Was the British colonial education the only model available to Indian students during the nineteenth century? It is a well-known fact that several initiatives were undertaken by Indians to offer alternatives to colonial education. One such initiative, started by the Arya Samaj, was the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) movement, which began at Lahore with the establishment of the first D.A.V. School in 1886. This book documents, for the first time, the complete story of the D.A.V. movement which was one of the earliest and most popular Indian indigenous responses to colonial education. This book attempts to resolve the predicament of categorizing the D.A.V. movement as ‘modern’ or ‘traditional’. It also examines the successes and failures of the D.A.V. movement, and throws light on how it shaped the socio-political landscape of India in the early twentieth century. About the Author Ankur Kakkar received his doctorate degree in History from the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is presently a Fellow at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library in New Delhi, where he is working on the research topic titled, ‘Rethinking Nationalist Education: A Study of Indigenous Enterprises (1880-1980)’. He is also a member of the National Committee for the Development of Syllabi and Textbooks in Social Sciences in the light of NEP 2020 and NCFSE 2023. He has served as an Associate Professor at the Centre for Indic Studies, Indus University, Ahmedabad, where he taught core and elective courses on ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’ (focussing on Indian history and... See more
Was the British colonial education the only model available to Indian students during the nineteenth century? It is a well-known fact that several initiatives were undertaken by Indians to offer alternatives to colonial education. One such initiative, started by the Arya Samaj, was the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) movement, which began at Lahore with the establishment of the first D.A.V. School in 1886. This book documents, for the first time, the complete story of the D.A.V. movement which was one of the earliest and most popular Indian indigenous responses to colonial education. This book attempts to resolve the predicament of categorizing the D.A.V. movement as ‘modern’ or ‘traditional’. It also examines the successes and failures of the D.A.V. movement, and throws light on how it shaped the socio-political landscape of India in the early twentieth century. About the Author Ankur Kakkar received his doctorate degree in History from the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is presently a Fellow at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library in New Delhi, where he is working on the research topic titled, ‘Rethinking Nationalist Education: A Study of Indigenous Enterprises (1880-1980)’. He is also a member of the National Committee for the Development of Syllabi and Textbooks in Social Sciences in the light of NEP 2020 and NCFSE 2023. He has served as an Associate Professor at the Centre for Indic Studies, Indus University, Ahmedabad, where he taught core and elective courses on ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’ (focussing on Indian history and Indian education) to the undergraduate students.
