Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T07:44:53.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Enemy Within: Madrasa and Muslim Identity in North India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

ARSHAD ALAM
ARSHAD ALAM*
Affiliation:
Center for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Nelson Mandela House, Mujeeb Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110 025, India E-mail: alam.arshad@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Even before 9/11, madrasas in India were being vilified for teaching hatred against the majority Hindu community. Such an understanding of madrasas was not restricted to the Hindu Right alone but even among parties of the Left. This paper argues that such a notion, which is fast becoming common sense, is erroneous. Far from teaching hatred against other communities, madrasas are primarily concerned with the ideological reproduction of their own maslak. The paper describes processes and strategies within a madrasa in North India through which such ideological reproduction takes place. The paper contends that sites of ideological transmission are located outside the formal curriculum of the madrasa. It focuses on some key texts and debating forums that are important sites of ideological transmission and play a key role in constituting a particular identity of students. Through an understanding of such pedagogical processes, the paper has shown that for students of this madrasa, the ‘other’ is not a Hindu, but a Muslim from another maslak. It follows from the paper that Islam itself is a matter of fierce interpretative debate ‘within’ madrasas. While it is important to understand how madrasas relate to other religions, an analysis of madrasas from ‘within’ leads us to different results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2-3: Islam in South Asia , March 2008 , pp. 605 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Documents and Unpublished Texts.Google Scholar
Dastur e Amal (Constitution), al Jamiatul Ashrafiya.Google Scholar
Mannan, Abdul (n.p), Ashrafiya se al Jamiatul Ashrafiya Tak (1982. Courtesy Abdul Mannan, Mubarakpur).Google Scholar
Misbahi, Yasin Akhtar (n.p), Ahl e Sunnat wa Jamaat: An Introduction (2006. Courtesy Yasin Akhtar Misbahi, New Delhi).Google Scholar
Qasmi, Abdul Moeed (n.p), Ihya al Ulum ki Deeni Khidmaat (1997. Courtesy Abdul Moeed Qasmi, Mubarakpur).Google Scholar
Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Bihar State Minorities Commission (2004), Socio-Economic and Education Status of Muslims in Bihar.Google Scholar

