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JIH unveils VISION 2016 for Indian Muslims:
The Jammat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has put in place a path-breaking
action plan to create educational, health and housing facilities to
improve the lot of millions of poor Muslims in the country under Human
Welfare Foundation as Vision -2016....
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Having served for several years as the
amir of the Jamaat-e Islami’s Kerala wing, Siddiq Hasan was
appointed as the head of the Social Service Department at the
Jamat’s national office in New Delhi. He comes across as a
mild-mannered, soft-spoken man, but he bubbles with ideas, and his
enthusiasm is infectious. From what he tells me and from the
literature that he provides, it appears that the Jamaat-e-Islami,
one of India’s most influential Islamic organizations, is
increasingly seeking to seriously engage with the myriad economic
and social concerns of India’s Muslims.
Although working for the social, educational and economic progress
of the community has been part of the Jamaat’s mandate ever since it
was established in 1941, Hasan admits that, particularly in north
India, this was not given the attention it deserved till recently.
‘Frequent communal riots and bouts of
anti-Muslim violence’, he says, ‘forced the Jamaat to focus
particularly on relief and rehabilitation, instead of the social,
economic and economic empowerment of the community.’ This was
reflected in the fact that it was only recently, in 2006, that the
Jamaat decided to set up a national-level Social Service Department,
whose head Hasan has been since it was established.
This Department was the brain-child of the former amir of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the well-known scholar Abdul Haq Ansari. Aware
and appreciative of the role of the Kerala branch of the Jamaat in
setting up welfare-oriented educational, health and vocational
training institutions in the state, he decided that the Jamaat
needed to replicate these efforts at the national-level as well in
an organized manner. Hasan was the obvious choice for heading this
project.
To begin with, Hasan traveled extensively to gain an understanding
of the social conditions and problems of Muslims in different parts
of the country. On the basis of this, he devised a ten-year plan,
encapsulated in a document titled ‘Vision 2016’.
A major focus of ‘Vision 2016’ is on promoting modern education for
Muslims. ‘One of our basic problems is the lack of modern
education,’ says Hasan. ‘That is why we want to work particularly in
this area, especially in promoting quality primary and secondary
education for Muslims. We need to start from the lower levels,
rather than building grand, higher-level institutions that cater to
the few and that involved great expense.’ ‘Vision 2016’ seeks to
improve Muslim children’s school enrolment rations, prevent
drop-outs, promote the capacity of existing schools, start new
schools where they do not exist, and provide career counseling and
guidance services and scholarships. Work in this regard has begun.
The Jamaat has identified some 100 sites across the country for
constructing schools. Construction work has already commenced in
some of these places.
A major reason for the considerable economic and educational
progress of Kerala’s Muslims, Hasan points out, is that they have
invested heavily in creating community-based non-governmental
institutions. ‘Vision 2016’ seeks to extend this pattern to the
whole of India, an ambitious scheme that is being coordinated by the
Delhi-based NGO Human Welfare Trust. Separate, smaller organizations
that have been established to put ‘Vision 2016’ into action include
the Human Welfare Foundation (working in the field of education),
the Society for Bright Future (focusing on relief, rehabilitation
and disaster management), the Medical Service Society of India (for
medial aid), and the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights
(dealing with human rights’ issues). Separate organizations for
microfinance, Muslim women’s empowerment and promotion of Muslim
entrepreneurship will also be set up soon, as also a research centre
that will focus on Muslim social issues.
‘A major problem we face is that many Muslims, particularly in north
India, are simply unaware of the importance of education,’ Hasan
laments. He cites the case of a Muslim-run engineering college in
Kerala, which, at his request, set apart ten free seats for north
Indian Muslim students and agreed even to provide them with freed
boarding and lodging facilities. With considerable difficulty, Hasan
managed to get six students—from West Bengal, Bihar and Assam—to
agree to enroll in the college. Finally, of these only two finally
joined.
But it is not simply ignorance or apathy that are behind Muslim
educational backwardness, especially in northern India, where the
bulk of the country’s Muslims live. Hasan cites other factors in
this regard, such as pervasive anti-Muslim discrimination, including
at the hands of the authorities, who often refuse to recognize
Muslim-run educational institutions or provide them facilities.
Likewise, several private institutions refuse to admit Muslim
students. For its part, the Hindutva lobby, Hasan says, has a vested
interest in keeping Muslims forever bogged down in controversies and
conflicts, forcing them to remain ever on the defensive.
Consequently, he explains, ‘north Indian Muslims have largely been
unable to set their own agenda, to focus on the work of internal
reform and development, or even to think positively.’
In addition, Muslim (and other) politicians, Hasan says, are ‘by and
large selfish, corrupt and exploitative, and, with some exceptions,
are simply not interested in addressing or solving the many problems
of the community on which they actually thrive.’ Yet another factor
is what Hasan sees as the lingering feudal mentality of large
sections of the north Indian Muslim social, religious and political
elites. ‘Many of them suffer from what can be called a Mughal
hangover,’ he argues. One reflection of this, he says, is the
continued presence of caste-based discrimination against so-called
‘low-caste’ Muslims (who form the majority of the Muslim community)
by many so-called ashraf Muslims, who claim foreign descent. ‘These
caste-conscious elites want to do simply nothing at all for the poor
of the community’, he rues.
Hasan sees a distinct difference in the socio-cultural ethos of
north and south Indian Muslims, which, he says, is one of the major
reasons for the relatively better economic and educational status of
the latter, particularly in Kerala. Kerala’s Muslims, who form
around a quarter of the state’s population, are India’s most
educationally advanced Muslim group. Hasan attributes their success
to a relatively egalitarian social ethics, their historical role as
traders, the role of successive Rajas (all Hindus) in the past, and
various recent reform movements, not just Islamic but also
anti-caste struggles and the strong communist presence in Kerala,
all of which made for a general social awakening in Kerala Muslim
society.
Furthermore, unlike in many other parts of India, Kerala Muslims
have a sizeable middle-class that has worked together with the ulema
for Muslim social, educational and economic empowerment. ‘The rigid
dualism between the ulema and modern-educated Muslims, so
characteristic of most of north India, is much less prominent in
Kerala’, he explains, which accounts for the ability and willingness
of large sections of the Kerala ulema to play a leading role in
community reform and development efforts there, including in
promoting modern education.
Although appreciative of the role of madrasas, which number in the
tens of thousands across India, in providing religious education to
Muslim children, Hasan suggests that they should also provide at
least a basic modern education to their students. As long as they do
not, he says, a major section of the community will continue to
remain backward. He insists that there is no strict division between
‘religious’ and ‘secular’ education in Islam. He critiques
conservative religious leaders who argue to the contrary, regarding
them as not seriously concerned about the overall development of the
Muslims. ‘I do not agree with their contention that mere religious
education is enough, and that through it all our worldly problems
will, or can, be automatically solved’, he says.
‘Islam teaches us that this world is the field of the life after
death, and so we need to develop a socially-engaged understanding of
our faith,’ Hasan tells me. That, he stresses, is the key to Muslim
empowerment.
Yoginder Sikand
works with the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and
Inclusive Policy at the National Law School, Bangalore
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