The Doon School

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The Doon School
Motto Knowledge our Light
Established September 10, 1935
Head Master Dr. Kanti Bajpai
Location Dehra Dun, Flag of India India
Students approximately 500
Masters approximately 58
Homepage http://www.doonschool.com

The Doon School is a public school in India, spread across 69 acres in Dehra Dun in the state of Uttarakhand. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das, a cousin of Chittarajan Das an Indian freedom fighter and former Chief Justice of India Sudhi Ranjan Das. Its first Headmaster was Arthur E. Foot, a former science master at Eton College. Foot had never visited India before accepting the position, and his first action was to recruit J.A.K. Martyn from Harrow as his deputy. Doon's distinctive style and philosophy were set early in its life, as another master, Jack Gibson, summarized in a letter to parents in 1940:

... each boy must train himself to think clearly so that he will be willing to come to conclusions that may be different from what he has expected and may point to something different from what we were brought up to believe to be the accepted order. He must train his body to undergo hardships and be prepared for unexpected discomforts, and above all he must awaken and sharpen his sympathies for and understanding of people outside his own class and circle.[1]

Contents

[edit] Overview

Doon follows the House System, with five administrative units, or dorm-like houses, named, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kashmir, Oberoi and Tata. Each house is run by a housemaster, who is assisted by a senior boy known as the House Captain. There is one senior boy who serves as School Captain, and he is assisted by School Prefects from each of the houses. In addition, there are two holding houses, Foot and Martyn, named after former headmasters, where new students typically live for one year before they move into the main houses.

Doon has idiosyncratic slang typical of a public school, including toye time (study time in the evenings), tuck shop (for purchasing snacks), change-in-break (a particularly annoying form of punishment), quis-ego, bags (dibs), lend (sycophant), scopat (ambitious to a fault), don't die (just kidding), sneak (tattle tail), vella (idle) and many others. Many boys acquire a nickname which often attaches for life, and can see variations of the same assigned to younger brothers and even sons of those boys who later attend Doon. A Dosco is known for leadership qualities. The school trains people to be both physically and mentally sound.

The Doon academic year starts at the beginning of February, and the first Term (or semester), known as the Spring Term lasts four months to the end of May. Halfway through the Term, the boys take a one-week Midterm - a rugged trip and/or adventure often through the Siwalik Hills or Himalayas - which senior boys take unaccompanied and which they plan entirely on their own. This includes camping out in tents, cooking their own food and trekking for hours everyday.

The Autumn Term starts at the beginning of August, and lasts till the end of November, once again with a Midterm break halfway through the semester.

The school awards, among other honors: School Colours, various sports Colours, the Games Blazer, and the Scholar's Blazer. The school has no valedictorian or commencement ceremony: as and when they've finished their board exams, the boys just leave.

[edit] The boys and campus

A goal of the school is to provide young Indians with a liberal education, and to instill in them a respect for the ideals of secularism, discipline and equality.

To house the school, the Indian Public Schools Society acquired Chandbagh Estate in Dehra Dun from the Imperial Forest College and Research Institute. The IPS also acquired an adjoining estate from the descendants of Col. Skinner, which forms the part of the Doon School campus known as Skinner's Field. As of 2007, Doon spans 69 acres (280,000 m²), and has approximately 500 students between grades seven and twelve.


Old boys of the school (a.k.a. ex-doscos) who have achieved prominence in politics include:

Doscos who have served as government officials include 23 Ambassadors and numerous heads of departments. And Doscos who have served in the armed forces of India and Pakistan include 17 generals, 2 admirals and 4 air marshals.

Rajiv Gandhi (ex 203K '60)
Rajiv Gandhi (ex 203K '60)

The writers Vikram Seth, Ramachandra Guha and Amitav Ghosh, journalists Prannoy Roy and Karan Thapar, film actors Roshan Seth and Chandrachur Singh, Academy Award nominated director Ashvin Kumar, social worker Bunker Roy, and sculptor Anish Kapoor, are all Doscos. The first Indian Rhodes Scholar was a Dosco.

The vast majority of Doscos are Indians, but a dwindling number are from Pakistan: they studied at Doon before Partition forced them to leave in 1947. Bangladeshi boys continue to study at the school even today, as do boys from Nepal. The members of the Royal Rana household of Nepal also have studied here. In 1998 The Chand Bagh School was established by Pakistani Doscos approximately 40 km north of Lahore, Pakistan.

Jana Gana Mana by Rabindranath Tagore was chosen as the school song in 1935. The song was adopted by India as the national anthem in 1947.

[edit] Headmasters

[edit] Doon in Fiction

  • In Salman Rushdie's anthology of short stories East, West, the characters Zulu and Chekhov are Doscos.
  • In Kiran Doshi's Birds of Passage the central character Abhay is a Dosco.
  • Vikram Seth used his own experiences of being bullied at Doon, to model the character of Tapan in A Suitable Boy.

[edit] Doon in Research

[edit] Doon in the Press

[edit] Notable alumni

Main Article: List of ex-Doscos

Alumni of The Doon School are known as ex-Doscos.

Doon's first headmaster, A.E.Foot, wrote in 1942: When you leave the school you have probably already decided on the next step in your career. What is going to be your outlook? Are you going to use your equipment and your opportunities in order to secure as much as possible of wealth and power and influence with the great? Is it your ambition to be a successful member of an acquisitive society? Do you hope your education will enable you to get more from your country or give more to it? Will the monument you leave behind you (for you cannot take it with you) be a palace on Malabar Hill or will it be built up in the hearts of the people you have served?[1]

[edit] External links

The Indian Public Schools: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061003/edu.htm#1

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Source: The Doon School Sixty Years On, published by the Doon School Old Boys Society October 1996
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