Divaswapna - an Experiment in Education

First published in Gujarati in 1931, Divaswapna is a seminal reflection on education. Gijubhai Badheka (1885-1939) was a thinker, storyteller, educator and institution-builder. He helped introduce Montessori education methods to India, synthesizing and adapting them to the local context; his prolific writings span books for teachers, parents and children. Gijubhai had an experimenter’s scientific rigour, the urge to do and demonstratesomething new in the dark educational system of his time, and above all, faith. Divaswapna — ‘daydream’ — was born from hisexperiments, observations and insights as an educator, and remainsa significant contribution to world-class pedagogy.

 

This, the second English translation of Divaswapna, is by hisgranddaughter Mamata Pandya. Herself a lifelong educator, writer and translator, she has been committed to exploring and disseminating Gijubhai’s work, and is the author of the biographical archive www.gijubhaibadheka.in