Muslims and Education: A Review

Muslims and Education:  A Review

Dr. Mushtaque Ahmad

Principal

Marwari College, Darbhanga – 846004

E-mail: rm.meezan@gmail.com

     

Education is one of the important tools which reflect overall advancement of human life. These days no one can fight without modern education followed by professional education not only in India but also abroad. Thus, education in general and modern scientific education in particular has its immense value. Generally, Education in India, before the advent of Islam, was considered to be the monopoly of Brahmins. They excluded the lower class people to acquire knowledge because they thought themselves superior.

There were mass rebellions against this notion resulting in the creation of Buddhism and Jainism. However, the fact cannot be overlooked that the common people were always deprived of education in earlier Hindu periods. When Islam came to India it had to fight this mindset that prevailed among the masses.

Ultimately, due to the efforts of Muslim rulers every citizen of the country, whether Muslim or Hindu, man or woman, rich or poor, was enshrined with the right to acquire knowledge. It is the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad. There should not be any discrimination in the field of education. He himself prayed for knowledge as “My lord, enhance me in knowledge.” Al Thaha, (Quran Shareef). He directed the believers ‘to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, no matter if their search took them as far as China’ (Hadith) It is quite true that Muslim rulers in India, under various dynasties, patronized education and learning. It was noted right from the very beginning, they had adopted a secular policy towards education.

The Mughals welcomed the Europeans for commerce and showed liberal attitude towards Christians and permitted them even to carry on missionary activities. "The extent of patronage shown to the missionaries under the Emperors of the house of Babar was extraordinary. They were honored guests of the Emperors; they enjoyed privileges which even caused envy among the Mughal dignity."(Sharma, 1966).

Many Europeans had been appointed to the higher military posts in the 18th century (Ahmad,1967). The Muslim rulers from the early period took interest in the advancement of education. They encouraged and patronized the scholars and the people of pen. There existed many schools and madarasahs and ran smoothly through proper financial arrangement, i.e. wakf ‘endowments’, sadaqa, and zakath. When the British became the political masters this situation further deteriorated as they confiscated or curtailed public trusts and endowments of madrasas.

In the beginning of the 17th century, The East India Company was deliberately unkind to promote education among the Indians generally and for the Muslims in particularly. In 1659, the Court of Directors explicitly stated that it was their earnest desire by all possible means to spread Christianity among the people of India and allowed missionaries to act boldly in this regard (Syed Ghulam Muhiyuddin,1989). According to Charter Act of 1698 Chaplains were appointed in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to look after the education of the Christian children and Anglo-Indian Children.  

It is quite true that Muslim rulers in India under all dynasties promoted education in different ways. The systems prevalent then were overwhelming and much envious of the period of the Tudors.

Many Europeans had been appointed to higher military posts in the 18th century as 'Aziz Ahmad observed that this showed the technical superiority of the Europeans in the manufacture and use of the more sophisticated weapons as well as in their strategy of war (Aziz Ahmad, 1967).

Attitude of Muslims towards Western Education

The Muslim response towards Western education was immensely terrible during the period of British India. They had hatred of the British in their taste and culture so that they had kept themselves away from Western education, which led the community to trouble. They were rebelling generally, as if by instinct against the subaltern sensibility preventing the community from accepting British imperialism. The Muslims were very much adamant in their religious belief, practice and worship. The majority of the Muslims were fond of trade and commerce rather than to seek employment under any regime.

Regarding the Muslim's response towards the British as Mujeeb Ashraf, after evaluating, divided them into four categories:  

"One group of nobles sincerely considered friendship and alliance with the British indispensable for the continued existence of the Indian states and made it their policy to be friendly with the British ... Another group was so completely impressed by the British and their culture that it sought to organize the affairs of State and the conditions of the society on British lines. A third group was loyal neither to the state nor to the British Government and followed a policy which, in its view, best suited its own personal and selfish interests. There was, finally, a fourth group which was totally opposed to British dominance and the British connection." (Mujeeb Ashraf , 1982).

The behavior of the Muslims of Southern and Northern part of India differed from each other in many respects. Southern sections of Muslims showed positive response towards English and Western sciences, while the Muslims of Northern India, to some extent also Hindus, refused to accept Western learning. Abid Husain discussed in detail the reasons for the behaviors of Southern and Northern Indian Muslims which differed from each other in terms of their attitude towards Western culture and sciences. The abstract of his thinking are given in the following sentence: (Abid Husain, S., 1965).  

