MUSLIM EDUCATING IN INDIA

The condition of ‘Muslim education’ is really pathetic in independent India. And this as a matter of concern for many, if not practically but theoretically. However, what w the condition of Muslim Education in the Mughal period, has hardly been a matter of concern of any; probably, because of the fact that the rulers were perpetually been the Muslims in that era.
Later, on the contrary, when the Britishers came to succeed the Muslims, of course against the will of Muslims in mass, the letter became uncompromisingly antagonistic. Thus, the Britishers had been subjected responsible for all the plight of Muslims may it be, educational or economic. Amidst controversy, and inevitable plight of Muslims, India achieved its freedom, as well, as, lost a major part of the country after the name of Pakistan under the consequence of partition.
In the post independent era,  the plight of Muslims became more acute and pathetic. As, all the upper and upper middle class Muslim migrated to Pakistan. As Imteyas Ahmad writes, “The Muslim middle class during British rule was extremely restricted in geographical spread and its size was hence naturally limited. Following partition, the size of the Muslim middle class was further depleted. There are no estimate the extent of migration to Pakistan from each of the social strata among the Muslims. Nonetheless, we would not be wrong if we were to assure that substantial migration took place from amongst the ‘Muslim middle class’ eventually resulting in a heavy reduction of the size of the Muslim middle class in India”. He further explicits, that “education is likely to be exploited by those social strata that are oriented to employment in the professions and government service and that this social strata amongst the Muslims has not only been historically quite small but was further reduced in size following partition when a good number of its members went over to Pakistan in order to each in on the employment opportunities that opened up there in the wake of that country’s establishment. Therefore, the educational backwardness among the Muslims is due not so much to their religious fanaticism or their acute minority complex but rather because of the small size of the social strata whose members can be expected to go in for education as a normal activity”. As yet Muslims are continued to be educationally, socially, economically and politically backward, it becomes an obvious responsibility for every concern citizen to look into the reason and rationale of the backwardness of Muslims in free India. My prime concern, however, is educational. Therefore, to look into the ‘Muslim education in India’, it is necessary to go through, what is available in written quantitatively and qualitatively, about Muslims. This paper has tried its best of present the same. In addition, this paper also takes oath to further investigate into the real position of Muslim education, the methodology of which will be discussed in the concluding part.
In the exercise of writing this paper, it has been observed that a lot has been written on Muslim education, the role of Urdu and Muslim backwardness. But at the same time, hardly any work has been done, which can graphically present the exact position of ‘Muslim education in India’.
As Imteyas Ahmad writes, “Any attempt to discuss Muslim problems in contemporary India is beset with one serious difficulty. The data required to assess the nature of the problem or to estimate its magnitude are just not available. This limitation has produced several complications for an objective assessment of the problems being faced by Muslims in India. For one thing, it has allowed a number of popular clichés and stereotypes about Muslims to persist without any possibility of their being subjected to serious scrutiny. Second, it has allowed all kinds of wild and polemical assertions about Muslims to be pressed without making those pressing such polemical assertions in any way liable to establish that what they are in fact alleging is true, Lastly, it has allowed for a situation where every one can claim expertise to discuss the community, its ethos and orientations, and its problems though more often than not one might be found to have no academic credentials to speak about the subject. Precisely on these country the discussion of the problems being faced by the Muslims in contemporary India must remain uncertain and tentative”.
Keeping in view the above fact that and believing in my observation that hardly any appreciable work has been done on ‘Muslim education’, I have had to strictly and objectively rely upon the written ‘cliches and ‘wild assertions’.
