Dr Tasneem Meenai

Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, Indian

The model of Indian pluralism and the place of Indian Muslims as a minority group

Abstract

The complex mosaic of the pluralistic Indian society makes it imperative to analyse the quantum/quality of participation of its largest minority, the Muslims. After 60 years of sovereign democratic existence, a need exists to understand the social, religious and political postulates defining the state of Muslim existence within an economically/technologically progressive nation state powered by the borderless IT revolution. The thesis will highlight current state of Indian Muslims in the context of a secular state faced with the follow through of historical politico-religious fault lines. This paper will explore the pluralist model adopted in India, which ensures the Indian Muslims the freedom to pursue and manage social, religious and educational institutions.

The paper will focus on an important aspect of Muslim society, namely their traditional system of education, its evolution and its role in enhancing their capacity to share the development process in India. Does the traditional system of education empower the Muslims? Does it enable them to compete and excel in the business of life and vocation to earn a healthy & progressive individual existence? How does it facilitate the inclusion of Indian Muslims into development strategies adopted by the successive Indian governments? And finally how do these institutions achieve the aforementioned within the framework of religion tagged with the compulsion to preserve a post-partition/post-independence identity?

The predicament facing Indian Muslims today is how best to share the contemporary social space while retaining a historically distinct religious identity.  In addition, specifics of gender empowerment through education imbibe sensitivities comparable to the very definition of a minority Muslim identity. Further, the issue also has a tangent potential to cut across the religious divide, possibly redefining the identity dialogue. Notwithstanding, the potential role of education in promoting social harmony and understanding while equipping the community to participate in the development process remains a crucial objective. In this context one can appreciate the need for Islamic education to interface with other parallels of society and evolve an enlightened moderation. A possible mechanics would be to provide professional interfaces by interleaving scientific/technical and vocational content. This could result in better employment opportunities and boost professional empowerment of the Muslims. The opportunity would also enhance their contribution towards social development and national progression.

Despite various constructs and formulations proposed for new institutional mechanisms, the need for modernization of the Madrassa system of education is hampered by slow institutional progress and overlap of minority politics. The negatives of such an evolution robs the Muslim youth of the comparative progress experienced by other Indian constituents. The heterogeneous nature of Indian society and the compulsions of co-existence would necessitate adoption of measures to evolve educational institutions, which could also precipitate in a possible model of conflict resolution based on the Indian experience.

Bio

Dr. Tasneem Meenai is Reader at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has earlier worked as Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi on the research project titled “Role of Multilateral Institutions in Conflict Resolution”. She has also taught Political Science at the Aligarh Muslim University for a number of years.

Dr. Meenai is teaching Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies at the Nelson Mandela Centre (NMCPCR). She has been involved in Curriculum Development at the NMCPCR for teaching of the Certificate Course in Peace Keeping and Conflict Resolution and the P.G. Diploma Course in Conflict Analysis and Peace Building. She has also developed course modules for the M.A. programme in Conflict Analysis and Peace Building to be implemented from the current academic year (2007).