Yoginder Sikand has an excellent blog dealing with various issues related to Madrasa Reforms here –> http://madrasareforms.blogspot.com.

Apart from the points you mention, Yoginder has eloquently put this in his article,

“There is yet another reason why the inordinate interest of the state in madrasa education and its ‘reform’ needs to be critiqued. As many ulema, managers of the madrasas, see it, the intentions of the state in seeking to ‘reform’ the madrasas are not beyond suspicion. They see this talk of ‘reform’ as motivated by what they regard as an ulterior motive of interfering in and controlling the madrasas, and, consequently, undermining their autonomy and their Islamic ethos and identity. They point out that talk of madrasa ‘reforms’ gathered particular momentum during the rule of the BJP at the Centre, when, following the release of a report on national security, demands began made for the state to intervene in the madrasas in order to combat ‘terrorism’, based on the misleading contention that Indian madrasas are ‘hotbeds’ of ‘terror’. They look at how the demands for madrasa ‘reform’ by various governments, such as that of the United States, as well as it client regimes, such as Pakistan, are linked to their quest to control and quash opposition movements. They see these demands as hypocritical, since it was precisely these governments that funded and promoted radicalism in certain Pakistani madrasas in the wake of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. They thus argue that the state is not sincere in its protestations of being concerned about ‘reforming’ the madrasas. If the state is serious about countering ‘terrorism’, they ask, why is it not seeking to similarly ‘reform’ the vast chain of schools run by right-wing Hindutva forces throughout the country, which, unlike the Indian madrasas, openly preach hatred against other communities, particularly Muslims and Christians?”

http://madrasareforms.blogspot.com/2008/01/state-policies-on-madrasas-and-muslim.html

It needs to be remembered that the “venerable” congress leader ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla’ had invited the RSS to Madhya Pradesh to proselytise among the tribals.

One must also remember that the foundations of much of the Hindutva discourse were laid by the ‘nationalist’ congress in the immediate pre and post independence India

Recently I had a talk with a friend who raised the question of the sanskrit schools which are being run in different parts of the country. According to him they may not be run directly by the H brigade but are also engaged in similar exercise. Apart from the age-old curriculum which sanctifies manusmriti, they are mostly mono-caste schools where mainly brahmin boys from poor background take ‘education’.

It is worth noting that in all this hullaballo about Madarsa education, none from the secular brigade has tried to uncover what is going on in the ‘sanskrit schools’.

The demand for modernising the madrasa is an excuse for NGOiseing education and for the state to wash its hands of the responsibility of educating children, especially those belonging to the minority community.

And yes, the Bal Mandirs and Vanwasi Ashrams that get state funding have to be ‘modernised’ as well and held accountable.

The fate of Madrasas was sealed the day Urdu came to be identified as the language of the ‘other’ the foreigner, the Invader.

Those who placed Urdu in that position, despite their high sounding swadesi claims, were collaborating with a very specific colonial project of linking languages to religions and of establishing a one to one equation between lreligion and culture.

The harvest of hatred is now being reaped.

The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60.

Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim
culture–the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk