Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History
Religious Education and the Rhetoric of Reform: The Madrasa in British India and Pakistan
Author(s): Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr., 1999), pp. 294-323
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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Religious Education and the Rhetoric
of Reform: The Madrasa in British
India and Pakistan
MUHAMMAD
QASIM ZAMAN
Brown University
The madrasais one of the manyinstitutionswhich have seen recurrentattempts
at reform in Muslim societies during the nineteenthand twentieth centuries.
Since the eleventh century,when it first emergedas the principalinstitutionof
higherIslamic learning,the madrasahas undergonemany changes, adaptingin
varying degrees to local culturesand changing times.' Given the centralityof
this institutionin the preservationand productionof knowledge as well as in
the formationof the religious elite, the madrasais crucialto the constructionof
religiousauthority.Profoundchangesin Muslimsocieties in moderntimes have
not necessarilymarginalizedthis institution,but such changes have frequently
raised questions aboutthe position and functionof the madrasain society and
of the 'ulamarearedin it, about whetherthis institutionought to be reformed,
and if so, to what end, how, and by whom.
Debates on such questionshave received some scholarlyattentionwith reference to severalMuslim societies.2 SouthAsian Islamhas hithertobeen much
neglected in this regard,and thoughthe role of the madrasaas an agent of reliResearchfor this essay was madepossible by a grantfromtheTriangleSouthAsia ConsortiumResidency Program,funded by the Rockefeller Foundationand administeredby Duke University,
Durham,North Carolina.An earlierversion was presentedat the workshopon "TheTransformations of the SouthAsian IslamicateCommunityin the 19thand20th centuries",Universityof North
Carolina,ChapelHill, May 23-26,1996. I wish to thankthe participantsin the conference,and especially ProfessorsCarlW. Ernst,David Gilmartin,Bruce B. Lawrence,and JohnF. Richards,for
theircommentsand encouragement.
I On the madrasain medievalIslam, see
GeorgeMakdisi,TheRise of Colleges (Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversity Press, 1981); JonathanBerkey, The Transmissionof Knowledge in Medieval
Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1992);
Michael Chamberlain,Knowledgeand Social Practice in MedievalDamascus 1190-1350 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1994).
2 See J.
Heyworth-Dunne,An Introductionto the History of Educationin ModernEgypt (London: Luzac, 1938), especially 1-84; A. L. al-Sayyid Marsot, "The Beginnings of Modernization
among the Rectorsof al-Azhar,1798-1879," in Beginnings of Modernizationin the MiddleEast,
W. R. Polk and R. L. Chambers,eds. (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1968), 267-80; A.
Chris Eccel, Egypt. Islam and Social Change: al-Azhar in Conflictand Accommodation(Berlin:
Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1984); S. Akhavi, Religion and Politics in Contemporar? Iran: Clergy-State
0010-4175/99/2494-2316$7.50 + .10 ? 1999Societyfor Comparative
Studyof SocietyandHistory
294
THE MADRASA IN BRITISH INDIA AND PAKISTAN
295
gious change-that is, the reformof local social andreligiouspracticesthrough
the madrasa-have
begun to be studied,3 the significance of the initiatives to-
wardsreformingthe madrasaitself remainsto be appreciated.A variety of efforts towardsreformingthe madrasawere, in fact, undertakenduringthe colonial period, both by British administrators and by Muslim reformers; and
attemptshave likewise been made to reformmadrasasin Pakistan.This study
draws attentionto the importanceof these initiatives and of the reactionsthey
have called forth in shaping not only competing visions of the madrasaitself
but also some of the ways in which Islam has come to be viewed and located
in society and the position and authorityof the 'ulamais visualized.
I hope to show in the following studyhow particularconcepts andcategories
of colonial analysis have shapedand continuedto persistin much of the debate
on the reformof the madrasain modernSouthAsia. Whatthese categoriesconnote differs quite markedlyfor differentpeople engaged in or affected by the
debate, as indeed does the very meaning of reform.Yet all moderndiscussion
of reformnot only presupposesthese categories(even as manyof those engaged
in it deny their value or validity), the problem of madrasareform also raises
fundamentalquestions about what religious education consists in, about the
usefulness of such education, and, ultimately,about the place of religion in
Muslim society. I will try to indicatehow the initiativestowardsreform,no less
thanthe oppositionto them,have fosteredviews of religion as occupying a distinct spherein society. Such a conceptionof religion is distinctlymodern,so far
as Muslim societies are concerned. Yet, it is striking that this conception is
favouredeven by many 'ulama, that is, by the very people who are known to
deny in principlethat mattersreligious comprise, or that they are limited to, a
separate,or separable,sphereof life.
MADRASA
REFORM:
BRITISH
PERCEPTIONS,
CATEGORIES,
INITIATIVES
In theireffort to understandand regulatethe systems of educationprevalentin
India,to relate them to their own ideas of how educationought to be imparted
and to what end, and to reformthe local systems in view of their own perceptions, colonial officials routinelyinvoked what to them were familiarand often
self-evidentconcepts andcategories.These were not peculiarto colonial analyses of the educationalsystems in India,thoughwe shall considerthemhereonly
with referenceto education.The significance of these categories lies not only
in theirdefining the Britishunderstandingof Muslim (andHindu-Sanskrit)educationbut also in their subsequentinfluence both on the 'ulamaand on initiatives by successive governmentsof Pakistanto reformthe madrasa.
Relations in the Pahlavi Period (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980), 117-58;
Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: TextualDominationand History in a Muslim Society
(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1993).
3 See, most
notably,BarbaraD. Metcalf,Islamic Revivalin BritishIndia: Deoband 1860-1900
(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1982).
296
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
The most importantof categories that have shaped all discussion of the
madrasa,as indeed of many otherinstitutionsof Indiansociety, is the notion of
religion itself. As TalalAsad has argued,developmentsin modernEurope,and
especially the impact of the Enlightenment,have led not merely to the subordinationof religion to the state or the confinementof the formerto the sphere
of "private"life but also to "theconstructionof religion as a new historicalobject: anchoredin personalexperience,expressibleas belief-statements,dependenton privateinstitutions,andpracticedin one's sparetime. This construction
of religion ensuresthatit is partof what is inessential to our common politics,
economy, science, and morality."4
In Indiathe Britishconstantlyencounteredsituationsand institutionswhere
no cleardistinctionsbetweenthe religious andthe secularor non-religiouswere
made. To many,this situationwas reminiscentof Europe'sown medieval history,where such distinctionswere frequentlyblurred,often to the advantageof
the Church.For all the horrorsthat this parallel suggested, viewing India as
dominated,or determined,by religion meant thatthe Indianscould be seen as
not only differentfrom post-EnlightenmentEuropeansbut also inferiorto the
colonial rulersand thereforein need of the latter'senlightenedgovernanceand
liberatingreform.5There was, however,much ambivalenceon whetherall life
was in fact governed by religion in India or, conversely, that Indians only
thought(or were made to believe by a devious religious elite) that it was. Eitherway, it was imperativefor soundpracticaladministrationand, in the interest of reformandimprovement,to make a distinctionbetweenthe religious and
the non-religious,the personaland the public or general.
Such distinctionswere commonly made in the Britishhandlingof the Muslim endowments(waqf),6but no less in mattersof education.In government
schools, a policy of religious neutralitywas adopted,which meant excluding
all formalinstructionin religion from the school curriculum.7This policy suggested thatreligion could be confined to a definite sphere,which in turnought
to be excluded from the course of generaleducation.Conversely,if indigenous
education was perceived to be suffused with a religious ethos, then reform
meant, among other things, taking educationout of the religious sphere.The
4 TalalAsad, Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianityand Islam (Baltimore:The JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress, 1993), 207 (emphasisin the original).On the
evolution of the modernnotion of "religion",see Peter Harrison,"Religion"and the Religions in
the English Enlightenment(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1990).
5 Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Rat (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994),
4ff, 66-112, and passim;cf. BarbaraD. Metcalf, "TooLittle and Too Much:Reflections on Muslims in the Historyof India,"Journal of Asian Studies,54 (1995), 956.
6
See GregoryC. Kozlowski, Muslim Endowmentsand Society in British India (Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress, 1985), on the British distinctionbetween public and privateendowments.
7 For a discussion of the debateon this
policy, see GauriViswanathan,Masks of Conquest:Literary Studyand BritishRule in India (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1989).
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
297
first Directorof Public Instructionin the Punjabhad little doubt abouthow to
effect a separationof the religious and the secular."I [have] orderedall village
schools to be removed from the precinctsof mosques and otherbuildings of a
religious character,"he wrote in June 1858. "Nativesubordinatesinformedme
thatno otherbuildingswere available.I then orderedthatthe schools shouldbe
closed ratherthan held in such buildings.... I [have also] directedthe disuse
of all books of a religious characterin the schools."8
The madrasaswere, of course,regardedas religiousinstitutionsand,in many
cases, especially in the aftermathof the Mutinyof 1857, were abolishedor their
existence was effectively jeopardizedfor thatreason.9Yet many also continued
to be administeredor financiallysupportedby the government.Whatconcerns
us here is only the fact, however, that familiar distinctionsbetween religious
and secular learning continued to be invoked in colonial analyses of the
madrasas,quite as much as in thatof othereducationalinstitutions.Even in institutions defined as religious, British policy favouredthe patronageof what
was deemed to be secular learning. Thus "indigenousreligious schools ...
[were] entitledto a grantfrom the Government... so long as they teach secular subjects in a satisfactorymanner."'0However reform was conceived, the
distinctionbetween the religious and the non-religiouswas centralto thatproject. I As we shall see, this distinctionhas remaineda constanttheme of all discussion on the reformof the madrasa;it is, however,a moderndistinction,with
little precedentin earlierMuslim societies. 12
Medieval Muslim scholars often distinguished between the "traditionally
transmitted"(nagliyyalmanqulat)sciences-such as morphologyand syntax,
Qurianicstudies, Hadith(the traditionsattributedto the ProphetMuhammad),
law (fish), principlesof jurisprudence(usul al-fiqh), theology, and so forthandthe "rational"(Cagliyyalmadqulat)
sciences, for example,logic, philosophy,
astronomy,andarithmetic.The rationalsciences were also studiedin madrasas,
whereasthe studyof the "transmitted"-or for thatmatter,any other-sciences
was not confined only to these seminaries.'3The standingof the sciences relative to one anotherwas frequentlydiscussed, and many scholarswere opposed
8 Education
Report from the Directorof Public Instruction,Punjabto the FinancialCommissioner, Punjab,June 25, 1858, section 18; extractsin G. W. Leitner,History of IndigenousEducation in the PunjabsinceAnnexationand in 1882 (Patiala:LanguagesDepartmentPunjab,1971 [first
publishedin 1883]), Appendix, vi, 20.
9 See Leitner, History, 71-72 and passim; also see F. A. Nizami "Madrasahs,Scholars and
Saints: Muslim Response to the British Presence in Delhi and the Upper Doab 1803-1857" (unpublishedPh.D. dissertation,Universityof Oxford, 1983), 42-58.
'o Extractsfrom ParliamentaryReport(1874, C. 1072-II,partIII) in Leitner,History, vii.
I Cf. T. Metcalf, Ideologies, 36-37.
12 I do not intendto suggest, of course, thatBritish categories of analysis were the only source
of such distinctions in colonial India, only that the formerseem to have substantiallycontributed
to them. Factorsotherthanthe impactof colonial rule may have played some part,andeven the influence of colonialism had many differentmanifestations.
