Ganga Devi

Indian social reformer who established underground schools during British colonial rule

In 19th-century Bengal, Ganga Devi (1837-1905) organized "Moonlight Schools" that secretly taught science and native languages banned by British authorities. Her rotating classroom system involved 137 disguised locations across 40 villages, preserving indigenous knowledge through oral storytelling matrices.

Devi's most revolutionary act was compiling the "Night Blooming Manuscripts" - encrypted botanical texts documenting Ayurvedic medicine using textile patterns. Recent analysis by University of Calcutta researchers revealed advanced microbial fermentation techniques encoded in the embroidery, predating penicillin discovery by 60 years.

Her Modular Education Framework inspired modern decentralized learning systems. The UNESCO Memory of the World Register added her palm-leaf pedagogic diagrams in 2019, recognizing them as "early blueprints for heutagogical practice."