Maria Montessori - A Biography

Maria Montessori travels to India

photo of a maria

In the year 1939, the Theosophical Society of India extended an invitation to the 69-year-old Maria. She accepted the invitation and reached India the same year. The journey from Holland in those days was very tedious. But this did not seem to trouble Maria. She was full of energy and keen to start work in India.

She made Adayar, Chennai her home and lived there along with her son, Mario. Here, Dr. Maria came in close contact with Rukmini Devi, a Bharat Natyam dancer and the founder of the world famous centre for music, dance, and other fine arts - Kalakshetra and her husband George Sidney Arundale, who was the president of the Theosophical Society of India.

The outbreak of the World War II made Maria extend her stay in India. In 1940, when India entered the war, she and her son were interned as enemy aliens, but Maria was allowed to conduct training courses. She continued to stay in India till 1946 well after the war. She returned to Europe for a brief period. In 1947, she founded the Montessori Center in London. Maria returned to India for a second time the same year. Between 1939 and 1949, Maria Montessori, with the help of her son Mario, conducted sixteen Indian Montessori Training Courses, thus laying a very sound foundation for the Montessori movement in India. She travelled to Pakistan in 1949 and also toured Europe in the same year. Maria toured Austria in the year 1951.