The Whys and Wherefores of Muslim Backwardness in India
By Dr. Ibrahim
B. Syed, New Age Islam
16 July 2020
The Impact of
British Rule on Muslims
The British
rule was an advantage to the Hindus, as they were interested to learn from them
whatever would contribute to their advancement.
They utilized the many
opportunities that the British offered in all walks of life. By getting
educated in western education and culture, they became reliable subjects in the
eyes of the British, and by learning the English language, they were offered
services in the Government.
Courtesy
Daily ‘O’
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The East India
Company passed the Permanent Land Settlement Act (1793) whereby it created a
new class of Hindu collaborators, called gomashtas, or zamindars, who
overcharged Muslim peasants, even during hard times, such as famines. The Hindu revenue-collectors, turned
overnight into landowners at the expense of the poor Muslim peasants.
The Muslims did
not learn the English language, and thus denied themselves opportunities of
material as well as intellectual progress. Material, because Government jobs
were open only to English-knowing persons; intellectual, because the entire
body of Western knowledge and learning was shut out from them.
Some historians
attribute this Muslim backwardness to the fact that Muslims were not
pre-disposed to absorb “alien ideas, methods and language of the new rulers”;
thus, they failed “to grasp the opportunities available in the new structure of
government”
To avoid coming
under the influence of the new culture, they clung tenaciously to the
fundamental teachings of Islam and most of them prevented their children from
attending British-patronized educational institutions throughout the different
Indian provinces.
Muslims fell into a sense of humiliation and
grief at the loss of their power, and as a result, they developed bitter
feelings towards the British. This bitterness resulted into the 1857 Revolt
that shook the Company’s rule to its very foundations.
The Impact of
the First Indian Revolt on Muslim Community
Both Muslims and
freedom-loving Hindus did participate in the Great Revolt, and in spite of
that, the British decided to revenge themselves on the Muslim community, as the
latter were regarded as the bona fide fomenters and the most beneficiaries of
the uprising.
This anti-Muslim
feeling was well reflected in the harshness of British reprisals towards the
Muslim community immediately after the Revolt was put down. Besides the
expropriation of Muslim landowners, some contemporaries bear witness to many
instances of barbaric acts of ruthless vengeance being inflicted
indiscriminately by British soldiers, with the connivance of their superior
officers, on ordinary Muslims “mass
massacres, indiscriminate hangings, inhumane tortures and large scale
confiscation of properties were some of the means adopted by the British for
the purpose”. To add insult to injury, even Hindus, who had an active hand in
the events of 1857, pointed an accusing finger at the Muslim community and
joined hands with their new masters, namely the British, in their anti-Muslim
campaign.
Since the early
days when the East India Company imposed its dominion over the Subcontinent,
the British had looked down on the Muslim community and saw Muslims as their
bona fide adversaries
The events of
1857 were an excuse for the British to get rid of the last vestiges of the
Mughal Empire once and for all, as well as curb the Muslim influence in the
Indian society. Muslims faced extreme discrimination in all spheres of
day-to-day life, and particularly in Government employment. The post-Great
Revolt period was probably the gloomiest period in the history of the Muslim
community in the Indian Subcontinent.[1]
Madrasas [2]
During the 19th
and 20th centuries, Christian missionaries and colonial rulers such as the
British opened schools that were based on a Western educational model and
offered courses in English, science and technology.
Muslims who continued to choose Madrasas over
other schools found that they lacked the training needed for well-paid
jobs. One drawback is, many Madrasas
refused to integrate nonreligious subjects into their curricula. As a result, a
dual system of schooling became the norm: one Islam-centred, the other
Westernized.
Why Do Parents
Choose Madrasas?
There are
thousands of madrasas in the Indian subcontinent, Arab countries and African
Muslim countries. There are about 30,000 Madrasas in each country like India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh. Most graduates from Madrasas find poorly paid jobs in
Madrasas, mosques or shrines of saints, a few others in farming. Only 3 percent
attain a higher level of socioeconomic development.
The majority of
Muslim families want Madrasas to offer technical courses and vocational
training. However, the religious leaders who could approve changes are “set
against the modern education.”
Such Madrasas
contribute to a vicious circle of poverty. Free government schools could serve
as an alternative, but, perhaps due to their low quality of instruction, nearly
three-quarters of Muslim families expressed the opinion that if they had the
financial means to do so, they would choose fee-based, private, nonreligious
schools. Greatest problem with Madrasas is they emphasize rote learning over critical
thinking.
