November  2003 
Year 10    No.93

Special Report


Education is the key

For over three decades now, a socially concerned Muslim from north India has remained focussed on a one-point agenda for co-religionists — education

By Ahmad Rashid Shervani

I could not believe my eyes! About 28 years ago, I was able to lay my hands on a report showing the proportion of Muslims in Central Government Services. It was just about 2 per cent. I was shocked, disgusted, furious. For more than a quarter of a century, the Muslims of India were told that they should strengthen the hands of Pandit Nehru and, after him, of his daughter, to save India’s Muslims from Hindu fanatics. And this is just what the Muslims of India did ever since — strengthen the hands of the Congress and particularly of Nehru and then of his daughter. And what have the Muslims got? Their proportion in Central Government Services has been reduced to roughly one-sixth of what it should be. If this is secularism, then secularism is nothing but a farce and a fraud, a word coined (or borrowed) to make fools of the Muslims of India. Even if India had been ruled by Hindu fanatics for the past quarter of a century, could it be any worse? Perhaps there would have been zero percent Muslims in the Central Government Services. Well, what is the difference between zero and a measly two percent? Is the so loudly trumpeted "secularism" of the Nehru-Gandhis worth only this much?

I wrote about all this. More than fifty Urdu newspapers carried my articles prominently. Many commented editorially, endorsing and acclaiming my views. I belong to a family of ardent Congressmen. My elders staunchly opposed communalism, fanaticism, Partition etc. and fought valiantly for freedom. My eldest uncle, Tasadduq Ahmad Khan Shervani, was a close friend, colleague and comrade of Jawaharlal Nehru, in and out of jails with him. My second uncle, Nisar Ahmad Shervani, was one of the very first Indians to chuck up British service and jump into the national movement. My father, Fida Ahmad Shervani, was one of the first students to leave university on Mahatma Gandhi’s call. The Shervani Brothers stood firm against communal and separatist Muslims. Why? Because we had faith in India, in the Congress, in Gandhiji and in Jawaharlalji. We believed that we, the Indian Muslims, belong to India and that India belongs to us. And this is what we have got from those we thought were our friends and leaders!

Such strong condemnation by one of such stock could not be ignored. I could not be brushed aside as just one more Muslim fanatic, probably in the pay of Pakistan. They had to contend with me. I got a call from the PM’s house. I went. She understands and shares my concern at the dwindling proportion of Muslims in government services, she said.

I lost my temper at what I thought was sheer hypocrisy. This lady’s father and then she have ruled Indiafor over a quarter of a century, and mainly because of Muslim votes. During this period, the proportion ofMuslims in government services has been reducing rapidly, right under the noses of both father and daughter. Could this happen unless her father and then she wanted it to happen? Certainly not, thought I. And this lady had the crust to sit calmly and tell me that she "shares my concern"! Is she mocking me? Or, what? I said so in as many words. Your father and then you kept telling Muslims that you are their friends, protectors, benefactors. Like fools, the Muslims believed all this and blindly voted for you, kept you in power. And in return, both of you have been easing Muslims out of government services. And to top it all, you say you fully share my concern!

The main reason

But you are ignoring the reason, she said. What reason can there be, I asked, except that Muslims were discriminated against, cheated of their due share and all this under the garb of what is called secularism? Mme. Gandhi was calm. You have the right to blame us, but not entirely, she said, the main reason is that Muslims are lagging badly behind in education. I was even more angry. Uzre gunah badtar az gunah, I said, excuse for a sin is worse than the sin itself. It is bad enough that you have reduced the Muslims virtually to zero in government services. Why add insult to injury by blaming the Muslims themselves for it?

But it is true, she said, among those graduating in India the proportion of Muslims is hardly 3 per cent. So how can more Muslims get jobs in government services? You see only the effect of the educational backwardness of Muslims and get upset about it. I understand your being upset. I am also upset. But why do you ignore the cause? Unless and until the cause is removed, the malady cannot be cured, she said. I do not believe it, I said. You will when you see the facts, she said tersely, and gave me some papers.

I started looking at these papers. In one university after another, among those graduating, the proportion of Muslims was 1per cent here, 2 per cent there, a little over 2 per cent somewhere else. The average was just between 1per cent and 2 per cent. I could not believe my eyes. I got up, signalled adaab to the lady and slipped out, still looking at the papers she had given me. My head was spinning. I tottered out, clutching a chair here, a door there for support.

