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The Enemy Within: Madrasa and Muslim Identity in North India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

ARSHAD ALAM
ARSHAD ALAM*
Affiliation:
Center for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Nelson Mandela House, Mujeeb Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110 025, India E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Even before 9/11, madrasas in India were being vilified for teaching hatred against the majority Hindu community. Such an understanding of madrasas was not restricted to the Hindu Right alone but even among parties of the Left. This paper argues that such a notion, which is fast becoming common sense, is erroneous. Far from teaching hatred against other communities, madrasas are primarily concerned with the ideological reproduction of their own maslak. The paper describes processes and strategies within a madrasa in North India through which such ideological reproduction takes place. The paper contends that sites of ideological transmission are located outside the formal curriculum of the madrasa. It focuses on some key texts and debating forums that are important sites of ideological transmission and play a key role in constituting a particular identity of students. Through an understanding of such pedagogical processes, the paper has shown that for students of this madrasa, the ‘other’ is not a Hindu, but a Muslim from another maslak. It follows from the paper that Islam itself is a matter of fierce interpretative debate ‘within’ madrasas. While it is important to understand how madrasas relate to other religions, an analysis of madrasas from ‘within’ leads us to different results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2-3: Islam in South Asia , March 2008 , pp. 605 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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