Shaping of the ‘Modern Islamic Woman’ in Coastal , : Transnational Experiences and English Education amongst the Muslim Community

SULAGNA MUSTAFI NIAS and AISSR

Paper to be presented at the First Annual Muslim South Asia Graduate Research Conference

SOAS, London

28th October 2013

Conference organised by The Muslim South Asia Research Forum (MUSA), SOAS Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) and Centre for the Study of Pakistan (CSP)

Abstract:

Women are a central focus of ideas about identity that circulate within the transnational spaces formed by migration of Beary from the coastal Karnataka region to the Gulf countries. New ideas about Beary womanhood have emerged from these migration experiences, and circulated via transnational flows through several conduits, especially migrant-sponsored English-medium schools aimed at Beary women. Based on the responses gathered from female students of these schools, women from the community and other Beary informants, during an extensive fieldwork carried out in the region in 2011-2012, it appears that at the core of this concept of womanhood is the idea of the ‘Modern Islamic Women’. This narrative of womanhood wishes to expose the Beary woman to modern forces of transformation such as education and (appropriate) employment, but at the same time draw boundaries around their functional space by imposing ‘pure Islamic’ guidelines of behaviour. The paper will trace the growth and proliferation of the transnational channels, especially NRI (Non-Resident Indian) sponsored educational institutions, through which these ideas about the modern Islamic woman are being transmitted. It will show how practices of raising religious awareness have worked together with impulses towards modernisation to give rise to a new sense of modernity as well.

Keywords: Migration; Transnational connections; Womanhood; Modernisation; Community identity.

Shaping of the ‘Modern Islamic Woman’ in Coastal Karnataka, India: Transnational Experiences and English Education amongst the Beary Muslim Community Introduction

New redefinitions of women’s role and social position have occupied a central place in the identity reconstruction processes practiced by the Beary Muslim1 community of Dakshina district in the south Indian state of Karnataka. The community is engaged in redefining its identity by combining impulses of modernisation, reflected in their emphasis on modern education or women’s empowerment, with endeavours to achieve religious ‘purity’. The identity construction processes find their best articulation through the new ideas of womanhood which have come into circulation within the community. The concept of a ‘modern Islamic woman’, which forms the crux of these new ideas on womanhood, entitles Beary women to the right to knowledge and ‘modern, secular’ education, but at the same time makes ‘proper Islamic training’ necessary for them. This concept attaches the utility value of modern education to the extent it empowers women to fulfil their traditional roles of mother, wife or daughter, but at same time prescribes certain professional roles which women can accept without jeopardising her ‘traditional roles’. These constituent elements of the new ideas of womanhood reflect the essence of a new identity being proposed and practiced by the Bearys. This identity breaks away from the dichotomies of tradition and modernity, and attempt to combine both into a new modern and progressive identity based on the principles of the .

One of the major conduits through which new ideas of womanhood in particular and Beary identity in general, get translated and propagated within the community, are the several ‘English Medium Islamic’ educational institutes which have been established by the community over the last decade across the district. These educational institutes are an outcome of the transnational connections and networks formed by the Bearys through their large scale migration to the Gulf countries. This paper sets out to explore this process of transmission of new ideas about womanhood through these educational institutes. Through an analysis of this process the paper will argue that an alternative ‘Islamic way of being modern’ is being institutionalised through the establishment of modern educational infrastructures for women. These educational infrastructures redefine women’s empowerment and progress; and attach education with different values and utility. The value of education is shown to lie

1The Bearys are the largest Muslim community of with a total population of about twenty lakhs (data gathered from the Beary Literary Academy in and based on Census of India 2001 data). They belong to the Sunni sect of Islam. Socio-economically the Bearys occupy the lowest position in the region. They have the lowest literacy rates and are employed generally as unskilled laborers (Census of India, 2001.Table 1: Total population, 0-6 population, Literates, Total workers by category of work and Non-workers by residence, religious communities, sex; India, States, Union territories and Districts – 2001. Census State code: 29, District Code: 24). Since the 1970s the community has seen large scale labour migration to the various Gulf countries. According to the National Sample Survey of India (2007-2008) data they are the largest migrating community from Dakshina Kannada to the Gulf States.

not only in enabling women to achieve economic and social empowerment, but also to enable her to lead a ‘proper Islamic life’.

In order to trace the role played by these educational institutes in redefining Beary identity through the shaping of the ‘Modern Islamic women’, six educational institutes were selected, all of them owned and managed either by educational trusts or welfare organisations which involved both gulf based as well as local (based in Dakshina Kannada) Bearys2. The six selected institutes included two high schools (upto tenth standard), three pre-university colleges (eleventh and twelfth standards) and one degree college (undergraduate courses). The two high schools were co-educational, teaching both boys and girls, while the others were only for women students. In the two high schools, the girls’ and the boys’ sections were separated from the seven standard onwards. To trace the objectives of these schools, details of their functioning and curriculum, and to understand the way in which they transmit ideas of womanhood among the students, interviews were conducted with the school or college authorities, teachers and principals, and members of educational trusts, alongwith a questionnaire survey conducted among seventy two women students (twenty from tenth standard, thirty seven from pre-university and fifteen from the undergraduate courses) from these six institutes. Students were asked to respond to questions on the importance they attached to education, and, the way they will use education in future; and, about their future career choices.

The responses gathered from the survey and the interviews will be analysed in the paper to understand the process of identity formation among the Bearys by redefining their notions on women’s roles and responsibilities, and the key role played by the educational institutes established by the community in this process. I will begin by briefly describing the context in which the educational institutes were established and linked to the identity construction processes of the Bearys. I will then go on to see how through their structures, curriculum, and instruction practices, these education institutes become centres for crafting the Modern Islamic women.

Linking education with identity: the regional context and the transnational experience

2 Only such educational institutes were chosen for two reasons. First, it was practically more feasible to conduct the survey in institutes where ninety five to hundred per cent students belonged to the Beary Muslim community; and, second, development of community owned educational institutes are one of the major fallouts of the process of transnational migration among the Bearys. They are regarded as important step towards institutionalising modern development among the community. Hence the ideas which they generate among the students significantly contribute towards shaping the ideas of womanhood. 2This statement was made by Mr. Muloor during an interview with him at his residence in March 2012.

Education has been a major focus of the identity reconstruction processes of the Bearys for two reasons. First, it results from a larger regional trend of identity reformation and assertion process witnessed among all the religious, linguistic and cultural communities of Dakshina Kannada. Under this phenomenon, communities have engaged in redefining their identities so as to combine trends of modernity with an emphasis on their religious, cultural and linguistic identities. The elements of modernity and progress have been articulated around the achievement of ‘modern’ education which has generally meant English medium education. This trend has been observed, for instance, in the case of several Hindu caste communities of Dakshina Kannada like the Bunts (Rao 2010), and Since, identity as defined by Hall (1992) is a relational and contextual positioning rather than a fixed essence, the Bearys have also tried to reposition themselves according to these regional trends. They have also adopted the achievement of education as a means to become modern and progressive and have combined it with attempts to strengthen their Islamic identity.

The attempts of the Bearys to reposition themselves have been further complicated by the advent of radical Hindutva forces in Dakshina Kannada in the late 1980s. Through an intelligent strategy of conquering civil society institutions like the media, these forces have tried to construct the Muslim identity as contradictory to education, progress or rationality (Tolpady 2003: 175). The attempt of the Bearys to emphasise on their Islamic identity, alongwith the elements of progress and modernity, can therefore be seen as a response against these negative stereotypes which exist in the region. These attempts find manifestations in the use of Islamic teachings from to justify their ‘modern’ development goals like education, as was often done by the members of the Beary educational trust during interviews.

The regional context thus plays an important role in making education central to identity reformation processes of the Bearys. Regional trends make education a signifier of modernity and progress. By linking education with revival of traditional culture and practices they also break away from the dichotomies of religious or cultural orthodoxy and modern education. This makes it possible for the Bearys to make achievement of modern education compatible with their Islamic principles and counter the negative stereotypes spread by the radical Hindu voices.