‘The Muslims of the Southern and Western parts of India were descendants of Arab merchants and sailors. To fulfill their material aspirations, they preferred a peaceful society, having good relation with the Hindu rulers, ready to adjust with every new circumstance and were generally educated. While the Muslims of Northern India were descendants of nobles, officers and soldiers who were holding high posts and enjoying privileges. But after the British dominance, all the privileges were curtailed or abolished. They considered the British as usurpers and openly showed their hostility due to social, cultural and political prejudice.’

The study of political events and their impact on Muslims are important to understand the Muslim response. The political events in the aftermath of the battle of Plassey (1757) and the battle of Buxar (1764) had changed the attitude of the British towards Muslims. The British then onwards were highly cautious regarding Muslims. After establishing their hegemony, the British began to destroy the financial strength of the Muslims.

The commercial policy of East India Company destroyed the centres of Indian industries that even Englishmen like Sir Charles Trevelyan and Montgomery Martin felt sorry for, over the plight of Indian manufactures and laborers (Dutt, R.C, 1908). Many of the finer industrial arts of India which was in the hands of skilled Muslims was ruined. Particularly, the Muslims of Bengal were the greatest losers (Ram Gopal, 1959). In 1793, the British passed the land Act, which adversely influenced the economic condition of the Muslims. They changed the relationship with the landlords, especially with regard to the Muslims, and closed the door to their landlordism (Hardy, P, 1972).

The substitution of English language for Persian as the Court language in 1837 greatly affected the Muslim subordinate officers. Hafiz Malik rightly remarks, "Their strategy was to oust the Muslims from the profession and the position of economic and administrative control (Hafeez Malik , 1963).

Enrolment of Muslim Students in English Educational Institutions

When Islam came to India, it had to fight the then mindset that prevailed among the masses. Ultimately, due to the efforts of Muslim rulers, every citizen of the country, whether Muslim or Hindu, man or woman, rich or poor, was enshrined with the right to acquire knowledge.

By the emergence of the British Power in India, the Muslims became the great losers of a splendid heritage. They were afraid that Western culture and education would undermine the religious faith of the community. As this concept was hurling in the sky, the concern of the pupils in the community in terms of attaining modern education was declining day by day.

According to the Education Commission of 1882, enrolment of Muslims was generally very meager as the percentage of Muslim students’ enrolment compared to others in English colleges and Schools in six provinces under British India. The total number of students’ enrolment in the Madras province was 25058; out of this 870 students were Muslims. Meanwhile, enrolment of Muslim students in other provinces such as Bombay, Bengal, North – Western provinces, Oudh and Punjab were showing little signs of improvement. The alarming decrease in the percentage of enrolment highlights the various historical causes as well as the ideological differences of Ulamas. Such an indifferent attitude of the community as well as the aversion of the British towards the Muslims, were largely responsible for the complete ousting from Civil Service too.

Representation of Muslims in the British Services

In the second half of the 19th century, Muslims were treated as the main accused of the Mutiny of 1857. As a result, many Muslim families were assaulted to death or persecuted. So the British hardly had desired to include the Muslims in the prestigious British Indian Civil Service. Sir William Hunter in his book Indian Musalmans gave the data by which the pitiable conditions of the Muslims during those days could be gleaned. Hunter has shown the Muslim position in the three aristocracy departments such as Military, Revenue and Judiciary. The following chart shows the representation of Muslims and others in the services.

As a whole, Syed Amir Ali writes that up to this time, in 1793, high offices, fiscal as well as judicial were filled by Muslims. But now the higher executive appointments were reserved exclusively for Europeans (Quoted by Mujeeb Ashraf, 1982).

Against this sorrowful condition of the community in India, a countrywide alertness was aroused. The Muslims of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Oudh, Punjab and Madras strongly began to think of their incomparable backwardness. The distressed Muslims from Orissa submitted a petition to their Commissioner E.W. Malony appealing redressal of these grave grievances. It can be seen in the following lines.

