India Tomorrow
New Delhi–In the name of upgradation, the students of 117 Madrasas registered with Uttarakhand Waqf Board will be taught Sanskrit and the curriculum of NCERT will be implemented there. This was announced by the chairman of Uttarakhand Waqf Board Shadab Shams on September 11, 2023.
According to the census of 2011, the Muslim population in Uttarakhand is 14.07 Lakhs (13.95 percent) of a total of 1.01 Crore.
No reason was given by the board chairman but he said that Uttarakhand was Devbhoomi while making this announcement. This is alleged to be a strange reason to introduce Sanskrit in Madrasas. Many consider this decision as an extra burden on Madrasa students and an imposition of Sanskrit. It may be recalled that earlier the names of Railway Station written in Urdu was replaced with Sanskrit in Uttarakhand.
Mr. Shams claimed that now people of the Muslim community also want change.
One website claimed that a Muslim girl Razia Sultana has done a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and she is translating the Quran into Sanskrit. Razia will be included as a member of the state-level education committee of the Waqf Board.
According to The Indian Express, Mr. Shams said the curriculum would be an amalgamation of scientific learning and Islamic studies, and that students would be able to learn both Sanskrit and Arabic along with English.
According to this paper, Shams had announced last year that all madrasas under the Waqf Board would have a uniform dress code with classes running from 8 am to 2 pm, just like other schools. He had also said that the Uttarakhand government would form a committee to survey all the madrasas in the state.