The second reason, for linking education with identity reconstruction processes of the Bearys, emanates from a need for development felt within the community. They have the lowest literacy rates in the region of Dakshina Kannada.3 The Bearys have remained out of the fold of modern education since the time it was introduced in the region by the British colonial rulers and the Christian missionaries in 1836 (Sturrock 1894; Stuart 1895: 113; Karnataka District Gazetteer:

3Census of India, 2001.Table 1: Total population, 0-6 population, Literates, Total workers by category of work and Non- workers by residence, religious communities, sex; India, States, Union territories and Districts – 2001. Census State code: 29, District Code: 24.

1973: 546-547). Narratives within the community link this aversion towards modern education to the religious teachings made popular by the Mullahs and Moulavis, especially the ones from Kerala4, who declared modern education as Haram (forbidden) for the Muslims. Religious teachings of clergy coupled with the poor economic condition 5 of the Bearys to contribute towards the educational backwardness of the Bearys.

Educational backwardness became an issue of the community’s concerns of social welfare especially after the Bearys started migrating to the Gulf countries since the 1970s. Given their educational backwardness, most of them went as low skilled or unskilled labourers. Though for the Bearys, Gulf opened up a major opportunity to improve their livelihood chances and socio-economic conditions6, they soon realised that that they were losing out on better employment opportunities as they were not educated enough. This created a widespread awareness within the community about the importance of education.

The regional context combined with the motivations within the community to make education an important element of community’s social welfare and identity reformation initiatives. The transnational experience of the Bearys helped them to realise their educational aspirations. Large scale migration to the Gulf countries enabled the Bearys to establish transnational connections with their families, and later with the community as a whole. The community level transnational connections, forged mainly in the form of welfare organisations7, have played an instrumental role in transferring resources for the benefit of the Beary community in Dakshina Kannada. Education has been one of the major recipients of these transnational welfare resources.

4 According to narratives within the community and available documents on the history of emergence of Islam in coastal Karnataka, the region was for a long period under the religious dominance of the Mopilla Muslim community of . The Islamic clergy of Kerala dictated, shaped and influenced the growth, spread and form of Islam in coastal Karnataka. 5 The Bearys constitute the largest segment of unskilled labourers and non workers in Dakshina Kannada. Census of India, 2001.Table 1: Total population, 0-6 population, Literates, Total workers by category of work and Non-workers by residence, religious communities, sex; India, States, Union territories and Districts – 2001. Census State code: 29, District Code: 24. 6 Migration from the community took place initially as low and unskilled laborers in professions like heavy vehicle drivers, construction and factory workers, salesmen etc in the 1970s and 1980s. These migrants went as temporary laborers leaving their families behind in Dakshina Kannada. Some of them have now gradually managed to start their own small and medium scale businesses (hotels, shops) in Gulf or have returned back to Dakshina Kannada to set up own businesses. Among present generation of migrants, especially the ones who went after 1990s and in the 2000s, the dominant trend is still of semi-skilled and low skilled laborers, but there has been a few instances of high skilled migration into professions like banking jobs, pharmacists, teaching etc. 7 This phenomenon of transnationally organised welfare initiatives started during the 1990s and has gained momentum in the past decade. During the course of my fieldwork in Dakshina Kannada, I came across twenty two transnational welfare organisations who worked for the betterment of the Beary community in the fields of education, health care, food and housing, women welfare and creating livelihood opportunities.

Educational initiatives by the Bearys have taken various forms. One form of initiative focuses on creating an educational support network for the underprivileged students from the community in the form of building scholarship funds. The other important educational initiative, relevant for the discussion in this paper, has been the construction and upgrading of educational infrastructure in the form of establishing several schools, and colleges in the district, which promise to provide ‘affordable and quality education’ to Beary students in the region. Most of these schools were started in the last decade. According to the Muslim Education Institutions’ Federation (MEIF)8 of Dakshina Kannada, there are presently ninety-eight educational institutes9 in the region which are owned and managed by the Beary community.

Within these general educational initiatives for the community, women’s education has received special attention. Forty two out of the ninety-eight institutes have been established targeting only girls or have separate girls section, especially in their higher classes. The achievement of education by women has been perceived as sign of a community’s progress and honour (Ahmed 2001). For the Bearys also, women’s education helps them to strengthen the modern and progressive elements of their identity. The lack of education among Beary women has been used by other communities to term the Bearys as an orthodox and oppressive community. To counter these claims and to uphold themselves as a community which allows women’s empowerment, the Bearys have made women’s education central to their educational initiatives. However, empowerment of women has been redefined to fit the larger reconstructions of the Beary identity. How the educational institutes for women help in translating and propagating these redefinitions will be discussed in the next segment.

