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A few months ago, some Malda teachers were harassed in a boarding house in Salt Lake, West Bengal, India, for being ‘madrasa teachers’. Their other identities are “West Bengalis”, “Bengali speakers”, “government employees” and “Muslims”. However, due to the beard and hat, all other identities were suppressed and the ‘Muslim’ identity became a source of panic for the authorities. They blamed the objections of local residents. We have witnessed Islamophobia in the world for decades. It will be recalled that since 2014, there have been incidents of beatings of innocent people in India based on the dress and eating habits of Muslims.
An atmosphere of unwarranted suspicion has been created around the madrasa for some time. The idea that ‘madrasa means the abode of terrorism’ is not limited to the extreme right. Experience has shown that in the event of a terrorist incident, there is a tendency in the state to involve you in madrassa activities without evidence.
According to the Arabic-Persian-Urdu dictionary used in Bengali, there are more than 6,500 Arabic or Persian-Urdu words in Bengali. But why is there so much panic over an innocent word ‘madrasa’? The etymological meaning of the word is educational institution, which originates from the Hebrew word ‘midras’. The Madrasa educational system in Bengal has a glorious history. Since Persian was the official language in the early days of English rule, many non-Muslims also studied in madrasas to learn it. Madrasa, established in 1851 at Sitapur in the Hooghly district, is one of the oldest educational institutions in undivided India. With the establishment of ‘Alia’ in the madrasa in 180 AD, modern education was provided to the Muslims of this country. There, too, the melee lessons in medicine and surgery began.
During British rule, however, madrasas began to be seen only as centers of Islamic learning. Little by little the idea was formed that Muslims were less interested in modern education, most of them went to madrasas. The Sachar Committee report also captured the futility of this idea. Only six percent of Indian Muslim students attend madrassas. There is also the idea that only males study in madrasas. According to statistics, 72% of all students at the madrasa are female students and their success is also remarkable.
As a result of the modernization of the madrassa curriculum, subjects such as modern science, history, literature, etc. they should be studied like other boards besides Arab and Islamic history. So the participation of non-Muslims in madrasas is also remarkable, about nine percent of all students. About 30 percent of the madrasa’s teachers, principals, and school management committee members are non-Muslim. According to the Madrasa Board, more than 60,000 non-Muslim students sat for the board’s exams last year, representing 16 percent of the total candidates. Madrasa’s non-Muslim students have been on the merit list in the board’s exams for the past few years.
The biggest unfounded notion about the madrasa educational system in the state of West Bengal is that there is only Islamic teaching and the medium of instruction is Arabic and Urdu. Of the 609 madrasas in the state, 92% are in rural areas, where Arabic is taught only as a language, in many cases through Bengali. With this lack of public perception of the madrassa education system, the consequences of the infallible Michel of Islamophobia are dire: the innocent national book ‘Easy Lessons to Learn Arabic’ from the madrassa may also promote itself as a jihadist magazine.
Nowhere in the world is there a direct link between terrorism and madrassa education. On the contrary, many have succeeded in professions such as medicine and engineering by studying in madrasas in West Bengal. Last year 41 people joined the force after passing the West Bengal Madrasa Board.
We have adopted thousands of words from Arabic, Persian, Urdu in Bengali. When a group demands the cancellation of this huge vocabulary, they forget that the source of the word ‘cancel’ is also Arabic. This ignorance about the madrassas is the logistics of political polarization, which gives rise to the blindness of the Muslim community that has coexisted for thousands of years. If the seeds of Islamophobia are sown again in this madrasa teacher-centered state, such incidents will increase due to separatist politics. However, the strong protest that was needed in the wake of this incident was not noticed. The teachers’ organizations didn’t say anything either.
Silence in special cases but also a push towards the pluralistic culture of the State.
Source: Anandabazar Patrika
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