Deccan Education Society was established in 1884 and registered on 13th August 1885 by four patriotic visionaries - Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Mahadeo Ballal Namjoshi – who were already recognized as the pioneers of new education in India with the launch of New English School in Pune in the year 1880. This was a revolutionary step, as in those days government institutions and Christian missionaries were the only agencies involved in educating masses. Private enterprises in education were often discouraged. In the view of its establishers, education was the means of a rousing the intellect and the slumbering conscience of their fallen countrymen.