5 of my articles

8/8/2019 5 of My Articles

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1. Joining the Missing Links: Towards Shaping a Better Indian Muslim

Community

Over seven hundred years of Muslim rule in India developed a sense of superiority among theIndian Muslims, as the ruler class, only to be washed away, later, by the British imperialism. Theindependence of India came along with a whole episode of bloody memory of communaldisharmony and the ultimate partition. This added salt to the sores of Indian Muslims. The lossof family members, relatives, friends, and neighbors added to the loss of sultanate. And theworst of all, the partition left a void in the intellectual circle of Indian Muslims. As most of theacademicians, scientists, and intellectuals left the country for the newly formed Pakistan, theMuslims became an orphaned community in India with only a few to provide direction, arepresentation and advocate for them.

The remaining Muslims, thus, developed around them a fortress of protection bypsychologically, socially, educationally, and to some extent, linguistically alienating them fromthe rest of India. The weak and isolated community faced many problems and one probleminduced another. For instance, illiteracy and mediocrity affected job prospects, that inducedpoverty, resulting in another cycle of lack of proper education and hence, poverty. Lack ofproper and deliberate initiatives to alter the situation facilitated the process of deterioration andhelped create an everlasting pessimism in the community. This again, contributed to thealienation.

Consequently, the community started to regress constantly towards mediocrity, only to realize itlater. Much later. This realization of laggardness has come at a time when the Indian Muslimcommunity is already far behind nearly all other communities and across the boundaries ofclasses, in nearly all spheres of progress. Immersed in frustration and hopelessness, thecommunity soothes itself by resorting to the memories of the past.

But for a reality check: Does the past glory conform to the present situation? Can the Muslimcommunity see itself anywhere close to the mainstream India? The Sachar Committee Reportclearly shows that the vast majority of the community stands nowhere close to the othercommunities, not even the backward and scheduled castes! It doesnt even need a SacharCommittee Report to know this. Just a glance at a typical Muslim neighborhood, at anygovernment or private office, or even a typical community college or university will tell the story.Muslims everywhere in the public domain have a scarce presence, except the courts, wherethey often go seeking justice.

What are the reasons for our under-representation nearly everywhere from a community collegeto the parliament? The reasons are: partly because of the Muslim Communitys incapability to

participate in and isolation from the pursuit of worldly progress and partly because of theinadequacy and indifference of the government initiatives which failed to drag the community tothe mainstream.

This vicious circle of alienation and poverty has embittered the situation to its worst and pulledthe community to the nadir from where an immediate recovery seems not only a mere dreambut also an illusion. However, the question is that: How long the Muslim community can afford tolive by the glory of the long past? How long the community can keep crying over what has beenlost? How long the community can keep itself aloof from the developments around? How long


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can the Muslims of India suffer from poverty and indignity and continue to deteriorate? Theanswer is: Too long has been the nap of complacency. We need to cut it short. Everyone hasbeen running fast. We need to rush to catch up with others.

Muslims must accept the fact that we, the Indian Muslims, are responsible for large part of ourplight and need to make active efforts to ameliorate the situation. Else, there can be no way

out. We have to take the initiative to break the vicious circle and come out of the constant stateof decline and deprivation. Once we take the onus of responsibility on our shoulders to improveour lot, we have to figure out how we can bridge the huge gap between the Muslim communityand the others.

First of all, in my opinion, the community needs to cross the psychological barrier of aloofnessand reaffirm the fact that we belong to India not because of any accident or as a result of somehistorical process but because of a conscious choice. We need to remind ourselves that webelong to this land, we were born here, we want to live here and want to enjoy and share itsbounties with all others who have the same feelings and enrich this land with our efforts bymaking valuable contributions towards its progress. At the same time we need to build theconfidence that we can make a difference in our lives as well as in the lives of others by way of

our contributions.

I stress this point because I feel that there are circumstances in which this confidence seems towane before disruptive, communal and discriminating forces. But it is very important that wedont lose faith in ourselves and in the capacity of the democratic processes that together wecan achieve a better state of not merely existence but of flourishing. In this sojourn we mighthave to face difficulties, we might have to fight with disruptive forces, but we cant afford to loseheart.