"As loyal subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, we have, we believe, an equal claim to all appointments in the administration of the country. Truly speaking, the Orissa Muhammadans have been leveled down and down, with no hopes of rising again. Born of noble parentages, poor by profession, and destitute of patrons, we find ourselves in the position of fish out of water”.

It can be seen from the memorandum the reflection of a community, which was persecuted by an imperial administration. Earlier they were masters of the land for a very long period. Moreover, the Muslim intelligentsia across the country became aware of the deplorable condition of the community. Keeping this in mind, many memoranda were submitted to different parts of the country. The Muslims from Delhi addressed their grievance to the Governor General in the following form.

“We the Muslim inhabitants of Delhi have since sustained the extreme losses of life, property and honor. At present, we have absolutely nothing to feed our children and ourselves. There is no ceiling under which we could seek shelter against inclement weather, and no clothing to cover our bodies. Thousands of us not bearing the severities of climate perished last year and if nothing is done to protect us many more will die this season” (Punjab. C.S, 1959).

When the British became politically and economically powerful, they began to interfere in the educational set up too. For instance, they extended all kinds of assistance to missionaries for the propagation of religion through educational institution. They sanctioned abundant funds to facilitate English education and modern science through missionary agencies. Meanwhile the British confiscated or withdrew all types of endowments and Waqaf properties through which some sort of charity was chanelized from such institutions for the running of Islamic institutions. Thus enrolment of Muslim students for both Islamic and General education had begun to decrease.

As a result of this biased and discriminating policy of the British, As a result of this biased and discriminating policy of the British, the Muslims were forced to live in shabby conditions. Hence the community was deliberately excluded from the Civil Service. At this circumstance, the pioneer ulama of the time such as Shah 'Abd ul-'Aziz, Syed Isma'il Shahid, Muhammad Ishaq, Syed Ahmad Barelvi, Haji Imdad-ullah Muhajir Makki, Maulana Qasimi Nanautavi, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in Northern India and in Bengal Haji Shari'at-ullah, Titumir, Karamat 'Ali led the movement to teach and preach Islamic traditions and values amongst the Muslims. They devoted themselves to bring about a drastic change in the sphere of education.

Advocacy of Muslim Intelligentsia

There was no unanimity of opinion among the Ulamas and the Muslim intelligentsia about the approach of the community towards Western education. While some scholars would attribute that western education would raise challenges to the Iman and ikhlas so that they may lose their religious pursuit gradually. On the contrary, from the last decades of the 18th century, a group of religious scholars had Mirza Abu Talib Landani (1752-1806), Abdu Rahim Dahri ('Abd ur-Rahim Dahri ), Lutf-ullah (1802-1854) responded to Western culture, particularly, as they were very fond of the English system of education, customs, and manners. Perhaps the first Muslim who wrote an autobiography in English was Lutf-ullah, who was born at Dara Nagar in Malwa on 4th November 1802. He was impressed by the Western civility, refinement and culture and admired their efficiency, capacity for hard work, sense of cleanliness and their punctuality (Mujeeb Ashraf, 1982). Accordingly, a lot of scholars took the initiative to disseminate this ideology.

Shah Waliullah, the great Educational Reformer

Shah Waliullah (1702-1763), Mujaddid in Islam of 18th century, was considered to be the one who succeeded in building a bridge between medieval and modern Muslim India. Since he was well aware of the religio-political and socio-economic disintegration of Muslims in India, he launched his two-fold reform movement. For the revival of Islam, Shah Waliullah desired to present Islam in its true form which does not admit extreme rigidity and reserve as depicted by the then theologians and the misguided mystics (sufis), and to break away from the old order, replacing it by the new, to meet the requirement of the time (G.N. Jalbani, 1988). His religious movement was carried out through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and his educational reforms led to the emergence of many great centres of Muslim learning like Darul Uloom of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh province of India.

