Meet the scholars who will shape minority education in Uttarakhand after Madrasa Board abolition

The Act, which came on the heels of a crackdown on hundreds of “illegal” madrasas in the state, does away with the Madrasa Board and brings madrasas, as well as education institutions run by Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, under the newly established USAME with 12 members. The Madrasa Board comprised 13 members, nine of whom were Muslims or belonged to Muslim institutions. Apart from subjects permitted and prescribed by the Board of School Education, the Bill says that minority institutions can teach additional subjects specific to their religion, provided they “conform to the standards, quality and content laid down by the Authority”.

Dr Surjit Singh Gandhi, a professor of Economics at the BSM PG College in Roorkee, has been appointed as chairperson, while Prof Rakesh Jain, who teaches Psychology at the Gurukul Kangri Deemed to be University in Haridwar, Dr Syed Ali Hamid, a retired professor from Kumaun University, Prof Pema Tenzin from Chamoli, Dr Elba Mandrelle from Bageshwar, Prof Robina Aman from Almora’s Soban Singh Jeena University, and Prof Gurmeet Singh from Kedar Nath Girdhari Lal Khatri (PG) College, Moradabad have been made members. Social worker Rajendra Bisht and Chandrashekhar Bhatt have also been included as members. The Director of Higher Education, the Director of the State Council of Educational Research, and the Director of Minority Welfare will also be members of the Authority.

Chairman-elect Dr Surjit Singh Gandhi has been working at BSM College as an Associate Professor at the Economics department, which is affiliated with the HNB Central University, since 2008. Professor Rakesh Jain has 35 years of experience in academia and is currently at Gurukul Kangri University. He has been a nodal officer for the implementation of the National Education Policy at the university and has served as the controller of examinations. He has a PhD in Psychology and has published 84 papers.

Dr Syed Ali Hamid retired as Professor of English from Kumaun University Campus, Almora, and has published collections of poems and several translations of poetry from English into Urdu/Hindi. He was awarded by the UP Urdu Academy in 1990 for his translation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea into Urdu.

Other members include Dr Elba Mandrelle, an assistant professor at the Department of English at Swargiya Chandra Singh Shahi Government Post Graduate College, Kapkote in Bageshwar. She specialises in Indian English and Post-Colonial Literature, along with cultural studies. Dr Robina Aman, the head of the Chemistry Department at Soban Singh Jeena University, Almora, has 30 years of experience in teaching and two books and 17 research papers to her name. Professor Gurmeet Singh has been teaching Law for 25 years at Kedar Nath Girdhari Lal Khatri (PG) College, Moradabad.

With the repeal of the Madrasa Board, madrasas recognised under the Madrasa Education Board Act, 2016, and the Uttarakhand Non-Government Arabic and Persian Madrasa Recognition Rules, 2019, will have to be re-recognised for the 2025-26 academic session.