New Book: On Madrasa Reforms in India

Book Review
Name of the Book: Madrasa Reforms—Indian Muslim Voices
Edited by: Yoginder Sikand
Publisher: Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Mumbai (www.vakindia.org)
Year: 2008
Pages: 163
Price: Rs. 100
Reviewed by: Nasir Khan

What exactly needs to be reformed in the present system of madrasa education? Why? How? And, equally importantly, who should take on the responsibility for this? These are issues that are being hotly debated today in the media, in policy-making circles and also among Muslim scholars, including the ulema of the madrasas themselves. Because in India most ulema write in Urdu, their voices are not heard outside a narrow circle of Urdu readers, who are almost wholly Muslim. Consequently, their views on the entire gamut on issues related to the question of madrasa reforms generally go unheard of in the so-called Indian ‘mainstream’ media. This book, a collection of interviews by Yoginder Sikand with almost two dozen Muslim scholars, mostly ulema and graduates of madrasas, highlights the little known and even less understood ongoing debates within Muslim circles about the reform of traditional madrasa education. As the noted Islamic scholar-activist Asghar Ali Engineer rightly remarks in his preface to this work, ‘The book will help dispel many myths about madrasa education in India’.

The scholars whose views are contained in this book, in the form of in-depth interviews, represent a variety of schools of thought. They include two graduates of the Dar ul-Ulum Deoband, two from the Nadwat ul-Ulema, Lucknow, one Firanghi Mahali, three from an Ahl-e Hadith background, four from institutions associated with the Jamaat-e Islami, and two leading Shia ulema, besides some Islamic scholars who have not studied in madrasas themselves but who write extensively on Islamic issues, including on the madrasas. Most of these scholars are well-known figures in the field of Indian Muslim scholarship. They include Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi of the Nadwat ul-Ulema, the Lucknow-based Shia scholar, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, the Jamaat-e Islami scholar and noted Islamic economist, Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqui, Maulana Muhammad Fazlur Rahim Mujadiddi, the rector of the Jamiat ul-Hidaya, Jaipur, one of India’s most innovative madrasas that combines traditional Islamic and modern education, the noted Deobandi scholar and senior leader of the All-India Milli Council, Maulana Asrar ul-Haq Qasmi, the prolific Delhi-based writer Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, and the editor of the official organ of the Deoband madrasa’s Old Boys Association, Maulana Waris Mazhari. Other noted India Muslim scholars interviewed in this book, but who are not themselves trained ulema, include Professor Akhtar ul-Wasey, Head of the Department of Islamic Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Zafar ul-Islam Khan, editor of the popular Delhi-based Muslim fortnightly Milli Gazette, one of the few Indian Muslim magazines in English, and the well-known Mumbai-based Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer. In addition, the book also contains lively interviews with half a dozen young graduates of madrasas who have also studied in universities and who are now working in capacities other than as traditional ulema, including in such fields as documentary film-making and journalism. In this sense, the book departs from much of the existing writings on madrasas, which tend to focus almost exclusively on just one or the other school of Islamic thought and on traditional ulema who have little or no exposure to alternate forms and systems of education.

Despite the fact that most of these interviewees have received a traditional madrasa education, they are all unanimous about the need for reforms in the madrasas—not just in the curriculum, but also in such aspects as methods of teaching, administration, fund-raising, and relations with the wider, including non-Muslim, society as well as the state. They thus indicate that, contrary to what is often imagined, there is indeed a growing recognition among a number of Indian ulema today that madrasas do indeed need to reform. In addition, these voices indicate that the ways in which this agenda of reform is construed by the ulema are diverse.

A major demand on the part of these scholars is that madrasas should introduce at least a basic modicum of ‘modern’ subjects, particularly social sciences and English, in their curriculum. They offer various arguments for this. Some stress that Islam does not recognise any strict division between religion (din) and this world (duniya). Indeed, they argue, in Islam this world is regarded as the arena where religion and religious commitment must be played out, and that it is a ‘field’ for the Hereafter. This means, therefore, that Islam advocates a comprehensive understanding of knowledge, including of issues pertaining to this world. In other words, they suggest, introducing a basic modicum of ‘modern’ sciences and subjects in the madrasa curriculum would actually assist in practically expressing this Islamic understanding of knowledge. Others argue that by providing madrasa students with a working understanding of ‘modern’ subjects and languages they would be in a better position, as would-be ulema, to give appropriate guidance to Muslims, to deal with issues of contemporary concern, to counter more effectively challenges to Islam and to express Islam in terms more intelligible to people today. At the same time, there seems to be unanimity on the point that the ‘modernisation’ of the madrasas in terms of curricular change must be carefully controlled, and that it must not result in the total ‘secularisation’ of the institution, for its basic purpose is, after all, to train religious specialists.

In addition to the inclusion of basic ‘modern’ subjects, the scholars interviewed in this book also call for revision of certain existing texts generally used in Indian madrasas, particularly for what are called the ‘rational’ or ‘ancillary’ subjects such as philosophy and logic. They must be replaced, they say, by texts that reflect contemporary intellectual trends and challenges. Likewise, some of them argue that several texts, written centuries ago, that are still used for the teaching of fiqh or jurisprudence, a major concern of the madrasas, must be revised, replaced or expanded, so that students are made aware of contemporary issues of jurisprudential concern. Reforms in teaching methods are also forcefully advocated. The inordinate stress on rote memorisation is critiqued as is what is felt to be the intellectually debilitating atmosphere in many madrasas, where discussion, debate and independent thinking are frowned upon. Modern, student-centric methods of teaching are advocated, and several scholars call for the setting up of madrasa teachers’ training centres , there being, as yet, no such institution in the entire country despite the fact that in India today madrasas number in their thousands.

Several of the scholars whose voices are highlighted in the book also call for reforms in the ways in which madrasas perceive or relate to the outside world: to fellow Muslims, including Muslims of other sects, non-Muslims, women, and to the state. Some of these scholars are very critical of the stance of many traditionalist ulema in this regard, and advocate reformulating perspectives on these matters in accordance with their more inclusive and socially progressive understanding of Islam. In other words, they advocate alternate Islamic theological and jurisprudential perspectives on these issues of considerable concern and debate today. While some of them believe that reforming the madrasas is solely the responsibility of the ulema of the madrasas themselves, and are suspicious of state intervention, others call for madrasas to work together with agencies of the state and with well-meaning non-Muslims, including secular NGOs, in order to improve the conditions in the madrasas.

This book makes a very valuable contribution to our understanding of madrasa education in India, particularly concerning the issue of madrasa reforms. It is thus indispensable reading for all those interested in the subject. It well deserves to be translated into local languages, most specially Urdu, so that it can benefit the ulema as well.