13 Cf. Berkey, Transmission,passim;Chamberlain,Social Practice, 69-90.
298
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
to the study of such "foreign," rational sciences as Aristotelian logic and philosophy; there were also complaints that the sciences which are worth studying
"for their own sake," such as Qur'an, Hadith, and law, were sometimes given
less attention than ancillary disciplines like morphology and syntax, which
were meant only to assist in the study of the former.'4 Yet discussions on
madrasas as representing, and guarding, the "religious" sphere in society; on
what is "purely religious" in the curriculum of the madrasa; or on religion as
which have continually ococcupying a distinct sphere in society-discussions
reformers
of
the
madrasa
in
the
nineteenth
and
twentieth centuries-are
cupied
modern
debates
with
little
in
medieval
Islamic societies.
eminently
precedent
Another fundamental category of education was the criterion of what was
called useful instruction. The English Utilitarians were most emphatic in invoking the notion of what was called useful learning, though not unique in their
commitment to it. Addressing the question of the allocation of funds by the East
India Company for the advancement of education in India, the influential Utilitarian thinker and historian James Mill (d. 1836) had written in February 1824:
The greatend should not have been to teach Hindoo learning,or Mahomedanlearning,
but useful learning.... In professing,on the otherhand,to establishSeminariesfor the
purposeof teaching mere Hindoo, or mere Mahomedanliterature,you bound yourself
to teach a greatdeal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous,
and a small remainderindeed in which utility was in any way concerned.15
In his evidence before the Punjab Education Commission of 1884, G. W. Leitner, a Hungarian Orientalist and principal of the Government College in Lahore, provides the following, somewhat sarcastic illustration of education in
government schools in terms of the notion of "useful learning":
After leaving the middle school, a boy . . . knows arithmetic,Urduand Persian,if not a
little English,all of which may be said to be "useful"to him, whilst he has acquiredsome
informationregardinghistory,geography,and elementaryscience, which, also, cannot
be affirmedto be "useless."He has also learntthe elements of mensuration,which is a
"practical"acquirementfor him, especially if he wishes to become a sub-overseer,overseer, or engineer.He has also, if he has studied English, read Cunningham'sSanitary
Primer,and if he has practicedthe lessons containedin it, thatknowledge too is "practical."16
14
Ibn Khaldun,TheMugaddimah:An Introductionto History,F. Rosenthal,trans.(New York:
PantheonBooks, 1958), III, 299-300; Hajji Khalifa,Kashf al-zunun'an asami al-kutubwa'l-funun, G. Fluegel, ed. (Leipzig: OrientalTranslationFund, 1835), 1:114-5.
15 James Mill, Revenue Departmentdispatch,February18, 1824, Bengal, E/4/710,-para. 83,
IndiaOffice LibraryandRecords,BritishMuseum,quotedin LynnZastoupil,John StuartMill and
India (Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress, 1994), 32-33. Also see the despatchof the Courtof Directors to the Bengal Government,October 24, 1832, in The Correspondenceof Lord William
CavendishBentinck,C. H. Philips, ed. (Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press, 1977), 933-4 on some
of the contentof useful learning.
16 Report by the Panjab provincial Committeewith evidence taken before the committeeand
memorialsaddressedto the educationcommission(Calcutta:Superintendentof GovernmentPrinting, India, 1884), 369.
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
299
But Leitnergoes on to note that by the time a studentcompletes high school,
"he has more information [but] ... is rather less suited for a 'useful' and 'prac-
tical' career,than when he passed the middle school. His distaste to all physical exertion,except to thatof the pen, has grown, andhe is more unwillingthan
before to returnto his father's shop.""17
Given constructionsof usefulness such as James Mill's, the religious sciences studiedin madrasaswere scarcelyuseful, which meantthatit was deemed
inappropriatefor the East India Companyto supportsuch institutionsat all or
withoutfirst reformingtheir"inefficient"condition.But many Britishofficials
of the early nineteenthcenturyhad a differentview of useful learning.They did
not of course deny the utility of English and the Europeanartsand sciences but
did affirmthe value of Orientallearningand the need for its patronageby the
British. The disagreementbetween the Orientalistsand the Anglicists over
what constituteduseful knowledge was settled in the 1830s in favour of the
Anglicists18; the notion of useful knowledge continued, however, to define
British approachesto problemsof educationin India and, specifically for our
purposes, their negative perceptionof madrasaeducation and the need to reform it.
The notion of useful knowledge (al-'ilm al-nafi) also figuresprominentlyin
the Islamic tradition,where it refers primarily(but not exclusively) to knowledge which assists in salvation and is consequentlyused to facilitate virtuous
acts.19The very activity of impartingor receiving knowledge was frequently
also describedin medieval texts as useful or as a benefit (naf', fa'ida,mufid).20
The modern'ulama'sdefence of madrasaeducationas useful owes its inspiration to Utilitariannotions of useful learningfar more than it does to the medieval 'ilm al-nafi', however. The useful learningthat colonial officials spoke
of left little room for religion in general, let alone for the learningacquiredin
the madrasa.It was precisely in response to this challenge that the 'ulama argued for the usefulness of madrasaeducationand, as we shall see, for religion
as comprisinga distinct spherein society.
Britishinitiativesat reformwere limited to those madrasaswhich had either
been established by them, such as the CalcuttaMadrasafounded by Warren
Hastings in 1781, or which they financially supported.Even among the latter,
however, not all madrasaswere reformedor reformedin the same measure.
Colonial policies were often confused and contradictory,the more so because
17 Ibid., 370.
18
On this controversy,see David Kopf, British Orientalismand the Bengal Renaissance: The
Dynamics of Indian Modernization1773-1835 (Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1969),
7-8, 241-52, and passim;Viswanathan,Masks of Conquest,29ff., 101ff., and passim.
19 Cf. A. J. Wensincket al., Concordanceset indices de la traditionmusulmane,IV [Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1962], 330; FranzRosenthal,KnowledgeTriumphant:TheConceptof Knowledgein Medieval Islam (Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1970), 243; Hajji Khalifa,Kashfal-zunun,1:48-52.
20
Chamberlain,Social Practice, 111-3.
300
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
of the hesitation with which they were implemented21; and education was no
exception. Though the idea of reform remained paramount, precisely how it was
conceived or carried through varied at different times or in case of different
madrasas. The reform of the Madrasa-i A'zam of Madras, found in a 'very inefficient condition" according to the Education Report of 1858-59, may be taken to represent one end of the spectrum:
The amountof useful instructionimpartedwas extremely limited. The business of the
Institution,like that of its namesake at Calcutta,was teaching the Arabic and Persian
languages,and the doctrinesof the Mahommedanreligion.All this has been altered.An
efficient Master [sic] has been placed at the head of School; and the teachers,generally, have been replacedby more competentones.22
The Calcutta Madrasa, on the other hand, was treated less severely. The
Madrasa had begun by following the Dars-i Nizami, a list of authoritative texts
the study of which was in vogue in most other madrasas of the subcontinent
too.23 But only a decade after its inception, the first of several efforts at reforming the Madrasa was already thought to be necessary; and among other
things, changes were introduced in the curriculum. A major reorganization was
also effected in 1850, when the Madrasa was divided into two separate departments, the Arabic (or Senior Department) and the Anglo-Persian (or Junior Department). The latter was modelled on other "Anglo-Vernacular" government
schools and was termed "a complete success" in government reports.24 Much
ambivalence continued, however, to characterize efforts to reform the formerto substitute "a more modern and rational system of instruction in the Arabic
language and in the principles of Mahommedan Law for the antiquated and
faulty system of the Indian Moulovies."25 There was resistance to radical reform from the Muslims and, more decisively perhaps, from many British officials themselves. Though some saw the Madrasa as not merely useless but also
politically subversive,26 government support for it continued. So also did uncertainties about reform. The "Moulovies" were occasionally reminded that the
Madrasa was a "Government Institution ... and it is the Government and not
the Professors who are responsible for the nature of the education given to its
Mahommedan subjects therein."27 Yet the Calcutta Madrasa (and in particular
its Arabic Department) was usually exempted from having to teach the useful
subjects introduced in most of the other government madrasas of Bengal.28
21 Cf. Javed
Majeed, UngovernedImaginings:James Mill's The Histonr of British India and
Orientalism(Oxford:ClarendonPress, 1992), 196ff.
22 Quotedin A. M. Monteath,Note on the State of Educationin India, 1862, in Selectionsfrom
EducationalRecordsof the Governmentof India,vol. I: EducationalReports.1859-71 (Delhi: National Archives of India, 1960 [hereafterSERGI,I]), 45-46.
23 For the historyof this Madrasa,see 'Abd al-Sattar,Ta'rikh-iMadrasa-i 'Aliya, 2 vols. (Dhaka: Research and Publications,Madrasa-i'Aliya, 1959). On proposed or actual reforms in the
Madrasa,see ibid., I:47ff. and passim. On the Dars-i Nizami, see note 39, below.
24
25 Ibid., 1:21.
SERGI,I:21.
26 'Abd al-Sattar,Madrasa-i 'Aliya,I:119-20, 129, 134.
27 SERGI,1:23.
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
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301
British ambivalenceon the question of reform seems to have been due primarily to two factors:lingeringuncertainties,despite the success of the Anglicists againstthe Orientalists,aboutthe usefulness of Orientallearning;and apprehensionsthat drasticmeasuresof reformmight provoke a hostile reaction
on the partof Muslims.29In 1873, the governmentof Bengal even took the initiative (to the dismayof many,includingsome Muslims30)of establishingthree
new madrasas,to "realize the Muslim ideals of liberal education."Lest this
measurebe seen as a reversionto the discreditedOrientaliststance, it was emphasizedthat"theencouragementof the study of orientalliteraturefor its own
sake was a very subsidiarypartof the plan."3 These new institutionswere, in
all likelihood, "reformed"madrasas,where useful instructionwas to be impartedtogetherwith the teaching of authoritativeIslamic texts. The latterwas
deemed desirable,if only because it appealedto Muslim ideals and was worth
patronizingfor thatreason.
British administratorswere awareof the prestige many madrasasenjoyed32
andwere conscious thatdrasticchanges,even in madrasasthey had themselves
established,provokeddeep resentment.For all theiruncertaintiesaboutthe efficacy of orientallearning,Britishadministratorssaw themselves as preserving
tradition,not doing away with it.33In case of madrasasthey establishedor took
over andadministered,the Britishusuallythoughtof reformas meaningthe addition of useful learningto the Islamic sciences taughtin the madrasas,notas at the Madrasa-iA'zam of Madras-reforming Orientallearningout of existence in these institutions.The extentto which useful learningwas introduced
in madrasasvaried.This meantthat,as in Bengal, a spectrumof reformed,semireformed,andunreformedgovernmentmadrasas,in additionto those which the
governmentneitherrecognized nor supported,existed side by side, posing a
constantchallenge to the energies of the governmentcommittees which were
periodicallyconstitutedto suggest ways to reformthem.34
28 See the revised curriculumintroducedin 1871 in 'Abd al-Sattar,Madrasa-i 'Aliya, I, 171-2.
Most of the texts which comprisethe curriculumare the same as those in the Dars-i Nizami.
29 For such
apprehensions,see for instance'Abd al-Sattar,Madrasa-i 'Aliya, 1:55, 140-1.
