[Reader-list] 3rd oasting Madarsas of Delhi

[sallykenin at yahoo.com]

This is our third posting , here I would like to share
an incident. Once we went to interview a group of
maolana with a friend who was wearing a necklace.
Maolana saheb looked at the necklace and asked what is
this? He replied “sir, this is a gift  which my girl
friend has given me’’ hearing this maolana saheb got
fired and advised him not to wear. My friend asked
maolana saheb “ sir, but why? What is wrong in wearing
this necklace?” maolana saheb said this is against the
sprit of  Islamic . Then my friend again asked “ sir,
but how?” this time maolana saheb got irritated and
went off telling I don’t want to talk to you. It is
wastage of time to talk to person like you.
               Another incident took place with a
friend of mine who is also doing his Ph D on madarsa.
Once he went to visit a madersa where he asked a
student “ what is your ambition in life?” the student
replied “ my ambition is to fight against enemies of
Islam” then he asked. Who are they? Student very
proudly said.
“ They are Ahle hadeeth, deobandi, and hanfi ”[other
various sects of Muslims]
    
  Now this has become very easy to understand as to
how they are brought up and educated TARBIAT is
provided to children in Madersas. 

This can be one of the several reasons behind not
paying required attention to the demands of modern
subject and modern method of teaching in madarsa
syllabus because maolana saheban think that this kind
of thing can inculcate a sense of liberal thoughts and
enlightened approach towards Islam which they don’t
want.
       

  Though Madarsas are contributing as for literacy is
concern , But the situation is dismal not only in
terms of quantity but in terms of quality also. Take
educational climate first. 
Small buildings over crowded with inadequate and
insufficient residential ventilation, accommodation
leading to squeezing of 10- 12 boys in one room.

  And long queues can be seen in morning for
toiletting and bathing in every Madarsa harsh
discipline has been prescribed for students as well as
teachers. 

Barring one or two most of the madarsa have no play
ground. Even lawns, 
flowerbeds and plants are not there in campus.
Educational tours and field trips are never provided
to students, poor quality and meager quantity of food
is supplied to students. These thing develop
inferiority complex among students and when they go
back to the society after long segregated life of
madersa it becomes difficult for them to adjust with
their new surrounding. 
    
   During our visit to madarsas we come across some
experiences which many other eminent scholars like Mr
Mohd Shoeb Ansari, Prof Mohd Akhter Siddiqui, and Mr
Mohd Talib have also mentioned in their books written
on madarsa education system.
 In madarsa, students of different ages and
temperament are grouped together while their
individual differences and creative potentialities are
not taken into account. Text and bookish knowledge is
over emphasized and extra curricular activities are
not encouraged. Usually most of the teachers come to
class without preparation and become annoyed and
distressed when they receive wrong responses from
their pupils. 
Student’s own viewpoints are generally overlooked in
the class. Practice of homework is almost unknown.
Corporal punishment is generally favoured and
practiced by teachers.
 Students are only passive listeners in the class and
no sincere efforts are made by teachers to get them
involved in the lesson.  
Students are not allowed to form any kind of
associations or unions and have to show complete
obedience to their  instructor. Such obedience is not
unmixed with fear in this completely authoritarian set
up. It is not only legitimate but even impossible to
think of any change in any thing  that had been going
on in the madarsa  since its establishment  a hundred
and fourteen year ago , not surprisingly , the madarsa
curriculum  continues to be more or less the same as
was formulated at the end of  seventeenth century by
the Indian alim  Mullah Nizamuddin .
 
 Madarsa syllabus, curriculum, and method of teaching
are being discussed for several decades inside and
outside of madarsa but outputs of this discussion
still seem unacceptable to the maolana saheban of
madarsa but now a few maolanas have started to realize
the importance of contemporary demands and as a result
some madarsa have introduced modern subjects in their
syllabus but still they are far away. 
   For some times it is being discussed that madarsa
are involved in anti national activities but these
allegations seem baseless.
 In an interview a well known intellectual Dr Zafrul
Islam Khan told.  There is no evidence to suggest any
such   campaign on the part of madarsa. 
A Maulvi here or a student  there might have been 
arrested on some charges  but how can you blame  the
madarsa  as a whole, for that matter? Untill now the
authorities have not been able to identify a single
madarsa in the country providing any sort of military
training. The newspapers or authorities some times
ambiguously claim that some madarsa are spreading
terror but why don’t they clearly name these madarsas
if they have the evidence. 
 More detail about terrorism and Madarsa in the next
report.

Shahabauddin  Salahuddin                              
                            



	
		
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