Madrassa Education System in South Assam: Past, Present and Future

Madrassa Education System in South Assam: Past, Present and Future
Bazlur Rahman Khan

Abstract: The informal kind of Madrassa Education System developed in south Assam from the Fourteenth century. But formal sort of Madrassa education started its journey only after the establishment of Darul Ulum Deoband (est. 1866). In 1873 Darul Ulum Baghbari in the Karimganj district was established, which became the first such institution in South Assam. Later, after the independence of India many provonicalised madrassas began to be established in large numbers in the Barak Valley. Today there are more then one hundred madrassas in South Assam. These madrassas can be divided broadly into two categories--firstly the Qaumi or Khariji (non govt. aided or non affiliated madrassa) and secondly provincialised or government funded madrassas. Madrassas in the latter category incorporated subjects belonging to general education. However Qaumi madrassas impart only religious education. Every year both kinds of madrassas produce a large number of students. In this paper I shall try to see why the society and the nation become unable to get maximum benefit from the pass-outs of these educational institutions. Is it that there are loopholes in the system? Why is it that a large numbers of graduates of these madrassas remain unemployed? The increasing numbers of incompetent and unemployment youth passed out of these madrassas and its impact on the socio-economic condition of the region indicates the weakness and loopholes of madrassa education system. In view of this crisis an immediate action plan is necessary to take up remedial steps both from the past success and experiences and contemporary general education. A possible solution could be the incorporation of professional and vocational courses, modern subjects, and modernization of syllabus.

South Assam which is popularly known as Barak Valley, named after the river Barak that flows through the region, consists of three districts viz. Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. Of them, the later two districts have a Muslim majority while the first one has 40% Muslim population. The valley has a long history of Islam and Muslim life; A large part of the valley came under the rule of the Turk-Afghan dynasties of Bengal from the early 14th century and continued with the establishment of the Mughal Empire. However, the dominance of Muslim elite finally ended with the introduction of British rule in Bengal. In 1947 when plebiscite held in Sylhet, the district got divided into two, the eastern part of Sylhet which got/is known as Karimganj remained with India whereas the other part fell under Bangladesh. The official language of the valley is Bengali, while the majority of people speak Sylheti, a dialect of the Bangla language. Geographically the region is surrounded by hills from all the three sides except its western plain boundary with Bangladesh. Nihar Ranjan Roy, author of Bangalir Itihash says, "South Assam or Barak Valley is the extension of greater Meghna Valley of Bengal' in all the way from culture to geography.

The madrassa education in Barak Valley is very old. The first informal madrassa of the region was established in the early 14th century by one Shah Ziauddin, a close disciple of Hazrat Shahjalal, the famous Sufi of Bengal and Assam. It was built at Badarpur in modern Karimganj District. The main purpose of the madrassa was to train Muslims particularly newly converted ones in the light of Islamic principles. But unfortunately with the passage of time, the madrassa building and the adjacent Masjid disappeared due to the erosion of river Barak. So we don't find it's references in the later stage of history. Similarly during the period of Imperial Mughals these kind of madrassas did exist in the valley.

The modern madrassa system developed in the valley immediately after the foundation of the Darul Ulum Deoband. In 1873 imitating Deoband, a similar type of madrassa, small in size, was established which was and is still known as Darul Ulum Baghbari in Karimganj. It is considered as the oldest madrassa of undivided Surma-Barak valley which included present Sylhet division of Bangladesh. Twenty five years after the establishment of Darul Ulum Baghbari, Darul Ulum Bashkandi came into existence in 1897. Now it is the largest Qaumi madrassa of the North East India. It also shelters approximately five hundred orphan students from west Assam. From the beginning of early 20th century, government affiliated middle school (M.E.) madrassa and High Madrassa started emerging across Assam. The 1924 built Batarashi madrassa, situated in the suburb of Karimganj town is the oldest among this type of institution in south Assam. Karimganj High Madrassa established two years later is another very old institution. It has produced innumerable successful students, settled in different fields, from the time of its establishments. These M.E. and High madrassas, has been imparting general education by and large. Religious education is provided only to a limited extent.

So from the very colonial times various types of madrassas developed in Assam. The post independent Assam witnessed the activities of the state govt. and community based organisation. Different types of initiatives have so far been taken to streamline madrassa education in a better way. As part of the new policy Assam State Madrassa Education Board formed. Recently, for the smooth functioning of this body, a separate Directorate is being created. Maulana Abdul Jalil Choudhury, a legislative member of Indian National Congress and a freedom fighter took active part in the provincialisation of the large numbers of Qaumi madrassas. These madrassas are now categorised as 'Title', 'Senior' and 'Pre-Senior' madrassas. He even disassociated himself from the long time bond of Jamiat Ulema Hind for latter's opposition to provincialisation and formed a socio-religious outfit Nadwat-ut-Taamir based in North East India. Deorail Title Madrassa (Badarpur), Hailakandi Title Madrassa, Asimganj Title Madrassa are the leading provinicalised madrassas of the valley. However, three large madrassas Darul Ulum Bashkandi, Baghbari and Bhanga Sharif continued to act independently. Besides Maktabs and Hafizia Madrassas (Quranic memorisation) have been established in South Assam for a long time.

