Vikram Sarabhai: Science in Developing Countries

Vikram Sarabhai’s parents, Sarladevi and Ambalal Sarabhai wanted more for their children from education than what was available at the time in schools in Ahmedabad. In the 1920s they had travelled to London and were going to spend the next year or so in England. Young Ambalal had taken charge of the Ahmedabad Manufacturing and Calico Printing Company. He wanted to modernize the Calico Mills and learn from those in England. It was at that time that Sarladevi had learnt of the Montessori method with its child-centric approach. On their return, they established a school at their residential compound, the Retreat. ‘The Retreat School was modelled on Montessorian principles, where the highest function of a teacher was considered not so much the imparting of knowledge as stimulating in the pupil its love and pursuit 1 .’ This was the school in which young Vikram studied and had the opportunity to not only do his academic work but to work with engineers with whom he built a small train that went around the campus. The Sarabhai family was close to Ravindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi and their influences were very clearly seen in the way the Retreat School was run. Tagore’s influence brought in the arts and Indian culture while Gandhiji’s influence taught the dignity of labour and self-reliance. In his diary, J. S. Badami, the Physics and Chemistry teacher at the school writes that ‘Vikram has a very inquisitive mind, often asks questions for explaining which I have to go far and wide out of the prescribed course. This is very good and he should be encouraged to discuss details.’ 2 His mother, Sarladevi’s remarked to the teacher, ‘I am glad you are encouraging him even within the limited time at your disposal.’ On his childhood Vikram Sarabhai once observed, ‘All through my childhood, I was brought up on doing what one felt was right rather than what necessarily what society thought was appropriate.’