Madrasa children an easy target of the communal virus in times of corona

Today, at this crucial stage when disasters and tragedies stand lined- up, the communal virus continues to be getting unleashed by a particular section of media and, of course, by those manning the very governance. First these communal characters grabbed the Nizamuddin Markaz incident to spread vicious propaganda and utter lies against the Muslims.

And now this same lot tried to intrude into the madrasas, not sparing even the poor children housed in there, not even those who are trying their best to provide these children safe shelter, basic education and two square meals a day.

Unfortunately, even senior bureaucrats in the Union Health Ministry do not hesitate to prefix terms like ‘Markaz’ or Tablighi’ to the corona stricken patients and now this communal virus has been made to intrude right into hospital wards!

In a particular hospital--- Ahmedabad Civil Hospital--- patients were segregated into two separate wards on the basis on their religion! With this, the communal virus unleashed on us by the present government has reached its peak. Disgusting and dangerous and downright insulting are the communal trends…leading us towards complete disaster.

The Right -Wing godi media is trying its utmost to paint the madrasas with all possible negative shades. This trend seems part of the Hindutva Agenda to harass and humiliate and even terrorise the madrasa children.

Mind you, well-known literary giants like Munshi Premchand and many other personalities had studied in the madrasas of their villages and towns. But, of course, those were the good old times when sense and sanity prevailed and the communal virus hadn’t intruded and destroyed our lives…When senior government officers were secular, sensitive and humane.

Today madrasa children are hounded and attacked by Right -Wing goons on any given pretext. These madrasa children stand out, with their skull caps and cotton kurta - pyjama attires. In the last few years many madrasa children in Uttar Pradesh and even in this capital city, New Delhi, have been attacked by Right-Wing outfits yet no public hue or cry!

Why no television programme or discussions or debates on this dark reality? Who no minister or chief- minister or a commission head visited the victims and ensured that the culprits get booked? Why no focus on the tragedies and communal attacks that these hapless madrasas children face?

Its relevant to mention that this scare of the goon brigades holds out even for poor Muslim families living in the rural pockets of Western Uttar Pradesh and in several regions of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. During the various interactive meets, distraught mothers have told me that they have withdrawn their children from the regular schools because the goons harassed them whilst they would walk down to the schools.

Also in these recent years, Muslim families are facing another dilemma — to enroll or not enroll their children in the government schools of the BJP ruled states because of the inclusion of Hindu religious practices like Surya namaskars, recitation of Shlokas etc. And the incidents of Muslim children getting ill -treated by teachers and the school staff can not be ignored.

Of course, this hounding of the madrasas and the children housed in there, is nothing new but today it gets manipulated around the Coronavirus. Yesterday it was very conveniently webbed around terrorism and terrorists! To link madrasas with terrorists and terror activities was a ploy for the Hindutva political outfits to attack the minority community.

Several scholars have countered the Right-Wing theory of linking madrasas with terrorists. As the late Asghar Ali Engineer had commented, “I don't know of any such madrasa which is linked with terror activity. If one were to talk of the particular madrasas in Pakistan, then its significant to know that they were started by the CIA ,for a specific purpose!”

When I’d asked publisher and scholar, Zafar-ul-Islam Khan, why madrasas get linked to terrorism, he explained, "Several years back, when LK Advani said that madrasas are places of terrorist activities, we not just wrote strongly countering this but even sent a team of 10 to 12 reporters to the madrasas situated on the Indo- Nepal border to see and study the situation for themselves. And there was nothing! I have myself studied in a madrasa and there's nothing in madrasas except teaching. In fact, 60 % is the teaching of the regular subjects like Hindi, English, Social Sciences and about 40 % is religious study. Tell me what’s wrong with that!"

He also told me that he’d countered each one of those allegations made by LK Advani. “We have even proof that all those comments made by LK Advani are baseless. I had even retorted to Tavleen Singh's write-up and even asked her to come and study the madrasas before levelling all those wild charges but she didn't reply. What can one do to this sort of flinging wild charges without any accountability?"

And years back when I had asked the Mirwaiz of the Kashmir Valley, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, to comment on the Right -Wing allegations that madrasas are grooming terrorists, he was loud and clear that it was nothing but mischievous propaganda. To quote him, “ On the pretext of terrorism these Right Wing people are attacking madrasas…Its part of the Hindutva brigade’s agenda to spread all this disinformation.”

In fact, I have been visiting madrasas for the last several years and seen for myself the bare basics in those madrasas. Yes, the children live in the conservative and traditional way, with the basics to survival. Also, a large number of the madrasas do not have adequate funds for any of the teaching resources and nor for any of the modern day gadgets like the computers.

To compound the situation, a large number of the madrasas are not even recognized by the State education boards, so the madrasa educated child either becomes maulvi or gets back into the folds of his family’s poverty. Its unfortunate that the Muslim community has not thought in terms of providing vocational training to hundreds and thousands of these madrasa children.

Each time I visit any of the madrasas, I get back feeling very sad and in that introspective mood. The fact is that these children come from very humble backgrounds and have been sent to these madrasas by their poor relatives. What does the future hold out for them?

Why doesn’t the Muslim community play a positive role so that the future of these hundreds and thousands of young children gets somewhat secure? Why can’t these children be given vocational training together with religious education? Why can’t the community ensure that these children get reasonable level of higher education?

And the maulvis and madrasa administrators are not be blamed for not imparting vocational training or for the lack of infrastructure. Where are the resources and funds at their end? They try their utmost to provide basic meals to these children and a safe environment, but beyond that they are actually helpless.

And when I had suggested to the maulvis if they could visit the Human Resource Development ministry and avail of the Welfare finds for minority education, they told me that for a “bearded and shervani clad Muslim” it is difficult to even get an appointment with any of the babus in any of the sarkari bhavans.

And this ‘reality’ was confirmed by several Muslim activists. I also do recall a Christian bureaucrat (who was then working with GOI ) telling me that the finds for ‘minorities welfare’, were more than often lying un-used and were subsequently diverted to other sections. The crux, that the so called allotted funds for minorities welfare more than often do not trickle down, do not reach the minorities. Either there is lack of general awareness or the gaping gaps come in way or the blatantly communal tactics of the sarkari babus frighten the minority community and they do not approach the government for any help.

The reality is that the Right-Wing rulers of the day will not reach out to the madrasa children. Another dark reality is that none of the concerned commissions and ministries have spoken out when madrasa children were thrashed and attacked by the goon brigades, so it’s left to the community leaders and also to the liberals to reach out to these madrasa children and also to those maulvis trying their utmost to look after these children with the limited resources at their disposal.

Let these poor madrasa children not get hounded in these Right- Wing times either by the armed goons or by the television anchors of the godi media or the political mafia hell bent upon ruining the lives and livelihoods of the hundreds and thousands of the hapless Muslims.

Is it even morally correct or ethical that instead of focusing on the dark realities of the day, the focus gets shifted to hounding the entire minority community in that downright brazen way …hounding them to such an extent that their very survival is getting very difficult.

Ask a Muslim how tough it is getting to survive in these times when the godi media is getting used by the rulers of the day to hound the Musalmaans on any given alibi. And his answer will tell you -the survival was never this bad for the Indian Muslim!

Views expressed in the article are the author’s own