Against all canons

Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi was the outsider who beat the odds to win the post of Vice-Chancellor of the world-renowned Darul Uloom Deoband. But clearly the reformist cleric with an MBA degree had pushed his luck too far. On Sunday, the Islamic seminary's Majlis-e-Shoora (managing committee) sacked the rector without even the fig leaf of due process. The Mohtamim was ousted by a pre-determined script whose first lines were written even before the ink could dry on his appointment. The genesis of Mr. Vastanvi's troubles can be traced back to his election, which he won by defeating Arshad Madani, a member of the Madani clan whose influence over Deoband is part of folklore. The Madanis — Arshad and Mahmood — head a faction each of the politically decisive Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind. The Jamiat's vision and outlook can be judged from its recent diktat to Muslims against watching television, issued as part of a campaign to instil “Islamic values and rules.” In the event, Mr. Vastanvi, unschooled in the art of public relations, was trapped easily: Asked to comment on the welfare of Muslims in Gujarat, the cleric, himself from Gujarat, made the impolitic remark that they ought to move on.

For Mr. Vastanvi's legion of detractors, it was the slip they were waiting for. Over the following weeks, the rector issued repeated clarifications even as violence escalated on the campus. And with the Urdu press digging up fresh evidence each day — a “secular” memento he presented at a function became another of Mr. Vastanvi's sins — it was not long before the cleric metamorphosed from a Narendra Modi-supporter to an agent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh! It was inevitable then that the Shoora would show him the door — never mind the little matter of the rector's reported exoneration by a sub-committee of the same Shoora. The decision is bound to impair the image of Deoband, showing it up as a retrogressive institution unequal to its rich history and heritage and unwilling to keep pace with the galloping aspirational changes in the community. The Rajinder Sachar committee demolished several myths about Muslims. Among its findings are: only four per cent Muslim children go to Madrasas, and Muslim parents want the best that education can offer for their wards. Mr. Vastanvi, who runs a clutch of educational institutions in Maharashtra, was seen on the Deoband campus as a harbinger of much-awaited progressive change. The running theme among students was “deen and duniya” (religious education as well as knowledge of science and worldly affairs). Instead of boldly embracing this brave, new blueprint, the Shoora has set the clock back on the campus.