Patna: Hindu students in Bihar are fast turning to madrasas to get school-leaving degrees in what many feel is a scripting of a new chapter in communal harmony in the eastern Indian state.
Authorities said this year a total of 47 Hindu students have cleared Class 10 (Fauquania) and Class 12 (Maulvi) examinations conducted by the Bihar State Madrasa Education Board. Last year, their number was around 40.
Hindu students are turning to madrasas for degrees because they want to learn Arabic, Persian and other modern subjects and Islamic traditions with an eye on jobs in the Gulf and in embassies of Muslim countries.
Love for Urdu
However, there are also many students who enrolled out of their sheer love for Urdu which has been declared as the second official language in Bihar.
“Many of the Hindu students passed with very good marks and their performance is even better than those of Muslim students. This is something which has gladdened us a lot,” Bihar State Madarsa Education Board secretary Mustafa Hussain Mansouri said.
The development has come as a welcome change in caste-ridden Bihar with many finding in it an indirect reply to Hindu fanatics who allege “madrasas preach hatred and extremism”.
“If both Hindus and Muslims are studying under the same roof, there can’t be anything better … Madrasas are a source of learning; it’s not just for any particular community,” says Professor Imtiyaz Ahmad, director of Khudabaksha Oriental Library in Patna.
Large number of Hindus clearing Madarsa examination in Bihar
June 16, 2011 •