“Blatant Right-Wing propaganda targets madrasas, which are already struggling with limited resources, linking them to terrorism. As experts and Muslim community leaders compare these attacks to previous attacks on Christian schools, Madrasa children face vulnerability amid rising communalism. Visits to madrasas reveal traditional living conditions and innocence amidst hardship.”
Humra Quraishi
Unsettling, baffling, and traumatic are the times we’re surviving in! Ruthlessness of the political lot prevails, overtaking everyday life, unsparing even the hands that feed us, our daily dose of daal-chawal-roti!
Why are the farmers prevented from reaching the capital city to hold peaceful demonstrations? All that they are saying is that they have had enough of promises made by the government of the day. They don’t want to be deceived or hoodwinked and bypassed any longer. There ought to be a concrete conclusion to their longstanding demands.
Braving the harsh ground realities cum weather conditions, hundreds and thousands of our farmers are forcibly stopped at the borders by the State machinery. It seems an ongoing battle, where there’s no going back for the farmer. Perhaps, he’s had enough; seen through the political ploys and can no longer be taken for a ride. Not sure what happens next, as tension continues, not just in and around the borders but spreading out.
In fact, one is wondering, at this crucial phase, where are all the political who’s who! Perhaps, either sitting in their fortified bungalows or bhavans or else flying overseas! Why don’t they drive towards the Delhi borders and interact with the farmers?
Haldwani Demolitions & Displaced
Disturbing news reports of upheavals and forced migrations. Hundreds of Muslim families have been uprooted in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, are reported to be moving out. Where to? Uncertain is their future. As the communally surcharged atmosphere is making life hell; no locale seems safe as goons, mafia, and political lobbies are overtaking space and territory.
The gaps are filled in by the bulldozers. The latest trend of destruction and bulldozing of madrasas can only be termed as terrorizing the disadvantaged poor children housed in there. Even if there are claims by the establishment that the bulldozed madrasas were built on the so-called unauthorized land, then the administration could have provided an alternative building so that the children wouldn’t get uprooted and with that traumatized and terrorized.
A file photo of a Madrasa of Mehmud Gawan in Bidar South Indian City in ruins. Photo/Open Source
The Madrasa bashing narrative
What shocks one is the accompanying factor – there’s blatant communal propaganda by the Right-Wing to the madrasas of the day … over the years the Right-Wing has managed to spread out the most vicious propaganda against madrasas. And none of our politicians or even the community leaders have managed to counter any of this utterly bogus and vicious and third-rate propaganda. Madrasa bashing seems the order of the day. Hear any of speeches of the political mafia and they try and link any terror activity to madrasas. To link madrasas with terrorist activities has become a fashionable ploy to attack the minority community.
Earlier, when I’d asked Milli Gazette’s editor, Zafar-ul-Islam, why madrasas are getting linked to terrorism, he’d reacted, “When LK Advani used to say about madrasas being places of terrorist activities we not just wrote strongly countering this and even sent a team of 10 to 12 reporters to the Indo-Nepal border situated madrasas to see and study the situation for themselves … there was nothing! I have myself studied in a madrasa and there’s nothing in madrasas except teaching. About 60% is the teaching of the regular subjects like Hindi, English, Social studies and about 40% is religious study. What’s wrong with that!“
And to the Right Wing’s allegations gaining ground, he’d commented, – “We have even proof that all those comments made by LK Advani are baseless.” And the well-known commentator, the late Asghar Ali Engineer had also reacted rather strongly when I had asked him to comment on Right-Wing’s anti-madrasa stand, “This is nothing but propaganda! Who says our madrasas are teaching all this! I don’t know of any such madrassa. If you ask about some particular madrassas in Pakistan, then they were started by CIA, for a purpose!”
And during the course of an interview, I recall asking the religious head of the Muslim community in the Kashmir Valley, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, whether he was worried that various negatives thrown at madrasas? And this is what he had to say, “On the pretext of terrorism these Right-Wing people are attacking madrasas… it is part of the Hindutva brigade’s agenda to spread all this disinformation.”
In fact, several other academics also pointed out that the Right-Wing had not so long ago accused the Christians schools/missionaries of trying to convert students. “It’s along the same pattern that they are labelling these charges against the Muslim schools of learning. Where, mind you, even the non-Muslims have had the tradition of studying.”
Vulnerability of Madrasa children
The reality of the day is that madrasa children are most vulnerable in today’s India where communalism has been so very systematically unleased that ‘Muslim looking’ children attired in kurta-pyjama with skull caps on, can be targeted by the Hindutva brigades. In fact, for the last many years I have been visiting madrasas and what saddens me greatly is that madrasa children feel insecure stepping out to the nearby parks or market places. If they do step out of the madrasa confines then it is only in small groups. Maulvis confided that apprehensions do hold out, with the political mafia on the prowl to lynch and kill.