The next day, I went straight to the office of the Central Board of Secondary Education. After some persuasion, the officer allowed me to go through the results of about seventy thousand students who had appeared for the Secondary or Class X board examination, contained in five volumes of about 300 pages each. Over five days, I counted only about 1,200 Muslims. This was position even at the Class X board examination level. How could the proportion be better than this at the graduation level? Or in government services?

I went to Mme. Gandhi again. I have come to apologise, I said rather sheepishly. What for? I was rude to you last time, I said. Oh, were you really, she said, I did not notice. I told her that I had seen the figures listing Muslim graduates and then had gone to the CBSE office and counted all Muslims who had appeared for the last X board examination in the whole of Delhi territory. How many? Only 1,200. Out of? About 70,000. Just about 1.7per cent; Yes? Just about. And what is the proportion of Muslims in the population of Delhi? About 8.5 per cent. And 1.7 per cent is one-fifth of 8.5 per cent. Yes. Awful, is’n’t it? Much worse than awful, it is pathetic, miserable, wretched, disgusting. I told her of my resolve to do something. She gave me valuable suggestions, assured me of all her help whenever I needed it. This is how I started doing the work I have been doing ever since.

How did It happen?

Now, every Nathoo,Buddhoo, Khaira (Tom, Dick and Harry) knows and says that Indian Muslims are lagging badly behind others in education. Then, hardly anyone had an inkling. When I said that there was one and only one problem that Muslims had and it was their educational backwardness, everyone looked at me with surprise, thinking I was mad or something. However, the facts were too glaring. Even the so-called leaders of the millat could not shut their eyes to the facts.

The extent may differ from place to place or from one level of education to another. For instance, in some areas of Uttar Pradesh, I found Muslims only about two to three times behind others at the primary or Class V level. At the middle or junior high school or Class VIII level, they were three to four times behind others. Then, at the high school or secondary or Class X level, they were about five times behind others. Finally, at the higher secondary or intermediate or Class XII level, the extent of backwardness of Muslims was about six times as compared with the rest. Naturally, at the graduation level, Muslims could be about seven times behind others.

Similarly, there could be variations from state to state. For instance, at the Class X level in Uttar Pradesh, Muslims seem to be about five times behind others while in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, Muslims seem to be only about three times behind others. In Rajasthan, Haryana and West Bengal, Muslims seems to be more than ten times behind others. At the Class X level, Muslims in North India are about six times behind others in education. Obviously, the Class X board examination is also called the "entrance" examination. That is, one may enter the field of higher education only after passing the "entrance". So, if a community is lagging six times behind others at the "entrance" level, the extent of its educational backwardness is only likely to be more (not less) than six times at higher levels of education. How did this happen? Who is to blame for it? Here is what I feel.

I appeared for the high school examination in 1947, just a few months before the Partition. In that year, about 350 thousand students appeared for the same examination from what is now called North India, and out of these about 35 thousand or ten percent were Muslims. The proportion of Muslims in the total population in this area was roughly 13.5 per cent.

So, Muslims were slightly behind others in education at this level in 1947. Instead of 13.5 per cent they were only 10 per cent. What happened thereafter? In the first decade after independence, education received a spurt. The number of all students appearing for the same board examination doubled to about 700 thousand. The number of Muslims also increased but from 35 thousand to only about 42 thousand. So, the proportion of Muslims fell from 10per cent to just 6 per cent. In the second decade, the total increased to about 1.25 million. Muslims increased to about 40 thousand, just about 3.2 per cent of the total. In the third decade, the total crossed two million and Muslims were fumbling at somewhere about 45 thousand, just about 2.25 per cent of the total. This was the position when I became aware of the problem.

Thereafter, in the fourth decade after independence, Muslims just kept pace with the others. They did NOT slide further down. Nor did they go forward as compared with others. During the fifth decade after independence, Muslims began inching forward. They moved up, just a bit. The present position may roughly be that out of all students appearing for the matriculation board examination in North India, about 2.5 per cent are Muslims. According to their proportion in population (now about 14 per cent), they are still five to six times behind others at this crucial level. Till 1976, Muslims were sliding down the slope, year by year. Then they put a stop to that. Thereafter, they started climbing up. Not very noticeably, though.

