Knowledge and power in a girls’ madrasa in India: a critical analysis of textbook and curriculum

Abstract

ABSTRACTArticles 28 and 30 of the Indian Constitution (1950) guarantee the right of religious minorities to establish their educational institutions and impart religious education. Analysing the curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogical practices of one such minority-run institution for girls makes it possible for us to see how contemporary Muslims in India transmit religious teaching today in ways that showcase some legacies of the colonial past but also fashion new ways of being and becoming in a rapidly changing and westernising 21st-century environment. This argument is more nuanced than stereotypes that pervade the mainstream media and public sphere about the static, moribund and irrelevant nature of Islamic education in the modern world. Analysing three recurring themes in textbooks and pedagogical practices of a girls’ madrasa located in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India, this article illustrates how Islam is interpreted, debated, and adapted to contemporary reality by Indian Muslims in a specific educational setting, in a larger political context where they are an embattled minority. The article argues that textbook knowledge and choice of curriculum influence the process of socialisation and identity formation in girls. This article explores the self-perception of the Muslim community in India through the medium of textbooks and curriculum in a community-run school.