[vinnomot] REPORT : Muslims learn Sanskrit to understand Hindu beliefs

SAN-Feature Service

SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE

November 9,2007

 

REPORT : Muslims learn Sanskrit to understand Hindu beliefs

 

Qasmi is a graduate of the Darul-ul-Deoband madrassa. After he got influenced by Prof Abdullah Tariq, a scholar in inter-religious studies, he decided to learn Sanskrit.

 

SAN-Feature Service : More and more Muslim students enrolled in madrassas across India are learning to read, write and speak Sanskrit — a traditional Hindu language.

 

A report by leading gulf daily, Khaleej Times, said despite its ancient origin, Sanskrit is not a living language among the people, and Sanskrit-speakers today are just a linguistic minority across India.

 

But breaking a new ground, an increasing number of madrassas are making Sanskrit education its calling card. Reason: the demand for Sanskrit education is growing rapidly among the Muslims, who are keen learning the language that many amongst them suggest helps earn solace.

 

Maulana Shaheen, a religious scholar, says Sanskrit is getting quite popular in madrassas because it is enriched with 'positive learning'. Maulana Shaheen along with his students at his madrassa in Batla House in Delhi  attends Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan courses to know how to read, write, speak and understand the language that majority Hindus themselves have forgotten.

 

He says: "We want to study Sanskrit, and learn about Hindu religious texts." According to him, this helps Muslims understand the Hindu religion better. The Sanskrit Sansthan, which is a deemed university, is now regularly sending its graduates to conduct three-month preliminary course in various madrassas that have opted Sanskrit in the curriculum.

 

A capsule of five such Sanskrit courses makes a madrassa student eligible for admission in a graduation Sanskrit course to any Sanskrit university. "It is highly encouraging to see Muslim students coming to learn Sanskrit," Vice-Chancellor of Sanskrit Sansthan Acharya V. Kutumb Shastri said.

 

Sanskrit Coordinator at the university Dr Ratan Mohan Jha points out: "We have more than 1,200 centres all over India teaching Sanskrit, but this is the first time that we have been approached by madrassas for introducing Sanskrit as a course." Jha provides Sanskrit teachers, who tutors two hours a day, four days a week at madrassas in Jamia Nagar.

 

So don't get astonished when you hear 15-year-old Mohammed Raqib Hussain ask tava naama kim asti (what is your name?). Hussain in Tajweed-ul-Quran madrassa at Jamia Nagar is doing precisely that; asking his classmates, practising a language, as if it was his mother tongue. He learns grammar aaham, aavam vayam (I, You and We) with much ease.

 

He speaks Sanskrit so comfortably that even his teachers feel proud of him. Clad in a starched white kurta and donning a cap, Hussain is one of the many who are learning the language to enrich themselves with knowledge and belief. Some 50 students from his madrassa are about to finish Sanskrit 'Part I' texts. They would soon start Part II.

 

They study Hindu religious texts — chapters of Ramayana, the Mahabharat, Vedas, Puranas and even the Bhagvad Gita. The students also get familiar with the work of scholar Kalidas. This is the first batch of madrassa students in Delhi, if not India, who are on their way to getting a Sanskrit diploma from their school.

 

Sahas-hir-Uloom Madrassa in Shahadra, Islamic Academy near Jamia Millia Islamia, and very many madrassas in Meerut, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh have introduced Sanskrit in their curriculum process. Even schools in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are opting Sanskrit as a subject for their Urdu speaking students, who are mostly into learning Arabic scriptures.

 

A religous scholar of Tajweed-ul-Quran madrassa Abdul Hazi says: "We are promoting Sanskrit in our schools because it will improve our knowledge of the Hindu culture." "Besides, it will help us understand the Hindu tradition," he emphasises.

 

Mehraz Alam, 18, is the class topper in Sanskrit from this school. He says: "When I told my parents that we were learning Sanskrit they were a bit shocked, but then they told me it was good that I was learning something new which others were not."

 

Amir-ul-Haq, his classmate, says: "When I first came across Sanskrit I had no idea what I was up to." "But now with a better understanding of the language, we have realised that Sanskrit has so much depth and complexity. It is very interesting to know about the language that is enriched with varied meaning. It is a great feeling learning ancient language and its related scriptures that now is rarely spoken or known," he said.

 

Meet A.R. Qasmi, who runs World Peace Organisation, primarily working to remove 'ignorance between faiths'. He said: "It is important to work on communal harmony because it is from ignorance that a sense of superiority emanates and disharmony starts. It is here where knowledge about this helps."

 

Qasmi is a graduate of the Darul-ul-Deoband madrassa. After he got influenced by Prof Abdullah Tariq, a scholar in inter-religious studies, he decided to learn Sanskrit. "I got in touch with Prof G.K. Pandit, a Sanskrit scholar from a university in Gujarat, who taught me Sanskrit for two years," he said. Qasmi today works with Sanskrit Sansthan coordinating with madrassas all over India to promote Sanskrit. He says: "It wasn't easy though. Some religious scholars approached us saying we should not be doing this, as Sanskrit was not in our culture. But we said learning Sanskrit had no harm; besides, it had numerous social benefits."

 

Convincing the Muslim population living in poor settlement colonies in Jamia Nagar to make their children learn Sanskrit was a daunting task, he says. Many said there was no economic or employment benefits related to learning Sanskrit. "Later, the protests gave way to a reluctant approval, and now even admiration within the community," Qasmi said.—SAN-Feature Service

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