Looking back deep into the Muslim legacy, its hangover and consequences, Dietrich Reetz writes, in terms of ‘Muslim Enlightment’, ‘Indian Muslims who constituted a minority of 21 per cent of the population felt beleaguered both in their true faith and in their social status as compared to other sections of society. After the Islamic Moghul administration gradually gave way to British colonial power in the eighteenth century, Muslim religious thinkers and the tiny former Muslim ruling elite of prices, landlords, administrators and military commanders had to adjust themselves to their crushing fall from power and to the consequences of the minority status of their religious community. As the Muslim ruling elite was mostly connected with feudal and non-commercial activities, it felt severely hurt by the mounting pressures of emerging colonial capitalism. Muslim landed gentry was challenged by up and coming “commercial men” as communications and trade expanded and cash crapping increased. Servicemen of the Moghal army found no employment. Muslims were progressively squeezed out of the local administration where they had occupied a pivotal position so far… The new era of bourgeoisie over mankind had won an impressive political victory in the course of the Great Revolution of the French. It was prepared philosophically by eighteenth century that in the works of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-98) Indian Islam produced a rationalized view of the world that broadly responded to the requirements of the modern age of world wide capitalist transformation”. Reetz, also observes in his analysis that complications were rooted in the structure of the Muslim community in India and in the challenge it faced. By no means did Indian Muslims lived more or less dispersed. Besides a few Muslims of foreign descent, who were employed at the court and in the administration of the Moghuls, they mainly constituted local population groups hailing from different ethnic communities, castes and tribes all over India.
The apathy reached to its height after the mutiny of 1857. The Muslims virtually lost every thing and the Britishers became exclusively anti-Muslim. And the antagonism resulted in a serious deprivation and descrimination of Muslims. However, in the midst of the apathy, Sayyid Ahmad Khan emerged to safeguard the largest linguistic as well as religious minority. According to Dietrich Reetz, Sayyid Ahmad vividly lamented the darkness of the traditional Muslim mind in India. Muslim noble families refused to open Muslim India to new influences. The Sayyid traced the reasons why Indian Muslim kept aloof from English education to four sources: (1) “to their political tradition”, meaning their by gone supremacy in Indian politics; (ii) to their “social customs”, implying contempt for non-oriental English education which they considered inferior and little less than embracing Christianity, (iii) to their “religious belief”, finding philosophy and logic at variance and modern geography and astronomy altogether incompatible with the tenets of Islam; and (iv) to their “poverty”, pointing to their weak social position in different walks of life.
For Sir Sayyid, the pillar of social reform programme was to be education which he saw as the only remedy to “all the socio-political diseases of India”. Though it was not oriental but English education, the Sayyid aimed at because he wanted education of the highest available standard of the time and also understood his task as one of “reform and enlightenment”. Reetz emphasized, “And it was education the Sayyid relied upon most of perfect Indian Muslims much in the same way as the representatives of French and English Enlightment had reasoned with regard to their objectives”.
The reasons are abound, what Sayyid Ahmad strongly perceived is that Oriental Learning was a means to preserve the backwardness of the Indian as it barred them access to modern scientific knowledge. But the dilemma, “Islamic education is based on a myth of unity and strength derinable from the notion of the brotherhood of Islam as well as a belief in cultural superiority, and Islamic schools are a symbol o this myth. On the other hand, secular education is based on the myth of  modernity, nationalism, change, progress and ‘success’ for the meritorious individual. Islamic schools seek as cultural symbols to buttress the Muslim’s sense of unity and superiority but puts them at a distinctive economic disadvantage by foreclosing the children’s options for social mobility. Secular schools equip them for greater participation in a competitive society but erode the myths upon which Islamic education is founded. This naturally posses dilemma of choice in favour of one or the other kind of school, the choice being made in favour of secular education in case of the employment-oriented Muslim  middle class and for religious instruction in the case of the Muslim lower-middle class which sees education in less favourable terms because of the option of reverting to the traditional occupational being always open to its members”.
However, Sayyid Ahmad’s choice of modern education for Muslims at large resulted in a remarkable achievement, so much so that the then Muslims enjoyed a distinct lead over their Hindi counterparts. Paul Brass remarked, “The figures on the proportions of Muslims at school in 1871-72 provided by the major British Provinces at the time showed that, in fact, Muslims were proportionately over-represented in comparison to Hindus in schools and colleges in both the North-Western Provinces and Oudh and that Muslims in those provinces were better represented in this respect than in any other province in British India…. The Muslim educational drive persisted up through 1931, the latest date for which comparative figures for Hindus and Muslims are available….Although Muslims were behind the Hindus in general male literacy in 1881, they gradually closed the gap until they were ahead of the Hindus by 1911 and significantly ahead by 1931. More important politically is the fact that male English literacy among Muslims was consistently higher than among Hindus throughout the period 1891 and 1931 and that the gap in their favour increased during this period”.
