Indian
Muslims and the Competitive Exams
... By
Mohammad Allam, Minto Circle, A.M.U., Aligarh
Why is the performance of Muslims students in highly competitive
examinations so poor? I have given the figure of two highly competitive
examinations, one like Civil services which has all three stages i.e.
Preliminary, main(written) and Interview while another IIT, has only
two stages of Preliminary and Main exam. This data from two highly
competitive tests shows that the story of discrimination which is
floated in the market is not true. If the story of discrimination in
civil services is accepted as true, as some Muslims leaders may want us
to believe, due to interview in the final stage (28 out of 910), why
are the results so poor in case of IIT-JEE, CBSE Pre-Medical Test,
IIMs, etc, wherein there is written test only. This shows
that the real problem lies somewhere else. On the basis of the results
of two tests, one can easily
analyze the performance of students from muslim community. Among the
root causes one can find, the biggest reason is the lack of access to
the quality education. Only five to ten percent of Indian muslim
children are getting education in reputed schools of India. The rest of
them are getting education either in Government schools or
muslim-managed institutions, whose educational environment and
standards we all know very well.
In the present scenario, the government’s focus on education of Indian
muslims is to just raise their literary ratio. This is the reason why
the government is just emphasizing on increasing the enrolment ratio at
primary and secondary levels without considering enhancing the quality
of education for them. Why does the Government not reserve seats in the
government maintained quality schools like Kendrila vidhlaya and
Navoday vidhalaya?
Right since independence, the leaders of Indian muslims are trying to
use education as a tool for exploiting them emotionally to grab their
votes. For the last 60 years, they have been trying to convince us that
they pressurize the government without any success to work out a plan
to improve the condition of Indian muslims. However, we did not see a
single plan by them to educate the Indian muslims through their own
efforts, like the Christian community, by establishing a series of
qualitaty educational institutions. The entire pattern of Indian
leaders reveals that they are using the British “Filtration Theory” on
Indian Muslims by providing the best available qualitaty education for
their wards and depriving the same to the rest of muslims to maintain
their hegemony and leadership of muslims and power in the government.
The rest of masses are asked to educate themselves in third rated
educational institutions without any consideration about the quality of
education. As a result, a large segment of bright children (about 25%)
get eliminated at primary level, while a very small percentage (about
4%) reaches the higher level. This four percent is no match to the 96 %
high quality and competitive pass-outs of other communities. For
example, in Civil services result of 2011, the top 25 positions are
held by the pass-outs of premier educational institutions of India like
AIMS, IITs, IIMs etc.
If we view the result of competitive tests in terms of the “law of
probability”, then it goes against Indian muslims too. Those who enter
in large numbers would have better chances of selection. The ratio
appearing in competitive examinations between muslim students and the
students of other communities is highly disproportionate in favour of
students of other community.
Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Jamia Hamdard,
which have large intake of muslim students, are doing nothing as
compared to other institutions having large intake of majority
community students. Look at the performance of BHU, JNU, Delhi
University, Patna University, University of Madras, and Allahbad
University etc. The attitude of these universities towards competitive
examinations is entire different from that of muslim universities. For
example, the syllabus at graduation level of Patna University aligns
quite well with that of Civil Services exam, while A.M.U. syllabus is
outdated in comparison, and is based on promotion of dead ideologies.
The purpose of study at graduation level in A.M.U. is not preparing the
students to become competitive but to make them scholars of particular
schools. Is it strange to demand that the syllabi of under-graduate
levels should be based on syllabi of competitive exams while the
syllabi of post-graduation level should be based on NET syllabus? The
running of coaching and guidance cells by minority institutions is also
a matter of concern -no candidate qualified for civil services from AMU
in 2011 while this university has a residential coaching centre,
equipped with modern facilities.
So, to get desired results in competitive examinations, Indian muslims
have to take initiative by themselves, rather than depending on
government initiatives. They have to change overall set-up, reformulate
their strategy, and make future plans collectively. They have to
establish qualitaty schools all over the country. They can do this by
establishing an organization like “Educational Advancement Council of
Indian Muslims” comprising of educationists and strategists to chalk
out short-term and long-term plans for educational empowerment. If they
do not do this, then, there is no need for them to make hue and cry
about the status of muslim’s education after declaration of competitive
exam results.!
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Is
That Your Profession-Or Just Your Title?
... By Mariam Nawaz
I
read a surah (chapter) from the Qur’an, a Surah that made me question a
few things. It made me think about the purpose of my existence. One
thing that crossed my mind was a person’s occupation. Even if I were
qualified to be a teacher, if I don’t actually teach, would I still be
a teacher? Or would a chef still be a chef, even if he had never
actually cooked professionally? I suppose the logical answer is sure
they are, but they don’t actually practice the profession they have
trained in. For most people and professions, this is perfectly
acceptable; people don’t necessarily build a career in their area of
training. But, If someone doesn’t practice what they have been equipped
to be able to practice, then all they have is a title; a title which at
the very least allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment for their
efforts.
