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Vidya Bharati is a non government educational organization in India which runs one of the largest private network of schools in India. It is the educational wing of RSS.

History

RSS established its first Saraswati Shishu Mandir brand of school in Gorakhpur in 1952, under the leadership of Nanaji Deshmukh. As the number of schools increased, a committee Shishu Shiksha Prabandak Samiti, was set up to coordinate activities at the state level. Similar schools and committees were subsequently set up in Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. In 1978, an all-India body, Vidya Bharati was set up to coordinate the activities between the state committees, headquartered in Delhi. Vidya Bharati had an associated National Academic Council with educationists who were not necessarily associated with RSS and enjoyed the trust of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). By early 1990's, the network had grown to 5,000 schools and, by 2003, further grown to 14,000 schools with 1.7 million pupils. This expansion was facilitated by the growing demand of education in India and the disaffection with the state school system. The network also benefited from favourable allotment of land by Jana Sangh and BJP politicians.

In addition to formal schools (which go by a variety of names such as shishu vatikas, shishu mandirs, vidya mandir, saraswati vidyalas etc), Vidya Bharati also runs sanskar kendras (cultural schools) and single-teacher schools for cultural education. It controls over 250 intermediate colleges and about 25 institutions of higher education and training colleges. It has schools in remote areas of the northeastern states and foreign countries: Mauritius, Indonesia and the USA. It has over 50 state and regional committees affiliated to it, making it the largest voluntary association in India. Funds for this expansion have been collected through various means, including charities from the West. According Awaaz, a London-based organisation, a significant portion of the Sewa International earthquake funds for Gujarat have been used to build RSS schools.

About

It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India. As of March 2002, it had 17,396 schools, 2.2 million students, over 93,000 teachers, 15 teacher training colleges, 12 degree colleges and 7 vocational and training institutions. Most of the Vidya Bharati schools are affiliated to the Central Board for Secondary Education or their local State Boards. Vidya Bharati run educational programs were adopted in Madhya Pradesh as an alternate model of education when BJP was in power.

In 1998 at a conference of State education ministers Vidya Bharati made proposals for school education to be "Indianized, nationalized and spiritualized", with the teaching of "the essentials of Indian culture" which was perceived as "Hindu education". There were concerns when the Uttar Pradesh Government made it mandatory to start the school day with Vande Mataram and Saraswati Vandana and the Muslim League forbade Muslim schoolchildren from joining in the worship. It also demands that Sanskrit be taught in all schools and sponsors the revision of textbooks which give a Hindu outlook of history and use Hindu examples in comprehension exercises.

Dinanath Batra, former General Secretary of Vidya Bharati, said that they were fighting an "ideological battle against Macaulay, Marx and Madrasawadis". In comparison to which Vidya Bharati advocates "Indianization, nationalization and spiritualization" of education. In the areas of study that are peripheral to the core curriculum, like physical education, music and cultural the institution worked out its own curriculum.

Ideology and Objectives

The organization believes that a large population in India do not have access to education and so its focus is villages under-privileged locality and tribal area. They encourage economic self-reliance, good health, and hygiene. It says that that all round development of a child has to be achieved through education and inculcation of time honored traditions.

The organization believes that system of education in India has its roots in Western way of fulfillment of life and that the all-round development of the personality of the child is not possible without spiritual development. They aim to develop the students physically, mentally and spiritually, and make them capable of facing challenges of daily life and thus contribute to nation building.

See also

• Saraswati Shishu Mandir

References

1. ^ Nair 2009, p. 52.
2. Jaffrelot 2011, p. 193. sfn error: no target: CITEREFJaffrelot2011 (help)
3. Nair 2009, p. 51.
4. ^ Lall 2005, p. 164.
5. Sundar 2005, p. 196. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSundar2005 (help)
6. Sundar 2005, p. 208. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSundar2005 (help)
7. Malik 1994, p. 157.
8. Smith 2000, p. 132.
9. Chandavarkar 2009, p. 197.
10. Marty 1993, p. 552.
11. "Vidya Bharati, India Vidya Bhararti Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Sansthan Educational Belief". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
12. "Vidya Bhararti Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Sansthan Philosophy, Aim and Objectives". Retrieved 13 September 2014.

Bibliography

• Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan (2009). History, culture and the Indian city : essays. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76871-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (2007). Hindu nationalism a reader (in Czech). Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-13097-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Malik, Yogendra (1994). Hindu nationalists in India : the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-8810-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lall, Marie (2005). Katherine Adeney; Lawrence Saez (eds.). Indian education policy under the NDA government. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-35981-3. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Marty, Martin (1993). Fundamentalisms and society : reclaiming the sciences, the family, and education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-50880-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nair, Padmaja (2009). Religious political parties and their welfare work: Relations between the RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vidya Bharati Schools in India (PDF). University of Birmingham. ISBN 978-8187226635. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Smith, Pamela (2000). India : globalization and change. London New York: Arnold Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-340-70579-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Sunder, Nandini (2005). E. Ewing (ed.). Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 195–218. ISBN 978-1-4039-8013-7. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further Reading

• Sharma, R. (2002). Indian Education at the Crossroads. Delhi: Shubhi Publications. ISBN 978-8187226635. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Educational institutions
• Education in India
• Non-governmental organizations
• Sangh Parivar