BaKhabar, May 2012, Page-5 [It's All About Elections Stupid! An article on Satanic Salman Rushdi, by sister Asma Khan]

India and Pakistan: Lengthening Shadows of a Toxic Past, Part-3

... By Asma Khan* (asmaanjum.khan@gmail.com)

Sixty-four years after they parted ways, their toxic past and violent split still continues to haunt India and Pakistan and hundreds of millions of people on both sides of the divide. [Read Part-1 of the story, here]

Gandhi-Jinnah-divide?!

Note: Part-1 of this long essay appeared in the April issue of BaKhabar. The next parts of this historical-but-still-highly-relevant essay would appear in coming issues of BaKhabar.
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* Asma Anjum (Khan), a social reformer, is Asst. Professor in Solapur. She has taken over as Chief Eidtor of BaKhabar starting May 2012 issue.

The need for Muslims to Introspect: Education

... By Amit Hashmi <afhashmi1211@yahoo.com>

Sachar Committee report has rightly pointed out the backwardness of the Muslim community vis-a-vis the other community in India. It has aptly analyzed the status of backwardness and categorized it. On most counts the Muslim community lags behind other communities. Who are to be blamed for this backwardness?
Most of us, as a Muslim, point our finger to the external factors such as the government, the society as a whole and the conspirators that does not want this community to progress and drumbeat and declare that the atmosphere is not conducive for the growth of Muslim in India just because Muslims are in minority. But have we ever thought why other minorities such as Christians, Parsees and Sikhs have better statistics than us when it comes to progress and better life even though they are also a minority. This fallacy has no base as even among Muslims one can find few sub-communities and people who are at par with other communities in progress. Did we ever introspect where does the main blame lie? Aren't we to take the major share of blame?
It is a basic fact that we as a community have not yet awaken to take responsibility of progress in our own hand, but we always look at others to do the things for us. I do not say that external factors have not been responsibility for our backwardness, but I fully believe that we are the one who need to be blamed in the first place. Throughout the history in every geographical distribution, minorities do face extra problem and issues and thus it is a fact that this cannot be ever resolved fully. But then to work out a realistic solution, we have to accept this fact that our destination is in our hand.

All the factors that the Sachar Committee has studied, shows the backwardness of Muslims has its genesis in education. The literacy rate among the Muslims is well below the national level. Twenty-five percent of Muslim children in the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out. Drop-out rates among Muslims are higher at the level of primary, middle and higher secondary. In premier colleges only one out of twenty-five under-graduate students and one out of fifty post-graduate students is a Muslim.
It is an irony of this community! The very first word of the Quran that was given to the Prophet was Iqraâ (Read) and not only that, further down the verse it mentions qalam (Pen) [Quran 96:1-5]. Verse [Quran 39:9] poses a question to the people whether those that have knowledge and those who do not have are deemed equal! Added to this, the word Ilm (knowledge) is found 750 times in Quran. Even there are many sayings by Prophet which directed the Muslims to seek knowledge whenever and wherever they could. It is a well-known fact that the captives of war were released if they could teach the people to read and write. "Indeed the worst of the beasts in the eyes of God are those deaf and dumb people who don't use their intellect." [Quran 8:22]
Regrettably, most of our religious leaders as well as, the-well-to-do people of this community waste most of their energies on only highlighting the causes of the problem that faces us. They shout these out from the pulpit and then take solace in the fact that a messiah like figure will come down from the sky and relieve us of all our sufferings. History is the judge, till date no messiah has come down from the sky, but they grow up on this earth among the community.
If we had used these energies constructively (create that messiah among ourselves) to look for the solution of this problem the scenario would have been completely different. We have seen that the Muslim community in south of India are in much better position than those in the north; albeit still below the level of other community. The basic reason is that the Muslims in the south have understood the need of education and have set up institutions to provide the same. The end result is that they are economically as well as hygienically better off.
It is rightly said that that when God wants to denounce a community, the first and foremost thing that he takes away from it is the power to think rightly. If this community wants to come out of the backwardness, it should first make it imperative on itself to focus all of its energy to get literate.