Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI), founded by Mahatma Gandhi, Dr.G.Ramachandran and Dr.T.S.Soundaram Ramachandran, 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 in 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).