Saloni Bhojwani | Deepening the Divide: Youth in Ajmer | Exposure/Aftermath Workshop in Ajmer

EXPOSURE/Aftermath Project India| Summer 2009

Rashina Bhan’s forehead is creased with concern.  There are her children – eight of them in all – and the need to feed and clothe them.  And then there is the fear that her husband could be endangered at any time – he serves in the Indian armed forces.

Most worrying, however, is the matter of education.  Not public school – her children already attend for close to nothing.  Rashina’s worries lie in the matter of Islamic education.  A conservative Muslim, she longs to send her children to the local Madrassa, where they can learn the values of a devout Muslim life.  But Rashina can’t afford the fees to provide her children such a rich religious education, or the cost of sending them on a two-hour commute.  She worries what will become of her children in a Hindu-majority society, and whether she will be able to keep their values and beliefs in line with her own.

Her efforts have been somewhat successful – she is pleased at having found four husbands from conservative Muslim families for four of her daughters.  But every time she sees her eight-year-old daughter Pista dancing in her carefree ways, Rashina’s creases return and she is reminded of the daunting fear that Islamic values will be lost on her.

Not far from Rashina’s house in the tiny village of Beawar in Rajasthan, another mother has similar worries – but with a twist.  For Usha, her most pressing concern has been about sending her children to a Hindu religious school.  Luckily, she has recently discovered that down the road from her house is exactly what she has been looking for: a religious school set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu religious organization.

Usha’s family of five children all attend this Ekal Vidyalaya, and despite the fact that their father is unemployed and unable to provide them even with public education, Usha’s concerns are put to rest by the fact that her children will learn the most important forms of knowledge – that of Hinduism.

These two stories represent one of India’s modern-day legacies of the aftermath of partition: the challenges of maintaining a long history of religious pluralism, particularly in undeveloped areas like Beawar.  These social silos between the two religions are held high in many places. In the face of the rapidly increasing influences of these radical religious organizations such as the VHP, and Rashina’s and Usha’s concerns are merely a microcosm for the changing attitudes in India’s historically tolerant society.

Inside a Madrassa in a small town near Beawar, in the headmaster’s office read the words “Education is simply the soul of society as it passes from one generation to another generation; Duties belong to us, results belong to Allah.”  This strong religious sectarianism is reflected in similar sayings throughout the school, in its classrooms and on school grounds, and is just one of the many tools used in the process of ensuring that this Muslim resentment towards Hindus is indeed able to “pass from one generation to another generation.”

Exclusivity finds its form in a similar manner inside the Ekal Vidyalaya.  Amidst a session of devotional song and prayer come the enthusiastic lyrics: “Oh mother, put me on the border and let me take bullets.”  When asked whether he has any Muslim friends at school, Suraj, a young boy of nine years who attends the Ekal Vidyalaya scrunches up his face and firmly states “No way.”  Suraj’s attitude is reflective of the goals of this schooling system.

Rameshwar Baba, the head of the VHP for the largest district in Rajasthan, brags about the Ekal Vidyalaya and its rich education.  He explains that “the organisation’s pride and joy is in the Durga Vahini, a commando training camp for girls and women of 15-35 years of age.   A similar training camp for boys and men, called the Bajrandal, exists and is crucial in wreaking havoc and creating urban conflicts” that only serve to exacerbate inter-communal strife.

The other side of the coin reads a similar story.  Doctor Khassam, the man in charge of the curricula for Madrassas in Beawar, adamantly states that everyone who does not accept Allah as their leader is simply in denial of the blatant reality.  Moreover, he offers a book that serves as an ethos for the Madrassa schooling system, in which it states that “the biggest crime you can commit is to pray to any other being besides Allah”.  The children who emerge from such a curriculum will hence deem any Hindu an ignorant individual, or worse, a criminal.

These social silos that deepen divides in India’s society are being propped up, not only by conservative parents who long for their traditions and beliefs to be passed on through generations, but by external factors that culminate in the education system.

Community events in the city of Ajmer further deepen these dividing lines in India’s society, and the role that adults play in ensuring that this situation does not change.  In a celebration of Janmashtmi, Lord Krishna’s birthday, this story of indoctrination manifests: Hindu children are made to dress up as Krishna for a costume competition.  However, most of the children are dragged into this by their eager parents, kicking and screaming as they go.

The story of India’s youth in these conflict-stricken areas is a story of confinement, and as long as these restrictions and influences continue to find their way into the mindsets of India’s youth, this 62-year old divide has little chance of solving itself.  However, the views of Pista and Simran, the young Muslim and Hindu girls, reflect the possibility of change.  When asked their views on the Hindu-Muslim conflict, Pista’s answer was “it’s a bit silly don’t you think?”  In response to the same question, Simran concisely states “it’s so unnecessary.”  Moreover, teachers from both the Ekal Vidyalaya and the Madrassa agree that “the education of India’s youth is crucial in ensuring that the country continues on a favourable path.”  Despite the universality of this statement, it is evident that to these individuals, favourable means deepening these divides rather than unifying the nation.

These two young girls and their lack of qualms suggest that there is a chance of resolution.  Only the uncorrupted mind of a child like Pista or Simran is able to objectively understand that friendship and community should not be based on religion and history, and that the Muslims in India and the Hindus in India are all nevertheless Indian.