[Reader-list] Educational Scenario of Kolkata’s Urdu Speaking Community

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Dear Friends,

I am copying below an article that was recently published in the Festival supplement of The Statesman, Kolkata.

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta

                                .............

Educational Scenario  of Kolkata’s Urdu Speaking Community 

by M.K.A. Siddiqui


Educational scenario of the Urdu speaking population in this great metropolis may be found to be extremely alarming. Only 11 per cent of boys and girls of school going age are lucky enough to get enrolment in all the 27 recognised schools, generally of very poor standard, available for catering to their needs. Many thousands seeking admission are disappointed, while those who are fortunate enough to get admission find themselves  in extremely over crowded classes where use of loud speakers are not unknown. Scope for self improvement  is  extremely limited.

While there is no concern among the authorities  about this extremely gloomy and depressing state, they seem to be alarmed over Madrasahs, deemed to be breeding ground for ‘fundamentalism, ‘terrorism’ and  such largely imaginary issues as large scale infiltration and supposed high growth rate of Muslim population. Is the community being maligned to unnerve it for political reasons?

                                         .......

The educational scenario  of  Urdu speaking community in West Bengal, particularly in Kolkata is somewhat depressing. Things as they are, do not but present a very gloomy outlook. The situation demands the attention of all those who uphold the right cause and are large hearted enough to lend helping hand in solving the problems. We shall mention very briefly certain disturbing facts about the Urdu speaking community with special reference to this great metropolis.

Urdu as a language has unfortunately come to be exclusively associated with Muslims, though some non-Muslims continue to have emotional attachment with the language and spare no pains to champion its cause. The plight of the language in  Uttar Pradesh, the land of its birth, is not unknown, where its script along with its phonetic speciality, the soul of the  language, has largely gone out of use and survives precariously in a small section of older generations.

Unlike most other vernacular languages in the country, the speakers of Urdu have remained worried about the future of their mother tongue since independence. It has been more so in Uttar Pradesh, the land of its birth, where it was disowned and discriminated against by a politically powerful section. It was pushed aside and banished from educational institutions of even primary level, disregarding the aspirations and needs of a sizable section of students.

In the tension ridden society in the post-independence period some scholars stepped up criticism of Urdu, pointing out its inadequacies and rejecting it outright. One such example may be found in H. Rahmans’ (1974) extremely unjustified criticism of the language in his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of as eminent a person as Prof. N.K. Bose who was for quite some time associated with Mahatma  Gandhi. The work in question, claimed to pay attention to the socio-cultural base of Hindu-Muslim relations, attributed Muslim backwardness in education to their concern for Urdu. The researcher ridiculed  the language and thought that  it was merely a language of conversation. Relying solely on William Adam’s report of 1883, the so called research work dwelt on the inadequacies of Urdu, ignoring the fact that the language had quite remarkably achieved the position of one of the most advanced languages in the country. It  acquired the status of  medium of instruction in the
 post-graduate classes in arts and science and even in the MBBS course in the Osmania University, during the period of this ‘learned’ work, where a mysterious fire had destroyed its unique translation section and a number of works on scientific terminology. The ‘accident’ went unlamented and did not lead to its reconstruction and reestablishment. It resulted in its stoppage and winding up. 

Bipan Chandra, a former chairman of the Text Book Review Committee is not incorrect when he says that ‘not only the authors do any research, they do not even read secondary books. What they read is books written a hundred years ago’ (Quoted from ‘Plundering History’ by Monobina Gupta in the Telegraph Calcutta 13.11.94).

The cause of the backwardness of the Muslims in education does not  appear to lie in their concern for Urdu. It lies elsewhere. In fact Urdu developed into an excellent literary medium and came to symbolize the unity of the people of diverse backgrounds in a large part of the country. Asoka Mehta and  Achut Patwardhan in their book ‘The Communal Triangle’ (1968) speak on the subject in a very different tone. They say :

“…………..from this union was born a new language spoken by the masses who were unacquainted alike with Sanskrit and Persian. Urdu, which was at first confined to the army and then spoken mostly in the North, reached the South with Malik Kafur’s invasion. In course of time it developed from a spoken dialect into a fine literary medium and today has one of the richest literature in India” (p-16).

