religious education | SabrangIndia

Allahabad HC questions if state funds to madrasas is consistent with India’s secular scheme

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:56:09 +0000

Image Courtesy:hindustantimes.com

The Allahabad High Court recently instructed the Uttar Pradesh government to answer a series of queries about the funding and functioning of religious educational institutions like madrasas before mid-September.

On August 19, Justice Ajay Bhanot heard a plea from Madarsa Anjuman Islamia Faizul Uloom seeking to establish additional posts of teachers considering the increasing number of students. He directed the state government to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks adding, “The State Government shall bring in the record the syllabi/courses, conditions and standards of recognition including requirement for playgrounds at madrasas and all other religious institutions which are recognized or aided by the state government. Further it shall be disclosed whether Madrasas so recognized and aided also admit girl students.”

Further, the court also directed the government to answer additional questions like whether the state policy to provide financial aid to such institutions is consistent with the secular scheme of the Constitution.

That is to say, the court asked whether the government funding of institutions run by religious minorities imparting religious education, implements the constitutional protection afforded to all religious faiths with reference to Articles 25-30 that protect religious and minority rights.

The court asked the government, “Whether the institutions which impart knowledge in diverse fields and also include courses in theological learning come within the ambit of the phrase “religious instruction or religious worship” or only schools which exclusively impart religious education come within the ambit of Article 28 of the Constitution of India?”

It may be mentioned that while clause one of the Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions prohibits religion instruction in state funded schools, clause two states, “Nothing in clause (1) shall apply to an educational institution which is administered by the State but has been established under any endowment or trust which requires that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution.”

Similarly, the court asked if the absence of a mandatory provision for playground for recognition, even for Madrasas and other religious institutions, prove to be incompatible with child rights as conferred by Article 21A.

Bhanot asked if other religious minorities are also provided government aid for running theological schools and whether women are prohibited from applying to religious schools. The order further asked, “If so, whether such bar is an act of discrimination prohibited by the Constitution?”

The case will have its next hearing on October 6.

The post Allahabad HC questions if state funds to madrasas is consistent with India’s secular scheme appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Should children study religion in school?

Sat, 21 Sep 2019 04:02:34 +0000

The path to secularism through introducing religious studies

Representation Image

The draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019was released online a few months ago and controversies surfaced regarding various aspects like advocating for Hindi language as central. As the debate rages on about language politics and erasure of diversity, another gaping hole in the policy is the lack of mention of secularism and religious studies.

The model of a secular education, of course, could either mean avoiding all religious instruction in schools or making equal space for texts from all the varied religions practiced in India.

While religious instruction is kept out of schools by the Education Policy, this has not meant an absence of “religious” texts in the classroom. We all remember studying poetry of bhakti saints like Basava, Tulsidas, Kabir, Mirabhai and Soordas, and poets like Malik Muhammad Jayasi, or Christian hymns like Lead Kindly Light by John Henry Newman in our literature textbooks.

While there is space for devotional poems and stories from mythology in the textbooks, it is another matter whether all religions of India have a representation in this manner. Our education system keeps no space or curriculum for the critical and authentic study of the various religions of our country. Could introducing a well-researched curriculum lead to a better understanding among children about their own and other religions? Could this aid in achieving a true vision of secularism by battling misinformation and fear of the unknown?

Children learn from their environment and our children sadly, have incorporated the discriminations of their surroundings as witnessed by multiple reports of children refusing to eat meals cooked by Dalit workers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and more, according to news items surfacing every few months since 2015.

The discrimination percolates to children discriminating against each other as well as mirroring the actions of teachers and school managements. A report released by rights body, Human Rights Watch, “‘They Say We’re Dirty’: Denying an Education to India’s Marginalised,” highlights religious and caste-based discrimination in India’s schools. It laid bare instances of how Hindu teachers often passed derogatory remarks about Muslim students inside the classroom. The report found several instances of children in metropolitans like Delhi being discriminated against on religious grounds and discouraged from participating in sports and extracurricular activities.

There are even practices like separate classrooms and sitting areas for Dalit and Muslim students as seen in a story from Bihar, and in-depth studies like Payal Hathi’s research published in Economic and Political Weekly which yielded reports of discrimination against Dalit and Muslim students ranging from 10% to 25% across geographies and groups.

When asked about a case of discrimination against Muslim students and denying them admissions in Mumbai, Kiran Bhatty, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy and Research who has worked as an education expert on several projects, including some with the Government of India, said “The discrimination could be happening in the classrooms as well, that can’t be denied. Maybe we need to remodel the whole (sensitization) programme and focus on training teachers in a way that their outlook towards these communities changes.”

