[Reader-list] second posting Insstitute of Talibaans

[sallykenin at yahoo.com]

HELLO FRIENDS, 


 So the second posting about the Madarsas of Delhi
[Institute of Talibaan] has so much to think and
discussion.
First of all I want to clarify about the world Taliban
which has been in focus for last few years, few of my
friends were very particularly concern about my using
the word Taliban to describe students of Madarsas .

Well in Arabic language [Talib ]  means seeker and the
plural of this word is [Talabaa] or [Taliban] in
general the word Talib is used for the meaning of
student and Talbaa or Taliban for  students.  I used
the word Taliban rather Talbaa because previous one is
quite famous and any one can understand or relate to
it. We all know this word has totally different
connotation in the back drop of Afghanistan’s militia
which later created [and now very famous]a new
terminology called Talibanisation .

I am not using this word Taliban in that negative
meaning, though all those Talibans of Afghanistan are
and were product of Madarsa system Or Madarsa
education system. But again every Talib or student of
Madarsa is not from that Afghani Taliban group.  We
can say it this way, that every LADDU is sweet but all
the sweets are not LADDUS. 
I hope every one
understands that I am not branding every Madarsa
student that they belong to Taliban group at the same
time its true also that all Talibans of Afghanistan
are from Madarsas. I hope its clear to every one now.



For last two months we have been have been visiting
Madarsas situated all around in Delhi, though they are
not visible easily but all small and big in number
exceed more than thousands. There are several issues
related to Madarsas so I will go one bye one in short.
Let me be very clear these findings are not the final,
Still we are working on various issues, but yes these
are some important aspects we can share and interact
with each other, the final will come with final
report.

Friends the first question is, what is the purpose of
Madarsas in the society? 
Well they are basically religious institute  to
provide Islamic education to the students come there
for education.
There are three kind of madrasas, MAKTAB[Primary
school of Urdu medium]. HIFZ, where only Quraan is
being memorized, mugged up by the students without
going into the detail of its meaning.

 

The higher education AALIMIAT FAZEELAT where Maulana
and MOLVIES are rewarded degrees of AALIM, MUFTI etc.
I would talk about this lst category of higher
education in Madarsas which are more important.  
  
Without going into the detail of  different kind of
Madarsas I would  rather write about their curriculum,
culture, physical infrastructure, teaching methods,
learning strategies and practice of all these in real
life.

CURRICULUM…
The dominant emphasis of syllabus is Quraan, Hdeeth
[prophets saying his actions and commands] and Fiqah
[elaboration of Islamic philosophy, Shriaah]. 

All Madarsas have their own code of conduct regarding
the syllabus , duration of the courses and exams but
one thing is common that aim and target of all is one,
that is to armed the students or Taliban with Islam’s
thoughts and philosophy. Since Quraan Hadeeth and
Fiqah is all originally in Arabic, every one has to
learn Arabic language initially to understand the
original text,but the medium of teaching  is commonly
Urdu in all Madarsas. 
 In spite of so much emphasis on Arabic grammar and
literature most of the students don’t know proper
Arabic language so Urdu is considered the best option
to read and write the exams. Here one thing is very
important to note that though in Madarsas medium is
Urdu students are not  taught Urdu as language or
literature, they can read and write Urdu very well but
they don’t know what is difference between Nazam and
Ghazal  or drama and novel, more ever they are not
allowed to read novel poetry news paper etc. reasons??
 Their teacher says reading of all that material is
wastage of time which misleads students but many of
them love reading all that prohibited stuff and do
that secretly,  few student even complained that their
hostel have been raided to captured their  novels,
story books and any other magazine.

 So there is no freedom or choice to read what you
want, but you have to take what Madarsa offers and
reject what they want you to reject. Many of them have
been rusticated on the charges that they violate the
norms or discipline.
 I think its like in our home where kids are not
allowed to watch or read which their parents consider
is not in good taste. 

