Madrasa  Education in India – A Need for Reorientation 

S. Farooq

(Reader in Geology & Jt Director, Centre for Promotion of Science, AMU, Aligarh)

The emergence of the institution of the madrasa as a centre for religious learning, and of the ulama as a class of religious specialists, coincided with the spread of Islam outside the Arabian peninsula in the years after the death of the Prophet.  Today, the madrasa system of education is prevalent in large parts of West, Central and South Asia.  The number of madrasas in India is estimated to be between thirty to forty thousand.  According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, there are 721 madrasas catering to over 1,20,000 children in Assam, 1,825 madrasas catering to over 1,20,000 children in Gujarat, 961 for 84,864 children in Karnataka, 9,975 for 7,38,000 children in Kerala, 6,000 for over 4,00,000 children to Madhya Pradesh and some 1,780 catering to over 25,000 children in Rajasthan. In Uttar Pradesh, the number of maktabs is more than 15,000 and madrasas over 10,000 and there are 3,500 madrasas is Bihar. Similar are the figures for the other States of India.  Except in some parts of Kerala, these madrasas cater strictly to Muslim children.  Ever since their emergence, the madrasas have persisted with a curriculum that has seen few changes. The fact that literally lakhs of Muslim children acquire their primary, and perhaps their only formal education, in these madrasas where only literature and Islamic studies with a cursory knowledge of social sciences thrown in, should be a matter of concern not only to their parents but also to anybody concerned with education in any manner.  The format of the education imparted to the students of madrasas ought to be modified keeping in view the shifting demands of the employers – a concern which can no longer be under-played.  And this is perfectly possible without an erosion of the cultural and religious identity. 

Madrasas need to recognize that the world has undergone a transformation. Employers have specialized needs which the current educational is unable to meet.  Global and private competition, not to mention financial constraints, is not likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. Forwarding more of what they are currently doing is not the solution to these problems. To survive present and future challenges, the madrasas must find new ways to extend contemporary education to their students.

Developing suitable answers for today’s dilemmas requires an examination of the essentials of education. Education involves transference to others, of knowledge and values accumulated by mankind. Even though schools and teachers have been part of the process of education for hundreds or even thousands of years, it is the spirit of enquiry that has enriched mankind with knowledge.  We learn through reading, experience, by watching others and by observing the world in general.  Inculcating a spirit of scientific enquiry in students will perhaps be the best manner of propelling them on the path of learning.

In this context it becomes necessary to stress that science education, coupled with modern technology, if put to proper use in madrasas, could probably make education more meaningful. In modern times, there has been a paradigm shift in the business of education from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’.  It is a demonstrated fact that much learning can happen if the student is left to himself in the proper environment, with the proper resources, tools, and most of all, with proper guidance.  Fundamental changes in the educational system may be possible, and indeed essential.

Even though this may be the general agreement, it is a fact that in this country particularly, whenever an attempt is made to institute any profound change, a resistance begins to act from its very inception.  Authorities in charge of evolving a new direction may believe it necessary to continue whatever is being done if it has an extensive history. They flinch at the vision of a madrasa system where science education would jettison religious knowledge and make education “worldly” and “impersonal”. Scrutiny of basics however, will provide a foundation for a thorough reorientation and show what may, of necessity, be incorporated, and what must be retained.

It is a matter of satisfaction to note that of late, some madrasas, having realized the significance of science education, have introduced science teaching in their curricula, but have not been able to bring about any noticeable improvement in the quality of education they impart to their students.  It is often argued that if science education is so sensational, why hasn’t it brought any notable improvement to education in the few madrasas that have adopted it? One simple reason why science teaching has not bettered the condition of madrasa education appreciably is immediately apparent. In spite of science education being imparted, thousands of madrasas don’t have a well-formulated curriculum, and/or couldn’t implement it even if they wanted to. They don’t have sufficiently trained staff.

This lack of proficiency is true not only of madrasa teachers who have not studied science, but also applies to those teachers who were science students.  The prime reason for the latter predicament being that technology is progressing with alacrity, and even such teachers as are science graduates become redundant in due course of time unless reoriented from time to time.  Thus, if the present lack of suitably trained science teachers were not a sufficient obstacle to successful implementation of science curriculum in today’s madrasas, a more difficult hurdle can also be recognized - initial teacher training is not sufficient. Teachers require continual training as the technology changes, since new and more effective applications are developed, there is more to be learned about learning with technology. Even fresh, young teachers are faced with the prospect of learning with their students or being left on the shelf. Equipping teachers to use technology is a process ad infinitum!

When we discuss and debate upon the subject of madrasa education and the need for reorientation of such institutions according to contemporary advances in the field of modern education, our memory harks back to that one unique madrasa, the Madrasatul Uloom, founded by Syed Ahmad Khan in 1875 at Aligarh, which had a historical and revolutionary role to play in the lives of the Indian Muslims post the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.  Syed Ahmad Khan was painfully conscious of the plight of Indian Muslims who were blissfully ignorant of the various developments in the field of Western sciences and philosophy and wallowed in a state of nostalgia about their glorious feudal past.  Syed Ahmad realized the need of the hour – the desperate need of the Muslims to acquire contemporary education and learn the English language, which the conservatives resisted as the language spoken by the ‘mushriks’.  He launched, with a missionary zeal, to establish a madrasa, a school where the Indian Muslim youth would receive definite guidelines about their future.  Keeping in mind the Islamic concept of ‘deen’ balanced with ‘duniya’ he fought all obstacles to achieve his aim – that of establishing an institution which combined the best of both the Orient and the Occident – religious teaching combined with scientific education.  He vigorously attacked the social conservatism which rejected any advance or change and in turn received brickbats for his so-called radical views.  According to Syed Ahmad the prime requisite of the Indian Muslims at that time was the acquisition of knowledge not only of Islamic thought but also of logic and natural philosophy and he firmly believed that there was no conflict between Islamic thought and these branches of knowledge.  Earlier he had also established the Scientific Society in 1864 at Ghazipur with the purpose of familiarizing the Muslims with Western sciences.

The Madrasatul Uloom, for which Syed Ahmad gave his life blood, now stands as one of the most well-known and premier Central Universities of India with an international standing, attracting students from far and wide.  Syed Ahmad’s concept of continuity in change paid rich dividends for the Indian Muslims who benefited from this institution, which grew to become the Aligarh Muslim University in 1920.  Students who have benefited from this Institution stand proun and distinguished in the world today.  The Madrasatul Uloom experiment, which should have served as a paradigm, remains unique even today.  Unfortunately not many madrasas followed suit.

The Indian Muslim minority is quite backward in science education and its representation and participation in the scientific activity of the country is woefully low.  This situation, if allowed to persist for long, would certainly hinder the growth/health of the progress of the country.  In these days of fast expanding frontiers of scientific knowledge and its multiplying technological spin-offs, no nation can afford to have a sizable chunk of its population illiterate in science, and no community can hope for a respectable place in the national stream without equipping itself with science education.

This website is hosted by

S. Farooq

Department of Geology

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh - 202 002 (India)

Phone: 91-571-2721150

email: farooqs@sancharnet.in