Since our very survival and progress is in question, we are at the stake. Expecting too muchfrom outside, at this juncture, does not seem a good enough idea. A community paralyzedbetween the past glory and present indifference can very well go down towards the abyss. Overa century and a quarter ago, the great visionary and educationalist Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had

noted: Muslims are plunging in, and no one is there to take them out. But to our utterunfortunacy, the situation does not seem very different, even now. We cant wait and repeat thesame for centuries. We have to take the responsibility to pull ourselves out. We have to take theinitiative to change our plight, improve our lot and carry our mission ahead.

Overcoming the psychological barrier is just one step. The next, and the most important step, isto convert ourselves into indispensible assets. Education has to play a pivotal role in thistransformation process. Only education can liberate us from the vicious circle of poverty andisolation. We must acquire quality education not only to expand the horizon of our knowledgebut also to equip ourselves with the skills required for newer innovations, the changing industryand evolving market.

We need a momentous drive to spread education among ourselves as well as to each corner ofthe society. We must identify why the Muslim community is behind all others in education. Weneed to figure out why is our literacy rate and the level of higher education among us is belowthe national average. We have to find out the reason for Muslim childrens falling participation inhigher education. In order to reduce the gap between our performance and that of the majorityof Indians, we need to make the best use of the available infrastructure and resources. We needto demand adequate infrastructure from the government as well as take our own initiative to setup our educational infrastructure. We cant be totally dependent upon the public initiatives, we


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must make our own efforts to garner funds, gather academicians and develop infrastructure todisseminate education among the poor Muslim masses.

The process, not an easy one indeed, might be very cumbersome. A community which hasbeen dormant for centuries cannot be awakened overnight. It will take its time, but the need ofthe hour is that the initiative needs to be taken. We often grudge about lack of higher education

among Muslims, about inadequate representation of Muslims in Government services and inindustry. But in order to reach those arenas we need to have quality students coming out fromschools. We need to ensure access to quality education to the poor Muslim children.

For this, we can adopt at least three measures. First, providing scholarships to the deservingstudents, on counts of both merit as well as need, that is, providing assistance to those childrenwho already have access to a school but can not afford to study because of financialconstraints. This is likely to have strong sustainable long term impact. Another such initiativewould be to set up primary and secondary schools of high standard in underserved Muslimconcentrated areas, particularly addressing children from poor families. And the last, is to set upspecial coaching and guidance centers in other areas where a school is not needed. Such acenter can address the deficiency need by providing a focused coaching, career oriented

guidance and motivation to excel. In such cases, initially the level of success might appear lowbut there needs to be determined and persistent effort.

Success or failure of an endeavor depends on the kind of efforts made. In order for us tosucceed, first of all, the schools need to maintain a high academic standard like those of ICSEor CBSE schools. And the coaching centers need to maintain the highest professionalapproach, emulating those of the best in the country. It is quite obvious that initially, in anunderserved community, the parents might not be very much enthusiastic about their childrenseducation. For them, helping in the family affairs or contributing to the narrow supply of incomemight appear more important. We have to create an environment as to how parents, eventhough they might be illiterate, develop a positive attitude towards education and ultimately ownthe responsibility to educate their children.

Doing this might be difficult but not impossible. We need to identify interest groups, motivatedindividuals, clubs, association or groups of progressive minded elders from the community itselfwho can mobilize the community to carry out the work at the local level. Muslim NGOs or anyother organization interested to help the community with a track record of transparency andefficiency can be instrumental in such an effort.

Lack of credible NGOs maybe an issue, however, to start with, on a pilot basis; identifying a fewNGOs wont be a problem. Once a few organizations take the initiative and come up with aviable proposal, the government or non-government funding agencies can evaluate the sameand grant a project. For monitoring, the implementing agency, the NGO itself will primarily beresponsible. In addition, the local interest group will provide necessary inputs in terms ofcommunity relations, cooperation, and community mobilization. In the absence of such

interested parties, at the grass-root level we need to have implementing and monitoringagencies.

Another important aspect of this movement will be to ensure funding. In this age nothing willhappen without money. Although sincerity of intention and seriousness of will is absolutelyessential to carry on our mission but money is quite instrumental. Money can provide solution tomany of our problems. We need to pay for our infrastructure, for the teachers, and above all, forscholarships to the needy students. So we need a constant stream of money. Raising funds forspecific occasions is fine but in order to plan and implement projects on a large scale and to


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ensure their sustainability, we need to have accumulated funds at hand. For this, we need tomobilize the institutional resources like the government fundings, the Waqf boards, other non-government funding agencies, in addition to the individual contributors. And equally important isto make sure that the money is in safe hands and reaches its destination that is the end user, ontime. For this, we need a viable institutional mechanism - a funding agency.

