Page 6 - MUDRA ANUBHAV

ESTD: 1884
Deccan Education Society

The Deccan Education Society (DES) was
established in 1884, registered on 13th August
1885 by the five towering personalities of
the Indian freedom struggle, Lokmanya Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, Shri. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar,
Shri. Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar, Shir. Mahadeo
Ballal Namjoshi, and Shri. Vamanrao Apte
& was ably supported by Shahu Maharaj
of Kolhapur. In the pre-independence era
these visionaries realised that the education
which prevailed in India under the rule of
the Britishers was to create products only to
serve the Britishers. The system did not teach
the people to question, criticise, create, and
reflect their thoughts. It was simply a system
that perpetrated the slave mentality. Hence the
common mission for establishing DES was to
reverse the then existing scenario and give rise
to a progressive mindset.

In the view of the founders, ‘Education was
the means of rousing the intellect, the drooping
will, and the slumbering conscience of their
fallen countrymen’. At a time when the concept
of democratic practice was just being conceived
in India, DES decided to adopt a democratic
structure for its own governance. Thus, it
became a model for teacher-managed institutes
in Maharashtra and symbolized the ‘People’s
Own Initiative’ in evolving education as a means
of national regeneration.