The history of the Montessori movement in India is almost as old as the movement itself. Long before the first Indian Montessori course was thought of Dr. Maria Montessori had become well known to the Indian public as a great educationist.

When Dr. Annie Besant died in 1933, Dr. George Sidney Arundale succeeded her as the President of the Theosophical Society. He and his wife Rukmini Devi (founder of Kalakshetra) started Besant Memorial School in her memory. Having heard of Montessori’s great work they invited her to India, and requested her to conduct a training course for teachers. Dr. Montessori and her son Mario arrived in Madras (now called Chennai), in 1939.

The first International Montessori course in Madras was held in the campus of the Theosophical Society, Adyar. Dr. Montessori lectured in Italian to students from all over India. The Montessoris were interned in India as enemy aliens when World War II broke out. This turned out well for India. The Montessoris thus pursued their work in the subcontinent for about ten years.

After the Montessoris’ final return to Europe in 1949, Madras suddenly found itself bereft of an AMI training course. The schools that had been started in forties ten years began to gradually lose their way amidst the social and political turbulence of early independence. There were no trained staff to be had as teachers moved on. Mr. A. M. Joosten set up a traveling AMI centre - the Indian Montesssori Training Course. The lucky venues were internittently Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bangalore. He was succeeded by Mr. S. R. Swamy who continued his work. The IMTC ran large courses and the Montessori philosophy still inspired the students. After Mr. Swamy the work was continued by Mrs. Meenakshi Sivaramakrishnan who went on to be on the AMI Board.

The Montessori Research and Training Centre in Hyderabad was set up in the year 1993. The organisation was the dream child of Kira Banasinska, which culminated in the establishment of a permanent AMI Training Centre in Hyderabad – which Ms. Banasinska an early Montessori collaborator has called home for many years since she left her native Poland. Ms. Zarin Malva was persuaded to come to Hyderabad for a year to run the first course. Mrs, Lakshmi Krishnakumar was still in training. It was a great success.

In the same year, Mr. C. Nachiappan of Kalakshetra Publications invited Ms. Zarin Malva to hold an AMI course in Chennai. She accepted his invitation and ran the Kalakshetra Publications Montessori Course with the able assistance of Ms. Cheryl Ferreira. The one year course which began in 1994 and 29 students graduated in April 1995. This saw the beginning of an active Montessori effort in the Chennai. Many new schools were set up. Several successful attempts have been made to win public interest towards this developmental approach to education.

The Navadisha Montessori Institute was established in Velachery in 2004 when Rukmini Ramachandran returned from abroad having completed the rigourous Training of Trainers Programme.