A COMPARISON

Lord Macaulay (T. B. Macaulay, 1800-1859) came to India in 1834. As a senior member of the Supreme Council of India, he introduced an education system that eventually spread throughout the country as the “English Education System.” In Macaulay’s own words, the aim of this system was to create a generation that would be Indian by birth but English in thought:

“So that a generation may arise which will be Indian in birth and English in thought.”

Almost all Muslim leaders, young and old alike (with the single exception of Sir Syed), opposed this system of education. They began giving speeches against it. Some called it a “slaughterhouse.” Others attached mocking verses to it, such as:

“Pharaoh was never disgraced by killing children,

Alas, he never thought of building colleges.”

Most Muslims did not take part in this system of education. Those who enrolled often left midway. The result of this opposition was that Muslims fell at least two hundred years behind other communities in education. Today, the root of nearly all the problems Muslims face lies in this backwardness. Lack of education leaves people unaware, and a community without awareness can expect nothing but ruin in this world.

Now consider another example. After the Second World War in 1945, Japan was defeated. America then took complete control of Japan—politically, militarily, and administratively. After this defeat, Japan found itself entirely under American authority. The U.S. forcibly disarmed Japan and brought sweeping changes to its education system. In December 1945, Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) issued key directives about education, with the specific aim of eliminating militarism and weakening the nationalist spirit of the Japanese people.

Many wartime teachers were removed from service. Religion and politics were completely separated. Shinto teachings were taken out of the curriculum. The purpose of these changes was to shape Japan’s younger generation according to America’s wishes. In 1946, a team of American education experts arrived in Japan with a detailed plan. They produced a report titled:

Report of the United States Education Mission to Japan.

This report was essentially a practical explanation of the directives General MacArthur had issued to Japan’s Ministry of Education in his capacity as the country’s supreme authority. In 1947, Japan’s Basic Education Law and School Education Law were drafted in line with this report. In 1948, Japan’s Education Board was created to ensure that the education system continued to run according to America’s preferences. Thus, schools, colleges, and universities in Japan adopted an education system modeled entirely on the one in America.

Unlike India’s Muslim leaders, the Japanese did not label America’s plan as “educational colonialism,” nor did they launch protests or boycotts against it. Without losing a single day, they placed their entire younger generation into this “American education system.”

Now, nearly half a century has passed since then. The outcome is plain for all to see. Those who studied under this system emerged as true “Japanese.” They did not become “Americans” in any sense, as America had intended. On the contrary, against all American expectations, they brought about a new revolution in Japan. They created a new history for their nation. They unleashed a wave of progress so strong that even America could not hold it back. They placed Japan among the leading nations of the world.

This is the secret of progress in the modern world. Success belongs to those who can turn unfavourable conditions into favourable ones, who can transform hostile plans into an advantage, who can turn a “no” into a “yes.” Only people with this ability succeed in today’s competitive world. Those who fail in this test have no fate other than to be consigned to irrelevance, protesting against others—protests that no one is even there to hear.

In this regard, just as the secular section of our country has failed, the Islamist section has also fallen short. For instance, Akbar Allahabadi (1846–1921), a renowned Urdu poet and satirist of British India, and Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979), a prominent Muslim theologian and founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, viewed the educational institutions of the British era as slaughterhouses and sought to keep an entire generation away from them.

This was an utterly meaningless and foolish stance. What these religious leaders should have done was to create awareness among Muslim youth so that they would take knowledge from English institutions while setting aside their cultural influence. However, owing to a limited perspective, they adopted a negative approach. As a result, an entire generation of Muslims was left educationally deprived. In this respect, the people of Japan proved wiser than the Muslims of India.