Madrasa Bashing And Clampdown Has Become The Order Of The Day
By
Aftab Alam, New Age Islam
23 August
2024
With Islamophobia On The Rise, Madrasas Have
Suffered A Great Loss Of Reputation. Depictions Of Madrasas In The Media Are
Invariably Negative. They Are Accused Of Being ‘Nurseries Of Terrorism.’
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Madrasas
are one of the largest systems of free education for Muslims in India. Though madrasas primarily focus on Islamic
learning, they have played a significant role in spreading literacy, especially
among the downtrodden and poor Muslims.
Madrasas,
once regarded as revered and venerated centres of learning, came under scrutiny
in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States (US) in 2001.
With Islamophobia on the rise, madrasas have suffered a great loss of
reputation. Depictions of madrasas in the media are invariably negative. They
are accused of being ‘nurseries of terrorism.’ They are blamed for promoting a
‘narrow’ and ‘rigid’ worldview and causing great obstruction in the path of
progress of the Muslim community.
Madrasa bashing has become the order of the day.
Today, as
recent developments, especially in the BJP ruled states, indicate, madrasas are
facing the most serious existential crisis in the country since inception. The
root of the current crisis lies in a report of the National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on “Impact of Exemption under Article 15(5)
with regards to Article 21A of the Constitution of India on Education of
Children in Minority Communities,” released in March, 2021. The report
underscored that madrasas and other minority institutions are depriving children
of their right to universal and quality education, with detrimental effects.
Giving a
new twist to the whole issue, a year later, NCPCR Chairman PriyankKanoongo
expressed concern over Hindu students studying in government-funded and
recognised madrasas. He said that keeping Hindu and other non-Muslim children
in madrasas is not only a violation of their fundamental right to basic
education but also a violation of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India,
which prohibits educational institutions from obligating the children to take
part in any religious instruction, without the consent of their parent.
In a
shocking development, the BJP’s Assam government in December 2021 converted all
"provincialised" madrasas into regular High Schools and withdrew the
teachings of theological subjects from them.
The State Madrasa Education Board was also dissolved. Chief Minister
(CM) Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the government cannot bear the expenditure
of religious education, and madrasas are not needed in 'New India.'
The
decision of the Assam government to shut down madrasas was challenged before
the Guwahati High Court (HC) by their founders, which nonetheless in February
2022 upheld the validity of the Assam government’s decision on the ground that
Article 28(1) of the constitution mandates that no religious instruction shall
be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state
funds. Relying on the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) in the AzeezBasha case
(1968), the court rejected the claim of the petitioners that madrasas enjoy
protection as minority institutions. The HC held that the madrasas would cease
to be a minority institution once they had been provincialised under the 1995
Act or the subsequent Acts.
In yet
another severe blow to Madrasas, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court
in March 2024 declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004,
“unconstitutional” and violative of the principle of secularism. The HC held
that the state has no power to create a board for religious education only for
a particular religion and the philosophy associated with it.
The court
further held that while the students of all other religions are getting
educated in all modern subjects, the denial of the same to the students of
Madrasas amounts to a violation of both Article 21-A as well as Article 21 of
the Constitution. The court asserted that the education being imparted in
Madrasas is neither “quality” nor “universal” in nature. The HC also directed
the state government to integrate the existing students of the Madarsa Board
into the mainstream education system under government or private institutions.
The High
Courts, however, erroneously held madrasas as institutions wholly maintained
out of state funds. The grant of aid to madrasas, fully or partially, will not
alter the fact that they were established by the Muslim minority community and
therefore enjoy protection under Article 30(1) of the Constitution. In the
T.M.A. Pai case (2002) the 11 judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court
(SC) held that “a minority institution does not cease to be so, the moment
grant-in-aid is received by the institution.” It means receiving ‘grant in aid’
from the state in the form of salaries and other emoluments of employees cannot
deprive the founders of their rights under Article 30(1).