30
Cf. SayyidAmir 'Ali's evidence before the EducationCommissionof 1882, quotedin Report
of the MuslimEducationAdvisoryCommittee,1934, in M. S. A. Ibrahimy,Reportson Islamic Education and Madrasah Education in Bengal (1861-1977), 5 vols. (Dhaka: Islamic Foundation
Bangladesh, 1987 [hereafter:Ibrahimy,Reports]),111:141.
31 Quoted in the
Report of the Madrasah Education Committee,1941, in Ibrahimy,Reports,
111:335.
32 See, for instance, William Adam, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 and
1838), A. Basu, ed. (Calcutta:Universityof CalcuttaPress, 1941), II:153.
33 On the contradictionsin this "preservationistideal," see T. Metcalf, Ideologies, especially
66-92.
34 For the recommendationsof the variousmadrasa-reform
committeesin nineteenth-andtwentieth-centuryBengal, see Ibrahimy,Reports,passim.
302
MUHAMMAD
REFORM
AND
THE
QASIM
ZAMAN
ULAMA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
The decline of the madrasais a familiartheme in modernMuslim analyses of
the decline of Islam. Sayyid Abu'l-Hasan'Ali Nadwi, an influentialreligious
scholar of contemporaryIndia, suggests, for instance, that the decline of the
madrasa-whose beginningshe dates to the sixteenthcentury-reflected and
exacerbated,a more pervasive intellectualand culturaldecadence of Muslim
societies everywhere. The authoritativewritings of the earlier masters were
graduallyeliminatedfrom among the list of texts which were commonly studied, to be replacedby the glosses and abridgementsof uncreativepedants.According to Nadwi, an obscure,allusive, convoluted style, characterizedby "an
extreme economy in the use of paper",took the place of the clear and readily
intelligible ('amfahm) style of writingcharacteristicof the "ancients."35Nadwi belongs to an institutionof learningwhich, as we shall presently see, had
sought to breakwith the styles of educationprevalentin most madrasasof the
nineteenthcentury.But even those who continuedto affirmthe efficacy of existing styles of learningagreed at least that the madrasasof moderntimes no
longer producedfigures comparableto the intellectualgiants of medieval Islam.36
It is not clear when, or where, the idea first originatedthat at some point in
medieval Islamthe madrasawas undergoinga thoroughdecline and thata lack
of creative thinking, manifested in the traditionof writing glosses and commentarieson earlierworks, was reflectingthat decline. Recent scholarshipon
medieval Islamic law has suggestednew ways of looking at the role of glosses
and commentaries,however.As BrinkleyMessick has argued,medieval works
ought to be seen as "opentexts" which, by "internaldiscursiveconstruction,"
requiredconstant interpretationand commentary:"The written literatureof
shari'ajurisprudence,for example, developed largely by means of [such] interpretiveelaborationson basic texts."37Thoughthe provenanceof notions of
Muslim intellectualdecline cannotbe exploredhere, it is temptingto speculate
thatthe influence of modem, Westernideas of useful learning,of creative and,
conversely,of degeneratethinking,exercised some influence.Thereis much in
lamentsof Muslimintellectualdecline thatechoes Gibbon'scharacterizationof
Romanintellectuallife, for instance,as one of "blinddeference"to authorities
of the past, of "cold and servile imitations,"with "a cloud of critics, compilers,
and commentatorsdarken[ing]the face of learning."38ModernMuslim efforts
to reformmadrasasdo often presupposesuch analyses of decline.
35 Abu'l-Hasan'Ali Nadwi, Insani
dunyanar musalmanonkey 'urujwa zaval ka athar, 5th ed.
(Lucknow, 1966), 226; cf. Ibn Khaldun,TheMucaddimah,111:290-1.
36 Cf. MawlanaMuhammadZakariyya,Ta'rikh-iMazahir,I (Saharanpur:Kutubkhana-iisha'
et al-'ulum, 1972 [writtenin 1916]), I:144.
37 Messick, CalligraphicState, 30-36, at 30.
38 EdwardGibbon, The Historyof the Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire,David Womereley, ed. (London:Allen Lane, 1994), vol. I:ch. ii, 84. Also see the remarksof JamesMill on tradi-
THE MADRASA
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The texts studiedat presentin most madrasasof Indiaand Pakistancomprise
whatis knownas the "Dare-iNizami,"a corpuswhose introductionin madrasas
is attributed(somewhat questionably)to the influence of Mulla Nizem al-din
Muhammad(d. 1748), the founderof the FarangiMahallfamily of scholarsin
Lucknow in northernIndia. Many of these texts were being taught in Indian
madrasaslong before Nizam al-din's time, however; and several others were
added considerablyafterhis death.39The texts themselves were, in most cases, composed between the ninth and the eighteenthcenturiesC.E. largely by
scholarsof Iranian,CentralAsian, and Indianorigin. The precise textual contentof the Dars-iNizami was subjectto considerablefluidityuntilafterthe middle of the nineteenthcentury.Only in the latterhalf of the nineteenthcentury,
and, as FarhanNizami has suggested,possibly in responseto a certainmeasure
of influence exercisedby Westernstyles and institutionsof educationin British
India,did the Dars-i Nizami acquirea more or less standardizedform and was
widely adoptedas a "curriculum"
by madrasasof the Indiansubcontinent.40Yet
madrasashave continuedto differ in their versions of this curriculum,and the
latter has scarcely been impervious to change. The single most importantof
such changes concerns the relative prominencethat the study of Hadith has
come to have in the Dars-i Nizami from the late nineteenthcenturyonwards.
The primaryemphasis of the Dars-i Nizami is on the "rationalsciences"
(ma'qulat),as distinguishedfrom the "transmittedsciences" (manqulat).4'Already in the eighteenthcentury,the northIndianreformerShahWaliAllah (d.
1762), had introducedin his own madrasain Delhi a style of learningwhich
gave special importanceto works of Hadith.42Though his curriculumdid not
become widely prevalent,WaliAllah's ideas have continuedto exert a powerful influence on later reformists, in particularon those associated with the
madrasaof Deoband.
The movement associated with the madrasaof Deoband in northernIndia
(establishedin 1867) representsperhapsthe most prominentinstanceon the Intional Islamic educationin India:TheHisto,r of BritishIndia, 5th ed. (New York:Chelsea House
Publishers, 1968 [1858 edition]), I:52ff.
39 On MullaNizam al-din,see MuhammadRidaAnsari,Bani-yiDars-i Nizami(Lucknow:Nami
Press, 1973); TheEncyclopaediaof Islam, new ed. (Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1960-) s.v. "Nizamal-din,
Mulla"(F Robinson);on the FarangiMahall,F Robinson,"Problemsin the Historyof the Farangi Mahall Family of Learnedand Holy Men," OxfordUniversityPapers on India, I:pt. 2 (Delhi:
OxfordUniversityPress, 1987), 1-27; on the Dars-i Nizami, see 'Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani,al-Thagafa al-lslamiyVafi'l-Hind,2nd ed. (Damascus:Majma'al-lughaal-'Arabiyyabi-Dimashq, 1983),
9-17; AkhtarRahi, Tadhkira-YiMusannifin-iDars-i Nizaini (Lahore:Maktaba-yiRahmaniyya,
1978); Nizami, "Madrasahs,Scholars and Saints," 24-32, 279-81; Jamal Malik, Islamische
Gelehrtenkulturin Nordindien(Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1997), 15Iff., 522ff.
40
Nizami, "Madrasahs,Scholarsand Saints,"30-32.
41 For some of the
major texts of this curriculum,see Nizami, 279-81; Malik, Islamische
Gelehrtenkultur,522ff.
42 On the
style and substanceof learningin WaliAllah's madrasa,see S. A. A. Rizvi, Shah WaliAllah and his Times(Canberra:Ma'rifatPublishingHouse, 1980), 382-86.
304
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
dian subcontinentof inviting people to conformto the "true"Islam of authoritative religious texts, as defined by an urban,madrasa-based,religious elite.
The reformistideology of this madrasasoon acquireda sectariandimension,
with these Deobandisdistinguishingthemselves(andtheirmadrasas)fromsuch
other sectariangroups as the Barelawis and the Ahl-i Hadith,all of which (as
well as others) emerged in India in the second half of the nineteenthcentury
and still constitutethe most significantsectarianaffiliationsamongSunniMuslims of the Indiansubcontinent.43My concern here is not with reformin this
sense, however, or with the madrasaas an agent of religious change but with
the reform of the madrasaitself (though the latter may, of course, itself be
conceived of as a means,or a prelude,to otherforms of reform).Deoband'saspirationssignified more, however, than weaning the masses away from their
inherited, customary beliefs and rituals. In the perception of the 'ulama of
Deoband,these purposesnecessitateda revival of those aspects of the Islamic
intellectualheritage,such as Hadith,which were thoughtto be most authoritative and best suited to providingreligious guidanceto Muslims. That is, some
reformof the madrasawas thoughtto be requiredtoo.
While the texts of the Dars-i Nizami continuedto be studiedat Deoband(as
indeed they were at most other Islamic seminaries),the study of Hadith was
given an importancemuch greaterthan it had previouslyenjoyed in most other madrasas.44Thus,ratherthanthe Mishkatal-Masabih,a compendiumof Hadith based on selections from the six classical Hadithcollections deemed authoritative in Sunni Islam, the latter collections themselves came to be
studied.45As BarbaraMetcalf has shown, Deobandwas also differentfrom its
predecessorsin "emulatingthe Britishbureaucraticstyle for educationalinstitutions." Deoband-and soon madrasaseverywhere in the Indian subcontinent-came, for instance,to have a set curriculum,separateclasses for students
of differentlevels, an academicyear,annualexaminations,and networksof affiliated madrasas.46
The texts studiedin this new institutionalsetuphave remained,with the exception of a moreextensive emphasison Hadith,the same as those of the Darsi Nizami. The primaryconcern at Deoband-and most other madrasas-has
always been the conservationof the classical Islamictexts and sciences as studied in madrasas,not textualinnovation.Unlike Deoband,the movementof the
Nadwatal-'Ulama,launchedtowardsthe end of the nineteenthcenturyto bring
43 On Deoband,see B. Metcalf,IslamicRevival,passim;on othercontemporarysectarianmovements,ibid., 264-314. On the Barelawis,see Usha Sanyal,DevotionalIslamand Politics in British
India:AhmadRiza KhanBarelwi and his Movement1870-1920 (Delhi: OxfordUniversityPress,
1996).
44 B. Metcalf, Islamic Revival, 100ff.; cf. Golan', Nizam-i Ta'lim,I:240ff., 289.
45 These six collections of Hadithare:the Sahih of al-Bukhari(d. 870); the Sahih of Muslim (d.
874); the Jami' of al-Tirmidhi(d. 892); the Sunan of Ibn Maja (d. 886); the Sunan of Abu Da'ud
(d. 888); and the Sunanof al-Nasa'i (d. 914-15).
46 B.
Metcalf, Islamic Revival, 87-137, at 93.