Along with our integration to the mainstream and ensuring our educational progress, we mustalso ensure that we are contributing to the economy also not merely as consumers and laborforce but also as entrepreneurs. Compared to the booming Indian industry, the contribution ofMuslim industry is nearly insignificant, except a few. The true development of any communitycomes from its industry which is an outcome of strong entrepreneurship. We cant always looktowards others to provide us opportunity, we have to create opportunities. Then only we canchoose what we like rather than meekly accepting what others leave for us. High educationalachievements will make us worthy as individuals and strong industrial and entrepreneurialpresence will make us worthy as a community.

And last but not the least, contributing to the Indian social fabric is an essential task beforeIndian Muslims. We need to engage ourselves in meaningful social interactions outside the

Muslim community, leaving the ghettos that we have created around us. We need to involveourselves in the cultural and developmental affairs, not just of our own, but of all, in general. Weneed to contribute to the social progress, promote harmony, not divisions. We need to diversifyour interests and aspirations. We need to speak for justice, for empowerment, for environmentalprotection, for cultural end ethnic diversity. We need to learn appreciating the composite culturerather than exclusively advocating for ours. This will help us form better links with others aroundus.

We need to make positive contribution to the secular character, not only for the interest of theMuslims, but for all. We need to speak out for other communities when they need for advocacy.We need to work for the underprivileged of any community. We need to develop a betterunderstanding of the role of women in society. We need to promote their education and welfare.We need to learn to respect women, in practice, in real life. We need to ensure that Muslimwomen are not subjugated. We need to demonstrate by our action that Muslim women have abetter social status, as opposed to quoting religious scriptures to prove it.

If we can succeed in doing all or at least some of the aforesaid, we will establish ourselves asbetter Muslims, better Indians, and better human beings.


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2. Educational Deprivation of Muslims: Revisiting Sachar Committee

Report

The condition of Muslims in India is pitiable. As it has been documented by the SacharCommittee Report (SCR), Muslims are virtually lagging behind all other communities and atrend of relative deterioration is observed in almost all spheres of day-to-day life. Especially inthe field of education, the situation is of grave concern

While the overall literacy rate in India is above 65%, the Literacy rate of Muslims is around59%.However, on extending the consideration beyond mere literacy rate, Muslims fall far behindothers. Where, in general, 26% of those aged 17 years and above have completedmatriculation, this percentage is only 17% amongst Muslims. The Mean Years of Schoolingamong children of age group of 7- 16 years is lowest among Muslims at around 3.4 yearswhereas for others it is above 5 years. According to the 2001 Census data, while only about 7per cent of the overall population aged 20 years and above are graduates or hold diplomas, thisproportion is less than 4 per cent amongst Muslims. Besides, those having technical educationat the appropriate ages (18 years and above) are as low as one per cent and amongst Muslims,that is almost non-existent.

It was hoped that the scenario might change with time but unfortunately, the trend does not lookvery optimistic. What Sachar Committee Report (SCR) had found out has recently beenreconfirmed by the NSSO survey report titled Education in India (2007-08): Participation andExpenditure. One of the findings of the report is that Muslims still are the most backward sectionin terms of education. Percentage distribution of persons of age 5-29 years by currentenrollment and attendance status in educational institutions for each religion shows that theMuslim community with an enrollment of 46.2% lags behind all other communities whileChristians lead the trend with an enrollment of 58.3%. This might not give the actual state ofaffairs since it pertains to only the sample surveyed but it indeed shows the trend.

Another such distribution shows that at the primary level Muslims start with an above averageenrollment but the rate falls quickly below average at the upper primary level and the trendcontinues up to the post higher secondary level. Although every community experiences adecline in the enrollment ratio as one goes up to the higher classes but the decline is thesteepest in case of Muslims. This means, the community loses its grip right at the primary level.The highest drop-out rate accounts for the steepest fall in enrollment at the next level i.e. theUpper Primary level and hence in the secondary and all subsequent levels.

