From Prasanta Paul
DH News Service Kolkata: Julita Oraon, a schoolgirl and devout Christian, never misses Sunday mass, but the rest of her week is spent studying Arabic and Sufi
literature among other subjects at an Islamic religious school or
madrasa.
Oraon is one of the hundreds of Hindu and Christian students in West
Bengal now attending madrasas, stereotypically seen across the world
as breeding grounds of religious intolerance and even terrorism.

However, the reality is in this part of India flies in the face of
such constructs as madrasas here are emerging as beacons of tolerance
and setting up examples of how liberal education and madrasas can
wonderfully co-exist. And no wonder, recently, the Bengal madrasas
made their presence felt even across the border.

Pak impressed

The Pakistan High Commission has dispatched a letter to the West
Bengal government seeking details about the curricula in these Islamic
schools and requesting the authorities here to help Pakistan modernise
madrasas. At a time when international gaze has been fixed more or
less on Pakistani madrasas considering them hotbeds of terror, the
High Commissioner�s missive comes as welcome tidings.

�Christians, Muslims, and non-Muslims all study here. Teachers are
chosen from a panel and above all, there is no Hindu-Muslim divide
here,� West Bengal Minority Development Minister Abdus Sattar told
Deccan Herald here on Saturday.

While a predominantly Hindu state, a quarter of West Bengal�s 80
million population is Muslim and one per cent Christian. Thousands
died in communal violence before and after the Partition of the
subcontinent in 1947.

There was more violence in the 1960s and 1970s after the arrival of
several thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus from what was
then East Pakistan.

But there have been no major communal clashes for decades in the state
which is being ruled by the Communists who have gained at the polls
from their policies designed to boost Muslim employment.

The Pak High Commission letter has also sought to understand how 12
out of every 100 madrasa students in Bengal are non-Muslims, in what
is perhaps an effort to pick up a tip or two from Bengal on how to
modernise these institutions in Pakistan.

Mr Sattar and other Left leaders have promised all help to Pakistan in
this regard.

Chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya who stressed on the need for
adopting a liberal curriculum � a balance between the old order and
the brave new world, found his efforts are paying dividends. In higher
madrasas one has the option of studying theology, Arabic literature,
physics, chemistry and even computer science.

Irrespective of whether the Bengal madrasa model gets replicated
across the border, one thing that is certain is that these students
will surely help in changing perceptions and make tomorrow a better
place to live in.