Page 4 - IMDR MSME BOOK 2021

Deccan Education Society

The Deccan Education Society (DES) was
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established in 1884, registered on 13 August 1885
by the ve towering personalities of the Indian
freedom struggle, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Vishnu Shastri
Chiplunkar, Mahadeo Ballal Namjoshi, and
Vamanrao Apte & was ably supported by Rajashri
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 reect 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.