Bimal Pramanik and Purnima Naskar
For a long time the glaring facts of Bangladeshi infiltration in West Bengal were restricted to brief (if not apologetic) reports in the Indian news media (both electronic and print) till the visible emergence of BJP in Delhi and West Bengal. And also, there was an undeclared prohibition on a discussion of Islamic terrorism because of the undeclared policy of Muslim appeasement of the Left Front, Congress and Trinamul Congress in West Bengal. Words like ‘infiltration’ ‘terrorism’ etc. were avoided by the so called secular parties due to vote bank politics. As a result, terrorists get safe corridor in this state and the normally high growth rate of Muslim population becomes higher due to infiltration; on the other side, this tends to strengthen to sectarian politics of Hindu too. Till today, not a single word has been spent by the Chief Minister of West Bengal on the infiltration problem. Not even a single statement has been issued on the recent Khagragarh (Burdwan) blast and involvement of several private madrassas in West Bengal. It is a ‘dangerous silence’ for the state government. A hidden fear of losing Muslim votes is haunting her. Are the ordinary Muslims not against this terrorism? Why TMC failed to play a strong role against the vicious links of infiltration and terrorism? One simple logical proposition is, nearly all terrorists are Muslims, but all Muslims are not terrorists. Why should then the Muslim community as a whole feel irritated by any discussion regarding relations between terrorists and madrassas? May be someone related with these madrassas can be irritated. Apart from that, all Muslim youths are not madrassa students and all of them do not subscribe to the terrorist mindset. Why then the TMC suffers from a fear to lose Muslim votes?
Is there any need of madrassa education in the twenty first century? The need of the hour is an open discussion on this topic. Where are the difficulties? Madrassas may be necessary for religious education, but terrorists are using these institutes to fulfill their purposes. It is not only true in West Bengal or India; it is also true in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Syria and other countries in the world. Now it is amply clear like day light, madrassas are used to spread terrorism in most of the South Asian countries. And majority of the victims are Muslims as in Pakistan. So, how many madrassas are really needed to teach religion in this state of West Bengal, and what are the ways to control them properly; it is not merely a subject/affecting non-Muslims, it should be a matter of concern to the Muslim community also.
Terrorism represents a vital component of the problem of large scale infiltration though Indo- Bangladesh border. Though infiltration is a reality, it is not possible for the Indian people to welcome this extra burden of population. A clear government policy should be enunciated on this matter, and a wide discussion is needed in the society. It is not simply a religious problem; it is a problem of society, economy and polity.
Bangladesh Link: In the nineteen eighties, planned migration from Bangladesh conformed to the lebensraum theory, which was encouraged by most of the Indian Muslims in the border states under the protection and patronization of some political and social forces of India’s Eastern and North Eastern region. This continuous infiltration from across the border is slowly and steadily changing the demographic pattern in the border areas, especially in the States of West Bengal and Assam. This changed demographic scenario easily lends itself to disrupting social harmony. Already it has taken a shape of demographic invasion in the region, which is threatening our secular polity and national security. This is a religio–cultural process taking place in a geographical space considered to be strategically important. Thus the emergence of Bangladesh has created in the North- Eastern States of India certain conditions conducive to Islamisation. At least three factors, facilitating the process of Islamisation, are obvious. First, strangely enough, whatever Islamisation has occurred in these parts of North- Eastern and Eastern India has happened within a secular political environment. Secondly, the appeasement of aliens for the purpose of garnering votes and the continuous anti-Centre stance have been conducive to the expansion of a psyche of Islamisation. Thirdly, a weak undefined and unorganized secular frame has failed to combat the process of Islamisation.
A lot of information has been published on madrassa related terrorist networks in West Bengal and Assam in particular, and India in general. Now is the right time for discussion and thinking of its political and social implications especially in the context of Bangladeshi thoughts in the nineteen eighties regarding it. Leading Bangladeshi strategic analysts and members of the intelligentsia introduced the theory of lebensraum in the 1980s. They claim that their right to settle in India’s eastern and north-eastern states is to be considered as the natural course of overriding, what is to them, an unacceptable political demarcation of the border.
