Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan logo
Established	November 7, 1938; 84 years ago (1938-11-07)
Type	Educational trust
Location	India
Award(s)	Gandhi Peace Prize
Website	http://www.bhavans.info

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an Indian educational trust. It was founded on 7 November 1938 by Dr K.M Munshi, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi.^[1] The trust programmes through its 119 centres in India, 7 centres abroad and 367 constituent institutions,^[2] 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.^[3]

Organisation

The trust operates a number of primary and secondary institutes in India and abroad. It organizes and runs 100 private schools in India.^[4] The schools are known as Bharatiya Vidya Mandir, Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, or Bhavan's Vidyalaya.

The Bhavan significantly grew as a cultural organization and became a global foundation under the leadership of Sundaram Ramakrishnan who took over as the director after the death of Munshi in 1971. The first foreign centre was opened in London in 1972.^{[5][citation needed]}

Constitution

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's motto is "Let noble thoughts come to us from every side", a quote from the Rigveda. The constitution of the Bhavan lays down the qualities that everyone connected with the Bhavan should develop for the Bhavan's consolidation and sustained growth. They are:

• An understanding of the aims of the Bhavan and a sense of identification with them, expressed in continuous efforts to realise them in every field of activity.
• A spirit of dedication to the Bhavan which will prompt everyone to ask, not "what can I get from the Bhavan?" but "what can I do for the Bhavan?"
• A faith in the culture of our land, particularly in the Epics and in the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.
• The habit of daily prayer, in private and in congregation and the practice of invoking the grace of God before any work is begun and to so do it that it is fit to be offered to Him.
• A passion for the Sanskrit language, to study it oneself and to popularize it among others.
• The development of a healthy mind that is neither petrified by custom nor capering at the call of every fancy, but which is rooted in the past, draws sustenance from the ennobling elements in the present and strives for a more radiant future.

Board members

The current President of the Bhavan is Surendralal Mehta, and the Vice-President is Bellur Srikrishna.^[6]

Some of the honorary members on the Board (past and present) include the Dalai Lama, King Charles^{[citation needed]}, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel^{[citation needed]}, JRD Tata and Mother Teresa, among others.^[6]