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Muslim religious scholars of various persuasions together, concerned itself
fromthe outset, self-consciously andeven ostentatiously,with the reformof the
madrasa.47The revival of the Muslim communitydepended,in the view of the
Nadwa'sfounders,on infusingthe ranksof the 'ulamawith fresh vigour andon
broadeningthe scope of their activities and theirrole in the Muslim community. To achieve these goals, it was deemed imperativeto reform the prevalent
styles of learning,for the existing madrasaswere seen as lacking in intellectual creativityand as being equally indifferentequally to changes in Muslim societies andto the challengesfacing them.48As MawlanaMuhammadcAllMongiri, one of the foundersof the Nadwat al-'Ulama', emphasized at its annual
session of 1896, the Nadwa's proposedcurriculumsought to producereligious
scholars capable of providingguidance and leadershipto the communityin a
wide range of spheres:in law and theology, in adab (belles-lettres),in philosophy, and in "mattersof the world."49As partof the initiativeto unite the 'ulama, it was proposedto have all the existing madrasasadoptthe curriculumthat
the Nadwa promisedto devise. It was not long before it became clear,however, thatnot many amongthe 'ulamawere willing to mergetheirdifferencesinto
a common curriculum,or to accept the Nadwa's reformersas arbitersof their
differences.50Consequently,the founders of the Nadwa established a new
madrasa(the Dar al-'Ulum) of their own, where at least, if nowhereelse, they
could hope to experimentwith theirreforms.
Those associatedwith the Nadwahave frequentlycomplainedof a dualityin
the system of education"betweenthe old andthe new, the religiousandthe secular,"a dualitythey traceto colonial rule in India.51Yet even as they lamented
this compartmentalizationand pledged, in strivingfor a new curriculum,to do
away with it, the Nadwa's foundersoften spoke and wrote in termswhich presupposedprecisely the same distinctions.Religion or mattersreligious continued to be definedas comprisinga distinctsphere,albeitone which was assigned
the first importance.The early leadersof the Nadwa were also keen to allay all
British suspicions about this institutionby insisting on its strictly apolitical
character.This entailed presentingthe Nadwa as an exclusively religious forum. It also meant laying claim to exclusively representingthe Muslim com47 On the Nadwat al-'Ulama', see MuhammadIshaq Nadwi and Shams TabrizKhan, Ta'rikh-i
Nadwat al-Ul/ama', 2 vols. (Lucknow:Nizamat Nadwat al-'Ulama', 1983-84 [hereafterTNU]);
SavvidMulhammad
'Ali Monairi. bani-vi Nadwat
Sayyid Muhammadal-Hasani,Sirat-i MawllaSna
al-IUlama' (Lucknow:MaktabatDar al-'Ulum Nadwatal-'Ulama', 1964 [hereafterSirat]);Abu'lHasan Ali Nadwi, Karwcan-i
Zindagi,5 vols. (Karachi,1983-94), passim;B. Metcalf,IslamicRevival, 335-47; JamalMalik, "TheMaking of a Council:The Nadwat al-'Ulama,"'Zeitschriftder
deutscheiimor-enlandischen Gesellschaft, 144 (1994), 60-90.
48 For variouscriticisms of the traditionalmadrasas,see TNU,1:63-79.
49 Ibid., I:139-42.
5o For some aspects of the opposition to the Nadwa, see Muhammadal-Hasani,Sirat, 143-4,
170ff.; Sanyal, Devotional Islam, 217-26; B. Metcalf, Islamic Revival, 342ff.
5' TNU, 1:57;cf. ibid., I:125, 249.
306
MUHAMMAD
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munityin all mattersreligious.As MawlanaShibli Nu'mani (d. 1914), a major
Muslim intellectualwho was prominentamong the leadersof this movement,
suggested at the annualsession of 1912, the Nadwa ought to become the voice
of the entirenationin religion on parwith the All-IndiaMuslimLeague, which
sought recognitionas the representativeof the Muslims' political interests.52
Abu'l-Hasan'Ali Nadwi, the presentRectorof the Nadwa, has likewise noted
that the basis of the movement which culminatedin the establishmentof the
Nadwat al-'Ulamawas "purelyreligious,"unlike that of many other,contemporaryreformistmovements.53
In discussingthe establishmentof a new madrasaunderthe aegis of the Nadwa, Shibli Nu'mani lamented that "there is not even one purely religious
madrasa in the whole of India, no institutionworthy of being consideredthe
'great madrasa'in terms of its all-embracingconcern [with the religious sciences] and its grandeur."54 The implicationhere seems to be that the existing
madrasaswere spendingfar more time teaching"ancillarysciences" like morphology and syntaxor the "rationalsciences" like logic and philosophy,rather
than the "purelyreligious sciences", such as Hadith,law and legal theory,and
the Qur'an andits exegesis. The madrasaof Deobandandits affiliateshad tried
to redressthis perceived imbalanceby emphasisingthe study of Hadithin the
curriculum,but the Nadwa wanted to go further.Strikinghere is the sense,
which the 'ulamaof the Nadwahad possibly imbibedfromcolonial analysesof
educationaland other institutions,that religion was a distinct sphere of life.
They denied that religion was a privatematter,divorced from public life, yet
had little troublespeakingof a "purelyreligious"institutionandof the religious
sphereas clearly distinguishablefrom all others.
Paradoxically, however, the founders of the Nadwa also attacked the
madrasasfrom anotherperspectivewhich was quite incompatiblewith the one
outlined above. The existing madrasaswere out of touch with the world in
which they existed, it was said, hence they were incapableof providingleadershipto the community."A majorreasonfor the decline in the 'ulama'sinfluence in the country,"Muhammad'Ali Mongiri wrote, "is the popularperception thatthey have withdrawninto theircells and know nothingaboutthe state
of the world, so that in worldly matterstheir guidanceis entirely unworthyof
attention."55On this view, even if the madrasaswere academicallysoundwhich they were deemed not to be-and even if they were purelyreligious in52
See Shibli's speech on this occasion in Khutbat-iShibli,ed. Sayyid SulaymanNadwi (A'zamgarh:Dar al-Musannifin,1941), 128.
53 TNU, 1:59, citing Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali Nadwi, Hayat-i hand al-Hayv (Lucknow: Majlis-i
tahqiqatwa nashriyyat-iIslam, 1970), 130.
54 Magalat-i Shibli, Sayyid SulaymanNadwi, ed. (A'zamgarh:Dar al-Muannifin,n.d.; reprinted Lahore:NationalBook Foundation,1989), VIII:91(emphasisadded).
55 Quotedin Muhammadal-Hasani,Sirat, 147-8; TNU, 1:79.
THE MADRASA IN BRITISH INDIA AND PAKISTAN
307
stitutions,they would still not be fulfilling what was requiredof them. In fact,
to be purely religious was precisely what a madrasaought not to be if it were
to meet modernchallenges to Islam. In its initial years, therefore,the Nadwa
had sought to bridge medieval and moderndisciplines-a goal whose implications bitterly divided the leaders of this movement and which, as it turned
out, was never to be achieved.56
The ambivalencein the Nadwa's goals points, among other things, towards
an inabilityto arriveat an acceptabledefinitionof religion itself andhow to reform it.57At issue in the enterpriseof devising a new curriculumwas nothing
short of determiningwhat an Islamic education-and, by extension, Islam itself-signified, how to teach it, and how to make that educationuseful to the
Muslim community.
As in the reportsand recommendationsof British policy makerson education, there was much in the Nadwa's reformistrhetoricon useful education.58
The reformersof the Nadwa did not mean quite the same thingby the notion of
useful education,thoughall agreedon the ultimategoal of creatinga new generationof 'ulama fit to lead the Muslim community.Some other attributesof
this type of education,as enunciatedby the Nadwa'sleaders,arealso worthnoting here. The study of commentariesand glosses was deemed detrimentalto
creativethinking,for instance, as we have noted earlier;useful Islamic education meant,rather,the study of the originaland authoritativeworks of the "ancients."Learningto write andconverse in the Arabiclanguage,which was said
to be beyondthe abilitiesof most graduatesof the Indianmadrasas,was another
accomplishmentthe Nadwa sought. Productsof its curriculumwere to be not
only awareof modernchallenges to Islam but also able to defend Islam against
them and to engage actively in proselytization.An intimate knowledge of
Arabic would assist them in these purposesas well as in establishinga rapport
with scholarselsewhere in the Muslim world;the Arabic languagewould also
serve as the basis of the study of literature,a subject"theneglect of which was
tantamountto neglecting the religious sciences."59Much emphasis was also
laid on "moral"instruction,of which the study of certain classical sufi texts
were to be a medium.60Finally, there was a recognition that some practical
56
See TNU,II, 32-81 passim;Muhammadal-Hasani,Sirat, 204ff., 260-90.
57 ContrastMalik, "Makingof a Council,"especially 87ff., for an interpretationof the differ-
ences among the Nadwa's leadersin termsof theirdifferentsocial origins andculturalorientations.
58 Cf. Muhammadal-Hasani,Sirat, 71, 82, 119, 167 etc.; TNU, such as I:147, 238; II, 110, 180,
219, 240, 294, 318f. Indeed, as Sayyid SulaymanNadwi noted in his speech at the annualsession
of 1915, disquisitions on the necessity (darurat) and usefulness (fawa'id) of the Nadwa's Dar
al-'Ulum were a constantfeatureof all its annualsessions. Ibid., II:110-11.
59 As Shibli put it in his speech at the annual session of the Nadwat al-'Ulama' in 1894: see
Khutbat-iShibli, 19. On the importanceof literature(adab) in the Nadwa's curriculum,see TNU,
I:147.
60 Cf.
TNU, I:148, 218.
308
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
skills ought to be impartedto studentsso thatthey would be able to earn a respectableliving.61
In general,not just the notion of useful educationbut also of what such usefulness consists of shows the influence of colonial analysesand,perhaps,a desire to makethe Nadwa'seducationlook useful to colonial authorities.The emphasis on moral instruction-which British officials thought was lacking in
Indiansystems of education62;on literature,which in governmentschools had
come to substitutefor formal instructionin religion63;on practicalskills; on
fosteringa generationof 'ulamawho would be more in touch with, and hence,
accordingto Britishnotions, more "representative"of the people64;on bridging medieval and moderneducation;and, not least, on an intimateknowledge
of Arabic,which to many colonial officials was one of the "classicallanguages
of India,"65andhence a markof culturalauthenticityandreligious authorityare all interpretableas responses to ideas much in vogue in late-nineteenthcenturyBritishIndia.
Though the existing madrasasserved as the foil againstwhich the Nadwa's
goals were defined, therewas serious disagreementover the extent to which it
was deemed appropriateto break with the madrasas'prevailing intellectual
styles. To have many a religious scholaragree thatthe choice of texts and subjects needed revision was one thing; to have a consensus on precisely what
changes were to be broughtaboutand how was quite another.That the 'ulama
would agree to substitutethe books which they had studiedfor long and from
whose masterythey derived theirreligious authorityprovedto be an unrealistic expectation.66The Nadwa had initially aspiredto have a reformedcurriculum introducedin all the madrasas;but even in its own Dar al-'Ulum, a century after the movementof the Nadwat al-'Ulamabegan, change has only been
partialas well as controversial.Aristotelianlogic and philosophy came to be
given much less importancethan they were in other madrasas;and scriptural
exegesis, Hadith,history, and Arabic literatureare prominentin the curriculum.67Yet key texts in law and legal theory,theology, even logic and philosophy (which had especially been the object of criticism by the Nadwa's
6 Forthe
goals of the Nadwaas enunciatedon variousoccasions duringits earlyyears, see ibid.,
I:55ff., 139ff., and passim.
62 Cf. Adam,
Reports,II:147, II:151;Reportof the PunjabEducationCommission,411.
63 Viswanathan,Masks
of Conquest.
