By Abdul Rashid Agwan, MuslimMirror.com
The Udaipur region in southern part of Rajasthan is making headlines these days, but for wrong reasons. The cold blooded murder of a Muslim labor in Rajsamand by a communally charged man, the subsequent demonstrations of Muslims in Udaipur and other cities of the region against the heinous crime and counter demonstrations by communal outfits in support of the callous killer have almost destabilized these days the social fabric of what traditionally called as the princely Mewar.
Amidst such a situation, it was not easy to travel to Udaipur with a Muslim identity. However, I, my daughter and her ten year son had to make it on 23rd December. The visit did not have any political motive but an educational one. My daughter Naheed Fatima was to receive gold medal for her academic performance in the Mohanlal Sukhadia University for MA in Urdu for the year 2016 and I was to join her at that proud moment.
While witnessing the convocation, I started counting Muslim names announced for conferring PhD and awarding gold medals for their excellence in graduation and post-graduation, along with many others. There was not a communal feeling in my mind but some sort of curiosity to note how Muslims were doing in higher education in that backward part of a state which itself has long been bracketed among ‘BIMRU’ states of the country.
To my surprise, the number of Muslim students felicitated at the 25th convocation of the university was almost satisfactory. This I can say because I also had spent almost seven years with the university in its previous incarnation as the University of Udaipur some four decades back, as student of MSc zoology, research scholar and assistant professor of one of its affiliate colleges. At that time, it was very difficult to locate a Muslim student in the university. Mr Vaseem Khan, former president of the central student union of the university in 2001, recently admitted in a public function that during his time only a dozen Muslim students were there in the campus and he won his election as the first Muslim student leader due to vast support of cross-sections of students of the university.
The convocation led me to think that, perhaps, the situation is gradually changing for better.
Mohanlal Sukhadia University, which was given its current name in 1984, presently has 4 constituent colleges and 165 affiliated colleges with an enrollment of 1.1 lakh students, spread in eight districts of the southern Rajasthan; namely Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Rajsamand, Dungarpur, Banswara, Sirohi and Pratapgarh. Out of the total population of 13,268,492 persons in these districts according to the census 2011, the estimated Muslim population is of 511,815 persons only. Thus, the average Muslim population in the districts served by the university comprises 3.86% of the overall population.
The convocation list of 2016 reveals that out of 207 fellows who were conferred PhD by the chancellor and the state governor Shri Kalyan Singh on the day, 8 were Muslims. This is 3.86% of the total research scholars and exactly matching with the demographic strength of the community in the given districts. The number of recipients of gold medals at graduation and post-graduation levels was 78. Of them, 10 were Muslims, making it to be 12.82% of the overall awardees. This is thrice more than the demographic ratio of the Muslim community in the region.
This is quite revealing a fact, which may make the local people feel contented.
However, the gender share among the honored students was shocking. Out of the 18 distinct Muslim students, only 4 were males, i.e. 22% and the rest were females. This matches with similar asymmetrical gender attainment trends in most parts of the country.
One more surprising fact that emerges from the analysis is that most scholars have chosen commerce and management for pursuing their doctoral engagement whereas one was conferred PhD in botany and two others in Urdu literature. Farheen, Mohsin Khan, Gherjuddin MA Khan, Nida Shireen and Tarannum Hussain did their PhD in banking and business economics and Masooma Quazi’s research work was in botany. Tarannum Mansoori and Fahim Ashraf did their PhD in Urdu literature.
The discipline-wise composition of the Muslim gold medalists was like this: Khushnoor Bano (BA Sanskrit), Yasmin Bano (BBA), Alisha Hussain (BBM), Mohd. Suhail (BSc Chemistry), all four in undergraduate courses and Heena Parveen (MA Urdu Non-Semester), Naheed Fatima (MA Urdu Semester), Faiza Khan (MA English), Aysha Julka (MA Economics), Tanveer Bano (MSc Chemistry Non-Semester) and Asara Bano (MSc Chemistry Semester). Thus, in the non-doctoral courses, the number of students in arts comprised 5, those in management two and science 3.
It is evident here that contrary to the PhD fellows, the younger students seems more inclined to arts subjects than commerce and management, almost matching with the changing landscape of education in the country.
The convocation list of the Sukhadia University 2016 is indicative of the fact that Muslim women of the region are performing better in higher education than their counterparts. They are studying in very challenging situations, but of course, with the support of their families. This appeared to me when I met some families of the outstanding Muslim students after the function.
Among them, I met the family of Aysha Julka, now an aspirant of civil services, and came to know that she and her two sisters and one brother, belonging to a farmer’s family of a remote village of Chittaurgarh district, have been pursuing higher education at different levels. Her one sister is in the previous year of MSc Physics and another has recently joined MBBS.
The case of my own daughter also deserves mention here. She did her BFA from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, in 2004, got married the next year and meanwhile became mother of two sons. After a decade, her wish to study further became strong enough to complete her post-graduation. She used to travel by bus along with her unmarried cousins almost 200 km a day for joining classes. Thus, for two years, she toiled a lot and committed many sacrifices for her passion.
It may be inferred here that the situation in terms of educational achievements of the local Muslim community in higher education is fast improving and needs further support and guidance to younger generations of the area for enhancing their visibility in the campus.
It also requires a peaceful and harmonious society, as the local community has been. Although the area remains a stronghold of conservative Hindu parties from early days of free India, but it never turned as volatile as it is presently. In 1952 general elections, out of the three parliamentarians of Bhartiya Jana Sangh, one was from Chittaurgarh constituency of the region. The erstwhile chief minister of BJP and former Vice-President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, had been sent to the state assembly from Chittaurgarh district once. The BJP’s Vice-President nominee Jaswant Singh had also represented Chittaurgarh in the Parliament two times. In spite of robust political base of communal parties and leaders in the region, communal violence in the area had hardly been worrisome till recently. The situation is presently turning explosive and may affect the promising educational attainments of local Muslims in future. This calls for initiatives leading to development of communal harmony in the area.
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[Author is the president of Institute of Policy Studies and Advocacy, New Delhi]