Both the works, one by Mehta and Patwardhan and another by Rahman, were published around the same period, but presented  interestingly quite divergent views. Rahman went further and criticized Muslims for sending their children to maktabs without trying to observe the socio-economic level of the children going to such institutions. The view that Muslims’ concern for Quran and Islamic theology which stood in the way of their social development needs no comment. This view is also rendered doubtful in the light of what Broomfield (1968) has got to say. The educational system, according to him, was exclusive and costly. It  did not hold promise to their social expectations. “The curriculum”, according to Mehta & Patwardhan, “was so designed as to estrange rather than interest the Muslims”. Mehta & Patwardhan further quoting from Durbin of July 14, 1868 provides example of gazette notification to the effect that Muslims were excluded from appointment to the posts advertised. Both
 education and employment were not within easy reach of the Muslims.

It would appear that Rahman was trying to answer the questions raised by Broomfield, Mehta & Patwardhan and several others. It shifts the entire blame on the people already suffering and absolves  the system of all responsibilities for the lamentable situation.

Contemporary Situation

While the controversy around Urdu continued, the cause of the Urdu speaking community suffered further in the area of our observation as it will be seen from the facts noted below.

We must, however, admit that the situation in West Bengal has been a little different, where Urdu as a language of a considerably small minority was not considered rival to Bengali.  Students having Urdu as mother tongue had to endure heavier burden of learning two more languages, than others, besides English, yet they were never forced to give up their mother tongue. Urdu speaking minority has a grievance of being neglected by the ‘dominant socio-political system’, and its endeavour for self-improvement was discouraged.

Confining our observation to a limited area we note that Muslims constitute about nine lakh individuals or 20 per cent of the total population of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (K.M.C.) area, 80 per cent of whom are Urdu speaking. The total number of boys and girls of school going age in this population is estimated to be 1, 40,000.

It was however observed that the total enrolment figure of boys and girls of this linguistic group in all the 27 recognised school, which cater to their educational needs did not exceed  14,663. If all the other kinds of institutions are taken into account we find 5090 children enrolled in madrasahs and approximately 15,000 in maktabs. The total number of enrolment does not exceed 35000. This means to say that only 11 per cent of the Urdu speaking boys and girls go to school and if enrolment figures in institutions of all kinds, including maktabs and madrasahs are taken into account, not more than 25 per cent of Urdu speaking boys and girls attend some sort of educational institutions. In terms of absolute number 1, 05,000 students belonging to the linguistic group do not attend any school, largely due to extreme dearth of educational institution.

Out of an approximately total number of 600 to 700 schools in Kolkata Municipal Corporation area there are 43 Urdu medium schools (Junior 16, High 21 & H.S. 6).  Only 27 of these schools are recognized and the remaining are unrecognized, while one H.S and two junior schools are run by the state Government. These two junior government schools are over a century old but have not been upgraded till now, nor do we know of any such  plan for future.

Incidentally intensive survey of a bustee in 1997 showed that percentage of illiteracy was higher than what it had been on the eve of independence in 1947. This is an index of the downward mobility of the community in the field of literacy and much more in the field of education.  

The 27 recognised schools, with the exception of one or two are extremely substandard and incredibly overcrowded.  Many thousands of boys and girls are refused admission because of the lack of accommodation.  The extreme scarcity of accommodation leads to corrupt practices, which among other things, leads to very poor results. Efforts to improve the situation do not lead to desired results.

Several junior schools are struggling for up-gradation and quite a number of schools are tirelessly  imploring for recognition but with little success. Establishment of new schools by the Govt. is also not a possibility on ground of the paucity of funds at the disposal of the Government. The only Government higher secondary school for Urdu speaking boys namely, Calcutta Madrasah A.P. school, does not have  a headmaster for over a decade and  several science teachers for several years. This may be noted that this H.S. school is Madrasah merely in name. Keeping the posts of teachers vacant for unreasonably long periods is a general practice, also there is much to be desired about the standard of text books.