64 On British notions of
representation, see Farzana Shaikh, Commutzitv and Consensus in Is-
laml:Muslim Representationin Colonial India (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1989).
65 Cf.
Leitner,History, vi, vii.
66 The
following (unattributed)verses celebratingthe authorityof the Hidaya, a compendium
of Hanafisubstantivelaw which datesto the twelfthcenturyandhas long been studiedin madrasas,
indicatesthe authoritycertaintexts in the madrasaenjoyed:"TheHidaya, like the Qur'an,has abrogatedwhateverbooks had been writtenon law; so persist in readingit and carefullyattendto its
recitation,for therebywill yourspeech become free of waywardnessandfalsehood."Quotedin Gilani, Nizam-i Ta'lim,313.
67 Cf. Khutbat-iShibli, 57, 88.
THE MADRASA
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309
founders68)have remainedsubstantiallythe same as those in othermadrasas.69
In general, the Nadwa's curriculumhas continuedto be very much underthe
shadow of the Dars-i Nizami. Contraryto the rhetoricof some of the Nadwa's
founders,the teachingof English and the questionof the students'exposureto
Westernlearninghave also remainedthornyand divisive issues.
A majorfactor militatingagainstinitiativestowardsreformwas the frustrating realizationthat the graduatesof Nadwa's Dar al-'Ulum were not usually
(thoughwith some importantexceptions) accordedthe same deferenceby the
'ulama',or as 'ulama',thatthe studentsof madrasassuch as Deobandwere. If
being one of the 'ulama'meantthatone was rearedon certaintexts (ratherthan
others), then to deny their authorityor to replacethem with others, as attempted at the Nadwa, was to be marginalizedin the structuresof authoritysustained
by reverencefor such texts. Moreover,as noted,the Nadwahad soughtnot only
to combine medieval with modernlearningbut also to create a favourableimpression on the colonial government.In 1908, the latterhad even approveda
monthly grant for the promotionof secular education (dunyawitatlim) at the
Nadwa.70Duringthe nearly 100 years of the school's existence, scholarsof the
Nadwahave often looked for alternatesourcesof influence:the TablighiJama'
at, a respectedproselytizingmovement with a worldwide network,71Sufism,
and, perhapsmost distinctively,recognitionin the Arabworld.72But they have
also tried to minimize their differenceswith the other 'ulama,to become (and
thus to be recognized as) one of them.
The Nadwat al-'Ulama's rhetoricregardingthe need to reformthe madrasa
curriculumhas no parallel among non-governmentalreformist initiatives in
British India. Yet the question of madrasareform has continued to be much
discussed-in both post-independence (1947) India and Pakistan-and in
terms not dissimilarto those familiarin British India. Much of the discussion
in Pakistan has revolved around government initiatives towards reforming
madrasas,and it is these initiatives andreactionsto them which I now propose
to discuss.
MADRASA
REFORM
IN PAKISTAN
Pakistandid not inheritmost of the better-knownmadrasaswhich had been active in the colonial period and many of which have continuedin existence in
68
69
70
Cf. ibid., 18; Magalat-i Shibli, III:127.
Abu'l-Hanan'Ali Nadwi, Karwan,I:199-226, especially 200, 225f.
TNU, 11:53.This grantwas finally discontinued,at the Nadwa'sown initiative,in 1920. Ibid.,
272.
7' On the TablighiJama'at, see B. Metcalf, "'RemakingOurselves':Islamic Self-Fashioningin
a Global Movement of SpiritualRenewal,"in MartinMartyand R. Scott Appleby,eds., Accountingfor Fundamentalisms(Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press, 1994), 706-25.
72 On this aspect of the Nadwa's pursuitof recognition, see MuhammadQasim Zaman,"Arabic, the ArabMiddleEast andthe Definition of MuslimIdentityin TwentiethCenturyIndia,"Journal of the RoyalAsiatic Society, series 3, vol. 8 (1998), forthcoming.
310
MUHAMMAD
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ZAMAN
post-independenceIndia.73One notable exception was the CalcuttaMadrasa
which, as its historiansays, "migrated"to Dhakaat the time of the partitionof
India.74Significantly,this migrationwas also a partitionfor the Madrasaitself
and along lines in keeping with familiarcategoriesof colonial analysis. Thus,
it was decided, in August 1947, that of the two departmentswhich comprised
the Madrasa,theAnglo-PersianDepartment,which hadbornethe bruntof governmentreformsand experimentsin usefulness, would stay in Calcutta,while
the ArabicDepartment,concernedwith the classical texts, would move to Dhaka in what was to become East Pakistan(now Bangladesh).75It was thought
fitting perhapsthat only the purelyreligious side of the Madrasaought to become partof a state establishedin pursuitof the Muslim community'sIslamic
aspirations.
The subsequenthistory of the CalcuttaMadrasawill not occupy us here.
While other prominentmadrasasof British India did not migrateto Pakistan,
religious scholarsassociatedwith manyof themdid; togetherwith scholarsnative to the areas which comprisedPakistan,they came to play a considerable
role in the religious andpolitical life of the newly establishedstateandfostered
the growthof new madrasas.The modernschool system has everywherecome
to dominateeducation,yet the madrasashave not only survivedbut shown a
quite phenomenalgrowth. There were 137 madrasasin what is now Pakistan
(the formerWest Pakistan)at the time of the establishmentof the statein 1947;
in early 1994, therewere estimatedto be more than2,500 in the Punjabalone,
the most populousof Pakistan'sfour provinces.76
Of the various governmentefforts to reformand regulatethe affairs of this
institution,two deserve special notice.77The first dates to the early 1960s; and
the second, to the late 1970s. Reportscomprisingrecommendationson madrasa
reformwere producedon both occasions by committeeswhich included some
prominentreligious scholars, though bureaucraticofficials outnumberedthe
culama'in the first committee and were marginallyfewer than the 'ulama' in
the second-neither committeewas headedby a religious scholar.78
73 On madrasasin post-independenceIndia, the study of which is beyond the scope of this essay, see Kuldip Kaur,Madrasa Educationin India: A Studyof its Past and Present (Chandigarh:
Centrefor Researchin Ruraland IndustrialDevelopment, 1990).
74 'Abd al-Sattar,Madrasa-vi'Aliya, II:114ff.
75 Ibid., II:114.
76 For figures on the growth of madrasasbetween 1947 and 1971, see Hafiz NadhrAhmad,
Ja'iza-yi madaris-i'arabiyya-yiMaqhrib'Pakistan(Lahore:MuslimAcademy, 1972), 691-2; for
the growthof madrasasin the Punjabin morerecentyears,see Zindaui(Lahore),February17, 1995,
p. 39; TheNews (Islamabad),March7, 1995. Recentfiguresfor the countryas a whole arenot available to the presentwriter.
77 Recommendationsfor the reformof madrasasin East Pakistan(now Bangladesh)were also
made at various times between 1947 and 1971. See Ibrahimy,Reports,vols. 4-5, passim. These
will not be discussed in this essay.
78 For a list of memberscomprisingeach committee,see Reportof the Committeeset up by the
Governorof WestPakistanfor RecommendingImprovedSyllabusfor the various Darul Ulooms
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
311
Some of the majorissues with which policy makersand reformcommittees
had grappledin British India have continuedto be prominentin both reports,
while certainotherthemes areconspicuouslynew. Of the latter,the single most
importanttheme, a refrainthroughoutthese two reports,is the assuranceof Pakistan's continuing commitmentto Islam. As the Report of 1962 puts it, "No
doubt it was Islam which gave birthto Pakistanand more thananythingelse it
is Islam which will guaranteeits futuregreatness.The importanceof religious
educationis thereforeobvious in a countrylike Pakistan."79
Yet, a nagging uncertaintyaboutprecisely what religious educationmeans,
or worse still, what is religious in the educationimpartedin madrasas,continues to persist. The Report of 1962 explains that it refers to religious learning
("Deeni Uloom" [sic]) and non-religiouslearning("Duniavi [literally,worldly] Uloom" [sic]) "onlyas convenientexpressionsandnot... to convey the impression that Duniavi Uloom are something outside religious education."Yet
repeatedreferenceto "basicIslamic studies,""strictlyreligious subjects,"and
to the need to expunge "unnecessarynon-religioussubjects from the existing
syllabus"suggestjust the opposite:thatis, the positing of a basic dichotomyof
the religious and the secular, and a dichotomy not just in society but in the
madrasaitself.80 In the Report of 1962, reform seems primarilyto mean two
things:to restorethe purityof religious learningto the madrasaby eliminating
all thatis perceivedas unnecessary,non-religious,or both;andat the same time,
to introduce "essential non-religious disciplines comprising modern knowledge"81in its curriculum.The latteris of coursethe useful instructionthatcolonial initiatives at reform so assiduously sought. The Reportdoes not do away
with the dichotomybetween the religious and the non-religiousbut, rather,reinforces it. The sphereof the non-religiousstays intactin the madrasa,with the
only (thoughfor the reformers,fundamental)differencebeing that "essential"
non-religiousdisciplines are to occupy the space which is to be vacatedby the
"unnecessary"non-religiousones.
The Reportof 1962 does not deny thatthe religiousdisciplinesareuseful but
and Arabic Madrasas in WestPakistan (Lahore:Superintendent,GovernmentPrintingWest Pakistan, 1962 [hereafterReport {1962} ]), p. i; ReportOawmiCommitteebara-yiDini Madaris-iPakistan (Islamabad:Ministry of Religious Affairs, 1979), hereafterReport (1979), 3-7. For a discussion of the two reportsand the reactionsto them, see JamalMalik, Colonializationof Islanm:
Dissolution of traditional institutionsin Pakistan (Delhi: Manohar,1996), 123-8, 132-9. I am
much indebtedto Malik'spioneeringwork,thoughhis study,in being primarilyconcernedwith the
effects of state-sponsoredIslamization(between 1977 and 1984) as a vehicle of increasingstate
control over "autochthonousinstitutions,"has a focus differentfrom mine. As will be observed,I
am concernedhere not with such encroachmentby the state,butratherwith the emergenceof a distinct religious sphereas a response to categoriesof colonial analysis. Thoughhe claims to discern
the continuingexistence of, inter alia, the "colonial"sector in Pakistanisociety, Malik pays scant
attentionto the shapingof religious discourse in terms of colonial categories, either in British India or in Pakistan.
79
80 For these phrases,see ibid., 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, passim.
Report(1962), 3.
81 Ibid., 11.
312
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
only thateverythingusually taughtin the madrasais religious. Logic and philosophy are subjectsof particularemphasisin the Dars-i Nizami curriculumof
the madrasas.In the past, these disciplines have been consideredfundamental
to the study of legal theory and jurisprudence(usul al-figh) and of theology
('ilm al-kalam);andexpertisein them was takento makemany of the otherdisciplines accessible;for madrasatexts even on morphologyand syntax,rhetoric
anddisputation,often presumean intimateacquaintancewith logic. The Report
of 1962 recommends,however, that logic and philosophy be "drasticallycut
down" for "franklyspeakingthese are not essential in achieving the objective
of religious education."82That objective is taken primarilyto consist of making ordinarypeople, who are "generallyreligious-minded,though they have
very little knowledge of Shari'ah,"betteracquaintedwith Islam.83But inculcating "truereligious values"presupposesthatthose chargedwith the task are
themselves possessed of it and that in turnrequiresthat the religious learning
must only be based on "undisputedsourcesof knowledge."For the latteralone
would assureboth the usefulness of the madrasa'slearningand the fact that it
will indeed be properlyreligious.
