Page 58 - 30SEPT18E

INTERVIEW

DR HEM BORKER
AUTHOR AND EDUCATIONIST distance learning mode. On comple- outside visitors, as the madrasa founder ciplinary regime and everyday ritu-
president said generally ‘journalist out
tion of their madrasa education many
als to regarding the madrasa a place
‘Madrasa experience helps Muslim of them opted for higher education in to tarnish the images’. where I had friends and found great
So while it appears intimidating, yet
peace (sukoon as they used to call it).
central universities that recognised
once you meet the students and teach-
madrasa degrees.
It was a great learning and humbling
girls expand aspirational horizon’ Before you entered the madrasas ers, it’s like any other educational insti- experience.
tution teaming with young students.
and met the teachers and students,
Comment on the right-wing’s
were you apprehensive? If so, please What do you think of the madrasas
madrasas.
detail the whys. and the students and the teachers? ongoing propaganda about the
Initially one is apprehensive as the ma- I graduated from being apprehensive, The simmering tension between the
drasa especially a girls is a highly fenced lost and feeling quite unwanted (as a constitutional morality and popular
THE NEWLY LAUNCHED book Madrasas and the Making of Islamic Womanhood counters as they wait for marriage while prepar- institution. It prizes its security arrange- researcher), overwhelmed by the dis- morality is perhaps most evident in the
several stereotypes and much-in-circulation perceptions about the Muslim community, ing for pious and conservative lives turns ments. All the girls madrasas I visited competing understandings of secu-
particularly women. The work of Dr Hem Borker — an assistant professor at the Centre out to offer richer and a more ambivalent listed the fact that they provide a meh- lar India. Decades of propaganda by
for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi) — set of possibilities. fooz mahaul — gates, iron grills, restric- the Right Wing has entrenched preju-
challenges ideas that regard madrasas as outmoded medieval institutions and assume It also calls for a shift from the top tions on visitors — in their brochures. MADRASAS AND dice against the minorities especially
that such education necessarily inculcates traditional values or produces women whose down state led madarsa modernisation Gaining ongoing access was one THE MAKING Muslims.
OF ISLAMIC
aspirations conform to normative expectations around homemaking and motherhood. programme to bottom up processes of the biggest challenges I faced in my WOMANHOOD Every motif associated with Mus-
Dr Borker tells humra quraishi in an interview how many Muslim girls find their moving madrasas towards ‘modernisa- fieldwork. But I think this is also largely BY: DR HEM BORKER lims is vilified and under attack–
educational and aspirational horizons expanded as a result of the madrasa experience. tion’. My book highlights the multiple owing to the fact that post 9/11 madra- Oxford University Press Madrasas are right there on top of the
micro processes at play — the competing sas are always under the radar so they 352 PP; 1,195 list. This is compounded by the interna-
EDITED EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW • interests shaping parental demand for have to be extra cautious. tional islamophobic narrative — where
madrasa education and extent to which There is a hidden agenda behind post 9/11 and the war on terror the
Why did you opt to focus on the made me look into girls madrasas and it is gendered, the discernable trend genesis of all violence in the name of
madrasas for Muslim girls? I noticed that in academic literature, in madarsas to combine religious (dini religion is traced to madrasa.
The core idea of my research stems policy and also popular imagery madra- talim) with modern (duniyavi talim), role My book builds the narrative from
from my past experience of working sas were regarded as almost exclusively of madarass in fostering peer networks bottom up, looking at the micro context,
with the Muslim community in Delhi as male institutions. My main aim was to go and linkages which aid student aspira- the everyday lives.
a social worker. Observing the daily lives beyond and challenge these stereotypi- tions and enable transition to main - I demonstrate how despite Consti-
of people especially the women, hear- cal imageries. All these factors led me to stream education/public spaces in unan- tutional safeguards Muslim commu-
ing them talk about themselves I would opt for girls madrasas. ticipated ways. nities in India are increasingly having
often be struck by the manner in which Rather than bracketing madrasas in to rely on Muslim networks for basic
categories such as biradari, religion, class, How different was the atmosphere in terms of tradition vs modern, religious services- education, health, housing,
gender, community fuse to create oppor- the madrasas from the typically set, vs sacred my research highlights its not employment.
tunities and obstacles and shape daily much-in-circulation perceptions? dichotomies but a continuum at work. There is a discernable impulse for
choices. In this work I try to capture the Were you pleasantly surprised or The madrasas and mainstream edu - change in Muslim communities- for ex-
everyday experiences of girls studying in what were your reactions? cational institutions do not represent ample for women’s education.
madrasa in their own voice — their views The book counters several stereotypes/ mutually insulated spheres; they are But the wider canvas marked by
of what they learn in madrasas, how they much — in-circulation perceptions… characterised by constant to-and-fro increasing communalization of social
relate to what they are learning, what My work challenges ideas that regard movement and continuity. space excludes Muslims and limits
they discuss amongst themselves, how madrasas as outmoded medieval insti- These linkages are often self-con- choices. Community institutions are
they relate what they have learnt to their tutions and assume that such educa - sciously contrived, with madrasas ac- seen as safer.
life at home and in the wider community, tion necessarily inculcates traditional tively seeking to get recognition for their All the parents, community mem-
how do they perceive their own educa- values or produces women whose qualifications from universities and edu- bers, girls, I interviewed wanted edu-
tion and its value, how do they envision aspirations conform to normative cation boards, or spontaneously gener- cation but and its was not religious
their future. expectations around homemaking and ated by parents and students. The girls I conservatism that led to their opting
While working in the community I motherhood. researched had studied in so-called for madrasa education but a combina-
observed that there was a preference for The book introduces the reader to a secular schools, ranging from govern- tion of factors- affordability, feeling that
sending boys to low fee paying private variety of girls, many of whom find their ment to private schools, before joining community institutions were safe for
schools whereas the girls were sent to educational and aspirational horizons the madrasa. girls, concerns surrounding marriage
govt schools and/or madrasas. Or they expanded as a result of the madrasa Several of them, while in the ma - and so on.
were shifted to madrasas from schools experience. What might seem like a re- drasa, were simultaneously sit -
generally after class 8th or 10th. This spectable parking place to leave women ting for open school exams through LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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