The High
Courts also incorrectly held that madrasas only provide religious instruction
and ignored the fact that instruction in other subjects such as Arabic, Urdu,
Persian, Tibb (traditional medicine) logic, philosophy, and other modern
subjects is also imparted in them. It must also be underlined that, over the
years, most Indian madrasas have already introduced modern subjects such as
physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer programming, and social sciences, as
part of their modernisation programme.
Furthermore,
as per SC’s landmark judgements in the D.A.V. College case (1972) and the Aruna
Roy case (2002), religious education can be imparted even in ‘educational
institutions’ fully maintained out of state funds. What is prohibited in
Article 28(1) is ‘religious instruction’ which the court construed narrowly to
include only rituals, modes of worship, observances, and traditions. The
teaching of morals associated with a religion, which have an impact on secular
aspects of life, is not prohibited. The Indian Courts have time and again held
that the study of religion in educational institutions cannot be considered
against the concept of secularism.
The
Allahabad HC was also wrong in holding that the UP Madrasa Act, 2004 violates
the constitutional principle of secularism. The HC perhaps misunderstood the
very spirit of secularism, which was very eloquently expressed by the SC in the
TMA Pai case (2002). The SC held that the essence of secularism in India is the
recognition and preservation of the different types of people, with diverse
languages and different beliefs, and Articles 29 and 30 seek to preserve such
differences and at the same time unite the people of India to form one strong
nation. In the Pramati case (2014), the SC rightly held that by excluding the
minority institutions from the Right to Education Act, the secular character of
India is maintained and not destroyed.
While the
Assam government has already shut down all aided madrasas of the state and
converted them into general schools, the decision of the Allahabad HC would
effectively lead to the closure of around 25,000 recognised and unrecognised
madrasas in UP. The possibility of their closure has left the future of over 27
lakh students, and 1.4 lakh teachers, and other staff in the lurch. Since
January 2024, the UP state government has already discontinued the payment of
honorariums of the Madrasa teachers appointed under the Madrasa Modernisation
Scheme to teach subjects like Hindi, English, Science, Mathematics, and Social
Science on the plea that the Union Government had stopped funding under this
scheme in March 2022.
Madhya
Pradesh (MP), another BJP-ruled state, has also ordered a review of madrasas on
the direction of the NCPCR, where allegedly students were being radicalised. In
April 2023, the then CM of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said that
fanaticism had no place in the state. In a recent order issued on August 16,
2024, the MP government issued an order to take strict action against madrasas
affiliated with the state government or aided by state funds if children
studying there are imparted religious education without their consent or the
consent of their guardians. The state government claimed that non-Muslim
students were being forced to get religious education and attend religious
prayers without their parents' or guardians consent. The state government
ordered strict legal action against such madrasas and threatened to stop aid
and withdraw state recognition. In the last two years, the affiliation of more
than one thousand madrasas has already been either cancelled or derecognised.
Since 2020, the registration of new madrasas in the state has also been put on
hold.
For now, it
seems, all our hopes are pinned on the apex court, which on April 5 stayed the
Allahabad HC judgement. The SC held that the object and purpose of the Madrasa
board are regulatory in nature, and the HC is not prima facie correct that the
establishment of the board will breach secularism. In the opinion of the apex
court, the HC also misconstrued the provisions of the Madarsa Act, which per
se, did not provide for any religious instruction in an educational institution
maintained out of state funds. The SC has already admitted the petition
challenging the decision of the Assam HC.
The stand
of the BJP governments on madrasas is both hypocritical and outrageous. The
BJP-led central government is promoting the teaching of the Sanskrit language,
the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, etc. in madrasas as part of the Indian
knowledge system but it considers the teaching of Islam in these madrasas
contrary to the principle of secularism. The central government has also
recently established the Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Veda Sanskrit Sikhsha
Board (MSRVSSB) to mainstream Vedic and Sanskrit education, but the
establishment of Madrasa boards is being viewed as unconstitutional.
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Aftab Alam is Professor at Aligarh Muslim
University and heads its Strategic and Security Studies Department.
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