But why had Muslims been sliding down the slope from 1947 to about 1976? For a full thirty years or so, why had Muslims not been coming forward in education at the same speed as the others? Many so-called Muslim leaders blame the government for all the problems that beset Indian Muslims. So also for this problem. I will not argue with them. I will only say that these very "Muslim leaders" kept shouting from rooftops that the Muslim vote was decisive in each and every election in India. So, whichever government came to power in India was put there by Muslims themselves. If that government (or all those governments) pushed the Muslims back, the Muslims themselves are to blame for it. Are they not?

In some seminars and what-nots held on the subject, some government pundits tried to put the blame on the Muslim community and more particularly the "Muslim leadership", for this sad plight of the Muslims. To them I said that the only "leaders of Muslims" I have known in the first three decades of India’s independence are Mr Jawaharlal Nehru and Mme. Indira Gandhi because Muslims only voted for one of these two and for whoever they wanted the Muslims to vote for. So, if Muslims suffered because of "bad leadership", we know who the two "bad leaders" of Muslims were. First the father and then the daughter are to blame for the Muslims’ plight, I said. This made the pundits shut up. They had to look the other way, pretending not to hear what I said so loud and so clear.

In effect, I consider this argument useless and meaningless. When I am talking to the Muslims I say: "You have suffered, your children have suffered and, no matter who else was also responsible, you are undoubtedly guilty. You should have seen to it that your children did not lag behind in education. If you did not, it is your fault. What benefit will accrue from blaming others?"

And when I talk to the minions of government, I say that it was and is the duty of a secular government to ensure that no part of the great Indian nation lags behind in education. Muslims of India are an integral part of the Indian nation, a large and important part of it. If such a large and important integral part of my Indian nation lags so badly behind in education, how can the national leaders and the secular government of India be cleared of blame? It is guilty, to the hilt. Instead of getting stuck in the useless argument about who is to blame and how much, I tried to do something to remedy the situation, to take Muslims forward in education.

What did I do?

First of all, the resources. Not a lot, but I did need some money. I told Mr. Mustafa Rashid Shervani, industrialist and philanthropist, what I had found and what I wanted to do about it. Go right ahead, he said, take as much money as you need. Then, the information. I started collecting the Class X board examination results of Muslim high schools in North India. I wrote to each principal, telling them that if they sent me a simple one-page form, duly and completely filled-in, I would send prizes(s) for their best students(s). Thus, I got results from several schools. The average result in 1976 was about 30 per cent pass. Pathetic. The proportion of first divisions was only about 1per cent. Even more pathetic. Miserable.

So, the position was that firstly, the number of Muslims appearing for the board examination was about one-fifth or one-sixth of what it should be. Secondly, out of those who appeared, more than two-third failed and barely one percent got a first division. And this from schools run and managed by Muslims themselves. If Muslims themselves, in their own schools, make a mess of the education of their own children, then who can help the Muslims? Even Allah does not help those who do not help themselves. I wrote about all this, again and again.

I received more and more result sheets, confirming the disastrous situation. But there were exceptions. Some Muslim institutions were doing well, a few even exceptionally well. Their principals were promptly presented with awards, with quite a bit of fanfare to enhance their importance. I wrote extensively. Urdu newspapers were flooded with hundreds of my articles and reports. For the first time, Muslims started becoming conscious of the performance of their own high schools.

"If our school here is doing so well then why our schools there and there and there doing so badly?" Muslims began to ask. Managers and secretaries of those Muslim schools had to answer. They, in turn, started questioning the principals. Who, in turn, started taking the teachers to task. All those concerned began to realise that they had to do better, much better. No more taking it easy. The process of evaluation and comparison started and consequent improvement ensued.

After one set of forms came back duly filled-in, I sent another form asking for detailed results of each teacher in each subject. Subject-wise teacher-wise Results from hundreds of schools started pouring in. In school A, the Maths teacher did remarkably well but the Physics teacher did quite badly. In school B, it was the other way round. There were schools in which the overall results were quite poor and yet there were one or two teachers who attained fairly good results in their respective subjects. There were schools in which the overall results were good but in one or two subjects the teachers were doing quite badly. We must recognize and acknowledge the merit and hard work of the individual teacher. Thus started the teachers’ awards. Simultaneously, we also pointed out and criticised poor performance.

