New Delhi: A professor from IIT Delhi, Dr VK Tripathi, has been spreading communal harmony by teaching 400 madrasa teachers Maths and Science over the past seven years.
As a teacher at the Madrasa Dar-ul-uloom Rahmania, Maulana Abdul Jabbar dedicates his entire day to the teaching of Urdu, Quran and the Shariah. Now, he and his son attend the workshop by Dr Tripathi in Maths and Physics, specially meant for madrasa teachers, and this has been a practice for seven years.
Dr VK Tripathi conducts workshop in collaboration with the Hamdard Education Society which is attended by 30 other madrasa teachers. Over the next five days, Maths and Physics will help bridge the gap and spread the message of communal harmony.
Dr VK Tripathi conducts workshop in collaboration with the Hamdard Education Society which is attended by 30 other madrasa teachers.
"Empowerment is the key. Learning the Quran is empowering but in order to lead your life and if you can acquire some skills or knowledge of technical subjects it is always helpful. And my students do realise that," said Dr Tripathi.
"Some of my students were not very comfortable with decimals. From Tripathiji, I have learnt how these things can be taught in a simple manner and I taught these to my students," said Jabbar.
"Maths, Science are taught in madrasas but they are taught in Arabic and since Arabic is not a universally known language we face problems while interacting with others," says Manzar Aman, one of the students.
A lot of madrasas do in fact include modern subjects in their syllabus and there are many well-known madrasas like the Jamia Ashrafia in Azamgarh from where students like Manzar Aman go on to excel in all kinds of fields. But an initiative like the one launched by Dr VK Tripathi does help those who may have either ignored or forced to give up Science and Maths during their study of religious subjects.