ABSTRACT
As one of the states with the largest number of Muslim minorities, India provides an interesting insight into the interplay between political, social, economic and educational contexts in which exclusion and inclusion can exist. This chapter focuses on the interplays with reference to the Madrasa education system and it's identified role in promoting Muslim exclusion from the public space. It provides the evolution of Indian Muslims and their status in India's plural set-up today. Islam entered India about one and a half millennium ago. Its evolution was characterised by dovetailing of a new religious culture with an ancient Hindu civilisation. The Madarsa system of education under state patronage prevailed during much of the Mughal rule. The earliest known Madarsas in North India were established by the Turks in the thirteenth century. The evolution of Islam in India spans several centuries and its political dominance can be traced to the era of the Slave Dynasties, the Sultans and the Moghuls.