Instances may not be lacking, of schools established by the community being taken over by the government, where admission of students  of the community has become difficult. The spirit within the community to adopt measures for self-improvement gets dampened. Some people tend to describe the situation as ‘strategic deprivation’ of the significant minority for keeping it subservient to the dominant, and unable to achieve equality of status with all others, playing their due and legitimate  role in the society. 

In spite of their socio-economic condition there is a burning passion among the decisive bulk of Urdu speaking population to acquire education and educate their children.  This, they have been told, is the only way to change their lot.  But when they come forward to provide their children the benefit of education, they confront nothing but frustrations.

There is no denying the fact that this linguistic group in this city has a small affluent class.  Also a middle class, though comparatively smaller, is not inconsiderable.  The people of these classes, include a number of well –to-do craftsmen and self-employed people.  They are not generally endowed with similar accomplishment as their counterpart in the Hindu society, yet they try their best to send their children to English medium schools, quite often offering capitation fees, ranging from RS 50,000 to one lakh or more for each child.  Many get disappointed and the number of such ‘fortunate’ children getting admission in English medium schools is fast dwindling probably due to change in the international scenario. We have no means to calculate the amount.  Even in this situation the capitation fees paid by the members of the community in the city in a year may be rupees ten to fifteen crores or even more.  Many of the boys and girls of this category get dropped out midway
, resulting in a colossal wastage of the extremely scarce resources.  

Thus with merely a glance at the city’s Urdu speaking population one will notice quite a number of difficult problems they are confronted with.  These relate to spheres of housing and space, health, economy and education, which deserve attention.  It may appear that the very survival of  the community, as a self-respecting segment of the society, is at stake.  An awareness of the situation is a pre requisite for any action programme.

The cost of higher and technical education is rising at an incredibly high rate, at the same time the socio-economic condition of the community and performance of the boys and girls of the community is on the decline.

Limiting ourselves to the field of education we have provided data to show the extent of backwardness and a state of despair.  We feel that it is largely through the improvement in education that we may change the despair into hope and set the community on the path of progress along with other fellow citizens. 

Course of Action:

If this linguistic minority in this great metropolis is to be saved from total disaster it will demand formulation of an action programme in the field of education and address itself to tasks which require selfless endeavour and considerable amount of sacrifice by relevant sections of the community and the society. While details of some important short term measures can be worked out, the importance of establishing schools of high standard may demand immediate attention. Love for mother tongue is not unique to Urdu speaking population. Facility for teaching the subject at the primary stage and as second language at the higher stage will be quite rational.

It is however sad that the dominant socio-political environment is either completely unaware of the socio-enconomic and educational problems of this unfortunate linguistic minority or is determined to treat the problems it faces as unworthy of attention under a policy of ‘stregic deprivation’. It is  all the more unfortunate that this significant minority is often deemed as a potential threat to the society, ever ready to provide shelter to imaginary infiltrators and is seen as demanding for educational institutions which breed fundamentalism.

The dominant socio-political leadership may have its own logic in its power game, but raking up issues which are absolutely unreal, perhaps only aiming at maligning the oppressed people, cannot be  excused, because instated of encouraging the people in the their struggle for survival, it keeps them in a state of perpetual anxiety and despair, and deprived and awstriken, to  keep them under the thumb of the  regime in power.

References:

Broomfield, J.H.  Elite conflict in Plural Society, Bombay,1968.

Gupta, Monobina, Plundering History, in The Telegraph, Calcutta, 13.11.94.

Mehta, A & Patwardhan, A.  The Communal Triangle 1968.

Metcalf, Barbara; Islamic Revival in British India, Deoband (1860-1900), Princeton 1982.

Rahman, H., Hindu Muslim Relations in Bengal 1905-47, Study in Cultural Confrontation.

                                    ..............

About the author: Prof.(Dr) M.K.A. Siddiqui was formerly associated with Asiatic Society and Anthropological Survey of India. At present he is Coordinator, Institute for Objective Studies (IOS), Kolkata Chapter. E-mail: mkasiddiqui at yahoo.com