Mouni Vidhypeeth

With my success in Swadhyay ventures after some eight years, it began to dawn on me that whatever I was doing had very little relevance in the eradication of ignorance and poverty at the grass root level. When I was in this new frame of mind, I came across Dr. J. P. Naik, the world-renowned educationalist. He offered me a very inviting proposition to join 'Shri Mouni Vidyapeeth', the newly founded rural institute of which he was also a founder member.

Dr. J. P. Naik was the brain behind the whole idea of establishing the rural institute with the motto 'Development through Education' & 'Education through development'. He had submitted a comprehensive plan on this new vision to, the 'Radhakrishanan Commission' appointed by the Government of India. On this Commission's recommendations, fourteen Rural Institutes were opened all over India and it was expected to make these Institutions deemed Universities in the near future.

The institute, 'Shri Mouni Vidyapeeth', was located in a rural setting with beautiful refreshing natural surrounding. Sixty kms. away from the nearest urban center Kolhapur, it had a very good campus. The Institution was conceived to be developed into a true community type full-fledged residential center. The institution was expected to function by taking various educational involvements in the surrounding rural community, comprising nearly hundred villages. It was also expected that the institute would take to research in various sets of rural problems. Various types of courses from preliminary to postgraduate and doctorate level were opened.

These were courses in the fields of social work, co-operation, civil engineering and education. Adult education courses, continuation courses and single teacher school programs were launched. Periodic and short-term courses for class one development officers at district and block level with their subordinate extension officers and with elected members at the district level were organized.

Training courses for village workers, activities for woman and child welfare centers were designed. New extension agencies in agriculture, in family planning and in medical and health were all simultaneously initiated and worked out. A total staff of more than 250 persons including class four workers was absorbed and engaged.

In the year 1958, when I joined it was just a fresh budding educational complex inviting the energies of the staff and the workers of the institute for original and rural reconstruction. Naturally this educational complex provided a pleasant situation and opportunity to me. In a way, I felt myself very familiar with the complex mode of the educational activities, and in first three or four years I was quite absorbed and at home with the new framework. I was actively engaged in various types of extension and teaching activities. At times I worked as a resource person, at some time as a guest lecturer at some other time as regular or honorary staff member and at other places a venturer of my own self designed projects. Dr. J. P. Naik asked me to continue my Swadhyay Venture as weekend courses for the benefit of the rural women and primary teachers, who received their secondary certificate as well much coveted university degrees even by part time visits and interactions.

But unfortunately all these efforts and the vision to have rural development and reconstruction through institutional education failed miserably and Dr. J. P. Naik in well-known Kothari Commission Report on Education totally dropped his vision of Rural Institute forever.

It is the hidden curriculum in many of our ambitious projects and plans that ultimately kill the very essence and life in these ventures. We will have to look carefully into the reasons and learn how and why it happened. I am not however dealing with that theme here.

So leaving aside for a while this search, why the Rural Institute failed miserably to achieve it's goal, let me now take you to my other achievements in Shri Mouni Vidyapeeth that later earned me spontaneous, unique, loving honor as Draksh Mauli, Prayog Mauli from the entire new community of grape growers, in the scientific grape revolution in Maharashtra.