Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the National Education System Edited by S. Irfan Habib NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016 Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the National Education System Edited by S. Irfan Habib National University of Educational Planning and Administration 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016 © National University of Educational Planning and Administration, 2010 (Declared by the Govt. of India under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956) 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016, INDIA First Edition, November 2010 (2H) Published by the Registrar, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016 and printed by the Publication Unit, NUEPA at M/s Anil Offset & Packaging Pvt. Ltd., 35-UB, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-110007. ii Foreword The National University of Educational Planning and Administration organised a two day seminar on the occasion of Maulana Azad’s birthday, celebrated as National Education Day on November 11-12 2009. The two-day event was organised under the auspices of Maulana Azad Chair, which the Ministry of Human Resource Development instituted at NUEPA in 2009. Professor S Irfan Habib was appointed as the first Maulana Azad Chair at NUEPA. During the two days, an attempt was made to explore the various aspects of Maulana Azad’s seminal contributions to the building of modern independent India, particularly in the field of education, science and culture. We were privileged to have Shri Somnath Chatterjee to inaugurate the seminar and deliver an illuminating inaugural address. We are also grateful to distinguished scholars like Professors Mushirul Hasan, Dipankar Gupta, Harsh Sethi, Syeda Hameed and others, who agreed to participate and enrich the seminar. The present volume includes, besides most of the papers presented in the seminar, a selection of Maulana Azad’s speeches delivered during the ten years between 1947 and 1958. This will, we believe, facilitate in comprehending the educational policies and concerns of Maulana Azad during the crucial phase of our nation building. Let me also take this opportunity to thank the veteran actor Tom Alter and Dr Sayeed Alam for enacting the much acclaimed solo play on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The play in the evening truly complemented the day long deliberations on Maulana Azad and presented the subtleties of the era of national struggle, iii revealing many shades of Maulana Azad as a national leader, philosopher and educationist. I will end by expressing my gratitude to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) for their collaboration and cooperation in organising the two-day seminar. R Govinda Vice-Chancellor, NUEPA October 21, 2010 iv Preface The National University of Educational Planning and Administration organized a two-day conference on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the National System of Education in November 2009. The conference was aimed at commemorating Maulana Azad’s birthday, which was declared as National Education Day a year before. The present slim volume puts forward some of the papers presented during the two-day deliberations. The papers here attempt to explore the inspirations, influences and ambiguities in Maulana Azad’s commitment to modern education. They also try to bring out the shifts in Maulana Azad’s intellectual evolution over a period of fifty years. Significant in this process is Azad’s early commitment to denominational and sectarian concerns in education and otherwise, and his later passion for a national education system, which still remains elusive. One important aspect of teaching today is battling with divisive, sectarian and regional sentiments. The world in general and India in particular is faced with an arduous task of combating such tendencies while teaching in schools as well as colleges. The teaching of history, geography and culture is a major challenge confronting NCERT and other institutions engaged in this task. The medium of instruction was another contentious issue which Azad had to settle as the first minister of education in independent India. Even in 1956, Maulana Azad was pained to find that these subjects were being employed for the unhealthy purpose of sowing the seeds of discord among people. Keeping Maulana Azad’s views on the matter as a backdrop, the volume touches upon these issues in our contemporary educational context. Another important aspect in current perspective is Azad’s passion for free and compulsory education, which remained on v the sidelines till recently, when a debate was sparked off again with the introduction of Right to Education Bill. The seminar discussed various aspects of the Bill in the contemporary Indian context, keeping Azad’s own commitment to free and compulsory education as a backdrop. The seminar also inspired the participants to ponder about the contributions of educationists like K G Saiyidain and Dr. Zakir Husain, the former being the key player in educational planning during Azad’s time. The latter played a seminal part in articulating basic education, with his central role in preparing the Wardha Committee Report on basic education. Recently, the HRD ministry came forward with a proposal to constitute a Madarsa Board, similar to CBSE, claiming that it will modernize madarsa education and entitle madarsa graduates for Government employment. However, the proposal not only invited criticism from the expected political quarters, it was also visualized as interference in the internal affairs of the community by the Muslim Personal Law Board. Maulana Azad was seriously concerned about the antiquated curriculum of the madarsas and made several attempts to bring about meaningful changes but without success. He directly appealed to the madarsa representatives to be sensitive and responsive to the demands of the age and reorganize their curriculum by including the modern sciences. In today’s Islamic context and also with the new initiative of the HRD ministry, the seminar discussed the future of madarsa education and its relevance in the milieu of fast changing socio-economic demands of the Muslim community. The volume begins with the inaugural address of Shri Somnath Chatterjee who calls Maulana Azad as “one of the front ranking leaders of both pre and post independent India”. As a Muslim scholar and a prominent Muslim leader he stood for the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the partition of India. Shri Somnath Chatterjee emphasized the fact that Maulana Azad “was greatly instrumental in persuading the Muslim representatives in the Assembly to give up the demand for communal electorate and strongly advocated that the principle of vi Secularism should be enshrined in the Constitution along with religious freedom and equality for all Indians.” As the Minister of Education Maulana considered basic education for the future welfare of the people as of prime importance and he emphasized on the importance of the speedy progress of adult education. Education of women was of prime concern for him, according to Shri Chatterjee. Maulana observed that without an educated electorate, democracy cannot perform the functions expected of it. As the Minister of Education of free India, Maulana created a nation-wide system of basic education for all children of school going age, and created facilities for the highest type of education in the technical field including the establishment of four institutions of the standard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In Chatterjee’s view, Maulana Azad re-emphasized the fivefold programme for the expansion of education in the country: These were (a) Universal compulsory basic education for all children of school age, (b) Social education for our adult illiterates, (c) Measures for improvement in the quality of and expansion of facilities for secondary and higher education, (d) Technical and scientific education on a scale adequate to the nation’s needs, and (e) Measures for the enrichment of the cultural life of the community by encouraging the arts and providing facilities for recreation and other amenities. However, according to Shri Chatterjee, we are unfortunately still to reach the goal and to fulfill what Maulana Azad laid down as the objectives of the country’s educational policy towards the general progress of the country. S. Irfan Habib’s paper titled “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on education and culture in post independent India” refers to the early influences on Maulana Azad’s thinking and the evolution of Azad as an educationist and an intellectual leader. Surprisingly the influences were not merely Islamic, as assumed, but had a great share from Europe, particularly the French philosopher Rousseau. The paper also touches upon Maulana Azad’s commitment to free and compulsory education which has been formalized by the government recently in its Right to Education Act. Vinod Raina in his presentation took a look at Maulana vii Azad’s commitment to free and compulsory education and examined the Right to Education Bill 2009 in the context of present day challenges and context which are in stark contrast with the early years of post independent India. Syeda Hameed in her paper reflects upon the educational philosophy of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Khwaja Ghulamus Saiyidain. Both of them were close associates and colleagues in the education ministry headed by the former. Saiyidain had a significant role in shaping the education system of independent India along with other experts in the education ministry such as Humayun Kabir, Tara Chand and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. Saiyidain understood that Azad’s educational ideas were grounded in his understanding of Islam. For him Azad was not an exclusive “Islamic mind” or even an “oriental” mind, but drawing from different sources which cut across the East-West Barriers. According to the speaker, both Azad and Saiyidain felt that for a country emerging from 150 years of political bondage and therefore it was important to train the nation not merely in skills but train their ideas and emotions in new ways to take up new challenges before the free India.