The Bratachari Movement in Bengal founded by Sri Gurusaday Dutt , aims to recover the sense of the senser of the wholeness of life and the lost harmony of man with nature.Sri Dutt has not attempted to impose anything from above or outside. Rather, he has attempted wholeheartedly to revive arts that are still alive and rooted in the soil but have been somehow neglected or forgotten.

Sir Hassan Subhrawardy, Ex Vice Chancellor, Calcutta University , has aptly stated that The Bratachari Movement will do much to set up throughout the country a network of units of social workers devoted to the ideal and practice of good citizenship with special emphasis on physical fitness, character formation, corporate unity and common participation in simple joyous activities.

Unlike modern sports and games, which tend to encourage the combative and competitive spirit, the Bratachari exercises and dances actively develop the spirit of harmony and cooperation.The Bratachari exercises do not consist merely of dances and songs. There is a complete system of acrobatics which are entirely of a national character, indigenous to India and which are performed to the accompaniment of the drum instead of being merely mechanical movements.

These dances and acrobatics strengthen not only the fibres of the body but also those of character and of ther spirit , has been testified to by our great poet , Rabindranath Tagore, who has expressed the opinion that the practice of the Raibenshe Dance will remove the weakness of spirit of the Indian people.

Importance of the national factor in Physical Education:

While the Bratachari is ready to take advantage of all systems of physical education, a place of special importance is assigned by the Bratachari System to indigenous and national traditions in the matter of physical culture, particularly of the young. According to the Bratachari Principles, physical; education for the young, to be completely sound and wholesome, must, in the first place, be indigenous and national.

The Value of the Bratachari Movement in the system of Physical Education for girls:

This movement specially emphasised the joyous healthfulness , useful service and true citizenship for which the Bratachari Movement stood and it recommended , for the consideration of the Education League, the revision of the Physical Education Syllabus for girls with a view to the inclusion of Bratachari exercises and dances in girls’ schools.A large number of girls’ schools in Bengal has adopted the movement with great benefit, physical as well as moral , to their students and teachers.

Raibenshe Acrobatics:

The Raibenshe dance has, as its counterpart, a complete system of acrobatics which are in the nature of agility exercises and , like the dance, are performed to the accompaniment of the Dhol and the Kanshi.Like the dance itself, these agility exercises have been strongly recommended by the Director of Physical Education,Bengal.