Influenced greatly by Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and others, a young and idealistic Dr Jagdish Gandhi, along with his equally dedicated wife Dr (Mrs) Bharti Gandhi, ventured in 1959 to create a new mindset through education. With just five children on roll, no personal wealth, and the equivalent of ten US dollars in borrowed capital, the motivated Jagdish began his own personal experiment in Lucknow, India, some fifty two years ago in the name of City Montessori School. He saw this as more powerful a vehicle to prevent conflicts than working with negotiations and top-down policies alone. The school has grown from strength to strength in all spheres.

The school nurtures its students to achieve excellence in academic and co-curricular field equally and CMS is the only school in the world to host 32 International events annually to promote world peace and universal brotherhood. The citizens of Lucknow have greatly endorsed Mr and Mrs Gandhi's mission and values and their support has made CMS the world's largest school with over 39,000 students on its roll this year (a Guinness World Record for the largest school in the world held by CMS since 1999). In the past 52 years, the couple has not taken a single day off. They have slept little and have worked through every weekend and holiday.