Urdu-medium schools survive English wave despite odds

Urdu-medium schools survive English wave despite odds



Rows of ramshackle residential buildings,tailoring shops and tiny eateries dot Dimtimkar Road in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhod Nagpada.On the same crowded road also sits Ahmed Sailor High School,a piece of history in the citys Urdu education.The school is preparing to celebrate its 75th anniversary this year,which offers the perfect excuse to revisit some of the other old Urdu medium schools in South Mumbai.

Founded in the pre-Independence era,most of these schools catered,and continue to cater,to underprivileged kids.Some have fascinating stories of birth,change of location and expansion.Almost all of them today live in the fear of becoming redundant in Angrezi ki aandhi (Wave of English) as students increasingly flee to English medium schools.
Started in 1937 with 22 students in one room near Sandhurst road station and called Haji Ahmed Haji Hashim Agboatwala Middle School,it was rechristened Ahmed Sailor,after a big donor,and became a high school in 1943.The same year Juma Masjid Trust which had acquired the school shifted it to a rented building at Dimtimkar Road.Subsequently,Anjuman-e-Islam near CST,took it under its trusteeship.

Before skyscrapers came up and poor Muslims moved to far off suburbs,a lot of children came to Ahmed Sailor from the slums of Sewri,Wadala,Worli.It was the most prominent Urdu medium school in the Urdu pockets of Bhendi Bazaar,Nagpada and Dongri.Even today,we have 800 students on our roll, says Mubarak Kapdi,the schools chairman.Among its alumni are M Q Dalvi,advisor for the North East to former PM Indira Gandhi,author Q S Khan and Jafferbhai Mansuri,owner of Jafferbhai Delhi Durbar chain of restaurants.

Anjuman-e-Islam,headquartered in a heritage building near CST,also began as an Urdu medium school.Badruddin Tyabji,first Indian chief justice of the Bombay High Court and third president of the Indian National Congress,was among the schools founders.It began in 1874 with 122 students and three teachers and the idea was to instill nationalist and scientific spirit among the Muslims through education in their mother tongue, says Anjumans president,Dr Zaheer Kazi.Among the many institutions Anjuman runs today Saif Tayebji Girls High School at Bellasis Road stands out.An Oxford-educated Jew,Anee Samson came to Mumbai and offered to start an Urdu medium school for girls at Anjuman.It was the first of its kind in Mumbai.In 2002,an Englishmedium school called Begum Sharifa Kalsekar School was started from the same campus.

Many Urdu schools are getting converted into semi-English medium where Maths and Science are taught in English.This trend is catching on, adds Nilofar A Kasu,principal of Cummo Jafer Girls High School and Degree College at Mohammed Ali Road.Cummo and Jafer were two brothers from Gujarat who sold vegetables in the Bhendi Bazaar area before they prospered through other businesses.In 1936,they established a madrassa which went on to become a school,a junior college and then a degree college.

Among the other famous Urdu schools are Ismail Beg Mohammed High School,Hashmiya High School and Muhammadiyah High School.

Source TOI

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