Then, there came partition of India and every thing changed like anything. Ather Farouqui clarifies, “After partition the Urdu minority has become more or less the same s the Muslim minority. Even otherwise the problem of the Urdu language is a significant part of the problems of a very large section of Muslim minority in the country. Therefore, while studying the socio-political conditions of Urdu in India it becomes necessary to study the socio-political conditions of Muslims too.  While pondering over the problems of Urdu, we shall have to keep in mind that the Muslims are in the majority within the Urdu linguistic minority”. David Crystal rightly says, that “Language, sooner or later, proves to be a thorn in the flesh of all who govern whether at national or local level”. This proved to be true for the Indian Government also once it got independence. Though Gandhi had mobilized support at the Kanpur session of the Congress in 1925 and a resolution accepting “Hindustani” unacceptable to many. Heated debates took place in he Constituent Assembly as regards the national language of India. After much deliberation it was decided that Hindi in the Devnagri script was to be the official language of the country. In an attempt at developing Hindi after partition, Urdu was relegated to the background. This, however, did not rob it of he character which it had acquired of it being identified as a language of the Muslims. The reiteration of the leaders of Pakistan of Urdu being infact the language of the Muslims and it being patronized by Pakistan as the state language, even though partition had left large Urdu-speaking population which remained behind in India. And consequently Urdu that once occupied a commanding position became an eyesore after partition and began to get victimized,” elaborates Azra Razzack.
There has been all kind of victimization of Urdu despite of the fact that “today the Urdu linguistic minority consists also of a very small number of non-Muslims who otherwise belong to the majority community of the country. These non-Muslims studied Urdu in the pre-independence days when Urdu was the status symbol. This small number of the majority community in the midst of the Urdu linguistic minority is ample evidence of the secular and national character of Urdu in spite of which it has been victim of injustice and cultural deprivation,” Ather Farouqui observes.
There has been long controversy that whether Urdu and Muslims are synonymous. Ather Farouqui asserts, when we look at the partiality committed against Muslims at every stage in Independent India, the dispute certainly does not remain complicated and difficult to comprehend. That is why I feel no hesitation in saying that Urdu and Urdu education may be observed only with the reference to Muslim in post-independence India. He further claims, “Today most of the students getting Urdu education at the primary or secondary level or taking it as an optional subject are Muslims across the country. The discussion of Urdu’s association with the question of bread and butter is also connected to this very topic”. P. Abdul Kareem, in his research paper, reveals, “while referring to the educational cultural predicament of Muslim community in India, the question of Urdu comes up time and again. According to the 1971 census, there were 28.6 million persons in India who spoke Urdu in their homes, i.e. 5-18 percent of the total population. Since its script contains several words of Parso-Arabic origin, and also because it is historically associated with the erstwhile Muslim rule, Urdu has acquired a religious cum-political significance in the minds of many influential sections of the Indian Muslim population.
He further claims, on the basis of his M.Phil dissertation based on widely surveyed educational standard of Muslims in Delhi, “As far as Urdu education among Muslims is concerned, the situation is that the middle and upper middle class Muslims are not sending their children to schools imparting education in Urdu medium. The majority of the children in such schools come from poor and backward class which cannot afford high standard education. Perhaps, this is the very reason why the ratio of dropouts in the Urdu medium school is about 98 per cent in a city like Delhi in which opportunities for Urdu education are comparatively greater”.
Also from K.D. Sharma’s study based on field data from Delhi, postulates two hypotheses: (i) the higher the stage of education, the lesser is the participation education, the lesser is the participation of Muslim; and (ii) the social and economic conditions of the Muslim community tend to restrict to a greater extent the utilization of educational opportunities by its members than by non-Muslims.
Sharma found that the co-efficient of equality at the primary and the higher secondary level for Muslims were 74.0 and 23.6 respectively, this implies a  large drop-out rate among them. Long distances between home and school, poor study facilities at home, non-availability or institutions in their mother tongue, etc., are the discouraging educational factors identified by the author. Socio-cultural taboos also affect Muslims’ enrolment in educational institutions. They include: (a) the belief that there is in existence a concerted attempt by the government to impose upon Muslims the majority culture through educational programmes offered; (b) the feeling against the prevailing bias against Urdu; and (c) high cost of schooling and high rates of unemployment among the educated youths.