Growing population pressure and crippling poverty and pauperization of the marginal rural masses in Bangladesh encouraged, if not forced, them to put the agenda of migration as a life and death question. In the mean time, the consolidation of Islamic forces was apparent. Islamists adopted the agenda of a greater Islamic region as a grand political strategy. Although it was an emotional issue of Sheikh Mujib, later it became a political and strategic issue with the support of Pakistan. Besides, both sides of the Indo-Bangladesh border are inhabited by a population which is ethnically, linguistically and religiously identical. It has thus become easy for the insurgent outfits to wage a proxy war at an unpublicized level. The costs and risks of this war are low, and yet it destabilizes the security of eastern and north eastern India. Harkat-ul-Mujahidin(HuM), Bangladesh Jamat-e-Islami (BJI), etc. and their counterparts in India are reaping benefits with the help of some local Indian political and social forces for spreading their terrorist networks in West Bengal, Assam and other states in India. The links with the TMC of West Bengal are expected to be elaborately uncovered by the investigation of National Investigating Agency (NIA). New information is coming out regularly from the investigative agencies. Therefore the people of West Bengal are passing through turbulent times.
Madrassa is an important factor for the spread of terrorism
Madrassa education is considered as a strictly religious education for common Muslim masses in their community. Setting it in a larger social frame, the madrassa system should obviously be deemed to be socially sectarian as the Muslim population remains only one component in a broader frame of the society. The education system is considered relevant especially with a vision to shape the mind-set of a child so that students would grow with rigorously Muslim religious, cultural and social orientation. This is significant because in a non-homogenous social frame like that in West Bengal, this kind of religious education shall initiate a separatist approach in the mind and heart of some children in relation to others living in the society.
During the last three and half decades, a planned and conscious effort has been made to popularize madrassa education among the Muslims under both the government and private initiatives in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Even an initiative has been taken to attract a section of poor Sc/St of Hindu communities to this education, who is almost permanently poor and hence vulnerable. This is a kind of ominous imposition upon a non-Muslim segment of people when their young minds are subjected to a sort of subtle conversion of faith. In this controversial dusky zone, madrassa education remains highly imaginative with much new potential. The Government of West Bengal has taken an initiative to bring new madrassas under the fold of a Madrassa Education Board which is parallel to the West Bengal Secondary Education Board. A lot of students are coming to the madrassas. After passing higher secondary level education (Fazil), they get admitted in the colleges or other higher educational institutions , but the number is too small in comparison to total student strength, though numbers of students are much higher in the private khariji/ or Qawmi madrassas in West Bengal.
Madrassa /religious education has taken a firm root in the Muslim society since long. Now modern education has over-taken the main stream of the society instead of religious education. But madrassa/ religious education is still popular and is a parallel system which is equally getting importance in the society of West Bengal and Bangladesh , i.e. in the Bengali Muslim society, particularly in the poor and lower–middle class income group. Not only it is a low cost education but also a large number of madrassas provide free food and lodging for the poor students. Importance is given on the Arabic language and Islamic theology in the private madrassas because the Muslim society is still being dominated by the fundamentalist Moulanas /Moulvis and Imams. A fascinating tendency in the Muslim society to read the Koran / religious scripts and perform namaj, wearing caps, keeping beard, etc. in the Bangla-speaking region has been noticebly on the rise during the last few decades.
After the birth of Bangladesh, such continuous indoctrination further developed into a jehadi attitude towards West Bengal. It needs hardly to be stressed that in West Bengal a sectarian syllabus of teaching history of pre-Partition Bengal along with Marxist historiography, so popular in Bengal, can cause a deep degeneration of the liberal cultural foundation of the Indian nation. Added to it, one should not lose sight of certain recent unhappy features during the last two and a half decades when new militant thrust of madrassa education has acquired a momentum in West Bengal.