I wrote to the principal of a school — With our best wishes, we present awards for the learned teachers of Maths, History and Hindi in your esteemed school for improving their respective results. However, the results in other subjects can and should be better. Particularly in Physics, Geography and Urdu, the results of your esteemed school are very poor. Special attention to the teaching of these subjects seems necessary. These letters began to have the desired effect. More and more teachers started becoming more and more conscious of their results in the board examinations and of the need to improve them.

Encouraged by the prizes, the dear students started studying a little (just a wee bit) more. Enthused by the awards and awakened by unfavourable comparisons, the learned teachers started giving a little (just a wee bit) more attention to teaching. And how much would results improve if students started trying just five percent harder and teachers started teaching just five percent more earnestly? Five per cent improvement would result, you would say. But you would be quite wrong. The interplay of just 5 per cent more effort on the part of students and 5per cent more attention from the teachers makes results twenty-five percent better. Don’t ask me how, but it does. It did in dozens and dozens of Muslim high schools in North India.

Results began to improve. In twenty-three years, the average result of about 300 Muslim high schools improved from less than 30 per cent pass to more than 60 per cent pass. The proportion of first divisions increased from hardly one percent to about ten per cent. The total number of Muslim boys and girls getting first division results in the matric board examination from Muslim high schools of North India was, believe it or not, less than 150 when we started our scheme. Yes, that is all. Now the number is, again believe it or not, about 6,000 or forty times as much. I am an incorrigible optimist. Yet, even in my wildest dreams, I had not expected so much improvement. But Allah, the benign, the munificent, rewards sincere endeavour with much more success than mere human effort deserves.

And even now, there are nearly two hundred Muslim high schools in which there has been no improvement whatsoever. In fact, in quite a few, the condition now is worse than it was in 1976 when our scheme was started. Why?But that is another story. Some other time, perhaps.

The overall improvement in most Muslim high schools is heartening, to say the least. We certainly have no intentions of resting on our oars. There is still a lot, a hell of a lot more to be done. Muslim high schools can still do (do very well indeed) with a lot more improvement. The success achieved so far is only a spur towards more earnest endeavour.

The stone rolls on

Over the last twenty-three years I have written about six thousand articles/reports etc. About a thousand of these were specially written for and published in just one newspaper or journal. The other five thousand or so were cyclostyled and sent to about 200 Urdu newspapers and journals. The more spicy ones were each published in about a hundred-and-fifty. Some comparatively dull ones were each published in only about fifty. On an average, a report was published in, say, a hundred newspapers. If the printing of one report in one newspaper can be taken as one publication, 100 X 5,000 = 5,00,000 publications. Again and again, Muslims read about the improvement effected in the results of their high schools, about the increasing number of first divisions attained. They become more aware, awake, interested, enthused. During the last twenty-three years, many more Muslims high schools have been established than in the three decades immediately preceding our scheme.

Even in other schools (outside our scheme), the number of Muslim first divisioners has increased severally. There is a noticeable change in the approach of many Muslims. Just twenty years ago, the most common attitude was of dejection and defeatism. More often than not, the letters I got from principals ran something like this — Muslims here are very poor. Muslim children do not even get two square meals a day. How do you except them to do better? The school has not added a single book to the library in ten years and most of the old books too have been half-eaten by white-ants. The laboratory is more of a joke. The Muslims of the area are not interested in education at all. The students feel that they have no future. They will not get any jobs because Muslims are discriminated against. The managing committee is in the doldrums. Members of the general body (which elects the MC) do not even pay the ten rupees towards annual fees. The school building badly needs repairs, the ceilings of three class-rooms could cave in any day. In these circumstances, even if 25 per cent or 30 per cent pass, it is a miracle!