The SCR explicitly recognizes that attainment of Muslims in school education is lowerthan average and the gap between Muslims and other communities increases as the levelof education increases. Further, a comparison of the probability estimates for completion ofhigher secondary and graduation suggests that Muslims are at a much larger disadvantage atthe higher secondary level. This presumably results in a much lower size of Muslim populationeligible for higher education. These findings not only establish that there is little empowermentof Muslims but also discard even the misconception regarding minority appeasement.


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The reasons for this alarming situation of the Muslim communitys educational progress hasbeen enumerated by the SCR as Poverty considered as the Main Cause of Low levels ofEducation, Poor Access to Schools, Low Perceived Returns from Education, and other School-based Factors. While poverty among Muslims is explicit, the other factors deserve furtherelaboration. A mere physical existence of a school in the vicinity does not ensure access toquality education. As the report admits, Government schools that do exist in Muslim

neighborhoods are merely centers of low quality education for the poor and marginalized. Thepoor quality of teaching, learning, absentee teachers, in turn, necessitate high cost inputs likeprivate tuition, particularly in the case of first generation learners from the Muslim community.This has a negative impact on retention and school completion. Thus, poverty again has acausal link with access to education among Muslims.

Low expectation of return from attending schools is another factor for lack of motivation towardseducation. Since the community does not see a lot of Muslims youths becoming successful byvirtue of going to school, it apparently does not promise much of immediate return to peoplewho rather pay attention to vocations that pay an earlier return. This happens due to abysmallylow representation of Muslims in public and private sector jobs.

Another very important reason is the content of the school books which usually escapes theattention. The SCR points out that the communal content of school textbooks, as well as, theschool ethos has been a major cause for concern for Muslims in some states. This isdisconcerting for the school going Muslim child who finds a complete absence of anyrepresentation of her Community in the school text ultimately developing a sense ofunbelongingness to the system.

One more, very crucial and most unfortunate, problem is that many schools are culturally hostileand Muslim students experience an atmosphere of marginalization and discrimination. Agrowing communal mindset among large number of school teachers adds to the hostile schoolatmosphere. Furthermore, the report argues that, contrary to popular perception that religiousconservatism among Muslims somehow militates against educating girls, current research

indicates that poverty and financial constraints are the major causes that prevent Muslim girlsfrom accessing modern/secular education.

The report reiterates that Muslim women often face overt discrimination from school authoritieswhile trying to get admission or in availing of scholarships for their children. Perceptions ofpublic security partly associated with increasing incidents of communal violence preventparents from sending daughters to schools located at a distance where they would have to usepublic transport. This is particularly the case when they reach upper primary and middle schooland leads to high drop out rates among Muslim girls in this age group. How unfortunate is thatfor a democracy like India? Is not it barbaric that someone grows in the society with anxiety andfear of communal violence? How can one expect such a generation to be good citizens withequal respect for all? Such developments, deliberate or inadvertent, not only question India's

credentials as a secular democracy but also cast doubt over the future prospect of becomingone.

The report also points out that there are systematic discriminatory policies against Urdu as alanguage. Since Urdu is no longer taught in most state schools some parents prefer not to sendtheir daughters to schools in stead they send them to Madarsas.


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A special case of the Jawahar Navoday Vidyalayas (JNVs) is another eye opener. If povertyalone were responsible for low participation and attainment, the share of Muslims students inNavoday Vidayalayas should have been high but for some reasons this too, is extremely low at

just about 3 to 4 %. The schools which were set up with the objective of excellence, coupledwith equity and social justicealso failed to draw participation of the largest religious minority.But why? Is it a failure of the Institutions to reach the community and address its needs and

aspirations or is it a failure of the community to make use of the provision? What are thereasons for this failure?

One reason could be the lack of awareness and hence low level of interest. From a generalunderstanding, the aforesaid factors like abject state of poverty which restricts children tomeet the eligibility requirement of the JNVs, low expectation from education, fear of beingdiscriminated, poorly designed course content could provide some of the reasons. Further, isthere any myth/misconception surrounding the schools about any religious or cultural affiliationthat the community feels uncomfortable about just like the Tamils could not welcome the idea ofJNVs because of compulsory Hindi? In order to have a better and a deeper understanding ofthe dynamics, there needs to be a detailed study.

