This book responds to the discourse surrounding the emerging geo-politics after 9/11, which has sought to link madrasas to global terrorism, as a sort of factories for global jihād. This linking of madrasas with terror turned into an excuse in the hands of several governments to assert control and surveillance over the institution. The tension between madrasas and the state is both recent and has a much longer history. It is expressed in various modes of control, suspicion and scrutiny. The states’ agenda of reform relates to the streamlining of the institution into the national educational system. The contributors to this volume focus on modern and particularly contemporary South Asia and, in some cases, set the institution against the backdrop of history and contemporary realities.