Shah Waliullah had seen the decline of Mughal rule in India and observed similar degeneration in other countries of Asia and Africa. The last pious and powerful ruler of India the Munhall king, Auranghazeb had already passed away in 1707 and the East India Company got the power to rule a part of Eastern India defeating ‘Sirajud Dawla’ at Plasse in 1757. Ultimately ‘Shah Waliullah’ came to the conclusion that ‘monarchist and imperialist tendencies were mainly responsible of the worsening State of affairs and he de-formulated basic principles for regeneration and reconstruction of life and human values’. In his book ‘Hujjatullahil Baligha’ he laid down "labour is the real source of wealth" and "only those people deserve to possess wealth that put in labour whether physical or mental, for the sake of the country and society". All people, he believed, are equal and the position of the ruler of a State is no more than that of a common citizen in the matter of justice and freedom. Right to freedom, security and property etc. are equal for all irrespective of religion, race or colour (Shah Waliullah, 1936).

It should be noted that he propagated these ideas long before the ‘French, American and Soviet’ revolutions took place. This fact still lies buried under the dust of misinformation raised by Colonial historians. Due to the hypocrisy of modern history this Himalayan personality had been deprived of the deserved place in our modern syllabi or in history books.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Muslim endorsement of Western Education

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1871-1898) is the eldest of five prominent Muslim modernists whose influence on Islamic thought and polity was to shape and define Muslim responses to modernism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Like the four-Syed Amir Ali (1849-1928), Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897), Namik Kemal (1840-1888) and Sheikh Muhammad Abduh (1850-1905). Syed Ahmad Khan was deeply concerned with the state of Muslims in a world dominated by European colonizing powers.

Syed was popularly known as a Muslim educator and reformer; a man with versatile personality, jurist, author and founder of the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the principal motivating force behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late 19th century.

It was a period of transition in the history of Muslim education in India which began from the last decades of 18th century. Some Muslim scholars had begun to show the green signal to disseminate Western learning within the community. Person like Mirza Abu Talib Landani and Syed Ahmad Khan were the forerunner of socio educational reformers of that period. Their influence on Islamic thought and polity was to shape and define Muslim responses to modernism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In the history of India’s transition from medievalism to modernism, Syed stands out prominently as a dynamic force pitted against conservatism, superstition, inertia and ignorance. In the subcontinent, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his followers were the first champions of this reform agenda. He was born in the twilight of the Indian Timuri era to a distinguished family (K.A. Nizami, 1980). Two years before the birth of Ahmad Khan, his maternal grandfather, Khwajah Farid, had been appointed the Prime Minister of Emperor Akbar Shah with the high sounding titles of Dabir al-Mulk, Amin al-Daulah, Maslah Jang. His aristocratic inheritance inspired him to involve in a wide range of activities—from socio- religious to education. He left a deep mark on the new Islam and science discourse through his writings and by influencing at least two generations of Muslims who studied at the educational institutions he founded (Aligarh College, 1881).

Amidst his strong demand for western education, he faced serious criticism from Muslim scholars and Ulamas of that time. They declared that ‘English was the language of hell and western education is a passport to hell.’ He was of the view that the Muslims in India should embrace such of the Western values as were healthy and morally sound.

In the meanwhile, some religious ulamas such as Abd ur-Rahim Dahri emphasized and wrote a booklet on the necessity to acquire English learning by the Muslims. He, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, advocated Western leanings and addressed a Pamphlet to Lord Hasting regarding the introduction of modem learning through the medium of English language. He was of the opinion that modern knowledge cannot be disseminated through translation ('Abd ur-Rabnlan Parwez ralabi, 1975).

Syed’s interest in education had begun soon after 1857. During the Mutiny, Syed Ahmad Khan was at Bijnor; there he saved the life of about twenty families of Europeans and Eurasians. He assured the Collector and Magistrate of Bijnor, Mr. Shakespeare by saying, "As long as I am alive, you have no cause to worry” (Altaf Husain Hali , 1979),through which, he established an irrefutable relationship with the British.

His ideas and views gradually developed in the form of an educational movement with the support of the British. In 1859, Syed established a Madarasa at Moradabad (K. A. Nizami) and wrote a small pamphlet, both in Urdu and English, about the significance of general education. It was during the decade of 1860s, that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan developed his ideas of a “modern Islam” and a Muslim polity living under British rule.

In 1863, he published an appeal to all people of India regarding improvement of the educational system of the country. Syed perceived Muslims as backward and he felt the need of education. This period also saw an increasing degree of public involvement in the educational and social arenas. In 1864, January 9, Sir Syed convened the first meeting of the Scientific Society to support his movements at Ghazipur and set out the objectives of the society as follows (Proceedings of the First Meeting of the Scientific Society, Ghazipur, January 9, 1864, published in Fikr-o- Nazar, April, 1963).

