Muslim Educational Backwardness An Inferential Analysis

The central argument of this paper is that the explanations often advanced to account for the educational backwardness of Muslims in contemporary India rest upon certain questionable assumptions. These are, one, that Muslims are an aggregate community; and two, that the appeal of education is universal to all social strata. Following from this, if indeed Muslims are educationally backward, it is because of some innate religious conservatism which discourages pursuit of secular education, or because of an acute 'minority complex'.