Madarsas break barriers

Free education and a nominal charge for examinations are attracting many poor Hindu parents in Bihar to send their children to madarsas Mohd Imran Khan Patna

Satish Sharma, 21, is a Hindu student at the Madarsa Aziza in Biharsharief. Sapna Kumari, 18, similarly studies at the Madarsa Yateem Khana Islamia in the state’s Siwan district. Over a 100 Hindu students are enrolled in madarsas across the state.

Abdul Wahid Ansari, president of the Bihar State Madarsa Education Board confirms this. He says Hindu parents—Brahmins as well as dalits—have been sending their children for the past five years. “It is the awareness about madarsa teaching, mostly among the downtrodden sections, who cannot afford costly education, that is bringing them to these schools,” he explains. Nearly a third of the madarsas follow a syllabus modeled along the lines of the Bihar School Examination Board and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). “We now teach all modern subjects, including sciences, social sciences and mathematics,” Ansari said. Education in all madarsas is free. Students only have to pay examination fees for Ustaaniya (Rs 160) and Faukaaniya (Rs 310).

According to the Board, in the last two years half a dozen Hindu students have done the Ustaaniya—an examination equivalent to class 7 in regular schools—from madarsas in Siwan district and four from Nalanda, and one each in six other districts—Begusarai, Chapra, Gopalganj, Nawada, Samastipur and Sitamarhi.

The Board now plans to compile these figures and all information on Hindu students—past and present—in madarsas. There are some 3,500 madarsas in Bihar, including 1,000 state-run Islamic schools where the teaching and non-teaching staff are paid by the government. The remaining madarsas are affiliated to the Board.

Two Hindu students passed the Faukaaniya—matriculation equivalent—from madarsas in Bhojpur district and one each from Bettiah, Chapra, Nalanda and Rohtas districts in 2002.

Says Ansari: “The presence of Hindu students in madarsas has exploded the myth that these schools preach religious fundamentalism and foment anti-national feelings.”

How did this happen? By word of mouth, Ansari believes. “After a few Hindu students passed our examinations, they told others … We are not teaching anything against any religion or anything anti-national. That is merely a propaganda by vested interests to defame us,” he says.

Some madarsas teach Urdu, Arabic and Persian up to the post-graduate level. Ansari says in Mithalanchal (north Bihar) the upper caste Hindus send their children to learn Arabic and Persian so they can get jobs in the Middle East embassies in Delhi or in the Gulf. In madarsa education Bihar is way ahead of the rest of India. n