According to Kareem, a few micro-studied which have examined the educational status of Muslims also exist. The Delhi Survey (of 1971-72) states that the percentage of enrolment of population in the relevant age groups in the surveyed areas of the city were 6.20 per cent and 11.24 per cent for Muslims and non-Muslims respectively at the middle and secondary school levels. R. Khan asserts (from the proportion of passes in the U.P. High School Board Examination) that Muslim boys were five times, and Muslim girls seven times, more backward than the rest.
In order to further substantiate the intertwined relationship of Urdu and Muslims and that of, how Urdu being deprived even in its premier institutions, I quote S. Shukla. He asserts: An important element in Muslim education has been Urdu. In Bengal early in this century, and in Tamil Nadu and in Kerala towards the middle of the century, reading and writing Urdu was identified by Muslim leaders as an important element of what social scientists are inclined to call “Islamisation” of the Muslim themselves. The establishment of Osmania University to promote higher education in Urdu was significant even in the history of the Urdu language. This is particularly so, if we take into consideration the Aligarh University and the Jamia Millia and two other important centers of Muslim leaning. In Aligarh not much was done about Urdu because of its emphasis on English education. Jamia Millia witnessed almost a total collapse as a substantial center of Muslim learning “for all Indians, particularly Muslim”. Even the role of the Osmania University was somewhat undermined when the growth of regional identities understandably gave Telugu an important place in the state. Likewise in the past when there was an upsurge in favour of Indian languages during the freedom movement, the presence of an essentially English oriented national intelligentsia at the apex had dealt the same blow to Urdu which it did to other Indian languages (notice the pathetic plight of Hindi-the main official language of the Indian Union). Urdu, thus remained an element not in the formation of a modern elite but a vehicle and a symbol of a north Indian cultural life in whose building up Muslims had played a significant role.
Thus, Shukla explains: The Urdu script now plays a two-fold part in determining Urdu’s fortunes. While the Muslims of the non-Urdu regions adopt Urdu not only as the symbol of North Indian Muslim (and perhaps Indian Muslim) culture, some of the propagators also hope it will lead to easier access to religion either directly in Urdu translations, or to Arabic which is written in the same script. The North Indian Hindu who used Urdu a couple of generations ago has increasingly forsaken it. Thus Urdu becomes more and more identified with Muslim education and culture, though, again, not as the principal concern of the Muslim elite. Further, the language and educational policy of North Indian states has put considerable handicaps in the way of Urdu. The result is that  a large number of school-leavers from lower socio-economic Muslim groups, in villages particularly, do not even know to read and write it. There could indeed be considerable ground for criticism of the intolerant attitude towards Urdu on the part of State governments and non-Urdu knowing intelligentsia.
Thus, “in today’s secular India the guarantee of Urdu’s future survival paradoxically depends upon its ability to rely on religion and religious institutions”. This is what Ather Farought speculates, about the future of Urdu, in his pioneer article in ‘Mainstream’, recently.
Though, now work has been done on ‘Muslim education’ in general and in terms of Urdu in particular, in the post-independent India, still on the basis of whatsoever reading and research material available, I, at the end of this section of the paper, take permission to conclude: In the post-independent India, or otherwise all over the world, this is the age and era of science, technology and computers. Gone are the days of arts, cultures and literatures. The significance of the latters are only historically.  Therefore, as far as the language of Urdu and ‘Muslim education’ are concerned, the extinction of Urdu language and the backwardness of Muslims are obvious; as the book son science, technology, mathematics, environment etc. in Urdu language are not at all available, at any level of education.
The argument that the cause of Muslim educational backwardness is the community’s resistibility to take  secular education, made by various eminent academicians, thinkers, historians etc., is now seems to be obscure. Rather, it would now be appropriate, in the present time, to conclude, that the main cause of the perpetual educational backwardness among Muslims is their being a linguistic minority and not exactly the religions minority. The religion’s role to constraint Muslims to take modern education is now a debatable analysis. Whereas, being a linguistic minroti7y, it would be more scientific to conclude that the language of Muslims vis-a-viz, Urdu, has played a greater role in keeping the Muslims back in education. This is not all to accuse Urdu, but to emphasise that Urdu, in the late twentieth century, ahs been widely discriminated by the governments, politicians, intelligentsia, media and also the privileged elite class Muslims. Thus, the non-availability of all kinds of books in Urdu, the Urdu-medium schools, Urdu university and over all allocation of funds to promote education among Muslims through Urdu etc., have all together made the madrasaites and poor Muslims – who largely know only Urdu-handicapped of acquiring the education which is, now beyond the reach of Urdu and Urdu knowing Muslims.