Madrassa education was never a secular and modern education system. Even enlightened sections of civil societies of Bangladesh and Pakistan opine that communalism and Islamic fundamentalism are spreading through this education. It is difficult for us to understand, how the Left Front and TMC governments of West Bengal discovered secular elements in this traditional religious education. The students who are coming to get admitted in the government recognized madrassas had their primary level education (I-IV) completed through private madrassas, where there is no government syllabus or control. There they learn mainly Arabic and religion based education. There are rather case of exception when those who have passed from the primary level of private madrassas are getting admitted in the normal high schools. Moreover, their thought process and outlook are never free from the views of religious indoctrination even when they have gone through so-called secular madrassa education introduced by the government of West Bengal. No positive influence has been seen in the entire Muslim society even after introduction of new courses in the madrassa education systems in 1988/89. If Moulana/Moulvi and Headmen of the Muslim society have not lost interest in government madrassa education, how can so many private madrassas (khariji/ Quami) proliferate in West Bengal ? Emergence of radical Islamic forces and pouring of foreign money to build mosques and madrassas in this region are also an important factor.
The Government of West Bengal has taken initiatives to appease a large section of Muslims in the name of modernization of madrassa education. But actually, the government is pushing them backward in the socio- cultural transformation process of human society. It cannot be denied that vested interest is active behind these so called progressive steps. A large section of the Muslim masses in rural Bengal tend to favour private madrassas including Khariji/ Qawmi madrassas, ignoring government aided and guided madrassa courses. These private madrassas pursue syllabus that is not only soaked in radical Islamic fundamentalism, they are also grooming centres of pro-Taliban activities, which have already been visible in the madrassas of Bangladesh and Pakistan. When a ‘madrassa child’ becomes a ‘madrassa boy’ and prepares himself to grow-up, his educational background makes him totally alienated from the modern conscious stream of the twenty first century and forces him to be a different sort of man. The after-effect of madrassa education in West Bengal can in no way be different from that a Bangladesh and Pakistan. Madrassa education in the rural West Bengal is affecting family planning and health awareness programmes. Most of the women , who are willing to take birth control measures, have to refrain from them for the fear of Talak by their husbands and biddings of the society–Imams and Moulanas are deadly against birth control programmes and they themselves are the leaders of the society in most of the cases. For this reason, government /non-government family planning programme in the rural Muslim society is a complete failure. As a result, not only Muslim population grows rapidly but also success of poverty alleviation programmes becomes harder. Consequently a large number of poverty–ridden backward people under religions influence are bound to accept cost free or low cost madrassa education as an inevitable destiny.
Most of the active radical Islamic groups build their support bases and recruit cadres from these madrassas. Curriculum and environment of these madrassas are very much conducive to help grow a communal outlook and intolerance to other faiths among the students. ISI, HuM, BJI and some other organizations and agencies of Bangladesh with their counter parts in India are very much active in West Bengal to encourage radical Islamic ideas among the backward Muslim masses and trying to generate an inflammable situation. Khagragarh (Burdwan) blast is a glaring example for this situation. Emphasis is also given to consolidate Islamic unity and madrassa education. Already some political groups are vocal in favour of private madrassa education and Muslim consolidation against NIA investigation (to unearth terror networks) and the role of the Central government. If one raises voice against prejudices and medieval outlook of the Muslim clergy even from their own society, he will be condemned as a kafir. In fact, this mentality of the Muslim society contradicts the Indian ethos of “unity in diversity”.
References:
- Bimal Pramanik, ‘Madrassa education in West Bengal: An overview’, Dialogue, New Delhi, April—June, 2007
- Bimal Pramanik, ‘Endangered Demography’, A book on the demographic imbalance in West Bengal, CRIBR, Kolkata, 2005
- Semonti Ghosh, Anandabazar Patrika, 31st October, 2014
*Director, Centre for Research in Indo-Bangladesh Relations, Kolkata.
** M. Phil. thesis submitted, Calcutta University.
(Published in Dialogue, January-March 2015, New Delhi).