Why verbal and non-verbal attacks on Madrasas in India?

“Muslims have not only become targets of right-wing goons but have also become victims of a wide-spread vicious propaganda spread against madrasas with patronage of the State”

One should see the bare basics in the madrasas. The madrasas located in Haryana’s Mewat and even the ones in New Delhi are so basic that one feels as though entering an ancient setup. On several occasions when I visited the Lucknow-situated Nadwa (one of the most sought-after centres in India for Islamic religious studies) felt as though I’d come to a Gandhian ashram. Clad in cotton kurta-pajamas, young students went about in that no-fuss manner, with the basic wooden furniture dotted in the rooms of this institution… There were only a few computers.

And to the ‘why’ of the few computers, the answer was where are the funds for more, although the children seemed keen to use computers. What about the talks that Nadwa gets grants and aid from some Muslim countries? The maulanas of Nadwa rubbished those reports and told me that it runs on whatever little the community can muster, including the Zakat money which every Muslim ought to give from his or her earnings, for the needy and disadvantaged.

And to all those Hindutva characters who keep clubbing the madrasas with the Musalman phobias, it is significant to point out that in the earlier decades, middle-class Hindu families would also send their children to madrasas. Yes, much against the popular perception that only Muslim families send their children to study in a madrasa, the fact is that in the traditional setups, when communal poisoning was not unleashed to divide and distance, even the non-Muslim families sent their children to madrasas for education. Our veteran and much-loved writer Munshi Premchand was sent by his family for his early education, to a madrasa in his home state of Uttar Pradesh.

To compound today’s dismal situation, the community leaders and the so-called politically and socially influential persons from the Muslim community are seldom seen interacting with the madrasa children. Their presence is urgently needed; at least it would provide some level of cushioning which is crucial for the very safety of the young children studying in the madrasas.

Also, community leaders ought to see to it that the madrasa children get enrolled in regular schools so that they are not lagging on the education front. Whilst residing in the madrasa they could or should attend regular schools. This would only be possible if the community leaders help out, in guiding the madrasa children with admissions and also looking after the connected educational requirements.

It is significant to mention here that several children’s ‘homes’ situated in the Kashmir Valley (where orphaned and even semi-orphaned children reside and, in most cases, attend a regular school and spend hours pursuing religious studies) are comparatively better off than most of the madrasas I have visited in and around New Delhi and in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana’s Mewat belt.

This is because several Valley-situated orphanages/homes have adopted this ‘via media’ between the madrasa and regular mainstream education, where the children attend a regular school (many a time an English medium school) but in the evenings and early mornings (that is, before setting off for school or after attending school) they read the Quran and tend to other religious text.

This, according to me is the best possible combination, but quite obviously for obvious reasons not affordable. Not to be overlooked the fact that unlike in the Mughal era or even in later decades when the Zamindari system was not abolished, madrasa teaching was funded and taken care of by this ruling class, today the madrasas are maintained on meagre resources; mainly put together by community members or at times by the Waqf Boards.

It is time for the community leaders to reach out to the madrasa children. Help them, guide them to upgrade their educational skills, and perhaps see to it they get enrolled in regular schools and colleges to stand on par with other children.