On December 14, the Assam government passed a cabinet resolution to disband all state-run madrassas and Sanskrit tols (schools) in their cu...
On December 14, the Assam government passed a cabinet resolution to disband all state-run madrassas and Sanskrit tols (schools) in their current avatars. While the madrassas will be converted into regular schools, the tols will become centres of ancient studies, the state’s education minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, announced.
The rationale behind the decision, Sarma said, was to “secularise” education. Earlier in the year, Sarma had said the government “cannot allow teaching religious education with public money”.
But critics say that a reading of the fine-print of the government’s decision suggests it is not quite retreating from religious education. On the contrary, its action appeared to be targeted against the madrassas, which are often vilified as centres of Islamic indoctrination.
“If you read the note, it appears that the madrassas are being made out to be these obscurantist places which have no place in modern times,” said Uddipan Dutta, scientific officer at the Gauhati University’s department of social science. “The tols, though, have been projected as these exalted places of high civilisational learning which need to be given a higher status and therefore should be brought under a university.”
Disbanded madrassas, revamped tols
According to an official press note, starting next April, all state-run madrassas will be brought under...