Urdu Language and Education Policy
Nehru is considered as the most secular leader sand the Prime Minister, India has ever produced. The legacy of whom India obliged to follow. Pandit Ji evolved a democratic formula and commended as early s in 1937: “The Devnagri and Urdu scripts are entirely different and there is no possibility of any one of them absorbing the other. We have, therefore, decided that both of them should flourish separately”. Nehru’s stand drew full support form a resolution of the Indian National Congress which averred: “The culture, language and script of the minorities of different linguistic units will be protected”.
Besides, the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities stales: “Linguistic minorities are minorities residing in the territory of India, or any part thereof having a distinct language or script of their own. The languages of the minority group need not be one of the languages mentioned in the Eights schedule to the Constitution. In other words, a “linguistic minority’ at the state level means any group of people whose mother-tongue is different from the principal language of the state, and the district and taluk”. From this enunciation it appears that the meaning and scope of the term ‘linguistic minorities’ is wide and comprehensive.
But none of our legacy followers, politicians or policy makers for that matter could safeguard the “linguistic minority’.
Therefore, the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, B. Malik, who was appointed for the first time by the President of India in 1957 to investigate matter relating to the safeguards provided for the linguistic minorities under the Constitution, came to the conclusion: “The division of the States on linguistic basis has given rise to the inevitable result that the regional language should gain prominence and should in course of time become the official language of the state. The other languages which are the mother-tongue of the minority communities living in the state, naturally do not get equal prominence or status. The result is that those whose mother-tongue is the minority language have not only a sentimental grievance but certain practically difficulties and inconveniences from which they suffer”.
However, David Crystal opines, that in a multi-lingual society, the language policy makers should keep into account how the linguistic variations of the country are to be accommodated. Whether the language are to be actively promoted, or passively tolerated, or deliberately ignored. The country’s language policy manifests itself in the kind of facilities it provides for the linguistic education of its children. Unfortunately, in the post-independent India, Urdu became prey of the intended policy of the government. Asset Sardar Ja, “Urdu was thrown out of schools, law courts and the administrative system and its use curtailed on the radio”. Rightly puts Syed Amaenul Hasan Ali Rizvi, that among other things, for a language to remain alive and flourish, it is imperative that it should be the medium of instruction at least upto the High School level besides being linked with job opportunities.
In the meantime, Urdu became synonymous to Muslims and further misrepresented by the official Language Commission  when it described it as “the mother tongue of Muslims living in different parts  all over the country”. So, Paul Brass writes, “Political elites choose the cultural symbols upon which they wish to base their claims for group rights, that they make a determination as to which symbol is decisive, and they then work to make other cleavages congruent with the primary cleavage”.
Similar thoughts come from H.A. Gani: “Orthodox Muslims, who speak of the threat Urdu as a threat to Islam and believe that the cause of Urdu requires all Muslims to unite, unwilling or otherwise, from the greatest obstacle to Urdu obtaining is legitimate place as one of the Indian languages, because they divert attention from a rational consideration on linguistic grounds and encourage Hindu communalists to become even more vehement in their opposition to Urdu”.
Thus Azra Razzack, analyses, “Languages grow through usage. But the disease of Urdu in education and administration in independent India has been enough to cripple it. Instead of letting Urdu grow through usage, Urdu has been worked upon by the government through the Hindu and Muslim elite to become a language which in future may be declared as a classical language like Sanskrit or Arabic to be buried and forgotten in the Urdu departments of the universities. The elite however, seen to get pacified by trivial but widely publicized gestures of the government like certain programmes on AIR or Doordarshan or awards instituted in the name of some Urdu poet all for the cause of promotion of Urdu. This treatment meted out to Urdu by the ruling class in India is a reflection of their double-facedness, there being a yawning gap between assurance and action, promise and performance”.