A few Suggestions to Reduce the Educational Deprivation of Muslims

An impartial analysis of the ground realities depicts that the poor performance of Muslims ineducation emanates from a host of factors starting from abject poverty and communal/culturaldiscrimination to poorly designed course contents. So in order make the Indian educationsystem more inclusive, the issues need to be addressed explicitly. A general attempt of settingup schools in the Muslim majority areas or providing scholarships to some students may notpromise a substantial amelioration of the situation.

As the problem is complicated, so will be the solution. The mainstreaming and improving theplight of minorities stands as a challenge to Muslims as a community and the Government (s) asthe state. Muslims as a community, will have to bear their share of the burden by activelyengaging themselves to the discussion as to what are the reasons behind their poorparticipation and performance, what could be solutions, how they could be implemented. Muslimleadership and Civil societies must become pro-active rather than maintaining a reactive stance.

The government must provide a platform for equitable participation and inclusive growth. First ofall, creating sufficient awareness about various existing facilities, schemes and programs is veryimportant. Affirmative actions to address the serious issue need to be undertaken. Consideringthe gravity of the situation, a constitutional amendment may become necessary to provide

justice to the religious minorities who are suffering because of the constitutional discriminationagainst Muslims. Muslims being as backward as SCs/STs, are not getting the benefits ofreservations simply because their religious identity. So, this issue needs to be given dueconsideration so that reservation can be extended to Muslims like any other community.

Seeing the under-participation of the community, it becomes imperative to provide reservationsat all levels of education just as SC/STs are given. It becomes even more important at theprimary, secondary, higher secondary levels since these form the foundation for highereducation. Thus, the government should allocate at least 10% of the seats in existingNavoday Vidyalayas, the 3500 Model Schools to be set up under the directives of theCabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) declared in April 2010, and any othersimilar public institutions.


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The logic in favor of such reservation is that these schools operate pretty much from entrylevels. The intervention point being a very early one, students are less like to have developed amediocrity which becomes a problem at a higher level when reservation is given at universities,IITs, IIMs etc. So if a student is given admission, then the subsequent progress will bedetermined by the average standard of the schools. In general, any student, irrespective of herreligious identity, should have a similar level of performance in such schools where the students

have minimal stakes with the ills of society like poverty, discrimination, alienation, etc.

To develop interest and affiliation to the schools in the community, the nomenclature might carrysome significance. Just like Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Hamdard,Maulana Azad National Urdu University, etc., a Muslim sounding name of the school mayinvoke a higher degree of interest from the community. Out of 3500 Model Schools, if some ofthe schools that would be located in predominantly Muslim areas, 350 schools forinstance, are named after any Muslim leader or Freedom Fighter, then this is likely todraw the attention of the Muslims and boost their participation, at least to some extent.

Another integrative measure will be to recruit Muslim teachers in the schools. In the absence ofMuslim teachers, the students from Muslim community may feel alienated in the school, as it

has been pointed out in the SCR. Induction of 10 to 15% Muslim teachers and a goodproportion of female teachers will not only encourage Muslims students, especially Muslim Girls,to attend and continue schooling but will also promote equity and justice in employment andhence will address the economic and gender disparity.

Besides introducing Urdu as a language option, the general content of the language coursesmay be modified to accommodate writing of prominent Muslim authors. Inclusion of topics orchapters appreciating the Muslim/Islamic values will enhance level of interest among Muslimstudents and at the same time will enable the non-Muslim students to develop a betterunderstanding and hence a more respectable view of the community. Inclusion of a chapter on

Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn-Khaldun, etc. will highlight the contribution of Muslim scholars which is hardlyto be found otherwise. A story about CV Raman may be complemented by another story about

Abdus Salam.

Literature apart, in Mathematics and Science text books, short paragraphs about where a topicor a chapter came from like the definition of zero from Indians, and the number system from

Arabs, and similar description or discussion about topics highlighting the contributions of Hindu,Muslim or other scholars will enhance the level of interest of all the children from allcommunities. An unbiased body of scholars from the NCERT can be entrusted to carry out thenecessary research and then such modifications can be incorporated which will create abalance between contributions from various communities. Of course, in such an endeavor it willbe highly required that the scholars themselves are not biased towards any particular religion orcommunity. Otherwise, the situation will become worse as it was the case a few years ago,when the NCERT history books were deliberately saffronized.


