By Parth Gupta
The Yogi Adityanaths Government in Uttar Pradesh has issued an order to all madrasas affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Shiksha Parishad to organise Independence Day this year in a particular manner. According to the circular issued to deputy directors and district welfare officers of Department of Minority Welfare, all madrasas will have to hoist the Tricolour, and sing the national anthem at 8 am on August 15th. After the flag hoisting, there should be a speech on the importance of freedom struggle. The students will have to sing patriotic songs as a tribute to the freedom fighters. Later, they are also expected to take part in sports’ events. It is mandatory that all activities should be recorded.
Giant misstep
As expected, the BJP came under gross criticism after these directives came into the spotlight. Especially when the Government is reeling from the death of 60 children in Gorakhpur hospital due to the negligence of Government officials. Mahtab Amrohi, the manager of the Mehraj-ul-Uloom Madrasa in Amroha, said that the Governments monitoring was aimed at creating suspicion and singling out Muslim community. Suhebur Rehman, the Allahabad-based convener of the All-India United Ulema Forum, said the BJP Government was targeting Muslims by asking them to produce proof of their patriotism.
“Have they sent a similar notice to Sanskrit schools, municipalities, schools, colleges and other institutions? Why are they examining the patriotism only of Muslims?”
asked Mr Rehman.
Governments conditional aid
However, the Minority Welfare Minister, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary defended the ordinance saying,
“Madrasas get funds from the Government and are supposed to celebrate the national festivals.”
He also said that through cultural programmes, students will be made aware of their rich history of freedom struggle. At present, around 8,000 madrassas in UP are recognised by the Madarsa Shiksha Parishad. Among these, 560 are completely aided by the state. It doesnt come as a surprise that most of the Madarsas, government-funded or not, celebrate the Independence Day every year.
Completely changing the tone of the argument, government officials said the purpose was recording good programmes.
“The order was issued with a good intention. It clearly says that the videography is for the purpose of promoting good programmes.”
said Rahul Gupta, Registrar, Madrasa Shiksha Parishad, who issued the order. However, if that was the case, the Government shouldve sent their own officials to record the proceedings, and not demanded Madrasas to submit proofs. Additionally, it should have reached out to non-Muslim bodies to record such programmes too.
Proving patriotism
Every order given by BJP seems to be dictated by the RSS, and same is the case with this one. Hoisting of the flag or celebrating the Independence Day isnt the problem; but the way Muslim communities are asked to submit a proof of the same is an issue. In spite of receiving Government funds, madrasas have a religious affiliation. Patriotism and religion ought to be two different spheres, completely exclusive of each other. Patriotism cant be imposed on religious institutions by legal but unconstitutional executive orders.
Having said that, Deoband fatwa on 14th August 2015 also ordered all Muslims to hoist the Indian National flag at their homes, which was logically and logistically frivolous. As in the past, constitutional and religious bodies try to impose certain conditions on particular sections of the society. The more these institutions try to impose celebrations of national/religious/cultural festivals, the more citizens will lose faith in the system. The directive issued by the UP Government couldve been modified in such a way that it doesnt isolate Madrasas from other institutions. It could have asked all institutions receiving Government aids to record the celebrations, to highlight good programmes.
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