Nuh madrasa students march with Quran and Tricolour to counter’anti-national’ label

Hundreds of madrasa students marched through Nuh on Wednesday, holding the Quran in one hand and the Tricolour in the other, in a pointed rebuttal to the stereotype that brands madrasas as anti-national.

The march, “Ek Haath Mein Quran, Ek Haath Mein Tiranga”, was organised by Pasmanda Vikas Foundation from Yasin Mewat Degree College to Gandhi Park. According to organisers, around 200 children, 150 Muslim women and nearly 100 religious leaders from madrasas across the district joined the march.

Children raised slogans on patriotism and nation-building as they walked, with flags held high. Organisers said the march was designed to instil patriotic feeling among madrasa students and push back against a narrative that has long viewed these institutions with suspicion.

Pasmanda Vikas Foundation office bearers said the organisation works to modernise madrasa education, aiming to help students go on to become doctors, engineers and scientists who serve the nation — not in spite of their faith, but along with it. They said a child who follows the Quran can have just as much love for the tricolour as any other citizen.

The message, organisers said, was unambiguous: madrasas should not be viewed with doubt. Children studying there, they argued, hold deep patriotic conviction and want an equal stake in India’s growth story — a rebuttal delivered not in words alone, but in a flag held aloft by hundreds of young hands.

The event concluded with an appeal to the government and society to provide proper guidance and opportunities to madrasas so that their students can contribute fully to national development.

The march adds to a growing pattern of madrasa and Muslim community groups across the country staging similar outreach drives in recent years to counter perceptions that link madrasa education with a lack of national loyalty.