Attitude of
Muslims towards Western Education
The Muslims
hated the Western education during the period of British India. The
reason is they had hatred of the British in their taste and culture so that
they had to keep a distance from Western education. And this led the community
to doom. The Muslims were very much
stubborn in their religious belief, practice and worship. The majority of the
Muslims were devoted to trade and commerce rather than to seek employment under
any regime. The Muslim’s response towards the British can be divided into four
categories:
1. One group of
nobles sincerely considered friendship and alliance with the British
indispensable for the continued existence of the Indian states and made it
their policy to be friendly with the British.
2. Second group
was highly impressed by the British and their culture that it sought to
organize the affairs of State and the conditions of the society on British
lines.
3. A third group was loyal neither to the state
nor to the British Government and followed a policy which, in its view, best
suited its own personal and selfish interests.
4. A fourth
group which was totally opposed to British dominance and the British
connection.
Muslims in Southern India showed positive
response towards English and Western sciences, while the Muslims of Northern
India, to some extent also Hindus, refused to accept Western learning.
The British
then onwards were highly cautious regarding Muslims. After establishing their authority, the
British began to destroy the financial strength of the Muslims.
As stated earlier in 1793, the British passed
the land Act, which adversely influenced the economic condition of the Muslims.
They changed the relationship with the landlords, especially with regard to the
Muslims, and closed the door to their landlordism.
In 1868,
the British government announced
assistance for persons traveling to Europe for educational and scientific
purposes. Majority of Muslims living in
northern India believed social contacts with Englishmen to be objectionable for
their moral and religious integrity.
When Syed Ahmad Khan was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic
Society of London in 1864, he decided to go to England himself to see the ways
of the British in their homeland. After an extensive seventeen month stay in England, Ahmad Khan returned to his home
land on 2nd October, 1870 full of ideas and aspirations to lead his community
to be on par with modern developments. While he was in England, he visited the top universities
such as Oxford and Cambridge and
certain private schools, including Eton and Harrow. These would serve as models
for his own Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College. After his return to
India, Sir Syed started to put into action his educational strategies in a
scientific manner. In 1920 the
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College became Aligarh Muslim University, an
institution that had a decisive impact on the course of Islamic polity in India
as well as on the educational history of India.
The Muslim community has not recovered ever
since the historic defeat of Indians in 1857 Rebellion against the
British. Today they are facing hard
social, educational and political conditions. Muslims in India have a poor
human development status.
Sachar
Committee has found that Muslims are not only the victims of poverty, but have
come to accept inequality and discrimination as their inevitable fate. The
glaring problem is the absence of
committed and authentic Muslim leadership in pre and post independent India.
[3]
As stated above
Muslims in India are divided on political lines and have little or no national
leadership. They are marginalized in India’s civil services and public
administration. The Muslim community is also utterly under-represented in the
field of journalism. Moreover, Muslims in India have bleak entrepreneurial
ambitions.
Political
representation of the Muslims stands extremely low at six-to-eight per cent
while their population in India is over 14 per cent.
And religious
organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees Hind, Sunni
Dawat-e-Islami, and others, are concerned with
the way Islam should be practised by the community.
The top
bureaucratic positions in the country namely the Indian Administrative Service
(IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) are
frighteningly under-represented by Muslims. The estimated figure of Muslims in
these services stands inexcusably low at two-three per cent.
Majority of the
Muslims are not even eligible for these posts as very few of them are
university graduates. Surveys show that about five per cent of Muslims in the
country have successfully completed university education.
There are very few Muslim journalists of
national prominence.
Few businessmen
like Azim Premji of Wipro, Yusuf Hamied of Cipla, Shahid Balwa of DB Reality
and a few others, are the few conspicuous Muslim names in the corporate world.
The Road Ahead
Education is a
great solution to problems of poverty, sickness, and empowers the Muslim
community. Universities like Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia
Islamia, must be able to produce some of the preeminent professionals in
different fields who would not only care for their individual well-being but
would also show attentiveness for the community at large.
The religious
leaders must pay attention to the need of the hour to reform the various
education, social, and cultural institutions they run. Just religious education
is not enough, but also modern and secular, must be stressed.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the
well-educated and instrumental members of the community to push for these
reforms. They should make sure there is a fall in dropout rates at all academic
levels. The prosperous members of the community should institute scholarships
and other aides to ensure that deserving and talented young students do not
drop out from school or university due to financial problems. It is time for
the community members to show astonishing unanimity with each other for their
own prosperity and welfare. [4]
References
2.
https://theconversation.com/what-are-madrasa-schools-and-what-skills-do-they-impart-99497
3.
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/8473/12/12_chapter%202.pdf
Dr. Ibrahim B.
Syed is Immediate Past President, Islamic Research Foundation International,
Inc.
7102 W.
Shefford Lane, Louisville, KY 40242, USA
Phone: +1 502 423 1988
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/the-whys-wherefores-muslim-backwardness/d/122386
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