1. To translate into such languages as may be in common use, those works on arts and sciences which, being in English or other European languages, are not intelligible to the natives;
2. To search for and publish rare and valuable oriental works (no religious work will come under the notice of the Society);
3. To publish, when the Society thinks it desirable, any periodical that may be calculated to improve the native mind;
4. To have delivered in their meetings lectures on scientific or other useful subjects, illustrated when possible by scientific instruments.

According to him, the vernacular schools run by the Government were utterly inadequate to serve the needs of the time. So he wanted to establish a “vernacular university” for the North Western Provinces but he was discouraged by the champions of Hindi who wanted such a university to teach in Hindi, rather than Urdu.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan realized that the political realities of India dictated that Muslims should establish their own organizations. In May 10, 1866, he established The Aligarh British Indian Association. The inaugural session was held at the Aligarh office of the Scientific Society in the presence of a sizeable number of local landowners and a few European officers. The Association failed to achieve any degree of impact on the decisions of the government and, one after the other, its plans were aborted.

While the British government announced assistance for persons traveling to Europe for educational and scientific purposes in 1868, most of the Muslims of northern India considered social contacts with Englishmen undesirable for their moral and religious integrity. Ahmad Khan had been elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of London in 1864 and he decided to go to England himself to see the ways of the British in their homeland.

After a long seventeen month stay at England, Ahmad Khan returned to his home land on 2nd October, 1870 full of ideas and aspirations to lead his community to be on par with modern developments. During his stay in England, he visited the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and certain private schools, including Eton and Harrow; these would serve as models for his own Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College.

After his return to India, Syed started to implement his educational strategies in a scientific manner. In refutation to the work of Willim Muir’s Biography of Muhammad, Syed wrote A Series of Essays on the Life of Mohammad (A Series of Essays on the Life of Mohammad, 1870) with burning heart against the outburst of Muir. He started a periodical vz. Tahdhîb al-Akhlâq “to educate and civilize” Indian Muslims.

He remained in the judicial service until his early retirement in July 1876. After that, he settled in Aligarh where he established the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1877. He instituted “the Muhammadan Educational Conference” in 1886, which held annual meetings in various Indian cities. In 1920, the College became Aligarh Muslim University, an institution that had a decisive impact on the course of Islamic polity in India as well as on the educational history of India.

As an aid to his mission, Ahmad Khan decided to write a tafsîr because in all previous tafsîr literature, he “could only find grammatical and lexicographical niceties, statements concerning the place and time of revelation and descriptions of previous tafâsîr.” After long painstaking efforts, it was published in 1892. He was severely criticized by the ulama for the lack of qualifications to interpret the Qur’ân and adîth and the shallowness of his knowledge of Western science and its philosophical underpinnings was apparent from his own writings. According to him nature is the “Work of God” and the Qur’an is the “Word of God” and there could be no contradiction between the two.

However, after a long and eventful epoch of Muslim renaissance in India, the light had gone off in 1898. He was mourned by thousands those who had been taken out of their discontent and negligence in the Indian subcontinent. Addressing a condolence meeting on his death, Professor T.H. Arnold remarked:

“Sir Syed called upon his people to rouse themselves out of the lethargy, the sloth, the ignorance, the degradation into which they had fallen, and behold! A new generation has arisen in response to his call.” (The M.A.O. College Magazine, April, 1898).

In spite of his life-long interest in educational matters, Ahmad Khan did not produce any new theory of education; he was merely interested in promoting modern education among the Muslims and enables them to shape to lives in tune with the trend of the world order.

Problems of Muslims’ Education in India

The current educational condition of Indian Muslims has alarmingly deteriorated despite the fact that they make up nearly 15 percent of the national population and have a glorious history of several centuries of enlightened rule that put India firmly on the world map, and are the second largest Muslim community in the world today.