Article 15 of the Indian Constitution prohibits “discrimination on any grounds- religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any other”. But are the tenets of non-discrimination being taught in schools? And if they are taught, is non-discrimination as a value, enough? Should we be talking about acceptance, tolerance, understanding, love even?

Indians have grown increasingly sensitive about religion, it is a topic that makes them nervous. In a country full of multiple faiths and pluralistic traditions, where communal hate is peddled in WhatsApp forwards and TV channels shouting out “Dharm pe vaar (attack on religion)” and repeating the word “Tushtikaran (Appeasement)” every 5 minutes, our next generation is learning about religion from all the wrong sources.

In the words of Mark Tully, “In the absence of authentic religious scholars and scholarship, the claims of those who have a vested difference in promoting religious disputes go unchallenged.”

India has much to learn, but it also has much to teach. We are a country with a long history of rich multi-faith traditions and cultures. We can create a comprehensive and unbiased curriculum for not just the Indian children, but also the world to learn about religion, harmony, and coexistence. The question is, will we?

Related articles

The post Should children study religion in school? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

View from Bangladesh: The right kind of religious education

Tue, 15 May 2018 06:38:07 +0000

It is time to stop the exploitation of religion

We can’t ignore them /RAJIB DHAR

We should not give into the demands of the madrasa-system, but rather, include them in the mainstream. Money certainly gives them power to disrupt the peaceful environment of the country.

We need to open avenues for them to work other than in mosques and in conducting milads. We cannot close our eyes to the reality that they exist, and neither can we ignore the firm adhere to Islam of the overwhelming majority of the people.

It is not possible to run the affairs of the state while keeping a group, differently educated, away from the mainstream job market. That would be discrimination — an undemocratic practice.

Any discrimination and even perceived discrimination surely breeds frustration and consequently, undisciplined, unlawful activities. Current terrorist activities all over the world may easily find its roots in a neglected, unequally treated population.

Force alone cannot eliminate terrorist activity. Surveillance and monitoring would be an effective way to diffuse the tense situation. Why do so many young men from well-to-do families, educated in expensive, elite institutions, turn to terrorist activities?

They must have suffered from a sense of deprivation somehow. In the madrasa system, the deprivation is financial, and in other cases, the absence of family ties. Children often suffer from a sense of neglect, and dearth of love and affection in the well-to-do scenarios.

Faith is to be experienced, not to be scientifically proven through mechanical experiments. It is so deeply ingrained in the human psyche that it is hard to eradicate.

Therefore, an idea can be presented in religious garb from an authority figure, and this idea is easily accepted into society. But when religion is used for the sole purpose of some worldly gain, it is exploitation.

To talk, discuss, and use religion for the wellbeing of humanity is not exploitation of religion, because the sole purpose of religion is development and refinement of the human mind and soul, in accordance with the instructions of the creator.

For the faithful to be guided by religion in all activities is necessary. And an overwhelming majority of the people are religious.

Equality is the basis of all religion. It is a different issue that sometimes a lack of understanding between religions can cause problems, as we saw with the banning of beef. But since religion plays a primary role in human life, we cannot deny it and pretend it does not exist.

Even the most democratic and liberal of nations have not done away with religion. In Britain, the monarch is also the head of the church. In the US, in the last presidential election, candidates vied with each other to prove their firm allegiance to religion.

It was because, in spite of lax moral practices in those societies compared to ours, they are still ruled by a faith in God.

It is evident that we, as human beings, are unable to do without religion. What we can do is not to exploit religion.

Exploitation is wearing a cap and beard and planning violence. Exploitation is saying, if so-and-so comes to power, mosques will be closed and there will be no call to prayers ever again in this country. Exploitation is doing everything un-Islamic, and then talking of Islam.

However, to integrate this isolated group is a lengthy and difficult process. This is a radicalized group that has been on the outskirts of society. We need to be cautious, alert, and move steadily, not carelessly. We cannot hope to undo everything with the stroke of a pen.

It is extremely urgent that we do everything possible to arrest the spread of terrorism with all our might.

When religious zealots are misguided, they are extremely dangerous to deal with.

We must have a very well-thought-out, well-planned, and well-defined strategy to assimilate a disgruntled section of the population. Keeping them out is not wise.

Secularists are behaving as if anything that we touch even distantly related to religion will defile the constitution. They forget what the Father of the Nation said: “I am ready, I am a Bengali, I am a human being, I am a Muslim.”

He was secular and he was a Muslim. We never fought, as many would say, to get rid of religion, but to get rid of exploitation in the name of religion.

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country, but it has vowed to treat all equally, irrespective of caste, creed, or gender.

Mir Mahboob Ali is an author and fiction writer. He is a former senior executive at The Bangladesh Observer.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune

The post View from Bangladesh: The right kind of religious education appeared first on SabrangIndia.