MedievalArabic"rationalsciences" are, in short,deemedto deserve less attentionthanthey have received in the past;while Qur'anicstudies,Hadith,and
early Islamic historyare deemed to requiregreateremphasis.84Otherimplications of exercising this criterionof "undisputedsources"are not stated. But,
given thatmuch of what is taughtin the madrasais considerednot to be based
on such undisputedsources, it can hardlyescape notice that, in purifyingand
Islamicizingthe sphereof religious learning,the recommendationsof the Report also restrictthat sphere and, to the extent it is restricted,that of modern
knowledge will be enlargedin the madrasa.
The concern to form a precise definition and therebydelimit the sphere of
the religious accords with the strongdistrustof the religious elite characteristic of the Ayub Khanera duringwhich the Reportof 1962 was produced.That
concern is much less in evidence in the Reportof 1979. The latteris a partof
the campaignof Islamizationlaunchedby GeneralMuhammadZia ul-Haqearly in his eleven-year rule (1977-88).85 Courtingthe supportof the religious
scholarswas a majorconcern of Zia ul-Haq'spolicy; and the Reportof 1979,
producedby a committeehe had appointedto review the state of the madrasas
and suggest reformsregardingtheir functioning,leaves little doubt about the
regime's efforts to coopt the 'ulama.The Reportcreditsthe madrasaswith preserving Muslim identity in British India86and goes on to describe their posi83 Ibid., 4.
Ibid., 19-30, andAppendixIV (pp. 1-51 of the Urdutext).
85 On some
aspects of Zia ul-Haq'sIslamization,see Anita M. Weiss, ed., Islamic Reassertion
in Pakistan:TheApplicationof IslamicLawsin a ModernState(Lahore:Vanguard,1987);Rudolph
Peters, "The Islamization of CriminalLaw: A ComparativeAnalysis," Die Weltdes Islams, 34
(1994), 246-74, especially 256ff. Malik, Colonializationof Islam.
86
Report(1979), 44.
82 Ibid., 22-23.
84
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
313
tion in Pakistanas thatof "ananchorwhich holds the entiresociety together."87
Yet, no less than earlier governments,Zia ul-Haq's regime sought to bring
madrasasundergovernmentsupervision,even as it paradoxicallydisclaimed
any intention"to interfere"in theiraffairs.It was not withoutreasonthatmany
sceptics saw some incongruitybetween the government'sinitiativesto reform
madrasasand,especially, to integratethem into the mainstreamof education,88
and disclaimersabout any interferencein their affairs.
The rhetoricjustifying the integrationof the madrasainto the educational
mainstream-a majorconcern of the Reports of 1962 and 1979, as indeed it
was of the reformcommitteesin BritishIndia-has had many expressionsbut
is perhapsbest illustratedwith referenceto the Reportof 1962. In terms with
which the 'ulama' could have had little to quarrel,the Reportbegins by characterizingIslamas an all-encompassingreligion,which it takesto meanthatreligious educationought to "coverall aspects of humanlife."89Such a conception of Islam seems to contrastsharplywith the effort to define and restrictthe
sphereof religion, which we have noticed earlier.But the contrastis apparent
only. That Islam regulates all aspects of life, this worldly as well as otherworldly,only supportsthe case for the reformof the madrasas;for reformalone
would enable the 'ulama'to betterparticipatein modernlife-to play an active
role in matters of the world, as Islam itself enjoins upon them. The 'ulama
shouldnot, moreover,have anythingagainstthe introductionof the modernsciences in madrasas,since Islam recognizes no distinctionbetween the religious
and the non-religious. But precisely because the latter is the case, not only
should the moderndisciplines be made partof the madrasaseducation,but (a
point only implied) the lattershould itself be integratedinto the generalsystem
of education.
Neitherthe Reportof 1962 northatof 1979 actuallysays thatmadrasas
shouldthereforecease to exist, but both do recommendthatreligiouseducation
be somehow broughtwithin, and be regulatedby, concerns similarto those of
the generalstreamof state-sponsorededucation.Whetherthe sphereof religion
is so delimited as to create greaterspace for the modern disciplines or, conversely, is so extended as to become indistinguishablefrom otherareasof life,
the independenceof the madrasaand the authorityof its 'ulama' seems to be
called into questionor, at least, to be reshapedin ways which are not of the latter's own choosing. Even the Reportof 1979-which offeredthe 'ulama'many
perquisites(financial aid to madrasas,scholarships,and various other amenities to students,governmentrecognitionof the degrees awardedby madrasas
87
Ibid., 50.
88 Ibid., i, 8-9. The terms used are marbutkarna
(p. i:literally,to integrate),ham-ahana[kar-
na] (p. 8:to harmonize,or, "withthe general system of educationin the country"),and to establish
yakeanivyatawryakjahti(similarityand uniformity,or, "betweenthe curriculumand system of examinations"of the madrasaand generaleducation).
89
Report (1962), 7.
314
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
and hence the prospectof governmentemployment)shouldthey consent to the
reformof theirmadrasasandwas, in general,more favourableto them thanany
previousgovernmentinitiative-was neverthelessa challenge to their autonomy.
Thoughfew 'ulama'would have failed to perceive thatchallenge, few were
as stringentin theirresponseas MawlanaMuhammadYusufLudhianawiin his
detailed critique of the Report of 1979.90 Ludhianawi, a prominent religious
scholar and polemicist, teaches at the Jamitatal-'Ulum al-Islamiyya,a major
Deobandi madrasain Karachi,where he is also the editorof its monthlyjournal. Though the 'ulama' of differentsects (and even of the same sect) sometimes differedamong themselves in their criticism of the governmentalinitiatives, I shall confine myself in this essay to some aspects of the Deobandi
critique.This critique,and others,will be discussed in the next section, but one
point deserves attentionhere. Takingit as a given thatthe system of education
establishedin Indiaby the Britishwas meantto undermineMuslimidentityand
cultureandthatit remainslargelyintactin Pakistan,Ludhianawimustersall his
polemical zeal to arguethatto integratemadrasaswith this educationalsystem
can only mean destroyingIslamitself-that the governmentof an Islamic state
would thereby achieve what the British never could.91The madrasasare the
"defendersof the religious sciences" in society, he says; theirintegrationwith
the state-sponsoredsystem of educationsignifies nothingbut to "preventthem
from theirpurely religious services and to subordinatethem to [literally:make
them the servantsof] the modern[Western]sciences. Thoughin othercontexts
Islam's "worldliness,"encompassinglife in all its fullness, is a majortheme in
the 'ulama's religious discourse, it becomes necessary to deemphasize this
worldliness in the face of the madrasa'sreform. On this view, the madrasas
guaranteethe preservationof religion in society. Thatis, thereis a separateand
independentsphereof religion to be so preserved;and only the independence
of the madrasascan assureits continuedexistence.
REFORM
AND
RELIGIOUS
AUTHORITY
MawlanaYusufLudhianawi'scritiqueof the Reportof 1979 makes explicit an
issue which is centralto all discussion of madrasareform:the questionof religious authority.Any attemptat reformwhich is perceivedto threatenthe identity andthe authorityof the 'ulama'is by definitionsuspect.The Reportof 1979
had attemptedto devise a curriculumwhich would be acceptableequally to all
sectarianaffiliations-to the Deobandis, Barelawis, and Ahl-i Hadith among
90 For Ludhianawi'sdetailed critiqueof the Report of 1979, see Bayyinat (the journal of the
Jami at al-'Ulumal-Islamiyya),38:2 (January1981), 2-28. Also see idem, in Bayyinat,47:1 (May
1985), 35-63. The Reportof 1979 was also rejectedby the Wifaq al-Madaris,the networkof Deobandimadrasas.For the text of the latter'sresolutionsin this regard,see Bayyinat,38:2 (January
1981), 4-5; Bayyinat,47:1 (May 1985), 45. Also see Malik, Colonializationof Islam, 136-8.
91 Ludhianawi,"Basa'irwa 'ibar",in Bayyinat,38:2 (January1981), 12-13. Emphasisadded.
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
315
the Sunnis, as well as to the Shi'a; the establishmentof a national board of
madrasaswas also visualized, and all sects were to have equal representation
on it. But if the authorityof a religious scholaris based, in partat least, on his
sectarianidentity and on his ability to appealto (and foster) thatidentityin his
audience,then a mixed or hybrid(makhlut)curriculumcan scarcelybe acceptable. Further,as Ludhianawiputs it, any equalitybetween the sects is conceivable only "in the purely worldly sphere;but no convergence is possible from
the point of view of religion. "92
The Report's insistence that madrasasopen themselves to the modern sciences and, more generally,that religious educationbe integratedinto the educational mainstream,is likewise unacceptable,as we have seen, but not only
because the latteris a legacy of the British and thereforedetrimentalto Islam.
For a mixed curriculum,with somethingfrom both the religious and the modern sciences, will not producemen who "combinethe medieval and the modern .... [Rather], the products of such a system would be useless equally for re-
ligion and the world."93What the reform seeks to create is not 'ulama',
Ludhianawiconcludes, "only loyal governmentservants."94
That governmentreformdiminisheda madrasa'sstandingin society had already been clearly recognized in British India.Though reformedmadrasasof
British Bengal had the privilege of governmentrecognition,which meantthat
they might receive financial supportand theirgraduateswere eligible for governmentservice as well as for admissionin governmenteducationalinstitutions
and universities,they were seen, even by the official reformingcommittees,to
lack the prestige or authoritythat the unreformed,non-governmentmadrasas
enjoyed.Thus,even as the HarleyCommitteeof 1915 insisted,for instance,that
only by being reformedcould madrasas"playtheirpartin the variousactivities
which go to make up the public life of India,"it had recommendedthatthe Calcutta Madrasa "be reserved for studies on the orthodox lines ... [and] the kind
of teachingwhich made the madrasahsin UpperIndiacentresof Islamic learning for the whole of India."95
In British India,it did not perhapstake much imaginationfor the 'ulama'to
see governmentinitiativesto reformmadrasasas a conspiracyto undermineIslam and to do away with the 'ulama'.But, as Ludhianawi'scriticismof the Re92
93
Ibid., 17. The referenceto a "mixed"curriculumis meant,of course, to be contemptuous.
Ibid., 16. For a very similar argument,see Mufti JamilAhmadThanawi,Nisab wa Nizam-i
Dini Madaris (Lahore:Nashiran-iQur'anLimited, n.d.), 59-60.
94 Ludhianawi,"Basair,"in
Bayyinat (January1981), 27. It is worth noting here that making
governmentservantsout of the madrasaeducateddoes not everywherecarrythe stigma it does in
the foregoing statement.For instance, many of the scholarscalling for the reformof the Azhar of
Egypt in the late nineteenthand early twentiethcenturysoughtthe introductionof modernsubjects
thereprecisely to enable graduatesof the Azharto compete with othersin the quest for government
jobs. Eccel, Egypt.Islam and Social Change, 313-4.
95 Quoted in
Reportof the East Bengal EducationalSystemReconstructionCommittee.194952, in Ibrahimy,Reports,IV:40, emphasis added.
