Leading by Example? Women Madrasah Teachers in Rural North India

Abstract

Muslims are contemporary India's largest religious minority, comprising about 13 percent of the total population in 2001. This chapter focuses on the ustānīs (women teachers) employed by a madrasah in rural Bijnor district, where a central aim of the madrasah's educational regime was to inculcate habits of bodily cleanliness, demure manners, and refined speech appropriate to the good Muslim. As they tried to transform their pupils from illiterate and uncouth villagers ( jāhil dihātī ) into young people able to perform the social graces and courtesies ( adab ) of the urbane ( ḵhush aḵhlāq ), the ustānīs and their male colleagues alike deployed contrasts that were heavily freighted with value judgments: between the cultured poise and wellbred polish of the urban middle classes and the ill-bred and coarse vulgarity of loutish rustics devoid of civilization. Keywords:Muslims; north India; ustānīs; women madrasah teachers