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A Plea for Madrasa Reform Yoginder Sikand In its reporting on madrasas, the Indian press, notable exceptions notwithstanding, has consistently sought to create and reinforce the image of madrasas being irredeemably obscurantist and as fiercely opposed to any change. In this way, it has overlooked the on-going debates within the Muslim community, including among the ???ulama of the madrasas themselves, about the urgent need for madrasa reform. Today, Urdu papers and journals routinely publish articles by ???ulama and Muslim social activists, calling for change in the madrasa syllabus and methods of teaching and administration. These internal voices of reform have had a major impact not only at the level of discourse about madrasas within the community but have also helped to promote a limited change in the actual functioning of many madrasas themselves. Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqui is a major contemporary Indian advocate of madrasa reform. Himself a product of a madrasa, the Markazi Darsgah at Rampur, he later went on to complete his studies at the Aligarh Muslim University. He has worked with numerous Islamic organizations in India and abroad and is a member of the central advisory committee of the Jama???at-i Islami Hind. He is also the recipient of the prestigious International Shah Faisal Award for his pioneering work in the field of Islamic economics. In a recent Urdu booklet titled ???Dini Madaris: Masa???il Aur Taqaze?? (Dini Madrasas: Problems and Prospects), published by the Markazi Maktaba Islami, New Delhi, Siddiqui sets out an ambitious programme for madrasa reform. He writes that madrasas have played a vital role in preserving the Islamic tradition and Muslim culture, but to enable them to continue to serve that function today certain basic changes are urgently called for. For the ???ulama trained at the madrasas to provide guidance to the community on issues of contemporary concern, he says, madrasas must incorporate certain modern subjects in their curriculum. This is also needed, he argues, in order to present the Islamic message in a contemporary idiom. Further, madrasa students must also be made aware of the wider society around them and its problems so that they can address themselves to issues of social concern, through their writings, speeches and fatwas. Like several other proponents of madrasa reform, Siddiqui argues that the question of the employment of madrasa graduates is one that urgently needs to be addressed. In the past, he says, madrasas received generous grants from rulers and the nobility, who endowed them with properties as waqfs. The ???ulama of the madrasas often went on to work in the courts as muftis and qazis. Today, however, these sources of patronage and employment are no longer available. In today??s world, he says, madrasas need to provide the public with a service that the public considers useful, and for which they would be willing to pay. For that, he says, madrasa students must have at least a basic training in modern social and natural sciences, along with English and local languages. This would help expand their existing employment opportunities. This is important, he says, if madrasa graduates are not to become a burden on the community, living off its funds. There are simply not enough jobs available as muftis, imams, khatibs and so on for the increasing number of graduates that the several thousand madrasas in the country produce annually. Hence, for madrasa students who do not wish to work as religious specialists, madrasas can provide facilities for them to train in a particular craft or skill which would enable to them to earn a decent livelihood after their graduation. For other students who wish to work as religious specialists, madrasas could arrange for specialized courses at the higher level in various religious disciplines, as well as in written and spoken English. Such students must also be taught how to use computers and the internet. Not only would this help them broaden their own understanding, but it would also widen their employment possibilities. Students who complete these specialized courses can then enroll in regular universities, in India and abroad, and in that way hope to secure better-paying jobs. With the growing demand for shari??at specialists, such as in businesses and banks run on Islamic lines, Siddiqui says that students who finish such specialized courses in the madrasas now have new possibilities for employment. In this regard, he moots the setting up of shari??at consultancy firms, which would provide advice to businesses and individuals on fiqh and shari??at-related matters in return for a fee. In practice, the Indian ???ulama provide fatwas free of cost, but Siddiqui argues that there is no compelling reason why this must always be the case. If a teacher of fiqh can receive monetary compensation for his services, he asks, why should a mufti not be paid for the task that he performs of finding an answer to a question? Siddiqui concedes that paying a mufti for the fatwa he provides might lead to corruption, but suggests that this possibility can be overcome if payment is made to a shari??at consultancy firm rather than to an individual mufti. Besides changes in the content of the madrasa syllabus, Siddiqui suggests a basic restructuring in the existing methods of teaching. The existing system, he notes, is based largely on memorization. While appreciating the value of memorization, he feels that with new computer technology madrasas should modify their pedagogical methods. Madrasas should give greater stress to encouraging critical thinking and investigation rather than rote learning, he writes. The teacher??s role, he says, is not simply to transmit to the student already existing knowledge and information, but, rather, to help the student to seek to discover new knowledge. For this, he says, madrasas should encourage debates and discussions and the free exchange of differing views. Teachers must not frown upon their students asking them questions or even daring to disagree with them. In place of taqlid or blind imitation of past jurisprudential precedent, the teacher should encourage his students to engage in ijtihad to come up with new responses to new issues. In this regard, he suggests that madrasas should also teach their students texts that deal with fiqhi or jurisprudential responses to new questions. Ijtihad, he says, seeking to set at rest the fears of conservative ???ulama, is not a departure from the Islamic tradition, but, rather, a return to it, for in the past, before stagnation set in, the madrasas eagerly encouraged it. Respect for the ???ulama of the past, he insists, does not mean that Muslims must blindly follow them in every respect. With new problems constantly emerging which the ???ulama of the past did not have to face, and with the rapidly expanding borders of human knowledge, Islam actually requires the ???ulama to constantly engage in ijtihad. Hence, for madrasas