Gandhigram Rural Institute
About Company
Gandhigram Rural Institute
Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI), founded by two dedicated disciples and contemporaries of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr.G.Ramachandran and Dr.T.S.Soundaram Ramachandran, has as its foundation Mahatma Gandhi’s revolutionary philosophy of Nai Talim, which effectively bridges the cognitive and practical dimensions, and focuses on the holistic development of learners, with an emphasis on skill development through value-based education, rooted in indigenous cultures and traditions. Since its establishment in 1956, GRI has been unstintingly contributing to higher education and has successfully pioneered rural higher education.
Along with Gandhiji’s Nai Talim, the ideals envisioned by Dr. Radhakrishnan Education Commission (1948-49), and in the National Council for Rural Higher Education headed by Dr. K. Shrimali, the then Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, and three other proven world models listed below contributed to the establishment of GRI in 1956, namely
1. Folks Hoschkole system of Denmark by N.F. S. Gruntvig (1844)
2. Land-grant University system of USA (1862); and
3. Sriniketan Experiment of Shantiniketan by Tagore (1922)
The Institute which is administered by the Ministry of Education, Government of India and fully funded through UGC, New Delhi has developed academic programs in rural development, rural economics and extension education, rural-oriented sciences, cooperation, development administration, rural sociology, English, Tamil, and Indian languages. The institute runs a B.Tech. in civil engineering with a focus on habitat development and an M.Tech. in renewable energy. The institute also offers a B.Sc Agriculture program.
Gandhigram Rural Institute is quite active on both campus and rural areas in the vicinity, benefitting and enriching one another. Besides, its contribution to teaching, from diploma, degree, and all the way to post-doctorate levels, the Institute applies the learnings from both scientific and social research to solve contemporary rural problems. The curriculum is a combination of theoretical, practical, and extension experiments. The Institute has become home to many pioneering models of rural development programs. The students and scholars who emerge from its portals tend to meet the personnel needs of rural development programs under various governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The three-dimensional approach to education namely teaching, research, and extension has become a highly celebrated model, earning global and nationwide appreciation. Started in a small way the Institute has evolved into a reasonably large and expansive educational complex comprising of 8 schools, 12 departments, and 16 Centres offering a whopping 129 academic programs, ranging from certificate courses to Graduate programs to Doctoral and post-Doctoral Programmes. At present, the Institute has 3837 students, including Ph.D. Scholars, 178 teaching, and 243 non-teaching staff.
The curricular model developed at GRI organically integrating teaching, research, and extension has earned the Institute, the status of Deemed University in 1976 by UGC, the five-star status by NAAC in 2002, an ‘A’ Grade during the re-accreditation in 2010 by NAAC and ‘A’ Grade in its third cycle of reaccreditation in the year 2016.
Thus the Institute has been making efforts to design its academic programs in tune with the demands of society and industry by providing learner-centric, transparent teaching and evaluation methods. Through action-oriented research and scientific research, the Institute contributes substantially to the research domains and concentrates on solving rural issues at micro levels. The participatory and decentralized governance of Gandhigram Rural Institute strives to achieve a global standard of excellence in all dimensions of education without compromising on its rural character and Gandhian values.
Genesis of GRI
The Gandhigram Rural Institute of Higher Education was started in 1956 to bring higher education closer to the villagers. The significant educational experiment, broadly conforming to the recommendations of the Dr. R. Radhakrishnan Commission relating to rural universities and rural colleges, was inaugurated by Dr. R. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India in August 1956. The first academic block of Gandhigram Rural Institute was opened by the former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru in December 1957. Right from its inception, the institute is fully funded by the Government of India (the then Ministry of Human Resource Development and now the Ministry of Education).
Salient Features
- Dr. G. Ramachandran and Dr.T.S.Soundaram Ramachandran are the founders of Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI). They were devoted disciples of Mahatma Gandhi and were involved actively in the freedom movement. Their marriage was solemnized in the Sabarmati Ashram by Gandhiji in the year 1940.
- Under the advice of Gandhiji, the couple chose a place near Chinnalapatti village, Dindigul District (45 km from Madurai) for establishing an institution for education, health and sanitation, and village industries.
- The place fondly named ‘Gandhigram’ was inaugurated by the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on 7th October 1947 with a powerful message “Success Attends where Truth Reigns”. Since then, Gandhigram has been a hub of community development.
- Gandhigram village received national attention for an important reason. On February 2, 1946, the local people had a darshan of Gandhiji while he was traveling from Madurai to Palani by train. He spoke to the eagerly waiting people for a few minutes.
- The Institute is situated on a serene and verdant campus environment spreading over about 207 acres of land, and most of these lands were donated by the villagers voluntarily with the hope that their children would get education and employment.
- In the year 1956, eleven rural institutes were established by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, and GRI was one among them. The Central Government provided funds to the institute from the year 1956. While most of the rural institutes were closed due to various reasons, the Gandhigram Rural Institute remains alive and vibrant, rendering yeoman service to students and village communities.
- Of the 11 rural institutes created in India, the Gandhigram Rural Institute is the only surviving institute because of the constant support of the Central Government and because of the Institute’s vibrant ability to reinvent itself to face the challenges of changing times. This has enabled the Institute to grow and achieve laudable results. The Institute has been fostering innovations in extension and rural development activities and as a result, has been credited with praiseworthy best practices.
- The most important educational experiment of Gandhigram is the system of education envisaged by Gandhiji in the form of ‘Nai Talim’ which is founded on the idea that providing basic education to rural people is a basic requirement for rural development.
- The Institute strongly believes in the words of Mahatma Gandhi – “The end of all education should be service and if a student gets an opportunity to render service while he/she is studying, he/she should consider it as a rare opportunity and treat it not as a suspension of his/her education but rather its complement”.
- The Institute has grown by leaps and bounds and it was conferred the status of Deemed to be University in 1976 by the then Ministry of Social Welfare and Education (now Ministry of Education). The Institute was registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860.
- Honorable Presidents of India Shri Venkatraman, Shri Abdul Kalam, Honourable Vice-President of India Shri Hamid Ansari Honorable Prime Ministers of India Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, Smt. Indira Gandhi, former Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu Shri C.Subramaniam, Shri K.Kamaraj and many noted freedom fighters, national leaders, and international figures including Khan Afar Khan, Martin Luther King Jr., Morarji Desai have visited the Institute at different points of time.
- The Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors are appointed by the Government of India. The former Vice Presidents of India were the Chancellors of the University till 2012. The Government appointed Ms.Renana Jhabvala, Chairperson of SEWA Bharat (Self Employed Women’s Association) as Chancellor for a term of 5 years from 30th March 2012 to 29th March 2017. Dr. KM. Annamalai, a renowned Physiotherapist and Social Activist was appointed as Chancellor by the Government on 20th April 2017.
- The Institute has been consistently getting ‘A’ Grades by NAAC right from the very first cycle (2005) of accreditation to the third cycle (starting in 2016). The Ministry of Education has also placed the Institute under A-Category University on the basis of the recommendation of the Tandon Committee.