Although, the community is improving day by day for the last two decades and are learning to stand on their own feet they have been deliberately placed in hard social, educational and political conditions ever since the historic defeat of Indians in 1857 Rebellion against the British until this day. For instance, the number and percentage of Muslims in all government sectors of India has steadily declined from 31 percent in early 1947 to only 2.3 percent in 2001. The ruling class puts the blame on the community, while the facts are different in view of the gradual isolating trend imposed on the community. On the other hand, their attitude was compassionate towards Hindus and many were even inducted in the administrative services. In addition they even replaced Muslims by Hindus in Government services. There were some concessions for Muslims to enter in Government jobs, but after 1857 these concessions were withdrawn. It resulted in the formulation of Simla Delegation and formation of the Muslim League. The Delegation stated ‘there was a time when three Muslim Judges graced the Indian High Courts Mr. Mahmood in Allahabad, Mr. Amir Ali in Culcutta and Mr. Badruddin Tyabji in Bombay. Today (in 1906), with a larger number of graduates, pleaders, barristers and educated civilians, not a single Muslims has been found capable of occupying a judges seat in any of the High Courts in India (Jaswant Singh , 2009).

A graphic picture of Muslim deprivation also emerged from the studies done in recent years by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The findings have been summed up in two sentences: "Muslims in India have a poor human development status. Widespread illiteracy, low income, irregular employment - implying thereby a high incidence of poverty is all pervasive among the Muslims." (Rafiq Zakaria , 2004)

Prospects of Muslim Education

While all the matters discussed above come under the severe problems faced by the Muslim community in pre and post independent India, a gradual improvement in the education of Muslims is a happening phenomenon. The emergence of some premier Muslim educational institutions across the country such as Darul Ulyoom Deoband,U.P,

Nadvathul Ulama Lucknow, A.M.U, Alighar, Jamia Millia Isamia, New Delhi in North, Calcutta Madarasa, in Calcutta, Madarasa Islamiya Shamsul Huda, Patna, Jamia Rahmaniya, Mongheer in the East, Jamia Nizamiya, Hyderabad, Darussalalm Omerabad, Madrasa Baquiyathu Salihath, Vellor, Madaras Aliya Arabic college, Kasargod, Rauzathul Uloom Arabic College, Farook, Santhapuram Islamiya College Malappuram in the South have tremendously improved the prospects of the community in the sphere of both streams of education.

The genesis of these educational institutions in India during this particular period is being considered as the major prospects of the community, particularly, when the unprecedented socio-educational problems are faced by the community. The development of these institutions in the twentieth century have switched over to the unconventional religious education as well as the modern general education in the state under different Muslim managements and their consequences are still not commendable as the Sachar committee (2006) reported that the educational rate of Muslim in India is very bad even in comparison to SC/ST. So, the Muslim intellectuals are duty bound to create awareness among the Muslims community as our ancestors have contributed a lot for the overall promotion of Muslim society by adopting the modern education.

Conclusions and Suggestions

The conclusions and suggestions are drawn in the light of present educational system that follows:

1. In the light of the above mentioned text it is important to point out that many Muslim thinkers are broadly in favor of delegation of responsibility to the local level wherever possible. The proposed reduction of bureaucracy and regulation is therefore welcomed. This should extend the progress begun by the Education Act under which school and college governors were given greater responsibility for the provision of education within their institutions including employment, admissions, implementation of the National Curriculum and resource allocation.

2. One subtle aspect to the supremacy question, as far as Muslims are concerned, is that governance policies should not be null and void by ‘facts on the ground’. Insufficient representation among senior staff and governors from members of the Muslim faith may prejudice the concern of an educational institution for the implementation of a Muslim-relevant policy. Muslim participation within the political process in India has often been minimal and occasionally non-existent. This is partly due to a lack of engagement and sustained interaction on the part of Muslims themselves and is compounded by the small number of Muslim members in both of the Houses of Parliament. It follows therefore that many political committees do not have any Muslim representation and that those Muslim representatives who are involved are usually overstretched and unable to fulfill the desired duties across the spectrum of relevant issues. It is apparent that minority faith communities have failed to learn and engage in the processes of political participation, so much so that this has put the minority faiths at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to setting agendas and responding to mainstream proposals.

3. We feel therefore that consideration should be given to addressing the democratic deficit in order to allow greater engagement between members of the political executive and interested Muslim representatives. We naturally hope that this report can form part of such a dialogue, but also recognize that our effort is something of an exception. Therefore, we also support a formal consultation system in which people of all faiths meet to represent their views at a national level as part of an on-going process.

