It is by any measure a curious higher education initiative: five new ‘minority’ universities to be set up under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, run as ‘public-private’ partnerships, and located in five States of the country that have sizeable minority populations. The scheme, mooted by Union Minister for Minority Affairs K. Rahman Khan, and currently under deliberation by a team of education experts led by Indian Council of Social Science Research chairperson Sukhadeo Thorat, is still very much at the drawing-board stage. However, the announcement by Mr. Khan that one of the universities would be set up in Srirangapatna and named after Tipu Sultan, the iconic 18th century ruler of Mysore who made the river-island his capital, drew the predictable roar of protest from those quarters in Karnataka that have been consistently hostile to the secular and progressive legacy of Tipu Sultan. The Higher Education minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party government, C.T. Ravi’s stated opposition to a “Muslim” university named after a “foreigner” is not only avowedly communal but misleading too. The university, if and when it comes into existence, will be a ‘minority’ institution and not be just for Muslims. Secondly, though the present government has in the past tried hard to exorcise Tipu from school textbooks, his contributions to the fight against colonialism is an inalienable part of our history. It is therefore entirely fitting that a centre of higher education to be set up in Srirangapatna be named after him.
More problematic, however, is the legal and jurisdictional ambiguity in the very scheme of setting up a string of minority universities. A seven-member expert committee under Professor Thorat, which is to submit its report on February 15, is to consider whether these institutions will be set up under an Act of Parliament or as autonomous institutions of national importance. As these universities will come directly under the overarching jurisdiction of the Ministry for Human Resource Development, they are clearly incompatible as enterprises based on ‘public-private’ partnership. Indeed the chequered track record of this model in other spheres is a serious cause for concern. The Sachar Committee Report noted that only four per cent of Muslims in India are graduates, and that the gap between Muslims and other socio-religious categories increases as the level of education increases. While this imposes greater urgency upon the government to address the under-representation of minorities in higher education, a hasty and ill-thought out mechanism runs the risk of becoming yet another exercise in tokenism.
Keywords: minority universities, India higher education, Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, K. Rahman Khan, Srirangapatna university, Sachar Committee Report, Tipu Sultan, Indian Muslims
Agree that setting up a "minorities" institution may be a bad idea. What we want is
desegregation, not segregation and although other more traditional institutions
such as the AMU have managed to get a fair mix of students from all backgrounds,
new institutions set up by the government are unlikely to.
A university named after Tipu Sultan and in Srirangapatna however would be a
welcome idea. Tipu was one of the first Indian rulers to truly grasp the threat
posed by the British to India and not merely to his kingdom, long before the others
did. And it was the battle for "Seringpatam" that the Duke of Wellington described
as the stepping stone to the conquest of India.
In the cost of one Tipu minority universities, we can establish lots of primary education centre. This will be much better and beneficial for minority.
An honest request: Please don't start dividing educational institutions. After 62 years of constitution, we are going away from the basic rules and principles in every possible manner. If only 4% of Muslims are graduates, then the root cause should be found out. If they are not going to college now, I don't think they will run to a minority institution just because well, its an institution for minority. This will only widen the gap between the groups which nobody wants.
In every field if we install separate platform for Muslims, they are separated always!! Who is majority and who minority in this country, it is very confusing! I belongs to majority because I am a Hindu to day, if become a Muslim tomorrow,I will be a minority!! Very peculiar rule! There are so many things like this needs clarification. Let the political pundits put their mind on it.
Tipu resisted the Britsh, bravely too. Was he secular? Was he accepting of non-muslims? Absolutely not. The writer has chosen to ignore the forcible conversions encouraged by Tipu in Karnataka and Kerala. Glossing over these atrocities and claiming that Tipu left behind a 'secular and progressive legacy' is living in denial a kind of intellectual terrorism.
The other point is about Minority Universities - is an exercise in tokenism. I think your paper should be at the forefront of fighting against such divisive schemes initiated by those in power. Muslims need to get out of the victim mentality they have brought upon themselves and such Minority Universities will not help at all. What is likely to happen is that these will become a breeding ground for future Owaisis and Zakir Naiks in the future.
I request your paper to encourage its readers and the society to 'broaden their vision and deepen their roots' instead of promoting such narrow minded and biased articles.
Why there are more number of children in Muslim families, why there
are less number of literates from them, is the question the concerned
people to address themselves. They have to take care of the
communities. There are many communities in which poor people suffer
silently, without reservation, support from their people. In Kerala,
roughly one third is Muslim community and whichever government comes
they are in power with important porfolios. Can they say, the
condition of all Muslims have improved. In US graduates are less ; one
reason is they can get employment with school studies. For Indian
Muslims also, that is one reason - trade, their main interest is
trade. Thippu, a secular King - Kerala people may be knowing better.
Education is an industry, business now. They make use of the Minority
concessions.
The editorial rightly says: "While this imposes greater urgency upon the government to address the under-representation of minorities in higher education, a hasty and ill-thought out mechanism runs the risk of becoming yet another exercise in tokenism."
The fact that one of the universities is indeed going to be named after Tipu Sultan, whose historical record of vandalism is well known, clearly shows that the whole idea is tokenism. It is a tragedy that the so-called moderate Muslims are unwilling to stand up and say loudly that tokenism will make their community even more worse-off than before. It is the failure of such people to take a stand that is the cause of the problems for the Muslim community.
Where in the Indian scenario is the proof that such separation or segregation is
needed?
So, do we have a Bollywood for minorities? Do we need one?Or should it be the
other way: Do we need a movie industry to showcase the majority point of view?
Do we have an Software Industry park for minorities?
Should we have an AIIMS or JIPPMER for minorities?
And, where does it stop: separate Hospitals ?
Separate airports so that screening can be individualized to religious
differences(I wear a Dhoti you wear a Pagadi)
Does anyone else see the need for this level of treachery on the part of the
Indian Government?
I can understand the Minority reports showing that some action is needed but
does it have to be Institutionalion of separation?
is there any other country with SECULAR, Democratic credentials that has done
this at the level of the Cabinet?
Did Tipu Sultan stand for SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC ideals ?
The question is that why only four percent of Muslims are graduate? Are there not enough universities in India? Indeed there are many and many are of world class universities. Then why Muslims are not getting education.
This is a very complicated question and the answer is far complicated especially when the objections emerges from those who are standard bearers and who have not tried anything for better.
There are three well know universities in north India; Aligarh, Jamia and Hamdard. There is no doubt that in professional courses like MBBS, Engineering in these universities the majority of students are not Muslims but there is a significant number of Muslims in these three universities compared to other universities in the same states. In 1995, in Aligarh university roughly 80% MBBS students were non-Muslims brothers/sisters and in Azad Medical college at Delhi University only 2 students were Muslims.
I think establishing instituition are fundamental to solve such problems.
This is a big step away from Ek Sur "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara". Every
Indian is belongs to some minority by some criterion. Should there be a
separate university for each cast and tribe in the schedule! Brahmins
are a numerical minority and often do not have economic advantage. In a
minority university Should there be quotas for those outside the
minority. Obviously only four percent Muslim graduating is
unsatisfactory situation. But putting them in a segregated institution
may lead to unintended consequences.
While I see not issue with a university in Tipu Sultan's capital city coming up in is name. I do not see much merit in a minority institution university being setup at all. If you want to integrate the various communities of country and prevent the drift from our founding principles which had occurred over the years then creating education institutions specifically targeted to religious or ethnic communities is the wrong way to go. Such segregation of our education system will be disastrous for our secular principals in the long run.