National Education Movement

National Education Movement represented multiple efforts for educational reconstruction, on national lines and under national control, to develop alternatives to the colonial education system during the Indian freedom struggle. National Education Movement: A Saga of Quest for Alternatives to Colonial Education is a pioneering study exploring in a holistic manner the ideas and experiments of national education during the British rule in India. The book begins with a survey of pre-British indigenous education in India and its subsequent replacement by the colonial education focussing on the nature and content of the two diametrically opposite systems of education. It highlights the fact that with the growth of national consciousness, Indian nationalists were able to comprehend the mismatch between the colonial educational objectives and the national requirements. Two chapters document the institutions and the pioneers of the national education in India. Lastly, the book explores how the Gandhian concept of Basic Education was an attempt to rectify and supplement the earlier shortcomings of the national education movement. The book will be useful for students of history of education as well as general readers concerned about the state of education in India.