Eid al-Fitr is Mohammed Aashyan’s favorite calendar time. However, this year’s festival remains as dissatisfied and anxious as the fifteen-year-old has, as uncertainty is vaguely visible in one and only dreams. All he hopes is to be the first person in many generations in his family, who can read the holy book of Islam, the Quran.
The students of Madarsaa Irshad-ul-Uloom in Aashyan are one of hundreds of students from 136 Medarsaas (School of Islamic Studies) who were locked down in the month of March by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government says these Madrasa people are operating “illegally” and are not suitable for granting “proper” education to children. Sources said about 500 such agencies in the state violated the norms and would be closed in the coming days.
“Madrasas is the place where my kids use to have a full meal, twice a day because I can’t make enough money to feed my family of seven. The teacher uses it to pack my kids, schoolbags, books, and even clothes for winter clothes. Now, I have to take my kids to the brick kiln. Work here. In summer, my calories are passionate in summer.”
He recalls that Naphis did not write it down, as did his father, grandfather and great-grandson father. He sent the daughter of his three daughters to a government primary school in the village, but said they had little education because only two teachers gave so many students.
A report submitted by the Uttarakhand Rural Development and Immigration Prevention Commission last month showed that 1,149 primary schools in the state operate without teachers and about 50% of public primary schools do not have principals. It added that schools from Level 1 to 8 were most affected.
Maulana Haroon, head of Madarsaa Irshad-ul-Uloom in Roorkee, claimed he had applied for registration for the Uttarakhand Madrasa board, but the board only convened a meeting between 2019 and 2025, and they approved the registration application.
“If the registration process is so slow, how should we get permission,” he said, adding that he is not only teaching Islamic religious topics, but even basic Hindi, English, mathematics and science, but also in Madeirasa so that students do not fall behind in other parts of the world.
Abdul Rehman, a teacher at Madrasa Jamiul Uloom in the Sakhaspur region of Dehradun, said the government sealed the 40-year-old Madrasa building part, noting that the new building was not approved by the authorities. His Madrasa has all the necessary registrations.
“This was built in 1971. The map was not required to be approved at the time. All we did was to build the third floor in Madeirasa because the second and the first one were leaking in the rain. It was difficult to get classes on the ground floor. We asked them to give us time to apply for a permit, but they refused, but they refused.
Mohammed Azim, 13, is a student of the 9th class of Dehradun Global School, who is used to attend evening classes to read the Quran on Anwariya Hafatul Uloom in the small Makhtab (Islamic Studies Tuition) in the Bharuwala area. His tuition fees were also sealed in suppression. He and his friends are now looking for another night’s tuition, but the challenge is that most people are afraid of sealing.
Jamiat Ulema Hindu, secretary of Khursheed Ahmed Siddique, said the group has now moved to the Supreme Court to seek relief for students who are now deprived of their education, just because the national government “pursues a specific community.” He claimed that sealing Madrasas was a “political motivation” to continue to “severe” suppression of Magyar’s repression and bring laws like the Unifom Civil Law, all he said was targeting “Muslims.”
“The purpose is not to provide children with a quality education, but to ensure that Muslims are prohibited from learning and practicing their religion. They have closed not only Madrasas, but also Makhtabu’s religion, which is just teaching children to read the tuition fees for arbi, which is written in the Quran,” said Mr. Siddiki.
He added that students in Makhtab do not need affiliation because students who come here for hours at night are day learners.
With the future of all students in Madrasas hanging on the hangout, Uttarakhand’s Child Rights Group Lurch had asked the government to ensure everyone was admitted to the school. Government sources say that all of these students are compiling the list and taking necessary actions.
In response to allegations related to registration and repression, Mufti Shamoon Qasmi, chairman of the Education Board of Uttarakhand Madrasa, said that even if the MDRASA board of directors held a meeting within five years, they had only received 88 applications for registration.
“Of course of these 88 applications, we approved 49 institutions in February, and 37 institutions were required to comply with the norms. We also renewed the registration of 48 Madrasas.”
He added that Makhtab is certainly not Madrasas and if they are sealed, the owners need to give the board in writing that they are just doing the evening tuition and they will make a request to the government to cancel their attention.
publishing – April 7, 2025 09:51 AM IST
