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Muslim maulanas (clerics) and
dargahs (religious shrines) dot the landscape of Muslim India –
the cities and towns where India’s Muslims live. Having grown up
in India, the scenes of multitudes of worshippers thronging the
shrines and bearded maulanas lecturing away to the congregations
are ingrained in my mind. Countless movies and TV coverage of
religious occasions have further reinforced these images over the
years. Many people stereotype the extraordinary educational and
socioeconomic backwardness of the Muslims of India with the
sub-culture of dargahs and maulanas that is pervasive in the lower
middleclass Indian Muslim community.
On the other end of the spectrum of the Indian society are the
images of successful bright Indian youth who compete fiercely for
top professional opportunities like IAS/IFS/IPS civil services and
the bright eyed engineers from IITs (Indian Institute of
Technology) and doctors from prominent medical colleges entering
promising careers in the modern fields of engineering and
medicine.
The two images are poles apart. Yet in recent weeks my attention
has been pleasantly drawn to the two images coming together for a
few Muslims. No, they did not crack the Powerball lottery. A
counted few among the lecturing maulanas and the maudlin dargahs
took a big leap forward and bridged the vast gap between the two
images to make it possible for a few ordinary Muslim youth to
touch the modern Indian moon. Let me share this pleasant
observation with you in the following.
a. Maulana Mohammad Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi’s Crescent Civil
Service Academy, New Delhi:
About ten years ago Maulana Mujaddidi, a very respected Muslim
cleric, established the Crescent Academy in New Delhi as a
division of the Maulana Abdur Rahim Educational Trust, with a
vision of providing proper guidance, academic coaching and
training to the Muslim aspirants for the country’s topmost Civil
Services (IAS/IFS/IPS etc). Typically every year less than 1
percent successful candidates are Muslim. In the just announced
results for the very tough multipart competition for these coveted
careers for 2013, 13 trainees from the Crescent Academy came
through as successful candidates. In fact 30 candidates from the
Academy were successful in the first round examinations and 19
cleared the main IAS examination.
It should be noted that to-date the Academy with its limited
infrastructure and resources, has been able to produce more than
100 IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, judges and State civil servants throughout
the country. These are the very top government services in India
and the careers lead to their being the makers of the top policies
in the country.
b. Maulana Wali Rahmani’s Rahmani-30 IIT Entrance Coaching Center,
Patna:
About five years ago Maulana Rahmani, another very respected
Muslim cleric, established this coaching center to provide
academic and competitive training to Muslim youth who aspire to
enter the Indian Institutes of Technology - India’s most
prestigious engineering colleges. Typically every year no more
than about 1% Muslim youth are successful in enrolling in the IITs.
The results of the competitive examination held for 2013 announced
last week show that 24, mostly Muslim, of the 30 candidates from
the Rahmani-30 Center cracked the IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance
Examination).
Besides the 24, four students of Rahmani-30 who could not clear
the test last year have also got success this year. These 28
candidates have qualified for IIT-JEE Advance test to be held in
June.
Typically graduates of IITs go on to work in prestigious positions
in the country’s top corporations, or multinational corporations
or receive employment in foreign countries.
c. Khaja Bandanawaz Gaisudaraz Dargah’s Engineering College and
Institute of Medical Sciences, Gulbarga:
Khaja Bandanawaz Gaisudaraz, who passed away in 1422, was a
illustrious sufi saint who settled in Gulbarga, Karnatak at the
invitation of the then Bahmani Sultan Tajuddin Firoz Shah. He was
a disciple of the very illustrious sufi saint Hazrat Nasiruddin
Chiragh Dehlvi. His ancient dargah in Gulbarga is a popular center
of attraction in south India.
In 1966 the Dargah’s Trust established the Khaja Education Society
to promote education in the educationally backward Muslim
community. They started with a school for girls and now operate 15
minority educational institutions in Gulbarga, including the Khaja
Bandanawaz College of Engineering established in 1980 and the
Khaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences established in
2000. The pioneering spirit behind the Khaja Education Society has
been the Dargah Trust and Padamshree Shah Mohammad Hussaini who
passed away recently.
Without a doubt this dargah is totally different from the
thousands of dargahs spread throughout the country, in that it has
put its primary focus on imparting modern high education to the
Muslims. Also they have been so eminently successful in
transforming youth from the backward Muslim community into high
quality engineers and doctors, who are helping uplift the Muslim
community and the country into a modern nation.
d. Spread the secrets of success
One important factor for the handful of brilliant success stories
in the Muslim community enumerated above is the close cooperation
between the Muslim religious leaders and the Muslim intelligentsia
leaders. Instead of competing with each other or ignoring each
other, they pooled the street popularity of the religious folks
with the knowledge of modern education of the educated Muslims to
make it a win-win situation for the community.
These undoubtedly rare success stories in India’s Muslim community
make one wonder how much socioeconomic development can take place
in the community if many more maulanas and dargahs dedicate
themselves to the cause of imparting quality modern education and
competitive ability to the Muslim youth and include the well
educated Muslims in their team. Instead of spending so much time
and energy on political and publicity activities if we spend more
of it on the development of our youth, we can change the
community’s picture drastically in just one generation.
The writer, a community activist, can be reached on: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com
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