Gooroodas Banerjee (1844-1918): One of the pioneer educationalist to emphasize physical education in India

Abstract

A great deal of scholarly work has been done on the educationists of the early twentieth century. Though a major research gap in the existing studies on the history of physical education is that none explored the thoughts of the educationists of the first half of the twentieth century on physical education. Thus this paper attempts to explore the views on physical education of one of the influential educationalists of colonial India, Gooroodas Banerjee (1844-1918). The unfolding of the thoughts on physical education of Gooroodas Banerjee in particular and other prominent educationalists of the early twentieth century can explain why physical education is considered an integral part of any comprehensive scheme of education.