Resumen de Madrasa Education in Pakistan: In the Context of Government Policy
The word ‘madrasa’ do generate a lot of curiosity and negative propaganda among scholars of international community. In most of the instances it is considered to be an institution of preaching hatred and violence. Moreover, the madrasas existing in Pakistan are considered to be factories producing religious extremists. But, strangely enough, the basic reason behind the emergence of madrasa- to seek knowledge as enshrined in the principals of Islam are not known. Therefore, fundamental objective or purpose of the study is to understand the changing pattern of madrasa and the role of government in Pakistan to ‘modernise’ it. The paper is also trying to understand the socio-political context of Pakistan under which the madrasas are operating. The study has been based on the research experience of the writer who has extensively studied the Madrasa Literature of Pakistan while writing her Doctoral thesis. The few core findings of the paper are the fact that over a considerable period of time, madrasas have evolved from an all encompassing educational institution to a centre of religious knowledge; the society of Pakistan to some extent has been segmented into western educated ‘modern and fortunate’ people versus madrasa educated ‘traditional and less-fortunate’ mass. Moreover, post 9/11, Pakistani Government did try to ‘reform’ the madrasa system but could not achieve much success due to shallow approach and non-compliance of various madrasa establishments.