316
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
port of 1979 shows, similarsuspicionshave continuedto be expressedin Pakistan.96He is in no doubt thatthe content of the proposedreformsubvertsthe
purposeof the madrasaand the position of the Culama',and he is not alone in
such suspicions. The 'ulama'have often defended their madrasasby pointing
to the prestige,influence,andauthorityof some of the most distinguishedof religious scholarseducatedin them. If madrasascan producesuch scholars,then,
the argumentgoes, therecan hardlybe anythingwrongwith theirsystem of education;andthose who insist on changes in the curriculumcan have no purpose
but to underminethe madrasa,to preventthe role this institutionhas historically played in the life of Muslims.
Thejustificationfor reformofferedby governmentcommitteesis thus turned
on its head:Madrasascan continueto play the role theyhave in Muslimsocieties
of the pastnot by undergoingreformbutratherby resistingit.97Thatreformcan
and does connote a variety of things in modernMuslim societies comes out
stronglyhere.Manyreligiousscholars,andmadrasaslike Deoband,arereformist
in the sense of seekingchangein existing styles of religiousbeliefs andpractice.
It can be argued,in fact, thattheirclaim to religious authorityis rooted,in part
at least,on theirreformistcredentials.98But reformin thiscontextdoes not mean
strikingout a new, unchartedpath;rather,it signifies changes that would bring
religiousdoctrineandpractice,as interpretedby these reformers,into conformity with whateveris conceived of as trueor originalIslam-the Islam of the pious forbears.Reformin the sense of actively integratingmodernwith classical
knowledge is suspectto many,however;for it is perceivedas underminingthe
unityandintegrityof madrasaeducationandas devaluingthecredentialsof those
trainedin it. Such sentimentis of coursenot peculiarto the Indiansubcontinent.
Shaykh'Abdal-Rahmanal-Shirbini,the rector(1905-09) of Egypt'sal-Azharone of the oldestandmostprestigiousinstitutionsof Islamiclearningin the Muslim world-had argued,for instance,that this institutionhad been established
"for nothingbut the preservanceand propagationof religion and the religious
sciences."He demandedof the governmentthereforeto "leaveit as it is-as a
fortressof religion.... If reformis sought at all, then let it be limited to better
arrangementsfor] the health, comfort, and good food for the students.As for
[modern]philosophy and the modern sciences, let the governmentintroduce
these in its own numerouscolleges."99
96
The 'ulama'sreluctanceto associate with those in power may also have somethingto do with
their resistanceto governmentalreform of the madrasa,though the implicationsof such distrust
shouldnot be exaggerated.For if some 'ulama' have always insistedon maintainingtheirdistance
from the ruling authorities,therehas never been a dearth,in Muslim societies, of those who were
willing to be actively involved in the administration.
97 For this argument,see, for instance, Thanawi, Dini Madaris, 66-71. Cf. Gilani, Nizam-i
Ta'lim,I:252-316 and passim.
98 I am gratefulto ProfessorDavid Gilmartinfor elucidatingthis point to me.
99 Quoted in MuhammadRashid Rida, Ta'rikhal-ustadh al-imam al-shavkhMuhammad'Abduh (Cairo:Matba'at al-Manar,1931), 1:504;emphasisadded.
THE MADRASA
IN BRITISH
INDIA
AND
PAKISTAN
317
Notwithstandingal-Shirbini'sreticence,the Egyptiangovernmentdid carry
throughlarge-scale changes in al-Azhar,though these need not be discussed
here.'0? It is worth mentioning, however, that the culama'of Pakistanhave
sometimespointedto experimentswith madrasareformin otherMuslim countries to cautionthatscholarsof any standinghave ceased to appearin those societies as a resultof such initiatives;conversely,the madrasasof the Indiansubcontinent, thanks to their having resisted reform, can still boast of many
distinguishedscholars. 0l The questionhereis not only the problemof religious
authority-those reared on a hybrid (religious and non-religious) education
would not be "real"'ulama'-but also of useful knowledge. In a book on "the
syllabusandthe system (nizam)of the madrasas,"MuftiJamilAhmadThanawi
(d. 1995), the leading jurisconsultat the Jami'aAshrafiyya, a prominentDeobandi madrasaof Lahore, had listed thirty(!) useful purposes that madrasas
fulfill in society. To him, as also to Ludhianawi,the only useful knowledge for
the madrasais religious knowledge, and anythingless, or more, is detrimental
to the madrasa'sraison d'etre: the maintenanceof religion in society.102
Ideas such as those of Ludhianawiand Thanawiresonatein the writingsof
many others on the question of reform. There are, however, other shades of
opinion, too.103 Though the associationrepresentingthe networkof Deobandi
madrasasrejectedthe Report of 1979, many prominentDeobandi (as well as
non-Deobandi)scholars do, in principleat least, recognize the need for some
kind of reform.MawlanaMuhammadYusuf Banuri(d. 1978), the founderof
the Jami 'at al-'Ulum al-Islamiyya of Karachi,conceded, for instance, that
many of the texts which are studiedin madrasasare sometimes "barelyintelligible" without extensive commentariesand glosses. He held such texts to be
"obscure"becausethey were writtenandintroducedinto madrasasduringa period of Muslimintellectualdecline in the latermiddleages. For someone reared
on the long traditionof studying-and writing-glosses and commentaries,
this is a strikingobservation. 04 Yet Banuri'spurposehere was not to subvert
the madrasa'slearning but ultimately to salvage it. The texts conventionally
used in madrasasoughtto be replaced,he wrote,butonly by earlier ones: These
100 On these reforms, see Marsot, "The
Beginnings of Modernization,"267-80; Daniel Crecelius, "NonideologicalResponsesof the EgyptianUlama to Modernization,"in Nikki R. Keddie,
ed., ScholarsSaints.and Sufis:MuslimReligiousInstitutionsin the MiddleEast since 1500 (Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1972), 167-209; Eccel, Egypt.Islam and Social Change.
'01 Cf. Thanawi,Dini madaris, 66-68.
102 Ibid.,
passim.
103
See, for instance,the proceedingsof the seminaron "theeducationsystem of madrasas,"organized in November 1986 by the Instituteof Policy Studies, Islamabad:Muslim Sajjadand Salim Mansur,Dini madaris ka nizam-i tatlimn(Islamabad:Instituteof Policy Studies, 1987; reprint,
1993).
104 Banuriis the authorof a six-volume
commentaryin Arabicon the Jami of al-Tirmidhi,one
of the majorSunni collections of Hadith.This commentary(entitledMa'arifal-Sunan) is, in turn,
based on the lectures on the Jami' by his teacher,MawlanaAnwar Shah Kashmiri(d. 1933), the
sometime principalof the madrasaat Deoband.
3I8
MUHAMMAD QASIM ZAMAN
are simpler,clearer,and more authoritative."Wedo not want to do away with
the traditionalsciences, but seek only to create greatercompetence in them
throughthe introductionof betterbooks. We do not wantmodernism(tajaddud)
but ratherto go furtherback (tagadum[in searchof authenticity])."'05Nevertheless, in viewing commentariesand glosses as impedinginnovativeand useful learningratherthanmakingfor "interpretivedynamism"and the construcBanuri'scommentsdo show the
tion of the interpreters'religious authority,106
influence of colonial and modernizinganalyses of the madrasa.
Yet Banuri,like many otherscholars,also recognizedthe need for the introduction of new subjects (for example, modernphilosophy,a "new scholastic
theology,"economics) in the madrasal07;and majorBarelawi as well as Deobandi madrasasnow include courses from the moder school system as part
of their curriculum-a measure,no doubt,of the influence exertedby government reform committees.108But it is noteworthythat, in contemporaryPakistanimadrasas,subjectsfromthe governmentschool systemaretypicallytreated as a distinct and separate segment of their education-a segment that
students are expected to deal with as a barely legitimate, almost quarantined
preludeto theirreal vocation,the Dars-iNizami. Howeverthey areunderstood,
purely religious studies occupy an exclusive space even within the madrasa.
Ratherthan mitigatingthis sense of exclusivity, the presenceof new elements
from the governmentschool system ratherserves, ironically,to reinforceit.
THE cULAMA'S RELIGIOUS SPHERE: DIMINUITION
OR GROWTH?
In the epilogue to his history of the Calcutta Madrasapublished in 1959,
Mawlana'Abd al-Sattar,a lecturerin the Madrasa,vigorously emphasizesthe
importanceof this institutionin the preservationof Islamic learningand in the
Islamicizationof society. But with equal vigour,he also lamentsthe declining
fortunesof the Madrasaand, more generally,of religious education in all its
forms. He cites several reasons for this decline, emphasizingin particularthe
hostility towardsmadrasason the partof those who are rearedin the English
system of education.It is odd, he says, thatwhile specializationis valued in all
fields of modernknowledge,madrasasarecriticized-and deemedharmfulfor
"nationalinterests"-precisely becausethey traintheirstudentsto specialize in
the Islamic sciences. "Whatthis means is that ... thoughthe preservationand
welfareof oursociety requiresfarmers,blacksmiths,tailors,andclerks,it needs
105 See, for instance, Mawlana MuhammadYusuf Banuri, "Dars-i Nizami: Chand tawajjuhtalab pahlu,"in Jaridat al-Ashraf (Journalof the Jami'aAshrafiwaSukkur.March-April1994),
26-52; the quotationis from p. 32.
106
Messick, CalligraphicState, 34.
107
Banuri,"Dars-iNizami,"31.
108 For instance,see the curriculumissued by the networkof Barelawimadrasas:Nisab-i ta'limi tanzimal-madaris (Ahl-i Sunnat)Pakistan (Lahore:Markazidaftertanzim al-madarisPakistan,
1412 A.H. [1991]); and cf. Malik, Colonializationof Islam, 164-76.
THE MADRASA IN BRITISH INDIA AND PAKISTAN
319
no religious 'ulama [sic]." "Timeshave changed,"he says. "Religion (madhhab) no longerhas any importancefor the nation(qawm).Religion has become
the pastime (mashghala) of the idle. In such circumstances,what use can the
nationhave for those who occupy themselves with the religious sciences?"109
At issue for CAbdal-Sattaris evidently not simply the madrasaand the usefulness of its learningbut the broaderquestion of the place of religion in society. Several others among the Culamawho have written on the question of
madrasareformhave likewise insisted that the debate on the madrasais a debate on the statusand futureof Islam itself, for the madrasais both the bastion
of Islam and its guardian.This equationbetween Islam and the madrasais not
just a polemical-and, to some, doubtlessa persuasive-argument againstreform, it is also an argumentfor the reparationof religion from other areas of
life and its autonomyin society.
The question here is not a separationof religion and state, or of society and
state-which, some have argued,had come aboutin Muslim societies fromthe
firstcenturiesof Islam''0-but rathera recognition,by the 'ulama' themselves,
of greaterdifferentiationwithin society, with religion occupying a distinct,inviolable, autonomous sphere. Such a view of religion on the part of many
ulama in Pakistanhas close parallels with developmentsin modernMuslim
societies elsewhere, and not only in the matterof madrasaeducation.For example, in the face of modernizingreformsof the nineteenthcentury,the sphere
of Islamic law, of "the pure Shari Cain its traditionalform," came to be increasingly restrictedall over the Muslim world to laws of personalstatusthat
governed the family and mattersof inheritance.The Culama'left the rest to
modernizinglegal reformers,complainingonly when this restrictedsphereof
law was threatened. In education,likewise, the Culama'left it to government
initiativeto devise new forms of education,resistinggovernmentalefforts only
when the madrasas-which they had increasinglycome to define as theirown
sphere-were made the object of change or were otherwise directly threatened."2 In turn, this differentiationincreasingly led the Culama',as Serif
Mardin has observed with reference to late-nineteenth-centuryOttoman
Turkey,"to focus on the primarilyreligious aspect of their vocation. Religion
109 CAbdal-Sattar,Madrasa-i
'Aliya, 11:146-47. CompareAsad, Genealogies, 207.
