Learning at the Swami's feet: Hindu Youth and faith-based educational institutions in South India

在印度南部的卡纳塔克邦，教育系统的一个更不寻常的特点是由基于种姓的印度教宗教组织（Mathas）组织的学校所扮演的角色。虽然其中一些学校有很长的历史，但自1990年代初以来，它们的数量急剧增加，Matha学校不再是高种姓的专利，因为种姓等级较低的种姓建立了自己的Matha和学校，往往得到政府的援助。自1990年代初以来，随着印度教民族主义和伊斯兰好战情绪的兴起，宗教的作用成为南亚的一个关键问题。有几个关于宗教学校的研究，但玛塔教育是一个有趣但研究不足的现象。一些学者认为，宗教学校教育使贫穷的穆斯林青年边缘化，使他们容易受到伊斯兰原教旨主义的影响。然而，印度教民族主义和反穆斯林暴力的兴起促使我们考虑如何以及在哪里培养印度教青年的政治意识，使他们能够被动员为一股政治力量。在印度南部没有进行过这样的研究。在选举时，马萨夫妇经常充当“选票银行”。2008年5月，印度民族主义的印度人民党（BJP）成为卡纳塔克邦的执政党，这是南印度的第一个。人们普遍认为，许多Mathas支持人民党，这是该党成功地将其权力扩展到南印度的主要原因之一，在那里以前印度教民族主义从未流行过。从那时起，在首都班加罗尔发生了几起炸弹爆炸事件，这表明社区暴力正在南部蔓延。在这个项目中，我们将试图了解这种政治环境的一些根源，以及这些Matha学校的意识形态在多大程度上影响了年轻人（正如我们在印度许多地方所看到的那样），他们很容易被鼓励攻击不同宗教社区的成员。综合运用定性社会研究方法（包括半结构化访谈、档案工作和参与者观察）该项目将调查这些印度教学校在支持宗教和种姓身份方面的作用，研究由不同宗教教派和种姓管理的三个Mathas，并对关键问题有不同的取向，如女孩的适当学校教育，学生应该教授的历史，以及梵语在课程中的作用。我们还将调查学校如何与国家机构互动，以及世俗主义和国家建设的官方目标在多大程度上受到这些机构基于信仰的性质的影响。对于学术用户，我们将制作两篇同行评议的文章，合著卷中的一章，并组织一个会议小组和演讲。为了向卡纳塔克邦的主要利益攸关方传播，我们将组织很少见面的教育家的宗教间聚会，讨论我们的调查结果。拟议的研究将审查信仰教育机构的日常生活，努力了解它们在普通人生活中的作用和重要性，并解决一个区域的一项紧迫任务，以及一个迄今为止一直被南亚社区问题学者忽视的专题。

One of the more unusual features of the educational system in Karnataka, in South India, is the role played by schools organised by caste-based Hindu religious organisations (Mathas). While some of these have a very long history, since the early 1990s there has been a dramatic growth in their numbers, and Matha schools are no longer the preserve of high castes, as castes lower down the caste hierarchy have set up their own Mathas and schools, often with Government assistance. The role of religion became a crucial concern in South Asia with the rise of Hindu nationalism and Islamic militancy since the early 1990s. There have been several studies on madrasas, but Matha education is an intriguing yet under-researched phenomenon. Several scholars consider that madrasa education serves to marginalise poor Muslim youth and make them vulnerable to Islamic fundamentalism. The rise of Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim violence, however, urges us to consider how and where the political consciousness nurtured amongst Hindu youth enables them to be mobilized as a political force There have been a few studies of newly formed Hindu nationalist (RSS-run) schools but little scholarly attention has focused on the vital everyday roles of established Hindu religious institutions. No such studies have been conducted in south India. The Mathas have often acted as a 'vote-bank' at the time of elections. In May 2008, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the ruling party of Karnataka, a first for South India. It is widely believed that many Mathas supported the BJP and that was one of the main reasons why the party successfully extended their power into South India, where previously Hindu nationalism had never been popular. Since then, there have been several bomb blasts in the capital city of Bangalore, which suggests that communal violence is spreading in the South. In this project we will attempt to understand some of the roots of this political environment and the extent to which the ideologies of these Matha schools influence youth who can (as we have seen in many parts of India) so easily be encouraged to attack members of different religious communities. Using a mixture of qualitative social research methods (including semi-structured interviews, archival work and participant observation) the project will investigate the role of these Hindu schools in sponsoring religious and caste identities, by studying three Mathas run by different religious sects and castes, and with different orientations to key issues such as the appropriate schooling for girls, the history that pupils should be taught, and the role of Sanskrit in their curriculum. We will also investigate how the schools interact with state agencies, and the extent to official goals of secularism and nation-building are compromised by the faith-based nature of these institutions.For academic users, we will produce two peer-reviewed articles, a chapter in a co-authored volume, and organise a conference panel and presentations. For dissemination to key stakeholders in Karnataka, we will organise inter-faith gatherings of educationalists who rarely otherwise meet, to discuss our findings. The proposed research will examine the everyday lives of faith-based educational institutions, endeavouring to understand their role and importance in ordinary people's lives and addresses an urgent task in a region and on a topic that have hitherto been neglected by scholars working on communal issues in South Asia.