Every time the expressions ‘Muslim’ and ‘BJP’ are used in one sentence, there has to be agitation, even if pro forma. The latest cause of jibe and argument from both sides of the divide is the Maharashtra Government's pronouncement that madrasas imparting only Islamic education, and not teaching mainstream subjects such as maths and science, would stand derecognised as ‘school’. The Maharashtra Government is conducting a survey to find out the number of children who are outside the school system. As per the RTE Act students of seminaries — whether Muslim, Hindu, Christian or any other — that do not teach modern subjects are not deemed to be getting any ‘schooling’. The feud cannot be over what the institutes are called, but what they teach and whether they get qualified to be called a ‘school’ and receive government funds.
The Muslim community itself is not united over whether it wants funding for madrasas. Those opposed say only around 4 per cent of its children study in madrasas, which are aimed at producing religious preachers. Any prescription of curriculum is seen as an attempt at controlling madrasas. They cite AMU’s loss of minority status. Any community is free to make its choices. But it is equally justified that government should deny education funds to institutes that do not teach what is seen as modern education. The UPA’s initiatives to modernise madrasas were also met with strong resistance, even as there are Muslim seminaries that have accepted government aid and teach the required subjects.
Teaching ‘modern’ subjects was also a requirement for funding to madrasas under the previous Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra. Nothing has changed under the NDA, except semantics. For some reason the BJP ends up putting simple administrative actions in words that arouse misgivings. It should avoid that, unless it actually means to cause a schism, as many suspect. Social change — especially of the religious kind — can come only as and when a community feels ready for it. Any force will be met with outrage, justified or not.