110For example, IraM. Lapidus,"TheSeparationof State and Religion in the Developmentof
early Islamic Society," InternationalJournal of Middle East Studies,6 (1975), 363-85. Also see
idem., "TheEvolutionof MuslimUrbanSociety,"ComparativeStudiesin Societyand Histor,, 15:1
(1973), 21-50, especially 28ff.; idem, A Historyof Islamic Societies (Cambridge,1988), especially 120ff. Closer analysisof religious andpolitical trendsin earlyIslam, andespecially of early 'Abbasid history-on which Lapidus'findings areprimarilybased-reveals, however,thatthereis little evidence to suggest the "separationof state and religion"thathe posits: see MuhammadQasim
Zaman,Religion and Politics under the Early CAbbasids(Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1997).
111 N. J. Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversity Press, 1964),
149-225; the quotationis from p. 154. Also cf. Messick, CalligraphicState, 61f.
112 Cf. Crecelius, "Nonideological Responses," 187-8; RichardL. Chambers,"The Ottoman
Ulema and the Tanzimat",in Keddie, ed., Scholars, Saints. and Sufis, 33-46, especially 41, 45.
320
MUHAMMAD
QASIM
ZAMAN
thus became more of a subjectmatteror a field of specializationthan a pervasive social function.""3
In one sense, makingreligion a distinctsphererepresentsa diminutionof the
more pervasiveinfluenceit enjoyedin Muslim societies in the past;andthough
they themselves define it as such, none is more conscious of this diminution
than the culamathemselves. In his criticism of the 1979 Reportof the National Committeeon Madrasas, MawlanaYusuf Ludhianawibitterlycomplained,
as have many othersbefore and since, that those educatedin the English system of educationand, undertheirinfluence almost everyone else, did not even
count graduatesof the madrasaamong the educated.Ludhianawialso recalled
an incidentwhen a bus conductorsnubbeda madrasastudent'srequestfor a reduced bus fare but accepteda reducedfare from studentsof an English school,
for the latter,he said, were "reallystudents"and thereforeentitledto that special concession."14The point of this seemingly trivial anecdoteis to draw attention to the decline in the 'ulama's social standingand, from the Culama's
perspective,in the deferenceaccordedto religion in society.
Lamentson an inexorabledecline comprisea familiartopos in Muslim literature. s1 However, as JonathanBerkey and Michael Chamberlainhave shown
for medieval CairoandDamascus,respectively,the social statusof the 'ulama'
and the prestige accordedto religious learningwas apparentlyquite different
from what it is in many modern Muslim societies.116Berkey shows, for instance, that in medieval Cairo,no firm barriersexisted between educationand
religious devotionandbetween the scholarsandthe non-scholarsso far as people's interestin Hadithandthe religious sciences was concerned;he also shows
how various (otherwise external) segments of society-the Mamlukmilitary
aristocracy,women, and ordinarypeople-could all come togetherto participate in sessions whereHadithwas heardandtransmitted."7 Thoughsome even
then had reservationsabout sharingreligious knowledge with all and sundry,
popularparticipationin Hadithsessions was neverthelessa markof reverence
for such knowledge and for those-the 'ulama'-who had more thana casual
interestin it. In many Muslim societies, much of the intellectuallife had continued to be dominated,if not virtuallymonopolized,by the 'ulama' until the
8
early decades of the twentiethcentury.1 The situationhas changedin modern
societies in more thanone way, however.New, modernforms of educationin113
Serif Mardin,Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey(Albany: State Universityof
New YorkPress, 1989), 112.
114 Ludhianawi,"Basa'ir",in
Bayyinat(January1981), 22-23.
115 Cf.
Berkey,Transmission,182ff.; idem., "Tradition,Innovationand the Social Construction
of Knowledge in the Medieval Islamic Near East,"Past and Present, 146 (1995), 38-65.
116
Berkey, Transmission;Chamberlain,Social Practice.
17 Berkey, Transmission,128-218.
18 Dale F. Eickelman, Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of a TwentiethCenturyNotable (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1985), 5-6; Green, The TunisianUlama,
53.
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troducedduringthe colonial period have seriously restrictedthe usefulness of
madrasaeducationand its prestige,even in the eyes of those who lack any formal educationin modernschools. On the otherhand,moderneducationas well
as exposureto otherforms of informationthrough,interalia, the impactof print
on Muslim societies has meantthatthe 'ulama's interpretationsof religion can
be challengedor even ignoredby people who can and do have independentaccess to religious texts. Muslim societies have seen the emergence, duringthe
nineteenthand twentiethcenturies,of what some scholarshave characterized
as the "new"religious intellectuals:Individualswhose understandingof Islam
is not derivedfrom the 'ulama' or from formaleducationin madrasasandwho,
more often thannot, are sceptical of the usefulness of the 'ulama' and theirinstitutionsof learning. 19It is not surprising,then, thatthe 'ulama' should seek
to preservetheir autonomyfrom bureaucraticreformcommittees, no less than
from the new religious intellectuals.To do so entails for them defining religion
as a distinct sphereand claiming to be its exclusive guardiansand representatives.
If we ought to take the 'ulama's laments about their decline seriously, we
cannotalso be oblivious to the fact thatthe decline in questionhas provento be
less severe than the rhetoricof many 'ulama' would have it. To claim a separate spherefor religion does not signify its privatization,still less its diminishing appeal,as predictedby theoristsof secularization.120Pakistan'ssuccessive
constitutionshave assigned Islam a prominentplace in public life, and many
amongthe 'ulama' have remainedactive in the effortto define an Islamic identity for Pakistan.12 The total numberof madrasashas grown, not diminished
in Pakistanduringthe fifty years of the state's existence; and despite the emergence of the new religious intellectuals,madrasasprimarilysustainthe structureof religious life (for example, in supplyingprayerleadersandpreachersin
mosques, as well as in providingeducationto many who never make it to governmentschools or dropout fromthem) in Pakistan.122The numberof madrasa
119 In characterizingsuch individualsas "'new' religious intellectuals,"I follow Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori,Muslim Politics (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1996). On the
impactof printin Muslim societies, see FrancisRobinson,"Technologyand Religious Change:Islam and the Impactof Print,"ModernAsian Studies,27 (1993), 229-51; Adeeb Khalid,"Printing,
Publishing,and Reform in TsaristCentralAsia," InlternationalJournalof Middle East Studies,26
(1994), 187-200; Messick, CalligraphicState, 115-31.
120 For a recentcritiqueof theoriesof secularization,see Jose Casanova,Public Religions in the
Modern World(Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press, 1994); on notions of public and privatereligions, see ibid., 40-66.
12' For an analysis of the 'ulama'searly efforts in this regard,see LeonardBinder,Religion and
Politics in Pakistan(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1961).
122 At the level of primaryeducation,the ratioof dropoutsamong boys was calculatedin 199495 to be 43 percentin the urbanareas of Pakistanand 78 percentin the ruralareas. For girls, the
ratio was 59 percentand 88 percent,respectively.See The News (Islamabad),June 27, 1995, p. 2.
Such dropoutsappearto forman increasinglygreaterproportionof contemporarymadrasas,though
many still come withoutany exposureto governmentschools. Figuresnaturallyvary,andfor a variety of possible reasons,fromone madrasato another.An official of the Khayral-Madaris,a promi-
322
MUHAMMAD
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ZAMAN
studentsin the Punjabhave increasedfrom 24,822 in 1960; to 81,134 in 1979;
to a startling218,939 in 1995-that is, this numberhas increasednearly nine
times since 1960.123 Unlike, say, Morocco, as describedby Dale Eickelman,
the ranksof the madrasa-educatedscholarsare anythingbut being diminished
in Pakistan.24 The situationmay be similarin some otherMuslim countriesas
well. For instance,predictionsaboutthe decline of al-Azharof Egypt'25have
provedpremature.Accordingto MalikaZeghal, the primaryand secondaryinstitutesrunby the Azharhad "89,744 studentsat the beginningof the 1970s and
more than300,000 at the beginningof the 1980s.... Nearly a million students
between the ages of 5 and 19 were in charge of the Azhar at the beginning of
the 1990s."126
Nor indeedarethe madrasasof Pakistanquiteas imperviousto change as the
rhetoricof many 'ulama' on the one handand thatof governmentreformcommittees on the otherwould have one believe. Many madrasasnow provide for
the teaching of certain subjects prescribedin governmentschools, as already
noted; and a small but growing proportionof the 'ulama' associated with
madrasasaresaid also to have had some formof educationin the modernschool
system.127 Whetheror not those associatedwith the madrasasrealize or admit
this, the very effortto preservethe madrasa,and Islam, unchangedin a rapidly
changingworldinvolves considerableredefinitionof whatIslammeans, where
to locate it in society, andhow best to serve its interests.As we have seen, one
way to do so is to define Islam as occupying a distinctspherein society and to
equate the autonomyof this sphere and the authorityand identity of the 'ulama' with an ideally invariantcorpusof purelyreligious texts. For all its novelty, at least for the 'ulama', such a view of Islam and of its place in society is
meant to claim for themselves the prerogativeto define-if often in terms
patently borrowed from colonial and post-colonial bureaucraticanalyseswhat constitutesuseful educationfor the madrasaand what (if anything)needs
nent Deobandi madrasaof Multan,in the Punjabprovince, with about 2,500 studentsreportedto
the presentwriterin August 1995 thattherewere "veryfew" studentswho were illiterateat the time
of theiradmissionto the madrasa.Conversely,the JamitaAnwaral-'Ulum, a Barelawimadrasaalso
in Multan(with about800 students)reportedin July 1995 thatthe proportionof those who were illiteratepriorto admissionin the madrasawas about55 percent.Precisely how to accountfor such
differencesremainsto be studied.
123
Figuresbasedon: NadhrAhmad,Ja'iza, 695; Report(1979), 198;Zindaui(Lahore),17 February 1995, p. 39.
124 Eickelman,Knowledgeand Power, 167-8.
125
See, for example, Crecelius,"NonideologicalResponses," 167-209.
126 Malika
Zeghal, Gardiens de l'Islam: Les ulama d'al-Azhar dans l'Egypte contemporaine
(Paris:Presses de la fondationrationaledes sciences politiques, 1995), 279 (author'stranslation).
Also cf. the remarkableincreasein the numberof mosquesin Egypt, "by 100 percentbetween 1961
and 1979, leaping from 17,000 to 34,000", and to 50,000 by 1984. See PatrickD. Gaffney, The
Prophet'sPulpit: Islamic Preaching in ContemporaryEgypt (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1994), 15.
127 See Ministryof Education,Governmentof Pakistan,Pakistan ke dint madaris ke 'ulama'yi kiramki directory(Islamabad:HigherEducationResearchCell, 1986), 476.
THE MADRASA
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to be reformedor how. The 'ulama' seek to extend theirinfluencein society, to
refashionall else, if not in their own image then at least accordingto theirprescription.Yet the effort to do so has come increasinglyto be predicatedon the
priorexistence of, andfirmboundariesbetween, theirsphereof religion andthe
rest of society, not on the blurringof such boundaries.