to encourage this would be fully in conformity to Islam and past precedent, rather than a betrayal of it. Siddiqui has several other suggestions to make the methods of functioning of the madrasas more effective. These include organising competitions between students of different madrasas, exchange visits, and inter-madrasa library exchange programmes. In order to promote these and other reforms he suggests the setting up of a central coordinating body to which the madrasas would be affiliated. This body would then be able to take steps to prepare suitable text books, introduce basic minimum standards in the syllabi and examinations, promote extra-curricular activities, arrange for proper funding and so on for all the madradas that are associated with it. Siddiqui also advocates the setting up of independent teachers?? and students?? bodies in the madrasas. Siddiqui complains that many madrasas are cut off from the society around them. He suggests that madrasa teachers and students should be closely involved in the wider society, in order to play their role as initiators of social reform and missionary activism. They must seek to engage in constructive social work in their own localities, he argues. This is particularly necessary, he stresses, since Islam gives great importance to helping those in need. By being involved in social work, he says, madrasa students and teachers would come into closer contact with non-Muslims, and this would, in turn, help combat mutual distrust and misunderstandings. Another major concern for Siddiqui is the present method of collecting money to fund the madrasas. He argues that the chain of madrasas that began to be set up in India in the aftermath of the revolt of 1857 rightly refused to take any financial assistance from the British since they were established precisely with the intention of resisting British imperialism. It was also a wise decision on the part of the madrasas not to take any fees from their students, he says, for many Muslims faced a sharp decline in their economic fortunes after the British take-over. Instead, madrasas relied almost entirely for their finances on collections from the public. Today, however, conditions have undergone a considerable change, and Siddiqui suggests that madrasas must revise their methods of collecting money. He writes that the present method employed by many madrasas of sending their teachers to collect donations and then paying them their salaries out of the funds so collected must be done away with, for it hurts the self-respect of the teachers themselves. Often the teachers have are dealt with harshly by people whom they approach for money. Instead of making teachers and students collect donations, madrasas should appoint separate staff for the purpose or else the managers of the madrasas must do this task themselves. Madrasas should also put an end to the practice of appointing commission agents to collect money for them, and must also maintain proper accounts. In place of individual madrasas collecting money separately from the general public, Siddiqui suggests that local federations of madrasas be formed to which the general public could donate money which would then be distributed to the madrasas. In this way, he argues, the scope for misuse of finds and corruption would be considerably reduced. In what would undoubtedly be regarded as a controversial proposal, Siddiqui pleads for madrasas to reconsider their stance on not accepting any funding from the state. Since Muslims are fellow citizens and tax-payers, their madrasas have a right to receive funding from the state as do educational institutions run by other communities. He argues that there is no harm in madrasas receiving state funds, provided this does not lead to any interference in their functioning. For this purpose he suggests the setting up of a federal body that would liaison between the madrasas and the state and which would assist the madrasas in accessing state funds and keeping proper accounts. Siddiqui appeals to managers of the madrasas to reconsider their present practice of providing free education to all their students. He says that the shari??at does not oblige religious education to be provided to all free of cost. In fact, he says, in the first few centuries of Islam students at madrasas were charged fees if they could afford to pay. Today, Siddiqui says, the cost of education is rising day by day, and if madrasas are to include modern subjects in their curriculum and hire teachers for these subjects, their expenses, too, would considerably increase. To meet these increased costs he suggests that madrasas should charge tuition fees from students who come from families who can manage to pay, while other students can pay a nominal amount. Students who come from very poor families should, however, continue to receive a free education. In this way, he writes, those students who join madrasas simply for the free food and accommodation that they now provide would be weeded out. Another important question that Siddiqui addresses is Islamic educational provision for girls. In recent years a number of girls?? madrasas have been established in different parts of the country. While welcoming this development, Siddiqui says that much more is yet to be done in this regard. Recognising the difficulties, particularly financial, involved in setting up separate girls?? madrasas on a wide scale, Siddiui suggests that existing madrasas set up girls?? sections with separate classrooms and hostels. In this way, costs would be drastically reduced as there would be no need for additional investment in libraries, computer laboratories etc.. Siddiqui recognizes that his long list of suggestions for the madrasas would be of little worth in the absence of people who share his vision. For this, he stresses the need for a committed leadership which would be aware of the manifold challenges before the community. Such a leadership, he says, must rise above narrow sectarian divisions that are now so rife within the madrasa system and which have actually been created and further reinforced by many madrasas themselves. Siddiqui insists that the basic reforms that he calls for can only come about if the ???ulama stop quibbling among themselves over petty issues that now so fiercely divide them. The new leadership Siddiqui hopes to see emerging from the madrasas would be one that, as he puts it, ???is fully aware of the glory of the Muslim past and fully willing to make use of it, but does not rest content with singing the praises of the past??. Rather, it would ???turn its face to the future, understanding the demands of the future in order to build a tomorrow that is brighter than today??. |
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| << December30, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] Why was Thakre given state funeral? |
January02, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Patnaik In Trouble For Encouraging Mining In Tribal Areas >> |
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