Traditional educational institution
IMTIAZ AHMAD
REACHING THE MINDS OF YOUNG MUSLIM WOMEN — Girls’ Madrasas in India: Mareike Jule Winkelmann; Rs. 395.
MUSLIMS IN INDIA — Contemporary Social and Political Discourses: Yoginder Sikand; Rs. 595. Both the books pubished by Hope India Publications, 85, Sector 23, Gurgaon-122017.
Winkelmann’s book is an account of a girls’ ‘madrasa’ in Delhi. Girls’ ‘madrasas’, she rightly points out, are a modern innovation designed to replace home-based teaching of religion to girls. Carving out a place for girl’s ‘madrasas’ would have entailed challenging theological wisdom that the appropriate place for Muslim girls was inside the home. How theology was reinterpreted to favour establishment of girls
217; ‘madrasas’ is a story worth exploration.
Innovation
Perhaps the innovation was encouraged by the understanding on the part of the ‘ulema’ that they could no longer preserve the faith and there was a need for common Muslims, especially girls who were supposed to be responsible for nurturing family values, to be armed with religious knowledge. The author should have explored this dimension for the system of girls’ ‘madrasas’ to become accepted as a means of educating girls.
She succeeds only partially in providing a window on the inner life of a girls’ ‘madrasa’. We are informed about the ‘madrasa’ administration and the prominent role that men play in running the ‘madrasa’, but the intimate details of the daily life that the girl students lead inside the ‘madrasa’, their social background, their concerns and anxieties, the nature of their interactions with teachers, and what role they perceive for themselves in the future are left out. The reason I stress them is simple.
Accounts of ‘madrasas’ have generally failed to delve into these questions, often leaving one with the impression that life in the ‘madrasas’ is smooth and harmonious with the pupils tamely submitting to disciplining by teachers and managements. Exploration of the daily routine within the ‘madrasa’ would have provided an insight into how the students’ lives are regulated within the ‘madrasa’. The author makes the significant point that the curriculum is a combination of religious and secular subjects, but in the teaching process the secular subjects are devalued. This is well taken. Still, there are a number of significant issues that should have been dealt with. For example, whether the changes introduced in the so-called ‘dar-e-nizami’, the conventional ‘madrasa’ curriculum, similarly devalues the theological status of religious education for girls because they are not to serve as religious guides as opposed to boys who are expected to become religious functionaries.
Diversity of themes
Sikand’s book is an assortment of newspaper articles on Muslim issues at the centre of public controversies in recent years. Some of the issues touched upon are reform of ‘madrasa’ education, relation between ‘madrasas’ and terrorism, women and Muslim Personal Law, intra-community sectarian conflicts, the prospects of peace in Kashmir and the Hindutva challenge. When a book covers such a diversity of themes, it is to be expected that the treatment would be thin. What we have are vignettes of Muslim issues without serious attempt at analysis.
The reader is left to take or leave the position offered without being adequately informed about the different dimensions of the issue or any explanation as to why a controversy arose on it in the first place.
Sikand’s perspective on Muslim issues is intriguing. He is understandably critical of the Hindutva understanding of Muslim issues, but his attitude towards the stand taken by orthodox Muslim organisations is soft and defensive. It may be good politics to take a harsh stance against Hindutva communalism and defend Muslim organisations and institutions which are often the target of attack from Hindutva forces, but it is bad academics.
The right approach would be to critique both where the criticism is deserved. One can concede that the Muslim perspective should be viewed with empathy, but to shy away from pointing out the obvious pitfalls in Muslim positions can be an encouragement to Muslim organisations and leaders to persist in unwarranted recalcitrance.
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