Women’s educational institutes: centres for crafting ‘Modern Islamic Women’

There was a concern among parents and within the community about how women could be educated in the modern education system, without compromising on their religious needs (like burqa, less interaction with boys) or without hindering their religious education. These community-owned schools try to address and resolve these obstacles (From an interview with Y. Mahammad Beary, board member of MEIF, held in 2011).

These concerns about women’s education define some of the basic characteristics of the ‘Women’s English Medium Islamic’ institutes which have come up in the region over the last ten years. One of the most important characteristic of these educational institutes is combining religious education

8MEIF is a non-profit association of all Muslim owned and managed educational institutions of the region. It was started in 2009. 9Out of the ninety eight, nine are colleges offering professional degrees (engineering, medical, nursing or pharmacy); five degree colleges offering bachelors degree in humanities, commerce or science; seventeen pre-university colleges (eleventh and twelfth standards); and, sixty seven primary and high school. Data provided by MEIF, Mangalore during June 2012.

along with what is described as ‘modern and secular’ education. Thus, as part of their religious education, students are taught the Quran and texts from ; they are trained in the practices and rituals of Islam and their meanings; and learn in order to enable them to read the Quran in its original language and understand it better. They have to learn subjects like ‘Islamic morals and values’ which teach them about the permissible behaviours within Islam. Along with this they learn ‘secular’ subjects like maths, science, history and English. In order to represent themselves as centres of modern and quality education all these schools have adopted the English as the medium of instruction. By bringing together modern and religious education, these institutes try to address the concerns of ‘educating girls without compromising their religious training’.

These institutes also try to provide a ‘proper Islamic environment’ for girls where parents would feel safe to send their daughters. This is the second important characteristic of these educational institutions. As part of these efforts, they have made the practice of burqa a part of their uniform for the Beary students. In schools where both boys and girls study, there are separate sections and class rooms for the girls, especially in the higher classes. Zareena Zayed, who is the principal of one such school near Derlakatte, says:

Parents feel safe to send their daughters here since we have created an Islamic environment for them. They can wear burqa, and they have separate class rooms. Parents are therefore assured of daughters’ safety and decency.

By embodying these characteristics the educational institutes help to represent and advance the concept of ‘modern Islamic women’. They symbolise the attempts made by the community to give women access to modern and secular education, but in an environment permitted by Islam and alongwith religious training. These institutes therefore on the one hand represent that it is possible to achieve modern education without getting ‘corrupted or unislamic’, as had been propagated by the Islamic clergy; and on the other hand they make it possible to think of ‘Muslim women’ who are educated, contrary to the negative stereotypes prevalent among the other communities.

If the structures of the educational institutes play an important role in enhancing the concept of a ‘Modern Islamic women’, then content of the subjects taught help to further this role of the institutes. Through the contents of the subjects offered under their Islamic training courses, these institutes change the value attributed to education. For instance, the curriculum of courses on ‘rights and responsibilities of women’ represent education not only as a means to gain material benefits in the form of jobs, but also as a way to achieve greater spiritual ends like moral transformation, self respect and social status. Education is ‘taught’ to be instrumental in enabling women to perform their moral duties better, as was pointed out by Mrs. Zohra Abbas, principal of an Islamic school and pre- university college in Krishnapura:

Islam has given women the prime responsibility of the household and the proper upbringing of her children. Education will help her to dispose these moral duties better by making her confident. She will be independent in her thoughts and ideas and guide her family and her children properly.

These ideas about the utility of education were reflected in the responses of the students as well. Sixty one respondents believed that the primary importance of education was to enable them to become good home makers and give proper upbringing and education to their children:

We girls are future mothers and we need education at least to teach our children in future (Humaira, first year, Bachelor of Arts in English).

If you educate a woman she can educate her family and her children. She can take correct decisions for her family and give her children good upbringing. This in turn will improve the condition of the society (Irshad, eleventh standard)

Education will give moral values, which we can teach our children in future. It will also help us improve our confidence and social status (Saheeda, third year, Bachelor of Computer Application).