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3. Without minority status, whom AMU off-campuses are going to

serve?

AMU Off-Campuses are not going to be of much help for Muslims!

AMU Vice Chancellor Prof. PK Abdul Aziss claim that setting up of five Centers across thenation will transform the fate of excluded minority from development deficit to a life of dignifiedexistence does not seem very well-founded. In order to expect a great deal from these satellitecampuses on behalf of the marginalized Muslim community one first needs to know the natureof those campuses.

It has been clarified in the media that these centers will be simply branches of AMU - as acentral university, rather than AMU - as a minority institution. Regarding one such campus theChief Minister of Bihar made it amply clear that this setting up of AMU campus has little to dowith the Muslims, as such. "There should not be any opposition to set up a branch of AMU atKishanganjIt has nothing to do with any community," Nitish Kumar told media persons. So ifthis is the nature of these centers one has a legitimate ground to doubt that they are going to

help the Muslims substantially.

The fact that AMU still maintains an overall minority character is due partly to its history andpartly to the lack of adequate awareness about the nature of AMU among people, in general.Until recently, AMU has been popularly viewed as a Muslim institution which results in the factthat more Muslim candidates take interest in AMU and hence get admission. But now after aformer Vice Chancellor's attempt to reserve 50% seats for minorities brought the issue to lightand revealed the fact that AMU is not exactly a minority university. The issue is still in debateand awaiting the Supreme Courts verdict. Despite the well-known historical fact that AMU hasbeen set up by minorities for their betterment, the minority status of AMU is not clear yet.

Therefore, as of now, without any formal minority status, the AMU centers in various states will

stand as educational institutions with no particular affiliation to the Muslim community. Beingsecular and fair centers, they will not be able to give preference to any community on the basisof religion only. So the only benefit from these centers the Muslim community gets is thephysical proximity. To some, it may appear that physical proximity to a center of learning mayreduce some of the constraints from one's attending the university, but such mere a physicalproximity hardly qualifies one for admission to the university.

After all, these establishments are going to be operational at bachelors and masters levelthrough open competition. So only those who are competent enough to secure admission intothose programs, irrespective of their religious identities, will get there. Just as instituting theNobel Prize in Sweden does not guarantee all the Swedish people a Nobel Prize or setting up ofan IIT campus in one city does not guarantee admission into the institution to the city dwellers,

AMU centers also do not guarantee admission to Muslims. This is already a proven fact in theAMU at Aligarh. In most of the professional courses, the Muslims students are not in majority.

Thus, Muslims, being a highly marginalized community, will rarely get a chance to reap thebenefits of these centers. So it is just a hollow and unfounded claim that simply setting up of

AMU centers in minority populated areas will greatly change their conditions and bring themfrom darkness to light.


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4. Beyond Reservations

There is no denial of the fact that the Indian Muslim Community is lagging behind the rest ofIndia in nearly all spheres of progress. This warrants the need of an immediate redressal of theissue. The national efforts in the form of affirmative actions like reservation, etc. are good

means but not the best to help the community move forward. Reservations though give anopportunity to the underserved but indirectly discourage open competition. Hence, it gives anegative incentive to the deserving candidates. This will ultimately hinder the growth; if notimmediately affect the existing quality. Therefore, I dont see reservations as the eternal solutionto the Muslim communitys or of any others problem of laggardness.

Although reservation provides one of the quickest way to address the issue but positivemeasures like providing scholarships to the deserving, on counts of both merit as well as need,likely to have stronger and more sustainable long term impact. Another such initiative would beto set up primary and secondary schools of high standard in underserved Muslim concentratedareas, particularly addressing children from poor families. In other areas where a school is notneeded, a special coaching and guidance center can address the deficiency need. In such

cases, initially the success will appear thin but there needs to be determined and persistenteffort.

First of all, the schools or the coaching centers need to maintain a high academic standard likethose of ICSE or CBSE schools. It is quite obvious that initially, in an underserved community,the parents might not be very much enthusiastic about their childrens education. For themhelping in the family affairs or contributing to the narrow supply of income might seem moreimportant. We have to create an environment as to how parents, even though they might beilliterate, develop a positive attitude towards education and ultimately own the responsibility toeducate their children.