For the last near three decades, I have been visiting orphanages and madrasas of the towns and cities I travel to. Even whilst residing in New Delhi and, later in the suburbs/NCR, I have been visiting madrasas rather too regularly. With that, interacting with the children – the so-called ‘madrasa children’ and also with the maulvis; though, it’s only occasionally that I could get to meet the children’s parents or grandparents. Though many of these children are orphans or semi-orphans (one of the parents dead) but even those whose parents are alive they seem to be living cut off because the parents are financially not in a position to keep traveling to meet them. I got the impression that a large number of these children have been sent to madrasas so that they get to eat two square meals and safe shelter.
These visits to the madrasas got me close to the realities in which these children are surviving in. Not to overlook a vital factor – as a majority of these madrasas do not have televisions sets nor radios, nor any of the modern-day connecting gadgets, so the traditional living conditions are much intact and with that their innocence. Their stark innocence, that forlorn look in their eyes left an imprint. It’s difficult to describe that look of utter helplessness in their eyes.
I sat talking to the children and the maulvis about their daily routine, what they ate, what they read. Most of the children came across as shy and subdued and didn’t talk much yet their eyes carried emotions, relayed much.
Somehow my madrasa visits have been fulfilling for me, emotionally. I developed a bonding cum connect with these children. So much so that if I wasn’t a writer ( that is, surviving as a writer! ) I would have been only too happy and relaxed manning a madrasa and looking after the madrasa children. Yes, that would have been the case because by now I have seen too much of the worldly people and have been left totally disillusioned by layers around them and the fake and synthetic settings to them.
What a contrast to the ground realities to the madrasas and, of course, to the children housed in there.
And to compound the grim situation, the community leaders, the so-called socially influential persons from the Muslim community are rarely seen interacting with the madrasa children. Their presence is needed; at least it would provide for some level of cushioning which is crucial for the very safety of the young children studying in the madrasas.
Living on meagre resources
Not to be overlooked is the fact that unlike in the Mughal era or even in later decades till the Zamindari system was not abolished, when madrasa teaching was funded and taken care of by the ruling class, today the madrasas are maintained on meagre resources.
Interestingly, till about the 70s or perhaps even till the 80s, even the middle class enrolled their children for madrasa education and did so with great pride and confidence. Several professionals have told me that for their early education, they attended the madrasas in their hometowns and villages.
Much against the popular perception that only Muslim families send their children to study in a madrasa, stands out the fact that it wasn’t always the case. In the traditional setups, when communal poisoning was not unleashed to divide and distance, even non-Muslim families sent their children to madrasas for education.
Munshi Premchand, the country’s famous and foremost writer, had attended a madrasa for his early education.
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES
The many myths manufactured about Madrasas
“Blatant Right-Wing propaganda targets madrasas, which are already struggling with limited resources, linking them to terrorism. As experts and Muslim community leaders compare these attacks to previous attacks on Christian schools, Madrasa children face vulnerability amid rising communalism. Visits to madrasas reveal traditional living conditions and innocence amidst hardship.”
Unsettling, baffling, and traumatic are the times we’re surviving in! Ruthlessness of the political lot prevails, overtaking everyday life, unsparing even the hands that feed us, our daily dose of daal-chawal-roti!
Why are the farmers prevented from reaching the capital city to hold peaceful demonstrations? All that they are saying is that they have had enough of promises made by the government of the day. They don’t want to be deceived or hoodwinked and bypassed any longer. There ought to be a concrete conclusion to their longstanding demands.
Braving the harsh ground realities cum weather conditions, hundreds and thousands of our farmers are forcibly stopped at the borders by the State machinery. It seems an ongoing battle, where there’s no going back for the farmer. Perhaps, he’s had enough; seen through the political ploys and can no longer be taken for a ride. Not sure what happens next, as tension continues, not just in and around the borders but spreading out.
In fact, one is wondering, at this crucial phase, where are all the political who’s who! Perhaps, either sitting in their fortified bungalows or bhavans or else flying overseas! Why don’t they drive towards the Delhi borders and interact with the farmers?
Haldwani Demolitions & Displaced
Disturbing news reports of upheavals and forced migrations. Hundreds of Muslim families have been uprooted in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, are reported to be moving out. Where to? Uncertain is their future. As the communally surcharged atmosphere is making life hell; no locale seems safe as goons, mafia, and political lobbies are overtaking space and territory.
The gaps are filled in by the bulldozers. The latest trend of destruction and bulldozing of madrasas can only be termed as terrorizing the disadvantaged poor children housed in there. Even if there are claims by the establishment that the bulldozed madrasas were built on the so-called unauthorized land, then the administration could have provided an alternative building so that the children wouldn’t get uprooted and with that traumatized and terrorized.
The Madrasa bashing narrative
What shocks one is the accompanying factor – there’s blatant communal propaganda by the Right-Wing to the madrasas of the day … over the years the Right-Wing has managed to spread out the most vicious propaganda against madrasas. And none of our politicians or even the community leaders have managed to counter any of this utterly bogus and vicious and third-rate propaganda. Madrasa bashing seems the order of the day. Hear any of speeches of the political mafia and they try and link any terror activity to madrasas. To link madrasas with terrorist activities has become a fashionable ploy to attack the minority community.
