Rights approach
Marrying the traditional with the modern, madrassas in Kerala
demonstrate a more contemporary and well rounded approach to learning than their
counterparts
in the rest of India
Zubair Kottalil is a graduate of a Sunni madrassa in
Kerala. He is currently doing his MPhil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about various
facets of madrassa education in contemporary Kerala
Q: Could you tell us something about your
educational background?
A: I studied till the fifth grade in a regular school and then enrolled at the
Dar ul-Huda Islamic Academy, in Chemmad, in the Mallapuram district of northern
Kerala. This madrassa is run by the Samastha Kerala Jamiat ul-Ulema,
which is a Sunni Muslim organisation. I spent 13 years there, and along with my
religious studies I did a Bachelor’s course from the Osmania University,
Hyderabad, as an external candidate. I then came to the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi. Here I did my MA in Arabic and am now in the first year
of the MPhil programme.
Q: What are known as ‘Sunnis’ in Kerala,
that is Muslims other than those affiliated to the Jamaat-i Islami and the
Nadwat ul-Mujahidin, are often thought to be less enthusiastic about modern
education. Do you agree with this view?
A: A few traditional Sunni ulema and organisations might feel this
way but I do not think it is true for the Kerala Sunnis in general. Things are
rapidly changing today and Sunni groups are as involved in promoting Islamic as
well as modern education as other Muslim groups in the state. The Dar ul-Huda
Islamic Academy, where I studied, is a Sunni organisation, and is a good example
of how traditional Sunni ulema in Kerala are now increasingly willing to
incorporate modern education into the madrassa system. It is a unique
institution of its kind, and is a sort of model that other Sunni groups are
trying to emulate today. At the academy we studied the general Islamic subjects,
along with subjects like English, Mathematics, Science and History till the 12th
grade level. This allowed us to appear as external candidates in the government
secondary school examination. In addition, we also learnt Urdu, Malayalam and
Comparative Religions. Besides, we had to learn computers and take part in a
range of extra-curricular activities, such as games and literary and public
discussion groups. In the eighth year of the course at the academy, students
enrol for a Bachelor’s degree correspondence course in a regular university so
that by the time they finish the 12-year course at the academy they also have a
regular BA degree. Students can select from a range of subjects what they want
to major in. Earlier, the students enrolled for a degree course conducted
through correspondence by the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi, and
the Osmania University, but now many of them are doing it from the Calicut
University in Kerala.
By combining traditional Islamic and modern education in this
way, the academy trains ulema who choose from a range of careers, and
thus need not only work as imams or preachers in mosques. Some of the
academy’s graduates are abroad, working in the Gulf. Some have joined various
Malayali newspapers. Several of them are now studying at regular universities,
many of them in higher Arabic and Islamic studies but a few in other fields that
madrassa graduates earlier rarely entered. Thus, for instance, a graduate
of the academy is currently doing his MPhil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University,
where he is working on ‘The Crisis of Tradition and Modernity among Muslims’ for
his thesis. Several of the academy’s graduates do become religious specialists
but they are quite distinct from the traditional ulema in that they are
able to relate to the world around them in a far more relevant manner as they
have a reasonably good grounding in modern disciplines as well.
Q: Do you know of similar experiments in
combining modern and Islamic education for girls as well?
A: There are scores of such institutes catering to Muslim girls as well
in Kerala, but unfortunately few people seem to have heard about them outside
Kerala. Our academy now has a girls’ wing, the Fatima Zehra Islamic Women’s
College, which offers a seven-year course. The course combines Islamic and
modern subjects, after which students appear for the secondary school
examinations. As in the academy, no fees are charged, and students get free food
as well.
Q: How do you account for the fact that Muslim
organisations in Kerala have been far more successful in combining modern and
Islamic education than their North Indian counterparts?
A: In much of the rest of India there is a sharp dualism between Islamic
and modern education. As a result, students who study in madrassas have
little or no knowledge of modern subjects. Likewise, those who study in regular
school have little or no knowledge of Islam. This dualism is reinforced by the
stance of some traditional ulema who seem to regard the two forms of
knowledge as distinct from, if not opposed to, each other although as I see it,
any form of beneficial knowledge is legitimate in Islam. In Kerala this dualism
has, to a large extent, been overcome. We have a unique system of Islamic
education in Kerala, which is not found in any other part of India. Every local
Muslim community has its own madrassa, which is affiliated to a
state-level madrassa board run by one or the other Muslim organisation
such as the Jamaat-i Islami, the Samsatha Kerala Sunni Jamiat ul-Ulema and the
Nadwat ul-Mujahidin. The madrassa boards prepare the syllabus and
textbooks that are used by all the madrassas affiliated to them. The
boards also conduct the annual examinations and send out regular inspection
teams. The costs of running the madrassas are met by the local community
council, which collects donations from each Muslim family in the locality. Often
the office of the council and the madrassa itself are located in the
local mosque, which functions as a sort of community centre. The timings of the
madrassas are adjusted in such a way that allows the children to attend
regular school as well. In this way, by the time they finish their school
education most Muslim children in Kerala have a fairly good grounding in Islamic
studies as well. I don’t think there is any similar system in any other Indian
state, where, generally, if you want to study Islam you have to go without
modern education. In Kerala, fortunately, we do not have to make a choice
between Islamic and modern education. Our children can study Islam while at the
same time carrying on with their regular studies as well. After they graduate
from regular school, if they want to specialise in Islamic studies they can join
an Arabic college, and if they want to go in for modern education they can enrol
in a university.