Doing this is difficult but not impossible. We need to identify interest groups, like clubs,

association or groups of progressive minded elders or youths from the community itself who canmobilize the community at the local level. Muslim NGOs or any other organization interested tohelp the community with a track record of transparency and efficiency can be instrumental insuch an effort. Lack of credible NGOs maybe an issue, but to start with, on a pilot basis,identifying a few NGOs wont be a problem. Once a few organizations take up the initiativeand come up with a viable proposal, the government or non-government funding agencies canevaluate the same and grant a project. For monitoring, the implementing agency, the NGO itselfwill primarily be responsible. In addition, the local interest group will provide necessary inputs interms of community relations, cooperation, and community mobilization.

In order to enable the children to study, the access to education must be free or the cost of it bepaid. This may come from a well designed scholarship that takes care of the school tuition,

books and stationary and extra coaching, if required. These scholarships will do the dual job ofmeeting the need as well as motivating the children and their respective parents towardseducation. Such a specialized effort in uplifting the deprived community will more effective thanreservations in the sense that it will provide children with the confidence and competencerequired to meet the actual challenge rather that facing a subsided one. Competent and ablechildren will give rise to a strong community and strong communities will build a stronger nation.We need to advocate for a uniformly strong and competent nation, not a uniformly reserved andweaker nation!


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5. For Educating the Muslims - Muslims Must Take the Lead

Though the noble Quran professes the importance of education to the entire humanity, the

irony is that beneath the lamp it is always dark. On actual count, due to some unfortunatecourse of action, Muslims are among the most educationally backward communities in India.Except a few states, the performance of Muslims reckon below the national average almosteverywhere. While there are many reasons for the communitys failure in achieving a goodeducational profile and maintaining the progress, at least one apparent reason is that thecommunity has, in the first place, failed to take appropriate and adequate initiatives towardseducation. Where there are well-established chains of schools from other communities such asRamkrishna Mission schools, DAVs, Arya Vidayapeeths, Maharshi Vidyamandirs, host ofChristian Missionary schools, to name only a few, imparting quality education among themasses, the Muslim communitys presence in this domain is hardly noticeable.

Unfolding the myth

Glibly put, one can say that the community has not cared enough for formal education rather ithas channelized its resources towards religious education by setting up Madrasahs. Theremight be some truth in the claim, but as a whole it is far from the actual or sole reason. TheSachar Commission Report has revealed that the Madrasahs accommodate only a meager 4%of the total school going Muslim children while the remaining 96% go to secular schools.Besides, there are many who cannot manage to go, at all, to any school, owing to the lack ofproper access.

Even this 4% of the children get enrolled in Madrasahs not necessarily by choice. The reportpoints out that the reasons for enrollment into a Madrasah vary from lack of availability of otherschools and linguistic bias to fear of communal harassment. Interestingly, it is found that insuch areas where the secular private or public schools are not up to ones avail, even childrenfrom the Hindu community also go to the Madrasahs. There might be a lack of initiatives on thepart of the community to set up institutions of formal education, but the level of difficulty thecommunity faces in setting up and getting recognition of such institutions not only daunt thefeeble attempts but also deter the communitys motivation. This leads to further exacerbation ofthe situation.

Recent Developments and Awareness of the Problem

The public findings like the SCR and NSSO reports and individual studies coupled withwidespread media coverage of the Muslim milieu, now almost everyone including the

Governments, NGOs, and the society at large knows that the Indian Muslim community is farbehind the mainstream in terms of educational achievement. Yet another significantdevelopment is that a large section of Muslim populace also is acknowledging thisbackwardness. Owing to such recent developments, now, among the Muslim elites,intellectuals, and a section of youth a huge debate about the communitys poor performancein the field of education is underway.


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An ever-increasing realization of the problem calls for urgent measures to solve it. Havingtouched the lowest strata of regression towards mediocrity, the community, more than ever,feels the need for a transition from a state of ignorance to participation and from darkness light.

As the stakes are high, the efforts to ameliorate the situation must be quick, firm, visionary,sustainable and holistic. Now the question is what needs to be done and how it should be doneto maximize the efficiency and return.

