Articles 28 and 30 of the Indian Constitution (1950) guarantee the right of religious minorities to establish their educational institutions and impart religious education. Analysing the curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogical practices of one such minority-run institution for girls makes it possible for us to see how contemporary Muslims in India…

The Calcutta "madrasa" was one of the many institutions which witnessed recurrent attempts at reform in Muslim societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the eleventh century, when "madrasas" first emerged as the principal institution of higher Islamic learning, it has undergone many changes, adapting in…

In 1893, Annie Besant touched the shores of India as a leader of the Theosophical Society. In India, Besant is widely known for her involvement in the Home Rule Movement and as president of the Indian National Congress, the chief political organisation in the Indian freedom struggle. Before entering into the political arena of the country, Besant…

There appears to be a globally unifying discourse that suggests Muslim communities are not supportive of girls' education. This paper aims to destabilize such a discourse by inserting the narratives of Muslim parents pursuing girls' education in Assam's Nagaon district. By paying attention to the concepts of "bhal suwali" (good girlhood)…

Religion as a school subject--Religious Education (RE)--is handled differently in various national contexts. This article discusses two different systems of managing (or avoiding) RE: those used in non-denominational Swedish and Indian schools. The article focuses particularly on what is allowed in the classroom with regards to religion. Both…

The Jesuit project of education in India that began with St Francis Xavier and flourished due to the support of colonial masters at its establishment was distinctive in its aims and objectives. The Jesuits taught the lowly and the mighty with the sole aim of "evangelisation", a term that has changed its meaning depending on contexts and…

This article employs Catholic social thought as a lens to situate the work of Sister Cyril Mooney, Principal emerita at Loreto Day School Sealdah in Kolkata, India. Drawing on the Canadian authors' personal experiences of the school over several years, supplemented by a two day in-depth interview conducted at Loreto Convent in Altrincham, England…

Fundamentalists and modernists seem, at times, to work in contrapuntal interdependency. While the fundamentalist's rhetoric markets its image as celebrating the renewal of an authentic past identity in modernity, modernists state the need for and possibility of adapting a cherished past to modern assumptions. Yet, it seems as if it is the…

This paper explores the cultural and economic strategies of educated but un/under-employed young Muslim men aged between 20 and 34 in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, north India. Drawing on Connell's gender theory, the paper demonstrates how economic and political forces shape Muslim young men's strategies. The paper distinguishes between…