11-23-2006, 07:04 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Progress is both right and duty
*JS Rajput, Pioneer, Nov. 22, 2006*
The supporters of religion-based reservation have a great chance to wave the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee report to further their movement. So will have their opponents. Political pundits will be busy assessing its impact on Uttar Pradesh elections. The contents of the report are sure to reverberate during the winter session of Parliament for days together, if not weeks. The debate is likely to follow the well-delineated political lines and shall certainly miss objectivity. Efforts to arrive at a national consensus may, in all probability, remain absent. Expectations and apprehensions would abound. Within the Muslim community, the report may generate hope.
Politically oriented individuals, groups and political alliances on both sides of the power-divide could use its contents as a new tool to play politics. This is not the first time since Independence that India has learnt about the inadequacy of the well being of the minority community. The essence of what the Sachar Committee has put on record is common knowledge.
Successive Governments have made promises before elections, leading to persistent accusations of 'appeasement' and vote-bank politics. Ironically, these promises have generally been forgotten post-elections, especially after a Government has been formed. The Muslim community got practically nothing. Lack of awareness, education and forward-looking leadership has accentuated stagnation.
The UPA Government owes its stint in power to the plank of the much-hyped fear of "communal elements", projected as the enemy No. 1 of the Muslim community. These well-wishers get power and pelf; the Muslim community in return gets insecurity and isolation. In the early years of Independence, "others" could be blamed. Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad said, "It must be stated that the debacle of Indian Muslims is the result of colossal blunders committed by the Muslim Leagues' misguided leadership."
Who shall the Union Government now blame for the sad state of affairs of the Muslim community? Logically, it has to be the party that has held the reins of power for most of the years at the Centre and States. During the last 30 months, what have Indian Muslims got except the announcement of minority status to the Aligarh Muslim University, a ministry for minority affairs and a couple of committees and commissions, and reports of some of them?
Four decades of professional experience in a multi-religious educational system of the country, besides working in educational institutions at various levels, does entitle one to claim some acquaintance with the issue at hand. Last month, delivering a lecture in the Zakir Hussain College of Education, Darbhanga, I asked the audience of professors and students: Why have things remained stagnant with the minority community during all these years? The sum and substance of the answers was, "Because of the politicians and us."
<b>I referred to a specific study conduced over 25 years ago, a reference to which is relevant at this stage. Titled "Equality of Educational Opportunity and Muslims", it was a doctorate-level research completed under my guidance in 1980. A senior faculty member of the NCERT, Mr BS Gupta, conducted the study in 111 schools of four districts of Western Uttar Pradesh that had a high Muslim population. Mr Gupta was a sociologist hailing from the region and familiar with its social dynamics. The districts were Etah, Etawah, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. The researcher interviewed 100 students along with 100 parents. Data was collected by using school information 'blanks' and two interview schedules. Students were from classes VI to X. Mr Gupta collected all the data personally, leaving no scope for ambiguity.
The findings of the study are summarised below:
The distribution of Hindu-Muslim population was 79:21; enrolments were in the ratio 93:7. The dropout rates were higher for Muslim children.
The pass percentage of Hindus was much higher than that of Muslim children.</b>
The textbooks in Hindi, compulsory Sanskrit and social studies had contents with religious overtones, not to the liking of the minority community. A sense of their religion being ignored was evident.
Parents and children from the Muslim community wanted Urdu as the medium of instruction while the schools were all Hindi medium.
Only 10 out of 111 schools had facilities for teaching Urdu.
No Hindu student offered Urdu as a subject.
The prayers, the dramas, use of pictures and paintings, the writings on the walls in Hindi, the invitees and visitors to the schools indicated a cultural bias towards the majority community.
The contents of textbooks, the school culture, lack of facilities for learning Urdu and the absence of mother tongue as the medium of instruction created disinterest in students, leading to lower enrolment and rates and higher dropout rates.
No such empirical data indicating the present position is available. Based on intensive interactions and impressions, one can infer logically that nothing in the above context has changed in favour of the Muslim community.
Yes, they are now more intensely identified as vote-banks and suffer that stigma for no fault of theirs. Those in the thick of things could simply brush aside the above findings as nothing new. I wish it were so to those who formulate policies for minority education and are always talking about the need to initiate more action in the interest of Muslims. They shall be doing so again as an Action Taken Report (ATR) has to be prepared on Sachar Committee report following certain procedures. The issue of quota will now shift from OBCs to religion-based reservation. In his autobiography, Government from Inside, NV Gadgil refers to the initial draft of Nehru-Liaquat Pact which was presented to the Cabinet by Jawaharlal Nehru:
"Final two paragraphs in the agreement accepted the principle of reservations for Muslims in proportion to their population in all the services and representative bodies in the constituent states of India." It goes to the credit of Nehru that these were dropped, as the Cabinet did not approve of it. Even a peripheral perusal of the discussions of the Constituent Assembly would indicate why religion-based reservation was rejected and not included in the Constitution. Gadgil himself said in the Cabinet meeting, "These two paragraphs nullify the whole philosophy of the Congress." Has this statement lost its relevance?
