Creating Muslimness in unrecognized Madrasas in South Asia

• In Event: Multiple roles of religion in building security, trust, and belonging within educational institutions and pupils

Proposal

This research investigates on how Madrasas as Islamic school try to defend and maintain "Muslimness (appearance of Muslims, what Muslims should behave)" in case of Bangladesh. For the last three decades, the number of recognised Madrasas in Bangladesh has increased from 3,739 (1985) to 9,303(2017) despite the booming of regular school education. Furthermore, unrecognised madrasas have exceeded 20,000 include small-scale madrasas. What are the reasons why even unrecognised madrassas that cannot receive official certificates increase, in Bangladesh where diploma infest? Here it is reasonable to think that madrasas have some strategy to stimulate people's Muslimness, and based on some evidence, the author has investigated the strategy.

Recently, some media pay attention to the recent growth in the number of unrecognised Islamic school "madrasas" throughout South Asia, especially those who belong to the Deobandi sect as the most popular and conservative Islamic way of thinking. However, their its sensational way of reporting madrasas related to with the Taliban in Pakistan has produced the oversimplified image of the madrasa such as a breeding ground of anti-Western political Islamic politics for the poor. There is a problem not to catch Muslims in only one aspect in the manner of such information.
Although recent scholarly works have initiated the attempts to present a more realistic perception of the madrasa in place instead of such a cliché by such as Hefner and Zaman (2007), Humayun (2009) and the other historical or anthropological studies. The research in each field has succeeded to some extent in analysing the specific function of madrasas such as the details of educational, political and social functions, but there is no research which focused on comprehensive analysis by synthesising the multiple functions of madrasas. However, in order to know and clarify madrasas' policy which utilise those functions and what kind of strategies are being created to invite students to madrasas, it is necessary to conduct hypothesis generation like synthesising each function of the madrasa. Also, through these studies, it is necessary to update the one-sided understanding that media has a significant impact.

For considering why madrasas are increasing and attracting people, the study tries to propose the research frame which is how the madrasas create and circulate Muslimness. In the study, Madrasa researches in Bangladesh have been intermittent from 2001 to 2018. The field works were mainly visiting researches to the large and small 20 or more madrasas, in which I interviewed principals and teachers who are undertaking Islamic scholars and madrassa teachers. The field works were conducted by visiting 20 schools, which consist from the Hatazari madrasa the most prestigious and most significant within the country to the small madrasas privately owned madrasas such as in rural villages, and interviewed in Bengali to principals, teachers, students and local people. The author had the two research questions in the field works as follows.

1. What functions madrasas have for the creating Muslimness and Islamic knowledge circulation system?

2. What merits for the children or the parents who went or send their children to unrecognised madrasas without getting a secular certificate?

According to the research results, the study revealed from the analysis of interview data as following two points.
First, there are three main functions and the Islamic knowledge circulation system in madrasas through the congestive effectiveness of the functions. The first one is the educational function which is assembling an ideal curriculum and teach students appropriate by using its curriculum. Madrasas in Bangladesh are always consider and examine the meanings of contemporary Islamic knowledge in the contemporary world in the seminars and the classes, and study how Muslims should understand some phenomena in the world. So this function can be said to be the source of Muslimness. The second one is the societal function which is propagation to the people their created Muslimness throughout a kind of culture festival (Waz Mafil), attending ceremonial occasions and asking a donation to villagers during Ramadan season. The third one is the political function which commits to the lobby activities toward the government, mobilise the people to a demonstration that represent Islamic opinions and distribution their monthly journal. By using those three functions, the madrasas create Muslimness which more fit to the contemporary world, then the created Muslimness circulated to the domestic and even to international society.

Second, the study found how madrasas in Bangladesh attract and invite stakeholders such as students and their parents. The madrasas try to keep Islamic consciousness within the society through above three functions, for example the people always and automatically getting messages which mention preparation after the death, ideal Islamic behaviour and going to madrasa if a household has three to four children through Waz Mafils, Mosques, monthly journal and sometimes TV or radio programs. Because the madrasa side must contest with too simplified global information which is informed from the Western as described as above. Furthermore, this situation always stimulates the religious economy and makes donations and religiously related industries vigorous. As a result of that, even the graduates of unrecognised madrasas can access the job regarding religion. Also, if the parents sent their children to a madrasa, it means to obtain a passport to heaven.

Finally, the study tries to conclude that the madrasas in Bangladesh contribute to maintaining ideal Islamic consciousness in the society by creating Muslimness, but also creating religious jobs for substantial madrasa graduates throughout the educational function, societal function and political function. This Muslimness creation process stimulates people's Islamic consciousness and also give socio-economic merits. These create a different religious world than the secure world.


Hefner and Zaman 2007. Schooling Islam-the culture and politics of modern Muslim education, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton university press.
Humayun Kabir 2009. Replicating the Deobandi model of Islamic schooling: the case of a Quomi madrasa in a district town in Bangladesh. In Contemporary South Asia, vol17, no.4: 415-429.

Author

• Tatsuya Kusakabe, Hiroshima University