Q: How did this transformation in the madrassa
system of education in Kerala come about? Was there no resistance to this?
A: I suppose before 1947 we, too, followed the traditional system. But
Kerala is quite distinct from the rest of India, and the state has witnessed a
wave of reform movements, which Muslims have also benefited from. We have also
developed along with the other communities. I think the fairly harmonious
relations between the different communities in Kerala is a major factor in
explaining why Muslims there have been willing to modernise their system of
madrassa education. In contrast to many other parts of India, in Kerala,
Muslims, Hindus and Christians all live in mixed localities, so there is a lot
more give and take between the communities and a willingness to learn from and
share with each other. In many parts of the North, Muslims have been forced to
live in their own ghettos, and this trend is becoming even more pronounced with
the alarming rise of Hindutva in recent years, because of which Muslims feel
safer if they live in separate localities. This further reinforces a deeply
rooted insular mentality, which dampens any enthusiasm for change and reform.
Another important reason why madrassas in Kerala have
been more open to change is that the state has a fairly sizeable Muslim middle
class, which has taken an active interest in working along with the ulema
and community organisations in the field of education. In contrast, in much of
the North, the Muslim middle class is almost non-existent or else evinced little
interest in intervening in the field of traditional religious education.
Q: Some
ulema oppose madrassa graduates joining regular universities, claiming
that this would result in them straying from religion. How do you look at this
argument?
A: I do not agree with this argument at all. True, there may be some
madrassa graduates who are now in universities who are not very particular
in their observance of religion, but these must be just a minority. Most
madrassa students whom I know who are now studying in universities are
regular in prayers and other Islamic rituals. I don’t believe it is difficult to
preserve your faith in a university environment. Moreover, I think that studying
in a regular university can provide madrassa students with new
opportunities for interacting with, learning from and influencing others,
including those who may be deeply prejudiced against Islam or Muslims.
I think the belief that joining universities would cause
madrassa students to lose their faith in or commitment to Islam stems from a
distorted understanding of religion that sees Islam and modernity as
incompatible. Such a perception is more widely prevalent in North India, in
contrast to Kerala. I firmly believe that most modern scientific and
technological developments, including in the realm of knowledge, are not, in
principle, opposed to Islam and can be embraced. So there is no reason why
Muslims, including madrassa graduates, cannot go in for modern education
while taking care that this does not impact on their religious identity and
commitment.
Q: What is the reason that the Kerala
model of Islamic education is so little known in the rest of India, particularly
in North India?
A: The main reason for this is that Kerala is the only state in India
where Urdu is not used as the medium of instruction. In fact, very few Muslims
in Kerala understand Urdu at all. Because of this, there has been little
interaction between ulema and ulema-related organisations in
Kerala and elsewhere. This also explains why the writings of Kerala Muslim
scholars, which are almost all in Malayalam, are almost wholly unknown in the
rest of India. Another reason why many Muslims outside Kerala are not familiar
with the Kerala experience in modernising madrassas is the deeply rooted
yet misplaced belief that North Indian Muslims represent, in a sense, normative
Islam. Hence, many North Indians feel that they have little, if anything, to
learn from the South Indian example. There is this feeling that real Islam is to
be found in the North and that South Indian Muslims do not fully measure up to
that standard. When I came to Delhi I was amazed to find that some North Indian
Muslim students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, considered to be one of the
premier universities in the country, also appear to share this opinion. When
they learnt that I was from Kerala they asked me, in all seriousness, if I knew
how to pray in the proper Islamic fashion! One of them even asked that if we
were Muslims how is it that we cannot speak Urdu properly! When I answered them
and told them about Kerala’s unique madrassa system and pointed out the
fact that Kerala is among the few states in India where Arabic is taught in
government schools and in all our universities, they were really surprised and
embarrassed.
But things are changing gradually now. In recent years there has
been growing interaction between Muslim educational groups in Kerala and other
parts of India, through visits and conferences and this has helped others to
learn about the Kerala system of madrassa education. The academy where I
studied has taken a significant step in this regard by setting up a separate
unit where education is imparted in the Urdu medium. This unit caters to
children from other states, and it is hoped that once they finish their
education they will return to their homes and set up similar modernised
madrassas there as well. In addition, the academy is now working with the
authorities of the Quwwat al-Islam madrassa in Mumbai to help it
modernise and impart both Islamic as well as modern education. Of course, a lot
more needs to be done in this regard. I think one really productive way of doing
this is to organise groups of younger ulema and community activists from
other parts of India to visit madrassas and Muslim educational
institutions in Kerala so that they can go back to their states and start
similar experiments.
Q: Traditional
madrassas have been heavily criticised for promoting
inter-sectarian rivalry. How do you react to this charge?
A: It is an undeniable fact that many madrassas have been actively
involved in promoting sectarian strife. Some of them go so far as to brand other
Muslim groups or maslaks as infidels or at least as aberrant. I think
this approach is completely misplaced. Even if you believe that your own
maslak represents the truth it does not mean that you should violently
denounce other maslaks. The way forward is through dialogue, not through
heated polemics. I think everybody has the right to believe what he or she
wants, and no one has the right to forcibly impose his or her views on others.
This applies to both intra-Muslim relations as well as to relations between
Muslims and other communities. After all, the Koran very clearly teaches us that
everyone is free to believe whatever he or she wants and that there can be no
compulsion in religion.
(Zubair Kottalil can be contacted on [email protected]).
|
|