Page 6 - Sugam Sarita

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.