Beyond Internal Reform: Structural Barriers to Muslim Education in India
When everyday bias shapes a community's life, how much can internal reform truly accomplish? While no one can argue against the necessity of reform, focusing solely on internal changes risks overlooking the profound impact of structural discrimination. For Muslim groups in India, obtaining a modern education has become increasingly difficult due to systemic lack of support and budget curtailment.
The Reform Argument and Its Limitations
Recently, Najeeb Jung and Hilal Ahmad advocated for internal reforms among Muslims as part of the broader struggle for justice. Their perspective emphasizes that "reform is not capitulation, it is self-respect" and calls for changes in education and gender justice sectors. They rightly highlight problematic practices like dowry and non-implementation of inheritance rights that Muslims must address.
However, their emphasis on educational reform, particularly madrasa modernization, raises critical questions. Can educational reform efforts be separated from the political environment where anti-Muslim sentiment appears to have become an accepted governing philosophy?
Muslim Engagement with Educational Reform
Contrary to popular perception, Muslims have not resisted educational reform, especially concerning madrasas. The elite narrative often portrays madrasas as institutions producing uninformed citizens, but this represents an outdated cliché. In reality, Muslim communities welcomed government initiatives like:
- The Modernisation of the Madrasa Scheme (MoMS)
- The Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM)
These programs, initiated during the UPA government, faced financial starvation under subsequent administrations, ultimately leading to their closure. This demonstrates that structural support, rather than community resistance, determines reform success.
Structural Barriers to Education
The educational challenges facing Muslim communities extend far beyond internal reform discussions. Several structural factors create significant obstacles:
Communal Environment: The current atmosphere discourages Muslim girls wearing religious markers like hijabs from attending schools and colleges, directly impacting female education. Safety concerns increase with travel distance, contributing to higher dropout rates among Muslim girls.
Campus Polarization: Communal tensions have infiltrated educational institutions. As documented in Nazia Erum's Mothering A Muslim, hate against Muslim students has increased in schools. Incidents like a professor reportedly calling a Muslim student a "terrorist" at a Karnataka institution in 2022 illustrate this troubling trend.
Policy Exclusion: The New Education Policy 2020 promotes "Rationalisation of School Complex" but fails to address madrasas in Minority Concentration Districts. This omission reflects a broader pattern where majoritarian views simultaneously criticize Muslims for focusing on religious education while creating barriers to modern education.
Recent Evidence of Structural Discrimination
Two recent incidents highlight how structural discrimination manifests in education:
- In Dhaba village, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, Abdul Naeem opened a school with personal savings, only to see it bulldozed following complaints about an "illegal madrasa."
- At Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu, the National Medical Council ordered closure of the MBBS course citing infrastructure shortfalls, shortly after protests from Hindutva groups about 42 out of 50 students in the first batch being Muslim.
Budgetary Constraints and Their Impact
Education represents a crucial pathway to socio-economic mobility, yet Muslim groups face significant hurdles due to declining support. Recent years have witnessed reduced budget allocations for the Ministry of Minority Affairs, primarily due to discontinuation of key programs:
- Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students
- Full coverage of Pre-Matric scholarships for classes 9-10
- Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF)
- Various madrasa support schemes
These structural questions remain unaddressed amidst reform rhetoric. True progress requires acknowledging that structural discrimination cannot be overlooked if we genuinely aim to uplift the socio-political and economic conditions of India's largest minority community.
The authors, Jawed Alam Khan of the Institute of Policy Studies and Advocacy in New Delhi and Majur Ali of the GIRI Institute of Development Studies in Lucknow, emphasize that while internal reforms matter, they cannot succeed without addressing the systemic barriers that hinder educational access and advancement for Muslim communities across India.