Muslims Need Schools and Coaching Centers, first

A realistic assessment of the situation offers a prompt solution that the community needsrigorous intervention at the school level, rather than college or university level. Well groomed,bright, talented and competent Muslim adolescents will find their way through the mainstreamcolleges, universities and other professional institutions of higher learning. Universities,engineering and medical colleges become relevant only when there is an overwhelmingdemand for such institutions. Such demand will sustain only when there is an abundant supplyof high quality students for schools. Another such necessity is that of highly committed andprofessionally managed coaching centers. Coaching centers will be the best tools in this

transformation process. Because they require less investment, and if efficient enough, theypromise a high return both in terms of improving the quality of students enrolled in a regularcourse as well success in various competitive examinations.

Muslims Must Take the Lead

Now it becomes important to see how this can be achieved. While the Governments need toprovide a suitable platform for development, the communitys role in its emancipation cannot beoveremphasized. The community must, at this juncture, resolve to bring a revolution among itsmembers regarding the spread of education both in terms of quality as well as quantity. In orderto initiate and sustain such an Educational Revolution there needs to be a movement from thegrass roots up to the leadership. Although intervention at the policy level is imperative to bring a

change, but peoples involvement in the change process is even more important. Activeparticipation of the entire Muslim community, at each stage of transition, from planning throughimplementation is a must.

Now the question is how to garner such a participation without creating a mess? Well therecould be many ways to develop awareness and motivate people to form special interest groupsto create awareness among masses about the importance and expected return of education.While there can be many ways to do it, one way is to attach religious affiliation to education.Seeing the never ending zeal and overflowing passion of the Muslims in religious matters it cansaid that if the message of worldly education comes through any religious body, it is likely tohave a far greater impact than any other secular body among the masses, especially in ruralIndia. Another reason is that these organizations such as Masjid committees, Marqaz, or any

other Muslim bodies active at local community level are already functioning, they have a strongnetwork and above all they are inexpensive. Making use of established mechanisms should beeasier than developing newer mechanisms for creating awareness or enhancing motivation.

The Muslim religious organizations must assume a more meaningful role in the reconstruction ofthe society rather than confining themselves to what they are currently preoccupied with.Instead of narrowing their focus exclusively on religious issues, the Muslim scholars shouldengage themselves towards socio-economic empowerment of the community. Because a


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community on the margins of the society is not what is recommended by Islam. The role ofreligious organizations, at this moment, should shift heavily towards disseminating the messageof education, channelizing the community resources and monitoring the progress of educationamongst the Muslims in particular and society, in general.

Imagine the message Read, in the name of Allah teacheth man what he knew notbecoming

a part of every Friday sermon, the prophet Muhammads (PBUH) saying: To seek knowledge iscompulsory for every Muslim (male or female) becomes the subject of an Ishtema, TableeghJamaat moves with the mission of spreading education across borders ! Imagine the potentialimpact of it. I am sure it will have much more penetrating effect than a million dollar campaign tospread education among Muslims.

This move, however, should not be viewed as radicalization of education or not to confuseattaching religious importance to education with religious or Madrasah education as such.Taking parallel from other communities, it is apparent that involvement of religious organizationdoes not necessarily influence the curriculum in terms of radicalization. The schools or collegeswill, after all, follow the mainstream formal curriculum recognized by the government.

Muslim Leadership Must Come Forward

Here comes the role of Muslim leadership, both religious and secular. The Muslim bodies likeJamiat Ulama e Hind and other Islamic bodies should come forward to guide and helpdevelop regional and local bodies to conceive the message, crystallize a plan of action andpave the way for moving ahead with it. Further, even more important role for the leadership willbe to advocate for the local bodies on higher platforms - state or national level agencies andlobbying for recognition and mobilizing resources for the Muslim educational institutions.Securing the Waqf properties and raising funds from individuals, Government and non-Government sources will be two most prominent issues to be handled by the leadership.

If the participation of the leadership at the top and the community at the bottom can be ensuredthen the middle level, that is, the technicalities of institution building can be managed by a thirdparty. For effective implementation of the plans formulated by leadership, there needs to beprofessional agencies, such as Educational Consultants, which have special expertise to settingup schools, coaching centers, recruit teachers, and develop policies to efficiently run thoseinstitutions, and so on. These agencies will work as a bridge between the leadership and themasses. Such agencies can either be formed from amongst the educated and progressivecommunity members or can be hired directly by paying for their services.

A three tier arrangement involving the Muslims masses at the bottom, professional agencies atthe middle, and the community leaders on the top will greatly take care of the educationaldeficiency among Muslims of India.

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