Education is thus projected as a source of overall development of women. It makes her ‘independent and confident’ in her decisions and thought, and this in turn enables her to perform her duties well. By enabling women to perform her ‘traditional’ and ‘moral’ duties well, education allows women to effect change in her family and in the society at large. These redefinitions of education and its utility for women give rise to an alternative discourse of empowerment. This discourse of empowerment like the dominant concepts of women’s empowerment, endows women with confidence, decision taking ability, and independence of thought. But these virtues are believed to find their best expression in the ‘moral and traditional’ roles of a mother, or a home maker.

The courses and subjects taught in the educational institutes also define the boundaries of social and economic space for participation of women. Certain professional and economic roles are promoted as being sanctioned and permitted by Islam, and hence students are encouraged to take these up as future career options. The religious sanction for these roles is justified by the fact that they do not compromise women’s traditional roles of a home-maker. Some of these religiously sanctioned professions for women include teaching, nursing and medicine. The workplace which students should choose is also prescribed. They are encouraged to take up jobs which will allow them to practice burqa, and which do not require much interaction with men.

The impact of these teachings on the minds and thoughts of the students is evident from the career choices given by respondents during the survey. As has been mentioned above sixty one out of the

seventy two participants saw education to be important primarily for enhancing their roles of mother and house-maker. Out of these sixty one, fifty students wanted to become lecturers, seven preferred being doctors or nurses and four wanted to remain housewives. The remaining eleven students chose either engineering or clerical jobs. However all seventy two believed that women should choose professions or workplaces where they have mostly female colleagues and where they can practice purdah. Responses of students also show that their choices of undertaking economic roles were dependent on the wishes of their families. Some of them noted that they would take up a job only in the event of a financial crisis in the family. These responses, coming from students who are being trained in the modern educational institutions of the Beary community, reflect the effectiveness of these institutions in transmitting new ideas of womanhood within the community.

Conclusion

Education has been one of the major channels of acculturation and a serving-hatch for values and norms of those who organise it. Hence, the construction or developing of education infrastructures, the support of educational institutions and advocacy for general access to education, form an important part of Islamic and other faith-based social activities (De Cordier 2010: 493). The educational institutes established and managed by the Beary community, have indeed served as a source of acculturation for the community. The new definitions of empowerment and modernity of women, produced by these institutes, contribute to the attempts of identity redefinitions among the Bearys. They help to strengthen the concept that being Islamic is compatible with being modern and progressive. These institutes are therefore one of the important proponents of the ‘Islamic way of being modern’ which forms the crux of the new perceptions of Beary identity.

Acknowledgement

This paper represents work done for an ongoing PhD project under the Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse Transnational flows in India’s Regional Towns, research programme. It is a collaborative international research programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, and, National Institute of Advance Studies (NIAS), , India, funded by the Integrated Programme of WOTRO Science for Global Development, the Netherlands. Particular notes of gratitude are owed to the funding authorities and my supervisors and directors of this programme, Dr. Carol Upadhya (NIAS) and Dr. Mario Rutten (AISSR), for enabling me to undertake this study and for their valuable insights on the work. A huge debt of thanks goes towards those participants from the Beary community who agreed to take part in this study. Their names have been changed to protect anonymity.

References

Ahmad, Fauzia. 2001. Modern Traditions? British Muslim Women and Academic Achievement. Gender and Education 13 (2): 137-152.

De Cordier, B. 2010. Challenges of Social Upliftment and Definition of Identity: A Field Analysis of the Social Service Network of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Meerut, India. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 30(4): 479-500.

Government of India. 1973. Karnataka District Gazetteer: South Canara.

Hall, S. 1992. Cultural Identity in Question. In, Hall, S; David, H and T. McGrew (eds). Modernity and Its Futures. Cambridge Polity Press.

Rao, B.S. 2010. Bunts in History and Culture. World Bunts’ Foundation Trust.

Sturrock, J. 1894. Madras District Manual: South Canara. Vol. 1.

Stuart, H.J. 1895. Madras District Manual: South Canara. Vol. 2.

Tolpady, Rajaram. 2003. The Dynamics of Hindutva Politics: Case of Dakshina Kannada. In, Rao and Gowda ed. The Retrieved Acre. Mangalore University.