Instead of being secured in the Constitution, Urdu failed to develop links with the younger generation. Interestingly, the Education Commission (1964-66) emphasise: “The development of Indian languages can make scientific and technical knowledge more easily accessible to people in their own languages… From the point of view, the claims of mother tongue are pre-eminent”. Ironically, however, at the end of the para in the recommendations it was suggested that regional languages should be use as the medium of instruction till higher education. “This arouses suspicion,” Azra points out, “as taras the Urdu language is concerned, because it is the only language out of the recognized languages of the Constitution which is not recognized as a regional language of any state. Thus, one wonders, whether the Education Commission by this observation wanted to disregard Urdu’s right as being a medium of instruction at school and college”.
The process of elimination Urdu was done very skillfully, tactfully and perpetually. According to the much published Gujral Commission Report, the 10:40 formula envisaged provision of facilities for the teaching of Urdu at the primary stage in areas where it was not the official language, provided there was a minimum of 10 students in a class or 40 in the school as a whole. The report investigates, that in practice, the formula had created a number of complications and given rise to widespread dissatisfaction mostly because of non-implementation by the educational authorities, at the lower level. As ten students were not always likely to seek admission to a class together at one time, nor 40 students to an institution, it was, then, proposed to maintain advance registers, and as soon as the minimum required number was reached, facilities would be made available. Where again, many schools failed to maintain the registers or to keep them up to date, as corporated by the commissioner for Linguistic Minorities. Failing the above mentioned attempts, another safeguard was provided in the shape o introducing a column for mother tongue in the admission form. Here again the registers were not being maintained or, where maintained, necessary facilities were not made available even after the requisite number of students had registered themselves in advance.
That is not all, those have been various modifications of the 10:40 formula. The Delhi Administration has modified the original formula of 10 or 40, into 10 and 40. The Madhya Pradesh, while accepting the basis in principle, the Government did not agree to implement it. Also, the complaints of non-implementation of the formula were numerous in respect of Rajasthan Government primary schools.
Next to 40:40 formula, 15:60 formula, for Secondary and Higher Secondary education, was envisaged to remedy the situation and sought to provide facilities for teaching through the medium of the mother-tongue, if the school had a total enrolment of 60 pupils belonging to the linguistic minority in the last four classes or 19 pupils in each class. The 15:60 formula for the secondary stage also come up against the same difficulty as was faced by the 10:40 formula at the primary stage. Gujral Commission reports, there was bitter criticism of the non-implementation of the safeguards even where the requisite number of students were willing to get unrolled.
In terms of the ‘Position of Linguistic Minorities’, the  progress of implementation of the scheme of safeguards (Secondary Education) has been presented in table I. According to this survey, for providing mother tongue as media of instruction at secondary stage of education, it has been gathered that out of 25 states and union Territory facilities exist for instruction through minority languages in 20 Stages and UTs. In a number of states and VTs four to give minority languages have been recognized for providing facilities for instruction.

Table – I
Progress of Implementation of the Scheme of Safeguards
(Secondary Education)

S. State/Union No. Territories	Extent of implementation
1. Andhra Pradesh	Facilities exist for instruction through Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Oriya, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu.
2. Assam	Assamese, Bengali and Hindi are the media of instruction.
3. Bihar	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Hindi, Oriya, Santhali and Urdu.
4. Gujarat	Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi and Urdu.
5. Haryana	Facilities exist for imarting instruction through Punjabi.
6. Jammu & Kashmir	English is the medium of instruction and Urdu, Kashmiri and Punjabi are also media of instruction.
7. Kerala	Facilities exist for instruction through Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
8. Madhya Pradesh	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Telugu and Urdu.
9. Maharashtra	Facilities exist for instruction through Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Singhi and Urdu.
10. Mysore (Karnatak)	Facilities exist for isntruciton through Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
11. Manipur	Facilities  exist for instruction through Bengali and Hindi.
12. Orissa	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Hindi, Oriya, Telugu & Urdu media.
13. Rajasthan	Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu can be used as media of instruction.
14. Tamil Nadu	Facilities exist for instruction through Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
15. West Bengal	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Nepali, Oriya, Telugu and Urdu.
16. Himachal Pradesh	Orders have been issued for providing instruction through the medium of Punjabi.
17. Delhi	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu.
18. Pondicherry	Facilities exist for instruction through Tamil, Telugu,  Malayalam, English and French.
19. Andaman & Nicobar Islands	Facilities exist for instruction through Bengali, Hindi and Urdu.
20. Goa, Daman and Diu	Facilities exist for instruction through Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu and Marathi.
