Letter to Shakil Ahmad, 24 Feb., 2000
Jamia Urdu, Aligarh has filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court on Urdu's place in School education. Abul Kalam Azad Research and Education Foundation, Sikandrabad, UP desired to intervene and sought the Editor's opinion. His advice follows: -
I have gone through the petition. Permit me to say that the contents of the petition are largely irrelevant. No legal right can be made out on the basis of articles or recommendations of any Committee. This writ should be based only on the Constitution, the laws, the rules and the Government orders.
Secondly, the writ confuses three different issues
a) Teaching of Urdu as the Compulsory Language for those whose Mother Tongue is Urdu at that level.
b) Urdu as medium of instruction at primary level under Article 350 A of the Constitution.
c) Urdu as the First and Compulsory Language in the Three-Language Formula, which is applicable only at secondary level, not at the primary level. There is no such thing as a real or artificial Three-Language Formula.
Our case is that: -
1) In UP, the State Government has not provided facilities for instruction through the medium of Urdu at primary level, at all;
2) In UP, the State Government has not provided facilities for compulsory teaching of Urdu as Mother Tongue at the primary level; and
3) In UP, the State Government has modified the Three-Language Formula in practice in a manner that the basic purpose of the Formula - to safeguard the interest of linguistic minorities - is defeated. In effect the Formula has been reduced to Hindi, Sanskrit and English or Hindi and English or Hindi and-Sanskrit, leaving no educational space for the Mother Tongue for any student whose Mother Tongue is Urdu, except at the cost of learning English.
The proper provision under the Formula for Urdu-speaking children should be Urdu, Hindi and English, in that order.
The Formula was first subverted by putting numerical conditions for teaching of Urdu in schools. Subsequently, it has been subverted by changing the syllabus itself.
The writ petition should trace the history of the language component of the primary and secondary education of UP, particularly in respect of facilities for instruction through the medium of Urdu at primary level and teaching of Urdu as First Language at the secondary level, after giving the Constitutional provisions including Schedule 8 which recognises Urdu as one of the National Language and the Linguistic Census, 1991, in respect of UP. The Annual Reports of the Linguistic Commissioner since the beginning or at least since 1991 can be of great help in tracing out the national and UP situation in respect of use of Urdu in schools.
I have my doubt whether the Foundation shall be allowed to be an Intervener. However, another writ may be filed by an eminent Urdu organisation working in UP.
Ehtashamuddin Khan On AMU Crisis
Criminalisation is said to be the major problem of the university. To check this, the demand for an IAS officer as the Vice-Chancellor was raised. Considered an able administrator, M. Rahman, as IAS officer with an experience of working in Jammu and Kashmir, took over (as) Vice-Chancellor some five years ago ...
As the term of Mr. Rahman comes to an end, the situation -remains the samne. This calls for a thorough introspection ... The point is the VC and the students remain in the University for a limited period ... The trouble lies, according to some AMU watchers, with the teachers and those who runt he system.
A residential university, AMU has 15 halls of residence ... The Provost is in-charge of the hall and is assisted by several wardens and some students bearing different hall posts ... Hall posts are distributed only to the senior students who are generally puppets of the administration with little or no acceptance among the students. Similarly Provosts are those who are in the good books of the VC ... Policies are imposed on the students with out caring about their consent.
It is in the halls of residence where criminalisation is engendered. Small lobbies of students exists in the halls. They are basically rusticated or ex-students. They are used as and when required by the powers-that-be.
When their aspirations and frustrations ... get high, these finally culminate into violence. The halls of residence deal with heavy finance. There is no check or audit on the use of funds in the halls ....
What is worse is that the university fails to provide any perspective to its students .... Therefore, students fail to identify or articulate their problems, their causes and solutions. Genuine democratic voices have been suppressed by the high-handedness of the administration ...
Most of the elected bodies have been dissolved since long. The students do not find any platform to express their grievances. The students resort to violence as the ultimate solution to every problem.
The problems are immense and complex, and intertwined. Key issues like the selection process of the VC and the arbitrary powers given to him need to be thoroughly reviewed. Functions, structure and the process of election to the AMU Court, Executive Committee and the Academic Council require to be debated.
Better admission policy and transparency in the appointment of teachers are other issues that deserve immediate attention ...(Source: The Pioneer, 22 January, 2000)
On Declaration as Minority Education Institution
1 - Allahabad High Court
Yogendra Nath Singh and another, Petitioners v. State of UP and others, Respondents.
O.P. GARG, J.
Constitution of India, Article 30, 226 -Declaration of Institution as minority educational institution - Challenge as to - Locus standi - Students, ex-students as well as teachers have locus standi to challenge declaration.
... Claim for benefit of Article 30 by minority community - Institution established to impart general and technical education to all and sundry - Not established for any particular community - Could not be declared as minority community institution.
Where the Society/institution came to be established by certain prominent citizens which included not only members of the Muslim community but several Hindus, it was established for the spread and promotion of the education in general; there was no provision specially with reference to the Muslim minority community; the basic object of the establishment of the institution was to impart general and technical education to all and sundry, institution was not established for the benefit of the minority community ... Membership of the Society was open to all and not confined to any particular community ... The Scheme of Administration as approved by the DDE ... also reflects the same characteristic and totally negates the plea raised regarding minority character of the institution, there could be no escape from the conclusion that the institution was not established as a minority institution by the members of any particular community for its own benefit or for the promotion of any religious thought and ideals. (Source: AIR 1999 Allahabad 356)
Il - Calcutta High Court
Shiva Nand Pande and etc., Appellants v. Bhagwan Das Harlalka and others, Respondents.