Published Texts

Berkey, Jonathan (1992), The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo, A Social History of Islamic Education, Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith (1999), Gender Trouble—Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Michael (1994), Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190–1350, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Eickeman, Dale F. (1978), ‘The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and its Social Reproduction’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 485–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godbole, M. (2001), ‘Madrasas: Need for Fresh Look’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 41, pp. 3889–3890.Google Scholar
Hermansen, Marcia (2000), ‘Fakirs, Wahabis and Others: Reciprocal Classifications and the Transformation of Intellectual Categories’, in Malik, Jamal (Ed), Perspectives of Mutual Encounters in South Asian History 1760–1860, pp. 23–48, Brill, Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hussain, M. G. (2004), Muslim Youth and Madrasa Education in Purnea District of Bihar, Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Jafar, S. M. (1972), Education in Muslim India, Idarah-i- Adabiyat-i- Delli, Delhi.Google Scholar
Jeffery, Patricia, Jeffery, Roger and Jeffrey, Craig (2004), ‘Islamization, Gentrification and Domestication: ‘A Girls' Islamic Course’ and Rural Muslims in Western Uttar Pradesh’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 1–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katju, Manjari (2003), VHP and Indian Politics, Orient Longman, Delhi.Google Scholar
Kumar, P. (2000), ‘UP Religious Places Bill’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 35, No. 12, pp. 977–978.Google Scholar
Lewis, Philip (1994), Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Identity among British Muslims: Bradford in the 1990 s, I. B Tauris, London.Google Scholar
Makdisi, George (1981), The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Malik, Jamal (1998), Colonialization of Islam: Dissolution of Traditional Institutions in Pakistan, Manohar, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Metcalf, Barbara Daly (2002), Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Messick, Brinkley (1993), The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society; University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messick, Brinkley. (2005), ‘Madhabs and Modernities’ in Bearman, Peri, Peters, Rudolph and Vogel, Frank (Eds), The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Misbahi, Badrul Qadri (1975), Ashrafiya Ka Maazi Aur Haal, Shoba e Nasharriyat, al Jamiatul Ashrafiya, Mubarakpur, UP.Google Scholar
Misbahi, Yasin Akhtar (2001), Al Jamiatul Ashrafiya: A Brief History and Introduction, translated by Naseeb, A. and Misbahi, N. Sajjad, Publication Department, al Jamiatul Ashrafiya, Mubarakpur, UP.Google Scholar
Mubarakpuri, Qazi Athar (1974), Tazkira Ulama Mubarakpur, Daira Millia Mubarakpur, Azamgarh, UP.Google Scholar
Mubarakpuri, MohammadBin, SadiqAhmad, Jamil (2004), Akabara Ihya al Ulum: Ek Dilchasp Mutaala, Mubarakpur, Azamgarh, UP.Google Scholar
Nizami, K. A. (1996), ‘Development of Muslim Educational System in Medieval India’ Islamic Culture, October, pp. 27–54.Google Scholar
Pandey, Gyanendra (1984), ‘Encounters and Calamities: The History of a North Indian Qasba in the Nineteenth Century’ in Guha, Ranajit (Ed), Subaltern Studies III: Writings on South Asian History and Society, pp. 231–270, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Qadri, Arshadul (1972), Zalzala, translated by Faruqui, Mohammad Ali, Maktaba Ja‘me Noor, Delhi.Google Scholar
Qadri, Arshadul. (1993), Dawat e Insaf, translated by Aswi Qadri, Muhammad Arif, Maktaba Ja‘me Noor, Delhi.Google Scholar
Qasmi, Habibur Rahman (1976), Tazkira Ulama e Azamgarh, Jamia Islamia, Benaras, UP.Google Scholar
Rahman, Tariq (2004), Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education, Inequality and Polarization in Pakistan, Oxford University Press, Karachi.Google Scholar
Robinson, Francis (2002), The Ulama of Firangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia, Pherozesons, Lahore.Google Scholar
Saiyed, and Talib, (1985), ‘Institutions and Ideas: A Case Study of Islamic learning’ in Troll, C. W. (ed), Islam in India: Studies and Commentaries, Vol 2, Religion and Religious Education, pp 191–209, Vikas Publication, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Sanyal, Usha (1999), Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: Ahmad Riza Khan and His Movement, 1870–1920, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Sikand, Yoginder (2001), ‘Targeting Muslim Religious Schools’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 35, pp. 3342–3343.Google Scholar
Sikand, Yoginder. (2005), Bastions of the Believers: Madrasas and Islamic Education in India, Penguin Books, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Soares, Benjamin F (2005), Islam and the Prayer Economy: History and Authority in a Malian Town, Edinburgh University Press, London.Google Scholar
Starrett, Gregory (1998), Putting Islam to Work Education, Politics and Religious Transformation in Egypt, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.Google Scholar
Sufi, G. M. D. (1941), al Minhaj: Being the Evolution of Curriculum in the Muslim Educational Institutions of India, Idarah- i- Adabiyat-i- Dilli, Delhi.Google Scholar
Sundar, Nandini (2004), ‘Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 16, pp. 1605–1612.Google Scholar
Tibawi, (1974), Arabic and Islamic Themes, Luzac, London.Google Scholar
Tritton, A. S. (1957), Materials on Muslim Education in the Middle Ages, Luzac, London.Google Scholar
Warms, Richard L. (1992), Merchants, Muslims and Wahhabiyya: The Elaboration of Islamic Identity in Sikasso, Mali, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 485–507.Google Scholar
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (1999), ‘Religious Education and the Rhetoric of Reform: The Madrasa in British India and Pakistan’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 294–323.Google Scholar
Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. (2004), The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change, Oxford University Press, Karachi.Google Scholar