Today madrassas of south Assam can be divided broadly into two categories Govt. affiliated madrassas and non Government madrassas. Government run madrassas are mainly of two types- Firstly the Middle English Madrassa and the High Madrassa where the former imparts education of the Middle School level while the latter offers education of the High School level. These Schools cum Madrassas have been functioning since the end of the first quarter of the 20th century. It mainly imparts general education, religious subjects are taught in these institutions for the sake of name only. The second type of Govt madrassas are of the three-tier set up: Title Madrassas, Senior Madrassas and Pre-Senior Madrassas. It has been discussed that these institutions got developed in the post independence period. Religious education is the core of the curriculum in these madrassas while general education is given partial importance. The career growth of the M.E and High Madrassas is good, almost the same as of the High Schools. They have no problem in higher education and neither there is any special need to change their syllabus or course curriculum. Their problem is common to that of state run schools. Here it is important for us to discuss about provincialised madrassas such as Title, Senior and Pr-Senior, whose core purpose is to focus on the religious education along with some importance on general education. The total time required to achieve the highest degree in these madrassas is very long and the course curriculum is also outdated and not systematic. Pre-Senior is the primary one which can be compared to middle school. In this level Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali are taught as subjects along with little bit of Islamic education. After Pre-Senior students are promoted at the Senior Madrassa level which has minimum seven years study period. Faziul Maarif or F.M. is the final exam of senior madrassas. F.M. is usually compared with the graduation level exam of general education. Guwahati University and Dibrugarh University accept F.M. as a graduate level course and on the basis of it, one can take admission in the M.A. Arabic programme of both these universities. However, Assam University which falls in south Assam does not consider F.M. as a graduate level course. Jamia Hamdard in Delhi allows F.M. as eligibility for its B.U.M.S. course. Generally in Assam, F.M. degree is treated as a Matriculation level exam. So F.M. passed students who want to join degree level courses, first need to pass Higher Secondary examination from any government school/board. In this way if any student want to join any higher education course of the general education students he has to spend two more years after spending additional four years in senior madrssas. In Senior level madrassa the major subjects taught are Arabic literature which consists of prose, poetry, rhetoric, grammar; Quranic translation and interpretation; commentary of Hadith; Islamic jurisprudence and logic. Arabic literature which is taught in Senior madrassa has a classical pattern that includes mostly pre-Islamic Arab's culture and literary works. So even after spending ten years in Pre and Senior levels students of these madrassas are unable to write or speak in modern Arabic language.

Title Madrasas have a minimum two year course for M.M standing for Mumtazul Muahaddis. The subjects of the M.M. course are Hadith, Tafsir and Tarikh (History). History which is taught in the M. M. course consists entirely of Muslims history. M.M. is considered equivalent to M.A. for the purpose of appointment in Senior Secondary School Arabic posts and Senior madrassas teaching posts. However the absence of specialisation in M.M like MM in Tafsir or M.M. in Hadith degrades the specialisation of the course. Most the provincialised madrassas do not have boarding facilities for students.

Non govt. Madrassas or Qaumi madrassas which are numerically much higher then the govt. madrassas are found everywhere in the valley, even in remote areas where government educational set up is almost non existent. These madrassas are three types-Alimiya and Fazilat Madrassas, exclusive Hafizia Madrassa and mahalla-centric Maktabas. Many of those madrassas are running since even the pre-independence period. There are more then twenty Senior, Three Title and many Pre-Senior Madrassas functioning in the valley. With this background one needs to examine the future prospect of the entire issue and may be a possible action plan too. Since non govt. or Qaumi madrassas are large in number compared to government ones. There are innumerable Qaumi madrassas in Barak Valley. Among those Aliya and Fazil madrassas are dominant. They teach a series of Islamic subjects such as Quranic Commentry (Tafsir), Hadith (Prophets sayings) learning, Islamic Jurisprudence (Muftiana), basics of Islamic History along with Urdu and Arabic Languages. These institutions do not have specialization unlike a madrassa such as Darul Ulum Deoband. Darul Ulum Bashkandi or Darul Ulum Bhanga Sharif has been following the same age old system of education. If one wants to get specialized in a field such as Islamic Jurisprudence, on completion of which students are awarded with Mufti degree or for a specialised degree on Tafsir or Quranic interpretation, one has to come all the way to Darul Ulum Deoband. My interaction with students revealed that students of those madrassas desperately want specialization on the above subjects in their institutions. Many of them end up their education unspecialized because they think that they wont be able to bear the expenditure of studying in a distant place like U.P. The official medium of teaching in these madrassas is Urdu which is not the mother tongue of any student. It is ironical that they study Arabic language and literature through Urdu books whereas the classroom language used is Sylheti Bangla, the local dialect, and finally in the examination one has to answer in Urdu. This creates a complete mess in the over all quality and vitality of teaching and the atmosphere of education. However we know that Quran is revealed in Arabic, Hadith were narrated in Arabic and the base of Islamic jurisprudence or Sharia was also build in Arabic. The final degrees of these madrassas are Alimat and Fazilat respectively. The duration of the course is very long. Students cross the age of around twenty five years to achieve these degrees. After that if one wants to pursue general education he has to take fresh admission in the lower classes in the general education. That makes higher education for a Qaumi madrassa student a far fetched dream. It so happens that many students who pass from these madrassas are immediately appointed in the same madrassas without any sort of proper training. This ultimately leaves an impact on the quality of education. These madrassas are run by the community members through charity and donation. Students are also engaged in fund mobilization. Every year students spend more then fifteen days in fund collection.