Reservation or no reservation, Muslims or not, all those who lag behind deserve an extra-foot forward from those in power, as also from community leaders. They deserve primary school, a healthcare centre, a corruption-free public distribution system and sustained initiatives to provide public education to the opinion leaders of communities. This one step can do tremendous good to the beneficiaries.
http://tinyurl. com/txeuv
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*JS Rajput, Pioneer, Nov. 22, 2006*
The supporters of religion-based reservation have a great chance to wave the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee report to further their movement. So will have their opponents. Political pundits will be busy assessing its impact on Uttar Pradesh elections. The contents of the report are sure to reverberate during the winter session of Parliament for days together, if not weeks. The debate is likely to follow the well-delineated political lines and shall certainly miss objectivity. Efforts to arrive at a national consensus may, in all probability, remain absent. Expectations and apprehensions would abound. Within the Muslim community, the report may generate hope.
Politically oriented individuals, groups and political alliances on both sides of the power-divide could use its contents as a new tool to play politics. This is not the first time since Independence that India has learnt about the inadequacy of the well being of the minority community. The essence of what the Sachar Committee has put on record is common knowledge.
Successive Governments have made promises before elections, leading to persistent accusations of 'appeasement' and vote-bank politics. Ironically, these promises have generally been forgotten post-elections, especially after a Government has been formed. The Muslim community got practically nothing. Lack of awareness, education and forward-looking leadership has accentuated stagnation.
The UPA Government owes its stint in power to the plank of the much-hyped fear of "communal elements", projected as the enemy No. 1 of the Muslim community. These well-wishers get power and pelf; the Muslim community in return gets insecurity and isolation. In the early years of Independence, "others" could be blamed. Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad said, "It must be stated that the debacle of Indian Muslims is the result of colossal blunders committed by the Muslim Leagues' misguided leadership."
Who shall the Union Government now blame for the sad state of affairs of the Muslim community? Logically, it has to be the party that has held the reins of power for most of the years at the Centre and States. During the last 30 months, what have Indian Muslims got except the announcement of minority status to the Aligarh Muslim University, a ministry for minority affairs and a couple of committees and commissions, and reports of some of them?
Four decades of professional experience in a multi-religious educational system of the country, besides working in educational institutions at various levels, does entitle one to claim some acquaintance with the issue at hand. Last month, delivering a lecture in the Zakir Hussain College of Education, Darbhanga, I asked the audience of professors and students: Why have things remained stagnant with the minority community during all these years? The sum and substance of the answers was, "Because of the politicians and us."
<b>I referred to a specific study conduced over 25 years ago, a reference to which is relevant at this stage. Titled "Equality of Educational Opportunity and Muslims", it was a doctorate-level research completed under my guidance in 1980. A senior faculty member of the NCERT, Mr BS Gupta, conducted the study in 111 schools of four districts of Western Uttar Pradesh that had a high Muslim population. Mr Gupta was a sociologist hailing from the region and familiar with its social dynamics. The districts were Etah, Etawah, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. The researcher interviewed 100 students along with 100 parents. Data was collected by using school information 'blanks' and two interview schedules. Students were from classes VI to X. Mr Gupta collected all the data personally, leaving no scope for ambiguity.
The findings of the study are summarised below:
The distribution of Hindu-Muslim population was 79:21; enrolments were in the ratio 93:7. The dropout rates were higher for Muslim children.
The pass percentage of Hindus was much higher than that of Muslim children.</b>
The textbooks in Hindi, compulsory Sanskrit and social studies had contents with religious overtones, not to the liking of the minority community. A sense of their religion being ignored was evident.
Parents and children from the Muslim community wanted Urdu as the medium of instruction while the schools were all Hindi medium.
Only 10 out of 111 schools had facilities for teaching Urdu.
No Hindu student offered Urdu as a subject.
The prayers, the dramas, use of pictures and paintings, the writings on the walls in Hindi, the invitees and visitors to the schools indicated a cultural bias towards the majority community.
The contents of textbooks, the school culture, lack of facilities for learning Urdu and the absence of mother tongue as the medium of instruction created disinterest in students, leading to lower enrolment and rates and higher dropout rates.
No such empirical data indicating the present position is available. Based on intensive interactions and impressions, one can infer logically that nothing in the above context has changed in favour of the Muslim community.
Yes, they are now more intensely identified as vote-banks and suffer that stigma for no fault of theirs. Those in the thick of things could simply brush aside the above findings as nothing new. I wish it were so to those who formulate policies for minority education and are always talking about the need to initiate more action in the interest of Muslims. They shall be doing so again as an Action Taken Report (ATR) has to be prepared on Sachar Committee report following certain procedures. The issue of quota will now shift from OBCs to religion-based reservation. In his autobiography, Government from Inside, NV Gadgil refers to the initial draft of Nehru-Liaquat Pact which was presented to the Cabinet by Jawaharlal Nehru:
"Final two paragraphs in the agreement accepted the principle of reservations for Muslims in proportion to their population in all the services and representative bodies in the constituent states of India." It goes to the credit of Nehru that these were dropped, as the Cabinet did not approve of it. Even a peripheral perusal of the discussions of the Constituent Assembly would indicate why religion-based reservation was rejected and not included in the Constitution. Gadgil himself said in the Cabinet meeting, "These two paragraphs nullify the whole philosophy of the Congress." Has this statement lost its relevance?
Reservation or no reservation, Muslims or not, all those who lag behind deserve an extra-foot forward from those in power, as also from community leaders. They deserve primary school, a healthcare centre, a corruption-free public distribution system and sustained initiatives to provide public education to the opinion leaders of communities. This one step can do tremendous good to the beneficiaries.
http://tinyurl. com/txeuv
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->