21. Uttar Pradesh	No minority language is used as medium of instruction.
22. Punjab	No minority language is used as medium of instruction
23. Chandigarh	No facilities exist for instruction through minority languages.
24. Nagaland	English is the medium of instruction.
25. Dadra and Nagar    Haveli	Facilities exist for instruction through Gujarati only.

The Three-Languages Formula:
Apart from the provision of various safeguard schemes and facilities for teaching through the medium of Urdu at the secondary stage under 15:60 formula, there was the question of teaching Urdu as a language subjects. In the plan of Safeguards drawn up by the Education Ministers Conference in 1949 the teaching of the minority language as a subject was also envisaged. It had to be fitted into the syllabi for the secondary schools. The Union Education Ministry, in consultation with the states, evolved the Three Language Formula. The simplified version of which evolved, later, in the Chief Ministers of States and Central Minister’s Conference, 1961, as follows:
a) The regional language and the mother tongue when the latter is different form the regional language;
b) Hindi or, in Hindi speaking areas, another Indian language, and
c) English or any other modern European language.
This formula was re-enunciated in the National Policy Resolution of 1968, which provided that:
a) In Hindu speaking areas, the three language formula should be Hindi, English and a modern Indian language (preferably one of the Southern languages), and
b) In non-Hindi speaking areas, Hindi, English and the regional language.
Facts from a report about the extent of implementation of the simplified Three Language Formula being in states and Union Territories are given the table-II.

Table – II
Implementation of Three-Language Formula

From this information Kamlesh Kumar Wadha concludes that the facilities available for linguistic minorities in different states and Union Territories are not inform. This shows that the safeguards for linguistic minorities enshrined in the Constitution or other agreed principles have not been fully accepted by all the states and Union Territories. The adoption of a Two-Language Formula in Tamil Nadu instead of the Three-Language Formula elsewhere and the claim of Punjab that the state is unilingual inspite of the clear finding by the State Reorganization Commission that no state would be unilingual even after they are reorganized on linguistic basis, and the introduction of regional language as the only medium of instruction are some of the instances of the lack of uniformity.
In the criticism of the Three-Language Formula, G. Ramnathan observes: “The Three-Language Formula is the political solution to a political problem, it is not the answer to our national problem of language…But the irony that it falls even a political solution”. Dr. D.N. Mathur assets: “The Three-Language Formula is not being followed by the States in its true spirits”. Thus, the formula leaves behind it many ifs and buts. 
However, in order to have a consistent policy followed throughout the country so that no member of the linguistic minorities in any past of the country is placed at a disadvantage, Kamlesh Kumar suggests, “The only course would appear to be to make the provision in Art. 350A of the Constitution mandatory”.
With all such step motherly treatment to the language, “in the highly competitive world of schooling and job-hunting, a knowledge of Urdu has become so useless that there really is no incentive for the child to learn it”, opined Aijar Ahmad. He further asserts, “The situation for the child is further aggravated by pressures of the dominant culture in which the learning of Urdu is seen as an attempt to subvert what has been constructed as the Indian ‘mainstream’, that is, the peculiarly Brahmanichal, Sanskritised, largely communalized version of the Indian identity. A child who asks to learn Urdu within this milieu is virtually asking to be stigmatized and set apart”.
Data on Muslim Education:
I attribute this section of the paper largely to N.C. Saxena, who has collected the data relating to Muslim education at various level, from various districts spread over the country where Muslims population is significant. For instance, enrolment of Muslims in schools and colleges can be seen from the following tables:
Figures of population percentage in column 3 are based on 1971 census, whereas figures in column 4 and 5 relate to the year 1981-82. As the percentage of Muslims has increased from 11.2 in 1971 to 12% in 1981, it can be assumed that there would have been corresponding increase in the figures given in column 3. It should also be kept in mind that the

Muslim Enrolment in Schools & Colleges

Degree of urbanization is higher among Muslims. Urban Areas have a larger share of institution of learning. It there two factors are kept in mind, the Education Index would be lower than it has been worked out in column 7. Thus, it transpires that, at the High School and higher levels, Muslims are at least three to four times behind other communities.