Earlier, when I’d asked Milli Gazette’s editor, Zafar-ul-Islam, why madrasas are getting linked to terrorism, he’d reacted, “When LK Advani used to say about madrasas being places of terrorist activities we not just wrote strongly countering this and even sent a team of 10 to 12 reporters to the Indo-Nepal border situated madrasas to see and study the situation for themselves … there was nothing! I have myself studied in a madrasa and there’s nothing in madrasas except teaching. About 60% is the teaching of the regular subjects like Hindi, English, Social studies and about 40% is religious study. What’s wrong with that!“
And to the Right Wing’s allegations gaining ground, he’d commented, – “We have even proof that all those comments made by LK Advani are baseless.” And the well-known commentator, the late Asghar Ali Engineer had also reacted rather strongly when I had asked him to comment on Right-Wing’s anti-madrasa stand, “This is nothing but propaganda! Who says our madrasas are teaching all this! I don’t know of any such madrassa. If you ask about some particular madrassas in Pakistan, then they were started by CIA, for a purpose!”
And during the course of an interview, I recall asking the religious head of the Muslim community in the Kashmir Valley, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, whether he was worried that various negatives thrown at madrasas? And this is what he had to say, “On the pretext of terrorism these Right-Wing people are attacking madrasas… it is part of the Hindutva brigade’s agenda to spread all this disinformation.”
In fact, several other academics also pointed out that the Right-Wing had not so long ago accused the Christians schools/missionaries of trying to convert students. “It’s along the same pattern that they are labelling these charges against the Muslim schools of learning. Where, mind you, even the non-Muslims have had the tradition of studying.”
Vulnerability of Madrasa children
The reality of the day is that madrasa children are most vulnerable in today’s India where communalism has been so very systematically unleased that ‘Muslim looking’ children attired in kurta-pyjama with skull caps on, can be targeted by the Hindutva brigades. In fact, for the last many years I have been visiting madrasas and what saddens me greatly is that madrasa children feel insecure stepping out to the nearby parks or market places. If they do step out of the madrasa confines then it is only in small groups. Maulvis confided that apprehensions do hold out, with the political mafia on the prowl to lynch and kill.
For the last near three decades, I have been visiting orphanages and madrasas of the towns and cities I travel to. Even whilst residing in New Delhi and, later in the suburbs/NCR, I have been visiting madrasas rather too regularly. With that, interacting with the children – the so-called ‘madrasa children’ and also with the maulvis; though, it’s only occasionally that I could get to meet the children’s parents or grandparents. Though many of these children are orphans or semi-orphans (one of the parents dead) but even those whose parents are alive they seem to be living cut off because the parents are financially not in a position to keep traveling to meet them. I got the impression that a large number of these children have been sent to madrasas so that they get to eat two square meals and safe shelter.
These visits to the madrasas got me close to the realities in which these children are surviving in. Not to overlook a vital factor – as a majority of these madrasas do not have televisions sets nor radios, nor any of the modern-day connecting gadgets, so the traditional living conditions are much intact and with that their innocence. Their stark innocence, that forlorn look in their eyes left an imprint. It’s difficult to describe that look of utter helplessness in their eyes.
I sat talking to the children and the maulvis about their daily routine, what they ate, what they read. Most of the children came across as shy and subdued and didn’t talk much yet their eyes carried emotions, relayed much.
Somehow my madrasa visits have been fulfilling for me, emotionally. I developed a bonding cum connect with these children. So much so that if I wasn’t a writer ( that is, surviving as a writer! ) I would have been only too happy and relaxed manning a madrasa and looking after the madrasa children. Yes, that would have been the case because by now I have seen too much of the worldly people and have been left totally disillusioned by layers around them and the fake and synthetic settings to them.
What a contrast to the ground realities to the madrasas and, of course, to the children housed in there.
And to compound the grim situation, the community leaders, the so-called socially influential persons from the Muslim community are rarely seen interacting with the madrasa children. Their presence is needed; at least it would provide for some level of cushioning which is crucial for the very safety of the young children studying in the madrasas.
Living on meagre resources
Not to be overlooked is the fact that unlike in the Mughal era or even in later decades till the Zamindari system was not abolished, when madrasa teaching was funded and taken care of by the ruling class, today the madrasas are maintained on meagre resources.
Interestingly, till about the 70s or perhaps even till the 80s, even the middle class enrolled their children for madrasa education and did so with great pride and confidence. Several professionals have told me that for their early education, they attended the madrasas in their hometowns and villages.
Much against the popular perception that only Muslim families send their children to study in a madrasa, stands out the fact that it wasn’t always the case. In the traditional setups, when communal poisoning was not unleashed to divide and distance, even non-Muslim families sent their children to madrasas for education.
Munshi Premchand, the country’s famous and foremost writer, had attended a madrasa for his early education.
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