By Pallavi Mishra
“The whole of Asia is redolent with the aroma of this Prophetic garden”, are the highlighted words in the official website of Darul Uloom Deoband, school propagating Islamic teachings, but in my opinion the fragrance is not limited to Asia only but has reached far beyond the continent because of continuous upgrading. The Islamic institution carrying the ideology to spread Islamic teaching came into existence in the year 1866, right after the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was disposed from power by Britishers, to preserve the gist of Islam for posterity. Established by a group of scholars, the institution still maintains the decorum required to carry forward the theology.
Deoband in the district of Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh is one of the biggest center for Islamic education in the country. The graduates from hear played a major role in spreading the theology world wide. After 145 years of the establishment, the learned` from hear have taken the learning's from Deoband to Durban, Boltan and many other places including Holcombe.
The education system has changed a lot in Darul Uloom Deoband with changing times and to the surprise of many including me, the institute has a well equipped computer lab and gives a special two year diploma in English language so that the pass outs could pursue higher education from any University.
The Institution was in news a few months back because of a statement by the seminary's vice-chancellor Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi. Elected on the position on January 10 2011. Vastanvi praised the Modi government in Gujarat saying that the Muslim community should forget the 2002 communal riots and look forward, he added that the community did not face any discrimination in the state. The statement divided the community in two groups where almost half are in support of Vastanvi others disagree and want him to be removed from the position. The top decision-making body of Darul Uloom meet a few days back to turn down the resignation offered by the VC following the controversy. The body asked Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi to continue as the vice- chancellor for the time being as a committee is looking into the matter.
hi, First of all i wonder what made you write on this subject.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, this is admirable keeping in view the widespread prejudice against this and other seminary.
No doubt such historic seminaries have changed with the time and they needed to be changed if they have to keep pace with the modern times.
I would advise you to write another write up on Nadwatul-uloom, a renowned seminary in Lucknow, and compare it with Darul-uloom Deoband.