Mukhtar Alam, "Madrasas and Terrorism: Myth or
Reality?", New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 2004,
pp.104, ISBN: 81-87218-83-5. Reviewed by: Yoginder
Sikand

In recent years, this book argues, madrasas in India
have come under increasing attack as being alleged
‘dens of terror’. In particular, madrasas located on
the border between India and Nepal have been decried
as being reportedly associated with the Pakistani
Inter-Services’ Intelligence. This study, based on a
survey of several madrasas located along the
Indo-Nepal frontier in Bihar, West Bengal and West
Bengal, argues that the anti-madrasa propaganda is
misplaced. The author blames anti-Muslim Hindutva
forces for this propaganda, and, based on an opinion
survey of ulama, madrasa students and government,
including police, officials, says that this propaganda
has no truth in it.

The author argues that, far from working in league
with ‘anti-national’ forces, these madrasas are
engaged in promoting education among impoverished
Muslim families living in areas where the state has
hardly made any provision for their education. Several
of these madrasas are, indeed, conservative in their
orientation and are opposed to the inclusion of any
modern disciplines in their curriculum. This, however,
by no means suggests that they are ‘anti-national’. At
the same time, the author laments, some ulama want to
restrict education in the madrasas only to
narrowly-defined religious subjects or to ‘those
tenets of Islam that suit them most’ and ‘preach that
people should not question the authority of the ulama
and should not apply reason in religious matters’. By
opposing modern education, these ulama, the author
contends, are ‘working against the original vision of
Islam’.

According to the study says, in recent years some
smaller madrasas in the border areas surveyed have
included modern subjects as well in their syllabus.
The argument that all madrasas are averse to reform
is, therefore, mistaken. Most of the students, many of
their parents and 52% of the teachers, favour some
degree of modernization of the madrasa syllabus,
including the teaching of computers and English and
vocational training. Many of them argue that madrasas
should be restructured in such a way that after a few
years’ education children can opt to either join
regular schools or else go on for higher religious
education in order to train as ulama.

The study provides some interesting statistics about
the madrasas surveyed in the border regions. Most of
them were established after 1960, and the majority of
them are independent, not being affiliated with
various state government madrasa boards. In some
districts along the border the madrasas are playing a
major role in promoting female literacy. These
madrasas cater mainly to poorer families. Only 39% of
the fathers of the male madrasa students and 11.4% of
the fathers of female madrasa students have studied
beyond the primary level. Most of the mothers of
madrasa students are unable to read and write. Most of
the parents of the students are small peasants and
landless labourers. Poverty, plus the fact that it is
often only in the madrasas that Urdu is taught, makes
madrasas an attractive option for many poor Muslim
families in these areas, the study argues.

The study concludes with a list of suggestions for
madrasa reform, including the institution of a central
board of madrasa education under the Ministry of Human
Resources Development and including both ulama as well
as modern-educated specialists; incorporating modern
subjects, taught through texts prepared by the
National Council for Educational Research and
Training, in the madrasa curriculum; inducting school-
and college-educated teachers, including women, in the
madrasas; authorizing local level statutory panchayat
committees to run government-funded madrasa
modernisation schemes; declaring unlawful the
defamation of madrasas a punishable offence; arranging
for separate budgetary allocation for programmes for
minority institutions, with their implementation being
supervised by representatives of the minority
communities; establishing training institutes for
madrasa teachers; launching of awareness campaigns
stressing the need for education; and, in order to
prevent or control corruption, arranging for zakat
funds to be directed to madrasas under supervision of
local civil society representatives.