Considering a case of Moradabad, where the percentage of Muslims is about 58% whereas, in the entire district it was 38% in 1971. It is generally believed that Muslim artisans and manufacturers in Moradabad have done quite well economically in the last 10 years and it is reasonable to expect that their prosperity should get reflected in increased enrolment in the schools. There is some evidence of this increase, at least at class 5th and 8th level where the percentage of Muslim student has increased from 16 to 22 and from 13 to 19 respectively.
One of the reasons identified for poor enrolment of Muslim students in Moradabad town was the location of educational institutions, which tend to be located in Hindu dominated areas. Similar study about Meerut division revealed that while the Muslim constituted about 35 per cent of the population, the proportion of Muslim students in schools was less than 10 per cent.
In a survey of nine Inter Colleges of the town of Rampur, which has 72% Muslims and 28% non-Muslims population the total number of students appeared in Intermediate examination, 1982, was 731, including, only 197 Muslims. Only 89 Muslim students passed which include two first divisioners.
In Delhi, two thirds of all primary school going Muslim children go to Urdu medium schools. But, in 1978-79 merit list for class III, IV and V, the performance of Muslim children in the merit list was as follows:

Muslims in the Merit List

Muslims performance in Delhi High School in 1979

Institutions	No. of appeared	No. of passed	No. of 1st division	No. of IInd division	No. of IIIrd division
Urdu medium Schools (Boys)	301 (61%)	183	1	36	146
Hindi medium school (Boys)	265	197 (74%)	8	41	148
Urdu medium Schools (Girls)	290	164 (57%)	3	34	127
Hindi medium Schools (Girls)	89	69 (78%)	3	21	45
Total	945	613	15	132	456

In 1980, 25307 students appeared from various colleges of Delhi University to get a Bachelor’s degree out of which 1.47% were Muslims. In B.com., B.sc., and Engineering, their percentage in DU was 1.05, 1.30 and 1.04 respectively,
An All-India survey of 430 Muslims managed schools and 14 Muslim managed degree colleges was done by the Hamdard Education Society, which revealed that the percentage of non-Muslim students in such schools keeps on increasing s the level of education rises.
Thus, the percentage of non-Muslim students rose from 3.7% at he primary level to 59.6% at the graduate level in such schools. It also follows that the ratio of Muslim girls to Muslims boys in such schools kept on declining from 71% at the primary level to 45% at the high school level and finally to 25% at the graduate level.

Methodology and estimations:
From this paper, it is quite clear, that in the post independent India, the past of the situation of Muslim education is extremely pathetic. More over, the present situation is hardly known and the future is just imperfect.
In order to investigate into present educational situation of Indian Muslim, especially in terms of Urdu, it is necessary to take into consideration of al the major states, where Muslim are largely domicile and Urdu is as considerable language.   
To come across deep the Muslim educational situation, it is further necessary to survey all the districts of the status considered, and, there, to take a random survey of at least 50% of schools besides interviewing students, teachers and parents here and there. Collection of the available data on the topic from wherever it sis available has to be another unsaid liability.
The job is tedious and the time is like tide. If it is not done now, then it will be too late. However, it is estimated that the total field work will take at lest a year and then another six months will be needed to compile the findings in a proper from so that the reports can finally be given the shape of a book.
The major states, meanwhile, are :
Andhra Pradesh
Bihar
Gujarat
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Mysore (Karnataka)
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Delhi
Estimations :
The long distance traveling charges, that is from district to district and district and state to state, are expected to be Rs. 20,000.
The daily expenditure are expected to be as follows:
Fooding: Rs. 60 per day x 365 days = Rs. 21,900
Lodging: Rs. 150 per day x 365 days = Rs. 54,750
Local traveling: Rs. 100 per day x 365 days = Rs. 36,500
 The remuneration for the whole project is what expect Rs. 60,000.
For the stationeries I assume ± 10,000 (rupees)
The total, excluding the remuneration comes out to be

                                                                                                   Rs. 20,000
                                                                                                         21,900
                                                                                                         54,750
                                                                                                         36,500
                                                                                                         10,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                                                                  Rs. 1,43,150 ( ± )
Grand total including the remuneration comes out to be Rs.
              1,43,150
              60,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                      (±) Rs. 203,150
That is rupees Two Lakh Three Thousand One Hundred Fifty.