4. As far as Muslim participation in education policy is concerned, increased efforts must be made to undertake empirical research into the Muslim community itself. This would extend to such matters as demographics, post-school achievement, communal aspiration, family background, and educational performance. In due course we hope to establish a database of Muslim educationalists that are able to contribute to such research. In the meantime, Government could assist this by including questions that are of relevance to all faiths in the Annual Schools and colleges’ Census.

5. At last but not the least it is to be pointed out that Madarsa and various religious educational institutions in India still believe that the knowledge of the Holy Quran and Hadith is to get knowledge but it must be followed by modern scientific education by which Muslim students may get upward mobility based on knowledge of Islamization. But in this modern fast pace of development of the world scientific education is as an important as religious education. It is because of the fact that without modern scientific technical and professional education no one can face the modern economic globalizing world. Thus, traditional Madarsa must adopt the modern way of technical and professional teaching and learning processes.

REFERENCES:

Ø  Al Thaha, (Quran Shareef) 20: 144.

Ø  Hadith reported by Bukhari and Muslims.

Ø  Sharma, S. R., The Crescent in India, Bombay, 1966, p. 731.

Ø  Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, Oxford University Press, London, 1967, p. 3-4

Ø  Syed Ghulam Muhiyuddin, “Modern Education and the Educational Problems of the Indian Muslims”, Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol.II, No. 4, Islamic Academy Cambridge, U.K., 1989, p. 62.

Ø  Mujeeb Ashraf, Muslim Attitude towards British Rule and Western Culture, Delhi, 1982, p. 85.

Ø  Abid Husain, S., The Destiny of Indian Muslims, Asia Publishing House, New Delhi, 1965, pp .17-20.

Ø  Dutt, R.C., The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age, London, 1908, pp. 99, 105,112. 

Ø  Ram Gopal, The Indian Muslim, Bombai, 1959, p. 15.

Ø  Hardy, P., The Muslims of British India, Cambridge, 1972, pp. 40-50.

Ø  Hafeez Malik, Muslim Nationalism in India and Pakistan, Washington D.C. 1963, p. 145.

Ø  Quoted by Mujeeb Ashraf, Op. cit., p. 21.

Ø  W.W. Hunter, The Indian Musalmans, Delhi, 1969, p. 60.

Ø  Punjab. C.S. Records, General Department of Proceedings of 1st January, 1959, F. No. 11-12.

Ø  Mirza Abu Talib Landani was Laison Officer between Oudh Government and the British.

Ø  'Abd ur-Rahim Dahri was an English teacher at the Fort William College and had a prolific knowledge in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English, Latin and Pushtu.

Ø  Mujeeb Ashraf, Op. cit. pp. 209-210.

Ø  G.N. Jalbani, Teachings of Shah Waliullah, Delhi, 1988, p. 3.

Ø  Shah Waliullah, Hujjatullahil Baligha, Deoband , 1936, p.117.

Ø  K.A. Nizami, Syed Ahmad Khan, New Delhi, 1980, p.19.

Ø  Notably the Aligarh College, established in 1881, which became a university in 1920 and which remained the mainstay of Muslim education in the Indian subcontinent until 1947.

Ø  'Abd ur-Rabnlan Parwez ralabi, 'Abd ur-Rahim Dahri ki Khud Navisht Sawanih Umar’i,. New Delhi, 1975, pp. 186-193.

Ø  Altaf Husain Hali, Hayat-e Javed, English. tran. K.H. Qadree and U. Mathew   Delhi, 1979, p. 47.

Ø  K.A. Nizami, Op.cit, p. 70.

Ø  Proceedings of the First Meeting of the Scientific Society, Ghazipur, January 9, 1864, published in Fikr-o- Nazar, April (1963), Aligarh, pp. 8-11.

Ø  A Series of Essays on the Life of Mohammad. Published by Trubner & Co, London, 1870.

Ø  The M.A.O. College Magazine, April 1898, p.126.

Ø  Jaswant Singh., Jinnah India -Partition Independence, New Delhi, 2009. p. 527.

Ø  Rafiq Zakaria., Understanding the Indian Muslim, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, 2004, p.129.

Ø  Sachar Committee Report 2006.