Hafizia (memorisation of holy Quran) is imparted both in the Aliya and exclusive Hafizia madrassas. The exclusive Hafizia madrassas are those where only Quran memorisation course is conducted. Some of those Hafizia madrassas have now opened their door for girl students also but classes held complete separately in a different building. But in Qaumi and Senior madrasas there is no room for girl students.

Maktab education provides the primary Islamic knowledge to Muslim children. Due to the effort of Nadwat-ut Taamir, Jamiat I Ulema and off late Ahle Sunnat ul Zamat maktabas become an integral part of rural Muslims villages. These organisations try to shape the mental set up of children in their own narrow sectarian outlook. This is one of the major drawbacks of these madrassas. Urdu as a language is taught in maktabas but teaching and examinations are conducted in Bengali. Maktabas are usually attached with local masjids but many of them function separately. Children up to twelve years of age attend makatabas. The timing of the maktaba is 6 to 9. Some people feel that maktabas actually kill very precious time of students for if one spends his whole morning in the maktabas where is the time for full preparation of his general education? However there is no gender constraint in these maktabas.

Most of these three kinds of Qaumi madrassas do not have recreation facility. These madrassas even do not feel the necessity of physical exercise say in the form of sports. Some of them even imposed restrictions on some sports events. As a result the physical and mental growths of students do not happen. The infrastructure or teaching equipments of most of the Qaumi madrassas are not sound.

Salary of the teachers of these madrassas is very poor and negligible. As a result good quality teaching can't be expected in these madrassas because teachers have to look after other options for a stable financial position, which obviously disturbs their concentration in teaching. Again, the subjects like Mathematics, History or English are no way part of the Qaumi madrassa education system. Lack of knowledge on these areas makes students of these Qaumi madrassas ignorant about the day to day happenings in the world, besides remaining incompetent in the present worlds of professional excellence.

Most of the students of these madrassas especially in Qaumi ones are from financially weak Muslims families which is a common phenomenon across South Asia because most of the madrassas provide free lodging and food to its students. So poor parents feel it is convenient to send their children to Qaumi madrassas which at least can mitigate some burden from their shoulders.

But it is not money only that pushes poor parents to admit their children in madrassas. The religiosity of people also pushes them towards madrassas. That is why a large number of students in reputed madrassas are found to be hailing from wealthy families.

According to the recent statistics, the number of children going to madrassas is only four percent. So some people think that it does not have much impact on the overall literacy of the Muslim community. They believe that the percentage of Muslim kid drop out from school is far higher than those going to madrassa. It is true that majority of children neither go to school nor madrassa. But one should forget that the madrassa students have immense influence in the Muslim community. Their positive role is very crucial both for the construction of community and the nation. So a proper analysis of the loopholes and drawbacks of madrassa education is crucial for the future of Muslim community in particular and the nation or society in general. Every year students who pass out from different madrassas after getting the highest degrees like Alimiat, M.M.., etc have very few opportunities to adjust themselves in the present competitive world. Most of them have to either settle in a local masjid as Imam or teacher in madrassas. Only few students dare to enter in the independent business endeavours. Majority of those madrassa pass outs particularly from Qaumi madrassas discourage people to admit their children in general education rather they encourage them towards madrassa education. Some of them open new madrassas both for their livelihood and expansion of theological knowledge among Muslims. Except a few, large chunks of those madrassa pass outs also oppose women education. Though female literacy of the Muslim community of south Assam is not bad as in other places but it is not good or up to the mark as the Hindu community has. Their (madrassa graduates) words of advice and charity deeds are present well among the common Muslim because at the end of the day common Muslims respect the decision of Ulemas for the fear of life after death. South Assam has a large number of financially stable population but most them are very loyal to the advices of Ulemas and imams. So they donate more and more to the madrassas for the benefit in life after death. Generally, rich Muslims think donation in school and colleges is simply a social work and it has nothing to do with Islam. So they are neither very enthusiastic to popularise general education nor very kind towards donation in school and colleges. That is why the number of institutions runs by the Muslim community for general education is very less.