Such "miracles" were happening in most Muslim high schools. Mind you, most of what they wrote was true. The conditions were undoubtedly difficult. Nay, severe, harsh, cruel, back-breaking and unnerving. But I went on repeating the same thing over and over again. Whatever, the difficulties, we have to go forward, we have to take our children forward. We have been left behind, far far behind others. We have got to catch up with them. Talabul ilm fareezatun ala kulle Muslimin wa Muslimatin. Education is compulsory for each and every Muslim boy and for each and every Muslim girl. Any Muslim who ignores the education of his son or daughter would rot in hell. Do you want Muslims to be subservient to others? Do you want Muslims to be inferior to others? Do you want Muslims to polish others’ shoes? And I compared the results of Muslim schools with other schools and asked — Are you not ashamed? Has Allah not given the believers as much intelligence as He has given others?

And then I highlighted any improvement in any Muslim high school. This one of our schools has done so well, look! Why can’t your school do better? You are not so incompetent a principal, are you? These teachers from this or that school have attained such fine results, see! Why can’t the teachers of your school do better? They are not all that incompetent, are they?

The carrot and the whip. The carrot of prizes and awards and of profuse praise showered on those who did well was effective. When we presented awards to the best principals and teachers we said — These, our brothers (or sisters), are the greatest benefactors of the millat. We are beholden to them for having taught our children well. We are a poor millat. What can we offer them except our heartfelt gratitude, our deepest admiration? And that is just what we are offering them. But when we want to present a gift to someone we love, respect and admire, don’t we wrap that gift in a piece of paper? The amount accompanying the award is nothing. It is but a piece of paper in which we have wrapped our gratitude, our very heart. This is how we presented "awards" of about Rs. 500. How else could we present such small amounts to them?

Often, I saw tears roll down the cheeks of the award-winning teachers. I could hardly keep back my own.

Then the whip of stinging criticism, biting sarcasm, blunt condemnation. This too had its effect. You bet it did.

The good old carrot and the even better old whip did it once more. It was like pushing a stone down a slope. The initial effort was stupendous. At first, the johnnies just didn’t seem to want to move, so used had they become to years and years of lethargy topped with large doses of fatalistic faith — that Muslims are doomed, condemned to remain educationally backward for ever. But once the ball was set rolling, it rolled on and on and on, gathering momentum as it moved. It is rolling on.

A drop in the ocean

Barely a million Muslim students study in all the Muslim high schools in North India. There must be at least fifty million Muslim children of school-going age in India. So what I have done to improve board examination results in Muslim high schools of North India could directly benefit only about two percent of all Indian Muslim children. I have been able to do nothing for the remaining 98 per cent. South India is left untouched. Even in North India, Muslim children studying in government high schools and in high schools run and managed by other communities are left untouched. And what of those Muslim children (more than half of all) who go to no school at all? So, what I have done is a drop in the ocean.

Yet, in this very small sphere, something positive has been done. Much more remains to be done but what has been done, even if it is a drop in the ocean, is not such a small drop, after all. And the cost? I have not spent even one crore rupees per year. You need about one crore rupees to establish one proper high school these days. Just by raising the average results of about 500 high schools from 30 per cent pass to 60 per cent pass, we get as many more Muslim matriculates per year as we could have got by opening 500 new high schools. By increasing the number of Muslim first divisioners from 150 to 6,000, we now get as many more Muslim first divisioners every year as we could have got by opening 20,000 new high schools! Had the results not improved, that is.

In the end I would say that, basically it is the government’s responsibility to see that Muslims move forward in education. Are the children of Indian Muslims not the children of Bharat Mata? If the many (yes, tens of millions) of these children of Bharat Mata lag behind in education, it is the fault of the government. Undoubtedly it is. The government has neglected education of Muslims. If any part of the Indian nation lags behind (and Muslims are not a small but a fairly large and important part of the Indian nation) then any government which calls itself even decent (not to mention secular etc.) should be ashamed of itself. The government must take much more effective steps to remove the educational backwardness of Muslims and do so immediately.

This does not, however, mean that we Muslims should just sit and wait for the government to do its duty. The education, the future of our children is involved and we have to do and go on doing whatever we can do, regardless of what the government does or does not do.

I have been working to improve Muslim education since 1975, but due to my limited resources, only in a few states of North India. Now I will try to get this work ("….evaluate the progress of …conduct studies, research and analysis on… educational development of minorities") done by the National Commission for Minorities and the Minorities Commission in every state.

(Ahmad Rashid Shervani is a member of the National Commission for Minorities).
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