Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

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Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an educational trust, that conducts many primary and secondary educational institutes in India.

Kulapati K. M. Munshi* who was a Culture Minister in the Nehru Cabinet founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1938 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi. The trust is well-known for the nationwide string of schools named Bhavan's Vidya Mandirs.

At present the trust operates some eighty higher secondary schools in India and about another twenty-five outside the country.

Bhavan's schools are somewhat different from other such institutions around the country in that the students are taught to be modern and global in their outlook without forgetting their Indian roots.

Bhavanites, as the students are called, pride themselves on being Indian & are well known for their respect not only for the country and what it stands for but also towards themselves which,they consider an essential part of being "Indian".

True to its goal of revitalizing Dharma or Moral Law in its threefold aspects of Truth, Love and Beauty, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is ceaselessly striving to carry forward India's ageless message of Faith, Self-discipline and dedication.

The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan believes that there are elements in all cultures which transcend all barriers and knit people together. Its ideal is : Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. "The world is one Family". Its motto is " Let noble thoughts come to us from every side".

During the last six decades and more of its existence, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has blossomed into an ever growing voluntary apolitical national movement with an international look, devoted to life, literature and culture.

The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's multi-dimensional programmes through its 117 centres in India and 7 centres abroad and 355 constituent institutions cover " all aspects of life from the cradle to the grave and beyond-it fills a growing vacuum in modern life", as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru observed when he first visited the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1950.

Kulapati K. M. Munshi was also the main driving force behind the renovation of the historically important Somnath Temple by the Government of India just after independence.

Additional information

Founded on November 7, 1938 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi and cooperation and support of several distinguished stalwarts of India's freedom movement, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has grown from small beginnings into a comprehensive all India intellectual, cultural and educational movement. It is totally apolitical. Its founder, Kulpati Dr. K. M. Munshi looked upon the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan as an 'Adventure in Faith', a faith in India's past, present and future. It is also a faith in India's people who have a rich and unbroken cultural heritage.

Bhavan's Faith

Let me once more set forth the Bhavan's for the benefit of new students and members, for it is necessary that they should understand it clearly and imbibe its spirit. The Bhavan stands for the reintegration of Indian culture.

In a world falling to pieces under the impact of an amoral technological avalanche, it tries to hold fast to the fundamental values for which our culture stands - RITA, SATYA, YAGNA and TAPAS; FAITH in God Who informs the cosmic order; TRUTH which is accord between mind, word and deed; DEDICATION, which offers all movements of life as an offering to God; SUBLIMATION, which purifies the body and mind and transmutes instincts, passions and emotions into things of beauty.

This regardless of forms and doctrines is Dharma, the threefold aspects of which are SATYAM, SHIVAM, SUNDARAM-Truth, Love and beauty. For these values our forefathers lived and died. So did Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Dayananda, Swami Vivekananda, Gandhiji and Shri Aurobindo, among the moderns. These Values are embedded in our national outlook.

We command the respect of the world because of them. We can look forward to the future with confidence only because they have the vitality, which gives the power to vindicate their validity even in this fear-and-avarice-ridden age of ours. We, the Bhavan's family, whether it is the smaller one or the larger one, must make every effort in restoring an awareness of these values in personal and collective life.

K. M. Munshi