If we channelise or systemize existing large resource available in the shape of madrassas we will not only serve the cause of the Muslim families but also the whole humanity. Madrassas are found in every four to five kilometers or les then that in south Assam. If Government agencies and NGOs convince madrassas management bodies for the utilization of their infrastructures like buildings for vocational training of madrassa students and peripheral community members, a smooth affectivity could be bring in the over all growth of the region. After long discussions with community members, intellectuals and students following are the few more steps required for the improvement of madrassa education and its affectivity especially in south Assam or Barak Valley.

*A State Level Council for Educational Research and Training in the pattern of NCERT is necessary. Eminent Muslim and non-Muslim Academicians, Senior and experienced prominent Madrassa teachers can be taken as members of the Council. The Council should write and translate books mentioned in the syllabus and publish these books. It should also decide the length of the syllabus at least for the government madrassas and give advice to the state for necessary steps for the enhancement of madrassa education.

*Separate Teachers Training Colleges—at least a couple of ones—should be established in the state for madrassa teachers. These colleges should conduct B. Ed or E.T.E. degrees for the teachers of Senior, Title, and if possible Qaumi madrassas. These degrees should be made necessary eligibility for the appointment of madrassa teachers.

*Arabic or the mother tongue language should be made as the medium of instruction compulsory in the provincialised madrassas. Qaumi madrassas should be advised to make Arabic or mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Emphasis should be properly given on only those literatures in Arabic that is required for understanding Holy Quran and Hadith and. Special focus should be laid on the learning of modern communicative Arabic. The contents of the syllabus of Arabic language needs urgent reconsideration at least for the provincialised madrassas

*A Central Madrassa Board in the pattern of C.B.S.E is required for the proper conduct of examination and smooth functioning of madrassas. Different types of vocational and professional courses should be introduced at the initiative of central and state governments in the provincialised and community-run madrassas to avoid increasing numbers of unemployment among the madrassa students. Assam state government should at least take interest in launching Pre-Tibia courses in selected madrassas so that madrassa students become eligible for direct admission into medical courses like B.U.M.S. and so on.

*In this era of latest technology modern teaching instruments/electronic equipments which make teaching easier and understandable for students should be granted to madrassas. The Government, NGOs, and the madrassa management committees should organize vocational training for existing teachers on different vocational and life skill education.

* At least one Counseling and Guidance centre for madrassa students should open in each district at the initiative of community and government agencies. Councilors of these centers can communicate different options available for madrassa students. Names of madrassa pass outs should also be maintained in the district level employment exchange.

*Since Qaumi madrassas are run by different Muslim organisations with different interests, a coordination committee should be set up to maintain good relationship between these madrassas.

Finally for the encouragement of students belonging to the provincialised madrassas, the state government should distribute computers among students like government school students and teachers should be immediately appointed against all vacant positions in the provincialised madrassas.

Bazlur Rahman Khan (PGDM in NGO, M.A., and M.Phil in History) is an Academic Associate at Hamdard Study Circle, New Delhi

Works Consulted
Qasimi Muahammad Sajid, Madrassa Education Framework, Manak Publication, New Delhi, 2005
Taimizi, Yahya, Sufi Movement in Eastern India, Idara-i-Ada-Biyat-i-Delhi, Delhi, 1992
Anurupa Biswas, Prasanga: Barak Upatyakar Shikka Bistar, Bijith Choudhury edited
Shatavdir Thatyapunji, Published by Barak Upathyaka Banga Shahitya-O-Sanskiti Sammelan, Silchar, 1998
Report on National Conference cum Workshop on Madrassas for Modernization in Northeast India organized by British High Commission, New Delhi and PFI Foundation, Assam, 28-30 March, 2007, Guwahati
Bitarka Madrassa Shikkar Upar, Dainik Jugashanka, 2nd March 2008, Silchar, Assam
Call to make madrassas more competitive, The Assam Tribune, March 31, 2007, Guwahati
Qaumi Madrassasr Adunikaranar Bare Sarkarar Action Plan, Dainik Janashadaran, 31st March, 2007, Guwahati
Madrassa Shikka Bebasthay Shamaje Kuno Upakar Hachchena, Dainik Jugashanka, 9th March 2008, Silchar