Hindi is the national languge but barring few Madarsas
in Delhi non of them teach Hindi, many of them
recently have started teaching English but most of the
Madarsa passed out students [taliban] don’t know to
fill up the railway reservation form. In most Madarsas
students are not allowed to learn any thing apart from
Islamic Education, as administration thinks that going
out side to learn  technical skills can mislead
student and distract their attention from basic goal..

 Madarsa authority says they get all the money on the
Name of Zakat [donation] for Islamic education, so
heir basic concern is to provide education related to
Islam nothing else.  

TEACHING METHODS 

We are living in 21st century and have so much
sophisticated technology in every aspects of our life
specially in the field of education nowadays but most
of the Madarsas in Delhi are still following the
traditional methods of ancient days which in fact is
very effective in providing the education. In higher
class too every student is responsible for his
homework assigned by the teachers and failing in that
amounts harsh punishment, this way every student is
accountable for his every days performance. Students
are allowed to have a full arguments with their
teacher and debate amongst themselves on various
aspects of one single Hadeeth, can criticize other
school of thought and appreciate which they like but
nothing should go against Shriaah Islam. 

Most Important aspect of this system is to make
student very laborious and practical in their
approach.  
Relation between Talbaa and teachers [maulanas] are
not the same we have in school or college, here its
almost like GURU and CHELAS, so much respect is given
to the teacher. Generally teachers in Madarsa are
untrained but now some organizations have come forward
and they have facilitated training courses for
teachers. When we met and taken feedback from teachers
who have been trained, their response was surprisingly
amazing    
 
CULTURE,
As we know that in Madarsa the accommodation and food
are provided free to students but nowadays in some
Madarsas food charge has been made compulsory to pay
and those who are not in a position to afford it are
exempted . also there is growing concern about the
quality of food and hostels, but few of them have good
infrastructure and provide reasonable  food and
accommodations.  

 In every Madarsa there is a daily routine which is
compulsory for every student to follow strictly
otherwise serious action are taken against them. A
Talib has to wear only KURTA PIJMA and their CAP on
head, any western out fit is just not tolerated at
all, If any student wants to go out side of Madarsa
campus for any reason, he has to get a permission
letter from any concerned teacher strictly. They are
not allowed to watch film, television in  any case any
where.

 Madarsa and co education are poll apart, we haven’t
been to any Girls Madarsa as of now but  they do exist
in Delhi.
Its natural phenomenon, when adult guys live together
for quite some time in congested hostels homo
sexuality is the common result and so is the Madarsa
environments but few of the teacher are themselves
actively involved in this practice.

WHO ARE THE STUDENTS? 

 During our visit we came to know that a huge
percentage of  Madarsa students belonged to different
states like Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand and U.P and very
few students were from Delhi almost zero percent. When
we inquired them   as to why did they come to Delhi 
despite  having  so many big Madarsa in their
respective states , their answer was that  they came
to Delhi  because  they  could  get more exposure to
the out side of  the world.  They were also of the
opinion that in Delhi there are several opportunities
to learn technical education. There are also various
avenues for job for them.

Most of these Talbaa are from very poor families who’s
parents cant afford to send them to school, there are
few from wealthy families too for different reasons 
but hardly  sons of any of  teachers or principal of
Madarsa. Its like politicians of our country making
big statesmen and slogans to promote Hindi among
masses but sending their own children foreign
countries for English Education.     


No doubt  Madarsas are  doing very well in providing
education to ignored  societies and poor people,but
there are some concerns too thats why in recent years
all Madarsa of Delhi have gathered on single platform
not only to support each others but develop the whole
system in terms of curriculum, syllabus and
management. Keeping this purpose in mind they have set
up a Delhi Madaris Education Organization. According
to DMEO there are more than two hundred Madaris in
Delhi who provide free accommodation and free meal to
their students. For the multiple development of
student they organize several discussion debates, quiz
competition essay writing competitions and also issue
wall magazines in Arabic and Urdu. 

More in next posting 

Thanks every one for reading such a boring report.


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