SATYABRATA SINHA & S.N. BHATTACHARJEE, JJ.
Constitution of India, Articles 29, 30- Minority institution - What is - School alleged to be established in State of West Bengal by some Hindi speaking people - However, record showing that school was originally established in two sections viz., Bengali and Hindi indicating that intention was to establish school and not school for Hindi speaking people -School cannot be held to be minority institution only because teachers, students, trustees were Hindi speaking and medium of school was also Hindi ... (Source: AIR 1999 Calcutta 321)
Justice Basheer Ahmed
Sayeed Women's College, Chennai
The Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Women's College (formerly SIET Women's College),founded by the late Justice Sayeed and his wife Fatima Akhtar, is maintained by the Southern India Education Trust (SIET). It is one of the premier educational institutions in the state of Tamil Nadu, imparting education in Arts, Science and Commerce. This is a minority institution affiliated to the University of Madras ... Established in 1955 with 150 students out of which the Muslim girls were only 27, the institution was upgraded into a first grade college in the year 1957. Over the years, the college has grown into a prominent institution having nearly 4906 students – 3156 in the day college and 1750 in the evening college.
The college is situated in a campus of 16 acres owned by the trust, with essential infrastructure facilities. The SIET houses several of its institutions including the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Memorial Matriculation Higher Secondary School for Boys, the Fatima Basheer Memorial Matriculation Higher Secondary School for Girls and the SIET Vocational Training Institute. The day college has a qualified faculty strength of 147 teachers. There are 62 members on the non-teaching staff. The day college offers 24 programmes (including M. Phil. And Ph.D.). The evening college, as a self-financing unit offers 16 programmes. The college has a central library, computer centre, health centre, student counselling centre, dyslexia centre, laboratory, nursery school, centre for children with mental disability. SIET competitive exam coaching centre, sports facilities, swimming pool, canteen, vehicle .park and a book stall. The evening college has the faculty strength of 71 and 13 in the non-teaching staff. The evening college has its own laboratory and library facilities. The other supporting facilities are sbared with the day college.
The college has always been open to all eligible women students from all parts of the country irrespective of caste and religion, encouraging empowerment and overall development of women. The programmes are generally in conformity with the mission, goals and objectives of the institution. Many co-curricular and extra curricular activities such as NSS, NCC, sports programme, general awareness programmes, karate and swimming reflect this. This college Has been awarded the rare distinction of a five-star rating by the UGC.
The visionary founder of this institution, Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed, left behind an endowment as the financial . support base for this institution, apart from (donations from) philanthropists ... Now the resource mobilization is mainly through State/Central Government grants and through fees generated by self-financing course. The motto of the college is "Learning is Light Justice Basheer, 'Sir Syed of the South', passed away on the 7hh February 1984. The name of the SIET Women's College was later changed to Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Women's College in order to perpetuate the memory of the Founder.
In June 1979 Fatima Basheer Matriculation Higher Secondary School for Girls was established. In the same year the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed Memorial
Aligarh College of Engineering and Management, Aligarh
Aligarh College of Engineering and Management (ACEM), Aligarh, has been established under the aegis of the Crescent Charitable Trust (Regd.) to impart technical and professional education in the field of Engineering, Computers and Management to produce skilled manpower required by the industrial and business houses and educational institutions, in India and abroad.
ACEM aims to provide the best possible education for students belonging to the Muslim community in an academically redo and professionally oriented ambience to produce a competitive mindset. Dr.B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra has already granted affiliation to the B.B.A. and the B.C.A. courses in the first phase of establishment. The College is striven to get affiliation for Engineering courses, MBA and MCA courses in the second phase.
At present total strength of students in BBA and BCA courses is 70 ..
... Realising the limitation of AMU, JMI and other known institutions the Crescent Charitable Trust has ventured into the field of education, particularly professional education. Our aim is to provide some secondary school qualified young Muslim boys and girls ... to the maximum opportunity, within our limited means, to compete with their counterparts in other communities.
The viability of professional Colleges in India will continue to be very high for decades to come because of the huge gap between (support and demand). In AMU for example, there are 430 seats in Engineering and 25,000 applicants every year. This year there were some 80,000 applicants in UP MCAT (Combined Engineering Entrance Tėst conducted by UP.Government for Colleges under its jurisdiction) ... At the output point companies literally line up to recruit well qualified manpower as the demand again exceeds the supply in the field of Telecommunication, Electronics, Computers, Information Technology and Management.
Presently the College is functioning at Medical College Road, Aligarh, India. A beautiful campus is being developed. A 10-acre plot near the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh has been purchased. Matriculation Higher Secondary Boys' School was started by the Members of the Executive Council of SIET. ... Born in 1918 and brought up in a highly religious and socially committed family, Fatima Akhtar dedicated herself to the cause of women's education and social service ...
(She) was the first Muslim woman graduate in the Naayath circle of the Muslim community. Hler early education was in Corporation school and the Government Hobart High School, Royapettah. She graduated in Physics in 1941 from Queen Mary's College, Chennai. In 1957, Begum Fatima Akhtar became chairinan of the Southern India Education Trust. This entailed the onerous responsibility of leading the Governing Body of the SIET Women's College. She also served as a Syndicate Member of the Madras University and as a member of the Board of Secondary Education. She held the post of Vice-President of the Madras University Women's Association and the International Women's Rights Society. She was also associated with a number of other social organisations. The unique blending of a secular education with religious training, which is a hallmark of the Southern India Education Trust, is a tradition established and carefully nurtured by Begum Fatima Akhtar: She also encouraged research in Islamic Studies ...
