DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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99 computers. In 2001-02 a total of 1,654,000 was given to all madrassas which accepted this help. As the number of students is 1,065,277 this comes to Rs. 1.55 per student per year. An additional aid of Rs. 30.45 million is promised for providing computers and changing the syllabi in 2003-04 and this will come to Rs. 28.60 per student per year (these figures are from IPS 2002 table 1.17 and 1.19). However, as all madrassas do not accept financial help from the government the money is not distributed evenly as the above calculations might suggest. According to the Jamia Salfia of Faisalabad, the annual expenditure on the seminary, which has about 700 students, is 40,00,000 rupees. Another madrassa, this time a Barelvi one, gave roughly the same figure for the same number of students. This comes to Rs 5,714 per year (or Rs 476 per months) which is an incredibly small amount of money for education, books, board and lodging. As the madrassas generally do not charge a tuition fees---though they do charge a small admission fees which does not exceed Rs 400--- they attract very poor students who would not receive any education otherwise. According to Fayyaz Hussain, a student who competed his ethnographic research on Jamia Ashrafia of Lahore in 1994, students joined the madrassa for the following reasons:- Box 5.3 Causes of Joining Madrassas Given by Students Economic 48.95 per cent Social 40.63 per cent Religious 5.71 per cent Educational 3.12 per cent Political 2.09 per cent Source: Hussain 1994 : 84 The categories have not been explained by the author nor is it known exactly what questions were asked from the students. According to Singer, the ‗Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania, one of the most popular and influential Madrassahs (it includes most of the Afghani Taliban leadership among its alumni)---has a student body of 1500 boarding
100 students and 1000 day students, from 6 years old upwards. Each year over 15,000 applicants from poor families vie for its 400 open spaces‘ (Singer 2001). According to a survey conducted by Mumtaz Ahmad in 1976 ‗more than 80 percent of the madrassa students in Peshawar, Multan, and Gujranwala were found to be sons of small or landless peasants, rural artisans, or village imams of the mosques. The remaining 20 percent came from families of small shopkeepers and rural laborers‘ (quoted from Ahmad 2000: 185). The present researcher also observed that many students, upon probing, confessed that their parents had admitted them in the madrassas because they could not afford to feed them and educate them in the government schools. Even such students, while making this confession, also insist that they are in the madrassas because of their love for Islam. In the survey of December 2002 and January 2003, madrassa students and teachers were asked about their income. Many did not reply these questions but those who did suggest that they mostly (76.62%) belong to poor sections of society (see Annexure-1 for details). The teachers of the madrassas also mostly (61.11%) belong to the same socio-economic class as their students (see Annexure-1 for details). The madrassas provide sustenance for all these poor people. In short the madrassas are performing the role of the welfare state in the country. This being so, their influence on rural people and the poorer sections of the urban proletariat will continue to increase as poverty increases. Poverty and the Roots of Religious Violence While it can only be speculated that there is a connection between poverty and religious violence, the proposition does have empirical backing. Qasim Zaman tells us, for instance, that in Jhang---the birth place of the militant Sunni organization called the Sipah-i-Sahaba---the proportion of Shias in the affluent urban middle class is higher than other areas of Pakistan. Moreover, the feudal gentry too has many Shia families. Thus the Sipah-i-Sahaba appeals to the interests of the ordinary people who are oppressed by the rich and the influential. Indeed, Maulana Haqq Nawaz, the fiery preacher who raised much animosity against the Shias, was ‗himself a man of humble origin‘ and ‗had a reputation for being much concerned with the welfare of the poor and the helpless, and he was known to regularly spend time at government courts helping out poor illiterate litigant‘s (Zaman 2002: 125).
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DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS: A Study o
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2 List of Abbreviations Glossary Pr
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4 Jihad Madrassa Maktab Maulvi Muns
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6 being unsupported by any institut
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8 CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION There are
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10 Another book, by Naseem Jaffer Q
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12 Let us keep in mind that Pakista
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14 ones. There is much new data in
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16 quarters with the sole object of
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18 capable of being employed in sub
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20 (GOP 2003: 159). Examples of the
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22 It was in this document that the
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24 Because of such laws, academics
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26 strengthening unity of the ou
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28 Thus, their role in universaliza
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30 whereas provincial government sc
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32 Dr. Qurat began this work in 199
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34 Thus the most representative of
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36 Most of the 25,995,068 (GOP 2002
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38 Class-6 Class-7 Class-8 Class-9
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40 Conclusion: the Muslims from the
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42 B.A (B. Ed) 16 14,099 Headmaster
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44 abroad. Their families are conse
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46 possible that Pakistan and India
Page 49 and 50: 48 Gender-wise Tabulation of Attitu
Page 51 and 52: 50 the madrassas and those whose pa
Page 53 and 54: 52 charge tuition ranging between R
Page 55 and 56: 54 schools, whether the administrat
Page 57 and 58: 56 Box 4.5 Average tuition fees per
Page 59 and 60: 58 non-elitist schools, as we have
Page 61 and 62: 60 parents of the Badin PAF Model S
Page 63 and 64: 62 national language is given at be
Page 65 and 66: 64 Aitchison 196 Kohat 144 Larkana
Page 67 and 68: 66 Militancy Among Cadet College/Pu
Page 69 and 70: 68 These figures should be taken wi
Page 71 and 72: 70 Box 4.14 Tolerance Among Elitist
Page 73 and 74: 72 1997 21 34 1998 20 31 Source: An
Page 75 and 76: 74 children mostly speaking in Khan
Page 77 and 78: 76 world. This war is represented a
Page 79 and 80: 78 This fluency and spontaneity in
Page 81 and 82: 80 believed—that the best ideas w
Page 83 and 84: 82 English novels filling us up on
Page 85 and 86: 84 The Peripatetic Tutor Arif Khan
Page 87 and 88: 86 CHAPTER-5 MADRASSAS The madrassa
Page 89 and 90: 88 Box 5.2 Sect-Wise Increase in th
Page 91 and 92: 90 (Sharia) was the path to mystica
Page 93 and 94: 92 modern subjects in some measure
Page 95 and 96: 94 taught there, even now---and the
Page 97 and 98: 96 controversial issues‘ (Ibid, p
Page 99: 98 appalling poverty of rural, peri
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DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

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