that in the absence of modern education, Muslims will be unable to compete in the global employment market. These educationists were driven by social and economic concerns and believed that the community should adapt itself to the new currents.<\/p>\n

The Darul Uloom educates 3,500\u00a0students for the 13 years it takes each to graduate. 800\u00a0are chosen for admission each year from 10,000\u00a0applicants. There are no tuition fees. \u00a0The boys have rigorous Islamic studies, but also bookbinding and IT proficiency. The\u00a0Deoband seminary\u00a0is also famous for its\u00a0fatwas<\/em>\u00a0which it sends to the world in English, Urdu and other languages including Arabic. However, with even clerics preferring to send their children to mainstream schools,\u00a0madrasas <\/em>attract very mediocre talents. The quality of scholarship is also declining.<\/p>\n

Critics often charge the\u00a0madrasa\u00a0system of anachronism, citing its insistence on the supreme pedagogical value of the old texts. The traditionalists argue that, apart from connecting students to the canonical tradition, the \u201cNizami curriculum\u201d enhances the student\u2019s mastery of every discipline and enables scholars to solve any contemporary problem.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Madrasa<\/em>\u00a0education in India is caught between the need to maintain its exclusive identity as a centre of Islamic studies and culture and at the same time to remain relevant to the present imperatives of the community.<\/p>\n

Secular Muslim educationists also tend to agree that curriculums are often fossilised, with some science and philosophy texts dating back to the 13th or 14th centuries. \u00a0What is dispiriting is that most graduates are qualified to do nothing in the modern world except become a preacher or open yet another\u00a0madrasa<\/em>. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, leading\u00a0ulemas<\/em>\u00a0(a body of Muslim scholars who are recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology) are themselves conscious of the need for change in the\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>system. There is mounting pressure for change both in the texture of education as also in the pedagogy and the contents of the curriculum.<\/p>\n

The issue of reforms is however quite complex and the adoption of state-led modernisation has a complex interplay of several factors such as trust, financial incentives, the impact of state-led policies on the functioning of\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and its implications on the community resources which the\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0are now accessing their finances,\u00a0and of course the faultiness within Islam that are manifested in the various strains of Islamic thought that pervaded the faith.<\/em><\/p>\n

Islam is not a monolith and\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0owe allegiance to diverse schools of thought which are hybridising into further new strains. The government\u2019s understanding and strategy on dealing with\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>need to evolve and transform from a black-and-white perception to a more wholesome one.\u00a0The policymakers need to be more sensitive to the sentiments of Islamic clerics and attempts must be made against allowing the discussion to get reduced to \u2018secular versus non-secular\u2019 and \u2018pro-Hindu versus anti-Muslim\u2019 debates. The deep reservations of\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>managers about the government are all not ill-founded and several of the duplicitous actions and policies of the state give enough ground for a creeping scepticism.While it is true that most\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>have outlived their role, they need not be decimated. What they need is essentially a makeover in a way that respects traditional sensibilities and attempts to synergise classical and modern learning.<\/p>\n

A number of\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>across India have adopted so-called secular, modern education by introducing regular mainstream educational subjects in\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>curriculum, seeking recognition of their degrees from accredited universities, incorporating skill-training courses and so on. However, policy documents have made sweeping generalisations and they conflate the madrasas\u2019 scepticism and\/or rejection of the state-led modernisation programme with an ideology that has a pathological antipathy for the state. The\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>leadership is projected as a stubborn stereotype not amenable to the state, however good and benign the mission of the state may be.<\/p>\n

Seminaries are generally regarded as centres whose culture is not compatible with modern educational values. This is far from reality. Religious learning centres are experiencing a severe financial crunch and are also keen that if their education starts losing relevance they will stop attracting both talented students. Instead of going in for radical reform and restructuring the state should engage with\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>in a more supportive way For their part madrasas which tend to believe that curriculum and management are their exclusive jurisdiction\u2014in the process of which they neglect curriculum development and teacher training\u2014must cooperate with the state. They should understand that they owe a responsibility for the economic and social well being of families of generations of students whose future hinges on the skills they are learning in these\u00a0madrasas<\/em>.<\/em> The state should not see\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>as an adversarial educational system; rather it should consider them an alternative.\u00a0 Families in the\u00a0 higher echelons also send\u00a0\u00a0 children to a madrasa (or a primary religious school called a maktab) to ensure that they can properly recite the Qur\u2019an\u00a0 or even commit it to memory. These students are not so dissimilar from Christian children who go to Bible study or catechism classes, or Jewish children who attend Hebrew school.<\/p>\n

What we should attempt is to make new\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>as well as universities to be patterned on ancient Samarkand or Bokhara. Instead of solely stressing on\u00a0madrasa<\/em>\u00a0modernisation, let us take\u00a0madrasas<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>centuries back in history to their glorious traditions of the Islamic Golden Age. That may be more successful in winning hearts and minds of the custodians of\u00a0madrasas<\/em>.<\/em>here is what the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia<\/a>, India\u2019s mainstream education Jamia\u2019s who were legendary Islamists\u00a0 wrote for its students to sing as the official anthem :<\/p>\n

\u201cHere conscience alone is the beacon . . .<\/em>
\nIt\u2019s the Mecca of many faiths,<\/em>
\nTravelling is the credo here, pausing a sacrilege, . . .<\/em>
\nCleaving against currents is the creed here,<\/em>
\nThe pleasure of arrival lies in countering crosscurrents.<\/em>
\nThis is the home of my yearnings,<\/em>
\nThis is the land of my dreams.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Moin Qazi<\/em>, PhD Economics,\u00a0PhD English,<\/em> is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a><\/em> and author of the bestselling book, <\/em>Village Diary of a Heretic Banker. He has worked in the development finance sector for almost four decades in India and can be reached at moinqazi123@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrasas across the world have suffered a great loss of reputation recently, primarily owing to a wave of extremism. These Islamic schools have been maliciously projected as incubators of holy warriors or what has been derisorily called as \u2018jihad machines\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":83401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}