But what if the title they hold isn’t a result of their own
accomplishment? What if the title they hold is something they were born
with, or something given to them? What if the title they hold is that
of a ‘Muslim’? Then is that Muslim, still a Muslim even if he doesn’t
do what a Muslim is supposed to do? If they do not actually practice
Islam can they still hold the title of being Muslim? When you think
about it, the immediate answer is ’no’. They can’t feel that sense of
accomplishment because they didn’t accomplish anything that enables
them to feel proud. Most of the time, they did not chose Islam;
rather, Islam was given to them—and alhamdulillah (all praise
and
thanks belongs to God) for that.
The teacher who holds only the
title of a teacher can still be proud of the work they put in to become
a teacher, and the chef who holds only the title of being a chef, can
be proud of all of his training to become a chef—but the Muslim, who
did nothing to be Muslim, nor does anything as a Muslim, has nothing
but an empty and worthless title. If you handed in an essay to your
professor and all your essay consisted of was a title, how do you think
your professor would grade you? Most of us wouldn’t even dream of doing
that! Yet so many of us will be in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala
(exalted is He), with nothing but the title of ‘Muslim’, may Allah
protect us from this.
It’s time we start acting on that which we
claim to be; if we truly consider ourselves to be worthy of the title
of a Muslim, then we need to ensure we practice that which we ought to
practice. What is the purpose or the ‘occupation’ of a Muslim might you
ask! Well, the surah that inspired this thought is one of the many that
provide the answer: Surah Al-Asr.
1. “By time,
2. Indeed, mankind is in loss,
3.
Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds, and
advised each other to truth1 , and advised each other to patience2 .”
May
Allah make us amongst those whom He favours, those who have strong
belief, follow through with good deeds, share the truth of Islam to
others, and have sabr (patience).
Ameen.
Be
a Torch Bearer
.... By Dr. Annie John, Head, Dept
of English, A.R. Burla Womens’ College, Solapur.
Rabia al-Adawiyya, early 8th century contributor to Sufism
wrote:
“I
carry a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. With
these things I am going to light up the Heaven and put out the flames
in the Hell. So that voyagers to God can rip off veils and
see
the real God”.
Truly, thought provoking lines which focus on the
significance of being torch bearers or light houses for those wrecked
in the storm of life.
However, very often we are obsessed with
ourselves and fail to look beyond our ‘self created confines’. A little
sorrow, a little pain, a little defeat and a few trials bog us down and
we utter “Why me God?” Our world seems to crumble and all our hopes
shatter. A great lesson can be learnt from the words of
Arthur
Ashe, legendary tennis player ( who was infected with AIDS during blood
transfusion) who explained life in the following words:
“The
world over five crore children start playing tennis, 50 lakh
learn to play, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, thousand
come to
the circuit, 5 thousand reach the Grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to
the semifinals and only 2 to the finals. When I was holding,
my
trophy I never asked God ‘Why me?’ and today in pain I should not be
asking ‘God, why me?’
When beset with difficulties we complain
and cry out. No doubt difficult, but if we could only say,
“God,
this is going to be an interesting journey. I’m excited to
see
how you are going to bring good out of this one”, things would have
definitely been different.
Our world view being very narrow, we
feel the entire world revolves around us and everything in our personal
world affects only us. We forget that we are the cause and
effect
of something happening. The truth is we make decisions every
second which affects the world in some way. Lets look at the
whole thing with an air of optimism.
My
sorrow could be some one's joy
My
pain, some one's pleasure
My
failure, some one's victory and so on.
The
seed to every problem is the ‘self’ and the more we sow it, the more
‘self centered’ harvest we reap. When Buddha was asked about
the
deeper meaning of life he answered,
“No
self, no problem”.
Although
we wish all our desires be fulfilled and all our dreams materialized,
the truth is every desire of man cannot be fulfilled. It is an
illogical desire of the logical thinking intellect.
We keep
hunting for treasure all our life, but fail to understand that Fortune
is within our own self. Our absolute self itself is the
priceless
existence of everything.
The realization of this changes our
behaviour, produces new experience and opens our eyes to a whole new
world of understanding. Therefore equipping ourselves, with
this
new range of understanding, let’s endow ourselves with beauty and
fragrance and like a candle burn but dispel the various evils that bind
people. Let us be torch bearers leaving footprints on the
sand of
time for others to follow.
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