Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Time to introspect

Most of us, as Muslims, point our finger to the external factors such as the government, society as a whole and the conspirators that do not want this community to progress and declare that the atmosphere is not conducive to the growth of Muslims in India just because Muslims are in minority. But have we ever thought why other minorities such as Christians, Parses and Sikhs have better statistics than us when it comes to progress and better life even though they are also m inority? This fallacy has no base as even among Muslims one can find few sub-communities and people who are on a par with other communities in progress. Did we ever introspect where the main blame lies? Aren’t we to take the major share of blame?

It is a basic fact that we as a community have not yet taken the responsibility of progress in our own hand, but we always look at others to do things for us. I do not say that external factors have not been responsible for our backwardness, but I fully believe that we are the ones who need to be blamed in the first place. Throughout history in every geographical distribution, the minorities do face extra problem and issues and thus it is a fact that this cannot be ever resolved fully. But then we have to also accept the fact that our destination is in our hand.

All the factors that the Sanchar Committee has studied show that the backwardness of Muslims has its genesis in education. The literacy rate among them is well below the national level. Twenty-five per cent of Muslim children in the 6-14 age group have either never attended school or have dropped out. Dropout rates among Muslims are higher at the level of primary, middle and higher secondary. In premier colleges, only one out of 25 under-graduate students and one out of 50 post-graduate students are Muslims. It is an irony of this community! There are many sayings by the Holy Prophet directing Muslims to seek knowledge whenever and wherever they could. It is well known that the captives of war were released if they could teach the people to read and write.

Regrettably, most of our religious leaders and the-well-to-do people of the community, waste most of their energies on only highlighting the causes of the problem that face us. If, instead, they use their energies constructively to look for solutions to this problem, the scenario would be completely different.

We have seen that the Muslim community in the south are in a much better position than those in the north; albeit below the level of other communities. The basic reason is that Muslims in the south have understood the need for education and have set up institutions to provide the same. The end result is that they are economically and even hygienically better off. If the community wants to come out of the backwardness, it should first make it imperative on itself to focus all of its energy to get literate, focussing fully on the field of education and seeking knowledge.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail