The Doon School
Encyclopedia
The Doon School is an independent school
located in Dehradun
in the state of Uttarakhand
in India
. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das
. Its first Headmaster
was Arthur E. Foot, a former science master
at Eton College
.
The school has 480 students, graduating classes number about 80, and the total number of alumni who have graduated, since the school was founded, is estimated at 5,000.
There are 67 teachers, of which 15 are women, with a teacher:student ratio of 1:8. The school offers 120 scholarships, including partial and full financial support, and approximately 25% of the students benefit from financial aid. Doon is a boys-only school; the only girls who have studied there have been the daughters of schoolmasters.
The 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
. The school is a member of the G20 Schools
and the Round Square
groups, the United Kingdom
's Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference and the International Boys’ Schools Coalition.
, an eminent lawyer from Calcutta who, in 1927, became Law Member of Lord Irwin's
Executive Council
on the condition that he might use the prestige of this position to raise funds for a new type of public school
in India. He traveled widely in India with a goal of collecting Rupees 40 lakhs, but at the time of his death had raised only Rs. 10 lakhs in cash, and another Rs. 10 lakhs in promises. Mr. Das also formed the Indian Public Schools Society with the object of founding new public schools in India that would admit students without regard to caste, creed or social status. (In a technical sense, the IPSS "owns" The Doon School although the school operates independently.)
Following Mr. Das's death in 1928, the IPSS did not accomplish very much and by 1934 some of the donors of the Rs. 10 lakhs had started to inquire about the return of their money. At this point, Sir Joseph Bhore, then Railway Minister of Lord Willingdon's
Council, became Chairman of the IPSS, and with Sir Akbar Hydari
as Secretary, worked to obtain from the former estate of the Forest Research Institute
in Dehra Dun on favorable terms. Lord Halifax
, then President of the Board of Education, lead a selection committee that picked Arthur E. Foot, a science master at Eton College
to be the first Headmaster.
The Houses
at the new School were originally named for their respective housemasters
, but later renamed to honor the largest donors to the Indian Public School Society:
(No building was named after Rai Bahadur Rameshwar Nathany whose donation of Rs. 1 lakh was initially made anonymously.)
On October 27, 1935, the Viceroy
, Lord Willingdon, came to preside over the formal opening of the school. There were 70 boys enrolled in the first term, and another 110 boys had signed up for the second term.
Jana Gana Mana
by Rabindranath Tagore
was chosen as the school song in 1935; the song was later adopted by India as the national anthem
in 1947. Consequently, Jana Gana Mana is traditionally referred to as "School Song No. 1" at Doon, reflecting its position in the School's song book, rather than by its formal name or as the national anthem.
beyond what he found after consulting an atlas
: he noted that it appeared to be surrounded by forests and close to mountains, and the possibilities of outdoor recreation and mountaineering appeared to have influenced his decision as much as the chance to create a completely new type of school in India.
Foot's first action upon being offered the position was to recruit John (J.A.K.) Martyn from Harrow
as his deputy. Doon's ethos and guiding principles were determined early in its life by Foot, Martyn, RL Holdsworth and Jack Gibson (who went on to become Principal of Mayo College
). While these masters all came from very traditional British schools, they were determined to create a uniquely Indian public school rather than a transplanted British institution, and they were soon joined in their efforts by equally influential Indians such as Sudhir Khastigir (the school's first art teacher, who had trained previously at Santiniketan
) and Gurudial Singh (a pioneering mountaineer, who taught at Doon for several decades and acquired a reverential following among generations of alumni).
In an essay entitled The Objects of Education published in the school magazine, Foot outlined the basic template for a Doon education:
In other essays, Foot marked the milestones in the development of each student:
In a letter to parents, written in 1940 in the context of World War II, Jack Gibson wrote:
Martyn, who became Doon's second Headmaster and had a continuing involvement with Doon over several decades, acknowledged the influence of Kurt Hahn
in the development of Doon's ethos:
, 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. One senior boy serves as School Captain
and 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 live for one year before they move into the main houses.
The academic year consists of two terms: the Spring Terms runs from February through the end of May and is followed by the summer vacation, and the Autumn Term starts in August and lasts till the end of November, followed by the winter vacation.
Grade levels are referred to as forms and are designated by letters:
Individual class periods are referred to as schools. The school day begins with First Bell soon after 6:15AM (and, indeed, a series of hand-rung bells punctuate daily life for the boys). The boys get chhota haazri
before doing calisthenics
outdoors on the playing fields. There are two schools before breakfast, followed by five schools before lunch. All meals are served in a Central Dining Hall and boys from each table take turns acting as waiters for their table-mates. The afternoon includes a rest period as well as time devoted to various extra-circular activities. In the later afternoon there are compulsory sports before dinner. Dinner is followed by Toye time (an obscure term for evening prep that originated at Winchester College
) when the students do homework and study on their own. Lights Out is at 9PM and breaking bounds to sneak into town late at night remains a tradition.
Extracurricular activities and sports are a compulsory part of school life: cricket, hockey and football are seasonal sports. Tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash, basketball, swimming, boxing, athletics and gymnastics tournaments are also available. There are around 23 clubs and societies including debating and chess, and magazines are published in English and Hindi. The Doon School Weekly (established in 1936) is distributed to the school community every Saturday morning.
Social work, known formally as Socially Useful Productive Work, is also part of school life, based upon Foot's precept that "the boys should leave Doon School as members of an aristocracy, but it must be an aristocracy of service inspired by ideas of unselfishness, not one of privilege, wealth or position." Over the years, generations of Doscos have helped teach underprivileged children in the Dehra Dun area, and the school has worked with villagers in the construction of houses, community centers and school buildings; sanitation systems; energy efficiency systems; self-employment and small scale irrigation systems.
The school awards include School Colours, Sports Colours, the Games Blazer, and the Scholar's Blazer. The school originally had no valedictorian
or commencement
ceremony and boys would leave as soon as they had completed their board exams. In March 2011, an annual ceremony was established to celebrate the graduating class's departure from the School.
or Himalayas
which senior boys take unaccompanied and which they plan themselves. This includes camping
out in tents, cooking their own food and hiking
. Alumni have credited these Midterms as being among their most formative and character-building experiences while at school since they require a great deal of self-determination, planning, effort and endurance, particularly for boys who go on five-day treks in the Himalayas unaccompanied by any teachers. ("Jamming" a midterm, which involves sneaking off to an unauthorized destination such as a city offering greater attractions than a remote mountain, continues today although the consequences of being caught are severe.)
Doon has been credited with pioneering mountaineering in India, thanks to the considerable talents and efforts of masters such as RL Holdsworth, Jack Gibson and Gurudial Singh, and alumni such as Nandu Jayal
. Notable climbs by Doscos include Bandarpunch
in 1950, Kala Nag (6,387 meters) in 1956, Trisul
in 1951, Kamet
in 1955, Abi Gamin
in 1953 and 1955, Mrigthuni (6,855 meters) in 1958, Jaonli (6,632 meters) in 1964, Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2009, and both Gran Paradiso
and Mont Blanc
in 2010.
Expeditions by Doscos have had their own idiosyncrasies: after Gurudial Singh lead a successful climb of Trisul
, he performed a headstand asana
on the summit as a tribute to the Hindu god Shiva
who is said to abide within Trisul ; Holdsworth has been described as holding the high-altitude record for smoking a pipe, which he did on the summit of Kamet
after the first ascent in 1931; and, as a lark
, two Doscos climbed Mont Blanc
in 1951 wearing cricket
boots.
: they studied at Doon before Partition
forced them to leave in 1947. Relations between Indian and Pakistani Doscos have remained warm over the years, despite the long history of conflict between the two countries.
Bangladesh
i boys continue to study at the school, as do boys from Nepal
.
Doon remains a boys-only school despite continued pressure to become coeducational. A small number of girls, all daughters of schoolmasters, have studied at Doon over the years.
Discipline has always been strict, and the school has expelled chidren from well-known families. In the 1950s Headmaster J.A.K. Martyn's suggestion that Sanjay Gandhi
finish his senior year elsewhere was unquestioningly accepted by his mother, Indira Gandhi
. In contrast, Doon's decision to expel a ward of Chief Minister Nityanand Swami
of Uttarkhand in 2001 resulted in threats to cut off power and water (nothing came of these threats after Mr. Swami discovered that Doon had stronger political connections than he did).
Doon has slang
typical of a public school, including 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 siblings, sons, and even grandsons who later attend Doon.
, covering approximately 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) in the city of Dehradun
in the state of Uttarakhand
in India
.
To house the School, the Indian Public Schools Society acquired Chandbagh Estate in Dehradun from the Forest Research Institute
. Part of the estate, where the Central Dining Hall is now located, was once a deer park. The IPSS also acquired an adjoining estate from the descendants of James Skinner, which forms the part of the campus known as Skinner's Field. At the time of acquisition, Skinner's was an overgrown and somewhat neglected estate, and its most prominent features were two sheds formerly used for housing elephants.
While the grounds are beautiful, with gardens and rare trees, life for boys is monastic: they sleep on narrow beds and study in unheated rooms; the floors are rough stone and the lights are fluorescent tubes.
to Doon and Mayo College
. This link ended when Surendra "Charlie" Kandhari, a Dosco and former Housemaster at Doon, became Principal of Welham and transformed it to a high school. As a result, many Doscos from the 1940s through the 1970s are also Welhamites.
Doon has long had a familial relationship with Welham Girls School
: several families who chose to send their boys to Doon also chose to send their daughters to Welhams, and many Doscos over the years have married alumni of Welham Girls. An annual "dance social" with Welham Girls was the highlight of the senior year for many Doscos, and alumni events are sometimes coordinated by the alumni of both schools.
In 1998 the Chand Bagh School was established by Pakistani Doscos approximately 40 km north of Lahore
, Pakistan, and modeled on the general structure of Doon.
And Doon is current hosting students from the following schools:
The school is a member of the G20 Schools
and the Round Square
groups, the United Kingdom
's Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference and the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. The BBC
's World Olympic Dreams School Search twinned Doon with The Thomas Hardye School
in Jan 2011.
(which is not even located in the Doon Valley
), and even a Doon College of Spoken English, none of which are related to The Doon School. Some schools have even adopted Doon's idiosyncrasies
at face value: for example, the Delhi Public School
offers "Marker Cups" to those who get the highest "marks" in examinations; Doon's Marker Cups, which also are awarded to those who score the highest in particular subjects, were named for the Marker family of Pakistan who donated the Cups.
Old boys
of the school are known as Doscos, although the more correct term is ex-Dosco since within Doon itself pupils are known as Doscos and alumni are referred to as ex-Doscos or, more simply, as Old Boys. The term Dosco is a contraction of Doon and School.
Foot defined "success" for a Dosco in broad terms, with an emphasis on public service:
or will it be built up in the hearts of the people you have served?
Doscos have achieved prominence in politics, government service, and the armed forces of India and Pakistan, as well as commerce, journalism, the arts and literature. They include former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi
, nine Cabinet Ministers, two Chief Ministers, several members of the Indian Parliament
and state Legislative Assemblies
; a Naxalite
; nineteen generals, two admirals and the former heads of the Indian Air Force and the Pakistani Air Force; and twenty-four Ambassadors (including those from India, Pakistan, Nepal and the United Kingdom).
The writers Vikram Seth
, Ramachandra Guha
, Vijay Prashad
, and Amitav Ghosh
, journalists Prannoy Roy
and Karan Thapar
, film actors Roshan Seth
and Himani Shivpuri
, social worker Bunker Roy
and sculptor Anish Kapoor
are all Doscos. Lovraj Kumar was India's first Rhodes Scholar, Abhinav Bindra
was the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal, and Nandu Jayal pioneered mountaineering in India.
Doon in the press
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
located in Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
in the state of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das
Satish Ranjan Das
Satish Ranjan Das was the Advocate-General of Bengal and later the Law Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy; he was sometime treasurer of the Boy Scouts of Bengal and the Lodge of Good Fellowship, and a prominent member of the reformist Brahmo Samaj in Bengal...
. Its first Headmaster
Head teacher
A head teacher or school principal is the most senior teacher, leader and manager of a school....
was Arthur E. Foot, a former science master
Schoolmaster
A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...
at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
.
The school has 480 students, graduating classes number about 80, and the total number of alumni who have graduated, since the school was founded, is estimated at 5,000.
There are 67 teachers, of which 15 are women, with a teacher:student ratio of 1:8. The school offers 120 scholarships, including partial and full financial support, and approximately 25% of the students benefit from financial aid. Doon is a boys-only school; the only girls who have studied there have been the daughters of schoolmasters.
The goal of the school is to provide young Indians with a liberal education
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
, and to instill in them a respect for the ideals of secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, discipline
Discipline
In its original sense, discipline is referred to systematic instruction given to disciples to train them as students in a craft or trade, or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order". Often, the phrase "to discipline" carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order –...
and equality
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
. The school is a member of the G20 Schools
G20 Schools
All the schools claim to have a commitment to excellence and innovation of some sort. The G20 Schools have an annual conference which aims to bring together a group of school Heads who want to look beyond the parochial concerns of their own schools and national associations, and to talk through...
and the Round Square
Round Square
The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of more than 80 schools that allows students to travel between schools,tour foreign countries, involve themselves in community service and discover cultures along the way.-History:...
groups, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference and the International Boys’ Schools Coalition.
History
Doon owes its founding to S.R. DasSatish Ranjan Das
Satish Ranjan Das was the Advocate-General of Bengal and later the Law Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy; he was sometime treasurer of the Boy Scouts of Bengal and the Lodge of Good Fellowship, and a prominent member of the reformist Brahmo Samaj in Bengal...
, an eminent lawyer from Calcutta who, in 1927, became Law Member of Lord Irwin's
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
Executive Council
Executive Council (Commonwealth countries)
An Executive Council in Commonwealth constitutional practice based on the Westminster system is a constitutional organ which exercises executive power and advises the governor or governor-general. Executive Councils often make decisions via Orders in Council.Executive Councillors are informally...
on the condition that he might use the prestige of this position to raise funds for a new type of public school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
in India. He traveled widely in India with a goal of collecting Rupees 40 lakhs, but at the time of his death had raised only Rs. 10 lakhs in cash, and another Rs. 10 lakhs in promises. Mr. Das also formed the Indian Public Schools Society with the object of founding new public schools in India that would admit students without regard to caste, creed or social status. (In a technical sense, the IPSS "owns" The Doon School although the school operates independently.)
Following Mr. Das's death in 1928, the IPSS did not accomplish very much and by 1934 some of the donors of the Rs. 10 lakhs had started to inquire about the return of their money. At this point, Sir Joseph Bhore, then Railway Minister of Lord Willingdon's
Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon
Major Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon was a British Liberal politician and administrator who served as Governor General of Canada, the 13th since Canadian Confederation, and as Viceroy and Governor-General of India, the country's 22nd.Freeman-Thomas was born in England and...
Council, became Chairman of the IPSS, and with Sir Akbar Hydari
Akbar Hydari
Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari, KCIE, CSI was the last British-appointed and the first Indian governor of the Indian state of Assam. He entered the Indian civil service in 1919 and began his career in Madras Presidency. He held many administrative positions in the states and at the centre...
as Secretary, worked to obtain from the former estate of the Forest Research Institute
Forest Research Institute
The Forest Research Institute is an institute of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and is a premier institution in the field of forestry research in India. It is located at Dehradun in Uttarakhand. It was established in 1906 and is one of the oldest institutions of its kind...
in Dehra Dun on favorable terms. Lord Halifax
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
, then President of the Board of Education, lead a selection committee that picked Arthur E. Foot, a science master at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
to be the first Headmaster.
The Houses
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
at the new School were originally named for their respective housemasters
Housemaster
In British education, a housemaster is a member of staff in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school . The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of boarders in the house and typically lives on the premises...
, but later renamed to honor the largest donors to the Indian Public School Society:
- Hyderabad House, after Sir Akbar Hydari secured a contribution of Rs. 2 lakhs from the NizamNizamNizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad popularly known as Nizams of Hyderabad was a former monarchy of the Hyderabad State, now in the states of Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra in India...
of Hyderabad'sHyderabad State-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...
Government. - Kashmir House, after Maharajah Hari SinghHari SinghMaharaja Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.He was married four times...
promised a contribution of Rs. 1 lakh which was delivered in 1935. - Tata House, after the TataTata familyThe Tatas are a wealthy Parsi family in India. Originally a priestly family in Navsari, they have been active in industry and philanthropy since the nineteenth century...
and WadiaWadia familyThe Wadia family is a Parsi family originally based in Surat.Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia began the Wadia shipbuilding dynasty in 1736, when he obtained a contract from the British East India Company for building docks and ships in Bombay...
Trusts promised Rs. 1.5 lakhs, of which half was delivered in 1935. - Jaipur House, after Rai Bahadur Amarnath Atal arranged for contributions of Rs. 1 lakh from the JaipurJaipurJaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
Durbar and smaller contributions from the tributary ThikanasThakur (Indian title)Thakur is an Indian feudal title in several Indian languages, literally meaning "lord". A Thikana is the state or estate of a Thakur. A Thakurani is the wife of a Thakur...
.
(No building was named after Rai Bahadur Rameshwar Nathany whose donation of Rs. 1 lakh was initially made anonymously.)
On October 27, 1935, the Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
, Lord Willingdon, came to preside over the formal opening of the school. There were 70 boys enrolled in the first term, and another 110 boys had signed up for the second term.
Jana Gana Mana
Jana Gana Mana
Jana Gana Mana is the national anthem of India. Written in highly Sanskritized Bengali, it is the first of five stanzas of a Brahmo hymn composed and scored by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. It was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911...
by Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
was chosen as the school song in 1935; the song was later adopted by India as the national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
in 1947. Consequently, Jana Gana Mana is traditionally referred to as "School Song No. 1" at Doon, reflecting its position in the School's song book, rather than by its formal name or as the national anthem.
Ethos
Arthur Foot had never visited India before accepting the position, and knew little of DehradunDehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
beyond what he found after consulting an atlas
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...
: he noted that it appeared to be surrounded by forests and close to mountains, and the possibilities of outdoor recreation and mountaineering appeared to have influenced his decision as much as the chance to create a completely new type of school in India.
Foot's first action upon being offered the position was to recruit John (J.A.K.) Martyn from Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
as his deputy. Doon's ethos and guiding principles were determined early in its life by Foot, Martyn, RL Holdsworth and Jack Gibson (who went on to become Principal of Mayo College
Mayo College
Mayo College is a public school founded by the 6th Earl of Mayo, who was Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872.The school is located in Ajmer, in the state of Rajasthan, India....
). While these masters all came from very traditional British schools, they were determined to create a uniquely Indian public school rather than a transplanted British institution, and they were soon joined in their efforts by equally influential Indians such as Sudhir Khastigir (the school's first art teacher, who had trained previously at Santiniketan
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata . It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town that attracts thousands of visitors each year...
) and Gurudial Singh (a pioneering mountaineer, who taught at Doon for several decades and acquired a reverential following among generations of alumni).
In an essay entitled The Objects of Education published in the school magazine, Foot outlined the basic template for a Doon education:
- A complete education should teach a child:
- 1. to be able to distinguish between good and evil;
- 2. to form the habit of choosing good rather than evil;
- 3. to have his brain trained to think logically;
- 4. to have a reasonably wide general knowledge of important facts about the world in which we live;
- 5. to be able to express himself clearly in speech or in writing in the language or languages of the people with whom he will work;
- 6. to have a body that is healthy, strong and vigorous, and to know how to look after it;
- 7. to have developed a sensitiveness to beauty and taste and feeling that will strive to eradicate ugliness from his surroundings.
In other essays, Foot marked the milestones in the development of each student:
- By 14 he should have learnt all the ordinary principles of social behavior. He should know how to stand up and speak to a variety of different types of people -- to his own mother, to someone else's mother, to his father, to his schoolmasters, to servants, to Mahatma GandhiMahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
or to the ViceroyViceroyA viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
, and to do this without any self-consciousness... At fourteen a boy should have constructed a framework of competence in language, in mathematical ability, and in social behavior. After that age he is, as it were, filling in a design to the framework. In short he learning to exercise taste... At 16, he acquired taste, a sense of the beautiful and the ugly, of the strong and the weak, of good and evil... At 17 must come another quality, less instinctive and requiring a maturer mind: he must acquire a capacity for judgement.
In a letter to parents, written in 1940 in the context of World War II, Jack Gibson wrote:
- There are still too many boys blind to what they could see and deaf to what they could hear. They leave their minds blank, to be filled by the unbeautiful and untruthful, by unscrupulous propaganda, by debased public taste, by flattery and by appeals to fears and prejudices, to which a person without a mind of his own turns for second-hand and usually second-class opinions... When they leave school, they will join the ranks of those whose opinions are made for them by dictators, party leaders, or the writers of advertisements for patent medicines: it will depend upon what rut they get into... In these anxious times, it is more than ever important that 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 orderSocial orderSocial order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
. 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 classSocial classSocial classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and circleSocial circleSocial circles are groups of socially interconnected people. A Social circle is distinguished from a social pyramid in that there are two perspectives that can be used to describe a social circle: the perspective of an individual who is the locus of a particular group of socially interconnected...
.
Martyn, who became Doon's second Headmaster and had a continuing involvement with Doon over several decades, acknowledged the influence of Kurt Hahn
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...
in the development of Doon's ethos:
- I do not think I would ever have come to India if it had not been for that very remarkable German Jew, Kurt Hahn... When I first knew him I was teaching history at HarrowHarrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
and he was head of SalemSchule Schloss SalemSchule Schloss Salem is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe.It offers the German Abitur, as well as the International Baccalaureate...
, a school he had established on the shores of Lake ConstanceLake ConstanceLake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
, based on the ideas of PlatoPlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and the principles of British public schools... I longed to put his ideas into practice but at conservative Harrow I had no opportunity to do so. When I read in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
that A.E. Foot of Eton had been appointed headmaster of a new public school to be opened for Indian boys at Dehra Dun, I offered to come with him and my offer was accepted... I had no previous interest in India; what interested me was the chance of starting a public school in a new environment... It was Arthur Foot who did the main planning, but luckily his ideas ran parallel to my own. I would not have been as bold as he was in trying to eliminate punishments, but we were equally keen on providing as wide a range as possible of activities that were creative and challenging... The problem, as we saw it, was to create an atmosphere in which boys would learn the importance of public spirit at the same time as they acquired self-confidence and initiative.
Life at Doon
Doon follows the House SystemHouse system
The house system is a traditional feature of British schools, and schools in the Commonwealth. Historically, it was associated with established public schools, where a 'house' refers to a boarding house or dormitory of a boarding school...
, with five administrative units, or dorm
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
-like houses, named, Hyderabad
Hyderabad State
-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...
, Jaipur
Dhundhar
Dhundhar is a historical region of Rajasthan state in western India. It includes the districts of Jaipur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, and Tonk and the northern part of Karauli District...
, Kashmir, Oberoi
Oberoi
Oberoi is a Khatri / clan .-History:Oberoi is a prominent Khatri surname found in India's Punjab state. They are a north Indian community that originated in the Potohar Plateau of Punjab. This region is historically connected with the composition of the Vedas and classics like the Mahabharata and...
and Tata
Tata family
The Tatas are a wealthy Parsi family in India. Originally a priestly family in Navsari, they have been active in industry and philanthropy since the nineteenth century...
. Each house is run by a Housemaster
Housemaster
In British education, a housemaster is a member of staff in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school . The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of boarders in the house and typically lives on the premises...
, who is assisted by a senior boy known as the House Captain. One senior boy serves as School Captain
School Captain
School Captain is a student appointed or elected to represent the school.This student, usually in the senior year, in their final year of attending that school...
and assisted by School Prefects
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
from each of the houses. In addition, there are two holding houses, Foot and Martyn, named after former Headmasters
Head teacher
A head teacher or school principal is the most senior teacher, leader and manager of a school....
, where new students live for one year before they move into the main houses.
The academic year consists of two terms: the Spring Terms runs from February through the end of May and is followed by the summer vacation, and the Autumn Term starts in August and lasts till the end of November, followed by the winter vacation.
Grade levels are referred to as forms and are designated by letters:
- F form = 5th grade (now defunct)
- E form = 6th grade (now defunct)
- D form = 7th grade
- C form = 8th grade
- B form = 9th grade
- A form = 10th grade
- S form = 11th grade
- Sc form = 12th grade
Individual class periods are referred to as schools. The school day begins with First Bell soon after 6:15AM (and, indeed, a series of hand-rung bells punctuate daily life for the boys). The boys get chhota haazri
Chhota haazri
Chhota haazri, from the Hindustani words for "small" and "presence", was a meal served in households and barracks, particularly in northern British India, shortly after dawn...
before doing calisthenics
Calisthenics
Calisthenics are a form of aerobic exercise consisting of a variety of simple, often rhythmical, movements, generally using multiple equipment or apparatus. They are intended to increase body strength and flexibility with movements such as bending, jumping, swinging, twisting or kicking, using...
outdoors on the playing fields. There are two schools before breakfast, followed by five schools before lunch. All meals are served in a Central Dining Hall and boys from each table take turns acting as waiters for their table-mates. The afternoon includes a rest period as well as time devoted to various extra-circular activities. In the later afternoon there are compulsory sports before dinner. Dinner is followed by Toye time (an obscure term for evening prep that originated at Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
) when the students do homework and study on their own. Lights Out is at 9PM and breaking bounds to sneak into town late at night remains a tradition.
Extracurricular activities and sports are a compulsory part of school life: cricket, hockey and football are seasonal sports. Tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash, basketball, swimming, boxing, athletics and gymnastics tournaments are also available. There are around 23 clubs and societies including debating and chess, and magazines are published in English and Hindi. The Doon School Weekly (established in 1936) is distributed to the school community every Saturday morning.
Social work, known formally as Socially Useful Productive Work, is also part of school life, based upon Foot's precept that "the boys should leave Doon School as members of an aristocracy, but it must be an aristocracy of service inspired by ideas of unselfishness, not one of privilege, wealth or position." Over the years, generations of Doscos have helped teach underprivileged children in the Dehra Dun area, and the school has worked with villagers in the construction of houses, community centers and school buildings; sanitation systems; energy efficiency systems; self-employment and small scale irrigation systems.
The school awards include School Colours, Sports Colours, the Games Blazer, and the Scholar's Blazer. The school originally had no valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
or commencement
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
ceremony and boys would leave as soon as they had completed their board exams. In March 2011, an annual ceremony was established to celebrate the graduating class's departure from the School.
Midterms & Mountaineering
Halfway through each term, the boys take a one-week Midterm: a rugged trip often through the Siwalik HillsSiwalik Hills
The Sivalik hills is a mountain range of the outer Himalayas also known as Manak Parbat in ancient times. Shivalik literally means 'tresses of Shiva’. This range is about long enclosing an area that starts almost from the Indus and ends close to the Brahmaputra, with a gap of about between the...
or Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
which senior boys take unaccompanied and which they plan themselves. This includes camping
Camping
Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...
out in tents, cooking their own food and hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
. Alumni have credited these Midterms as being among their most formative and character-building experiences while at school since they require a great deal of self-determination, planning, effort and endurance, particularly for boys who go on five-day treks in the Himalayas unaccompanied by any teachers. ("Jamming" a midterm, which involves sneaking off to an unauthorized destination such as a city offering greater attractions than a remote mountain, continues today although the consequences of being caught are severe.)
Doon has been credited with pioneering mountaineering in India, thanks to the considerable talents and efforts of masters such as RL Holdsworth, Jack Gibson and Gurudial Singh, and alumni such as Nandu Jayal
Narendra Dhar Jayal
Major Narendra Dhar Jayal, or Nandu, as he was affectionately known , was an officer of the Bengal Sappers and the Indian Army Corps of Engineers...
. Notable climbs by Doscos include Bandarpunch
Bandarpunch
Bandarpunch is a major peak of the Garhwal division of the Himalayas, in the Indian state of Uttaranchal. It literally means "Tail of the monkey" or "Tail of Hanuman" in Hindi. It's a twin peak: Bandarpunch-I & Bandarpunch-II...
in 1950, Kala Nag (6,387 meters) in 1956, Trisul
Trisul
Trisul is a group of three Himalayan mountain peaks of western Kumaun, with the highest reaching 7120m. The three peaks resemble a trident - in Hindi/Sanskrit, Trishul, trident, is the weapon of Shiva. The Trishul group forms the southeast corner of the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi...
in 1951, Kamet
Kamet
Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi. It lies in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, close to the border with Tibet. It is the third highest mountain in India Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi....
in 1955, Abi Gamin
Abi Gamin
Abi Gamin is a Himalayan mountain peak situated in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state in India, 2 km northeast of Kamet. It lies on the northern border of Chamoli district, where India meets Tibet....
in 1953 and 1955, Mrigthuni (6,855 meters) in 1958, Jaonli (6,632 meters) in 1964, Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2009, and both Gran Paradiso
Gran Paradiso
The Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions of north-west Italy. The peak, the 7th highest mountain in the Graian Alps with an elevation of 4,061 m, is close to Mont Blanc on the nearby border with France. On the French side of the border, the park is...
and Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
in 2010.
Expeditions by Doscos have had their own idiosyncrasies: after Gurudial Singh lead a successful climb of Trisul
Trisul
Trisul is a group of three Himalayan mountain peaks of western Kumaun, with the highest reaching 7120m. The three peaks resemble a trident - in Hindi/Sanskrit, Trishul, trident, is the weapon of Shiva. The Trishul group forms the southeast corner of the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi...
, he performed a headstand asana
Asana
Asana is a body position, typically associated with the practice of Yoga, originally identified as a mastery of sitting still, with the spine as a conduit of biodynamic union...
on the summit as a tribute to the Hindu god Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
who is said to abide within Trisul ; Holdsworth has been described as holding the high-altitude record for smoking a pipe, which he did on the summit of Kamet
Kamet
Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi. It lies in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, close to the border with Tibet. It is the third highest mountain in India Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi....
after the first ascent in 1931; and, as a lark
Larrikinism
Larrikinism is the name given to the Australian folk tradition of irreverence, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid norms of propriety. Larrikinism can also be associated with self-deprecating humour.- Etymology :...
, two Doscos climbed Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
in 1951 wearing cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
boots.
The boys
The vast majority of Doscos are Indians, but a dwindling number are from PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
: they studied at Doon before Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
forced them to leave in 1947. Relations between Indian and Pakistani Doscos have remained warm over the years, despite the long history of conflict between the two countries.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i boys continue to study at the school, as do boys from Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
.
Doon remains a boys-only school despite continued pressure to become coeducational. A small number of girls, all daughters of schoolmasters, have studied at Doon over the years.
Discipline has always been strict, and the school has expelled chidren from well-known families. In the 1950s Headmaster J.A.K. Martyn's suggestion that Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician. The younger son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi, he was a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family...
finish his senior year elsewhere was unquestioningly accepted by his mother, Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
. In contrast, Doon's decision to expel a ward of Chief Minister Nityanand Swami
Nityanand Swami
Nityanand Swami may refer to:*Nityanand Swami , former Chief Minister of Uttaranchal*Nityanand Swami , saint of the Swaminarayan Sampraday and Swaminarayan Paramahansa...
of Uttarkhand in 2001 resulted in threats to cut off power and water (nothing came of these threats after Mr. Swami discovered that Doon had stronger political connections than he did).
Doon has slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
typical of a public school, including tuck shop
Tuck shop
A tuck shop is a small, food-selling retailer. It is a term principally used in the UK, Grenada, South Africa, New Zealand, the Australian states of Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, and occasionally in other parts of the former British Empire. In New South Wales, the term is...
(for purchasing snacks), change-in-break (a particularly annoying form of punishment
Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
), quis-ego
Quis-ego
The cultural convention of quis-ego, found among students in primary and secondary schools in England and other members of the Commonwealth, is a way to distribute free or unwanted goods. A person with something he wishes to give away shouts "quis?" ; the first person to reply "ego" gets it...
, bags (dibs
Dibs
Calling dibs is an informal convention to declare a specific right to something that no individual otherwise has any clearly recognized right...
), lend (sycophant
Sycophant
Sycophancy means:# Obsequious flattery; servility.# The character or characteristic of a sycophant.Alternative phrases are often used such as:-Etymology:...
), scopat (ambitious to a fault), don't die (just kidding), sneak (tattle tail), vella (idle) and many others. Many boys acquire a nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
which often attaches for life, and can see variations of the same assigned to siblings, sons, and even grandsons who later attend Doon.
The campus
The school consists of a single campusCampus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
, covering approximately 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) in the city of Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
in the state of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
To house the School, the Indian Public Schools Society acquired Chandbagh Estate in Dehradun from the Forest Research Institute
Forest Research Institute
The Forest Research Institute is an institute of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and is a premier institution in the field of forestry research in India. It is located at Dehradun in Uttarakhand. It was established in 1906 and is one of the oldest institutions of its kind...
. Part of the estate, where the Central Dining Hall is now located, was once a deer park. The IPSS also acquired an adjoining estate from the descendants of James Skinner, which forms the part of the campus known as Skinner's Field. At the time of acquisition, Skinner's was an overgrown and somewhat neglected estate, and its most prominent features were two sheds formerly used for housing elephants.
While the grounds are beautiful, with gardens and rare trees, life for boys is monastic: they sleep on narrow beds and study in unheated rooms; the floors are rough stone and the lights are fluorescent tubes.
Headmasters
- Arthur E. Foot
- J.A.K. Martyn
- C.J. Miller
- Eric J. Simeon
- Gulab Ramchandani
- S.R. DasShomie DasShomie Ranjan Das in an Indian educationist. An Alumnus of The Doon School, he has served as the Headmaster of The Doon School, Mayo College and Lawrence School, Sanawar . He had earlier taught in Gordonstoun School in the UK.-Career:...
- John A. MasonJohn Mason (Schoolmaster)Jonathan Anthony Mason is an Indian educationist. He has served as the Headmaster of several major public schools, including St. James' School, Kolkata and the Doon School. He also served as House Master at La Martiniere College, Kolkata before moving to St...
- Kanti BajpaiKanti BajpaiKanti Bajpai is an Indian academic-analyst and the former headmaster of The Doon School, Dehra Dun, India, and is noted as a popular international affairs analyst on Indian television.-Early life and education:...
- Peter McLaughlin, current Headmaster
Historic links
Welham Boys School, from its foundation in 1937 through the early 1980s, acted a preparatory schoolPreparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
to Doon and Mayo College
Mayo College
Mayo College is a public school founded by the 6th Earl of Mayo, who was Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872.The school is located in Ajmer, in the state of Rajasthan, India....
. This link ended when Surendra "Charlie" Kandhari, a Dosco and former Housemaster at Doon, became Principal of Welham and transformed it to a high school. As a result, many Doscos from the 1940s through the 1970s are also Welhamites.
Doon has long had a familial relationship with Welham Girls School
Welham Girls School
Welham Girls School is a boarding school for girls located at the foothills of the Himalayas in Dehradun, India...
: several families who chose to send their boys to Doon also chose to send their daughters to Welhams, and many Doscos over the years have married alumni of Welham Girls. An annual "dance social" with Welham Girls was the highlight of the senior year for many Doscos, and alumni events are sometimes coordinated by the alumni of both schools.
In 1998 the Chand Bagh School was established by Pakistani Doscos approximately 40 km north of Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Pakistan, and modeled on the general structure of Doon.
Exchange Programs
Doon has exchange programs with a number of overseas schools; at present, a small number of Doscos are attending:- The Armidale SchoolThe Armidale SchoolThe Armidale School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in Armidale, on the New England Tablelands of northern New South Wales, Australia...
- Bridge House SchoolBridge House SchoolBridge House School, situated in the Cape Winelands close to Franschhoek, Stellenbosch and Paarl, is an independent day / boarding school for over six hundred and fifty girls and boys from Grade 00 to Grade 12.-History:...
- Deerfield AcademyDeerfield AcademyDeerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
- Eton CollegeEton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
- King's AcademyKing's AcademyKing’s Academy is a co-educational private boarding school that opened in August 2007 in Madaba-Manja, Jordan. It is named in honour of Abdullah II of Jordan...
- Stowe SchoolStowe SchoolStowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...
- St. Mark's School (Texas)
And Doon is current hosting students from the following schools:
- Ballarat Grammar SchoolBallarat Grammar SchoolBallarat and Queens Anglican Grammar School is an independent, Anglican Church school located at Wendouree , Victoria, 123 km west of Melbourne.-History:...
- Brunswick School
- Groton SchoolGroton SchoolGroton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
- St Edward's School, Oxford
- St. Mark's School (Texas)
- Stowe SchoolStowe SchoolStowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...
The school is a member of the G20 Schools
G20 Schools
All the schools claim to have a commitment to excellence and innovation of some sort. The G20 Schools have an annual conference which aims to bring together a group of school Heads who want to look beyond the parochial concerns of their own schools and national associations, and to talk through...
and the Round Square
Round Square
The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of more than 80 schools that allows students to travel between schools,tour foreign countries, involve themselves in community service and discover cultures along the way.-History:...
groups, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference and the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's World Olympic Dreams School Search twinned Doon with The Thomas Hardye School
The Thomas Hardye School
The Thomas Hardye School is a secondary school in Dorchester, Dorset.As part of a scheme run by the BBC and the British Council called Olympic Dreams, the school is twinned with The Doon School which India's first Olympic Gold Medalist Abhinav Bindra attended as a child.-Admissions:It provides...
in Jan 2011.
Schools with similar names
As India's private schooling industry expanded, several schools were established that appear to have been named in a deliberately confusing manner: there is the Doon Global School, Doon Presidency School, Doon International School, Doon Preparatory School, Doon Cambridge School, Doon Girls School, Doon Public SchoolDoon Public School
Doon Public School in West Delhi, India, is an English medium, co-educational, Senior Secondary School, affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education of New Delhi. It was founded by Mr. A. S. Anand...
(which is not even located in the Doon Valley
Doon Valley
Doon Valley is a valley located in Sivalik Hills in Uttarakhand, India. It is the location of Dehradun, capital of Uttarakhand state.-Etmology:...
), and even a Doon College of Spoken English, none of which are related to The Doon School. Some schools have even adopted Doon's idiosyncrasies
Idiosyncrasy
An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person . The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be .-Etymology:...
at face value: for example, the Delhi Public School
Delhi Public School, Mathura Road
Delhi Public School, Mathura Road is a private co-educational day and boarding school in New Delhi, India. It is run by the Delhi Public School Society and is a member of the Indian Public School Conference. The school was founded in 1949 and was the first Delhi Public School...
offers "Marker Cups" to those who get the highest "marks" in examinations; Doon's Marker Cups, which also are awarded to those who score the highest in particular subjects, were named for the Marker family of Pakistan who donated the Cups.
Doon in films
- In the movie AishaAishaAisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
, the character named Randhir Ghambir is a Dosco. - More controversially, the film Dazed in Doon, which was commissioned by the School on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, and produced by an ex-Dosco Ashvin KumarAshvin KumarAshvin Kumar is an independent Indian filmmaker who has produced and directed several films and documentaries, including Inshallah, football ; Dazed in Doon ; The Forest ; Little Terrorist and Road to Ladakh...
, was banned because it "doesn't give the school a good name". The dispute remains unresolved between the school and Mr. Kumar. See main article: Ashvin KumarAshvin KumarAshvin Kumar is an independent Indian filmmaker who has produced and directed several films and documentaries, including Inshallah, football ; Dazed in Doon ; The Forest ; Little Terrorist and Road to Ladakh...
.
Doon in fiction
- In Salman Rushdie's anthology of short stories East, WestEast, WestEast, West is an anthology of short stories written by Salman Rushdie in 1994. The book is divided into three main sections, entitled "East", "West", and "East, West", each section containing stories whose topics center around their respective geographical areas...
, the characters Zulu and Chekhov are Doscos. - In Kiran Doshi's Birds of Passage the central character Abhay is a Dosco.
- Vikram SethVikram SethVikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
used his own experiences of being bullied at Doon, to model the character of Tapan in A Suitable Boy. - The title character in Aminuddin Khan's A Right Royal Bastard is a Dosco.
Doon in research
- Doon School Chronicles: one of a series of ethnographicEthnographyEthnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
films made by David MacDougall between 1997-2000 on the culture of the School. - Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School by Sanjay Srivastva is a detailed sociologicalSociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
study of the school's culture and how it has influenced India's national character. - The Waffle of the Toffs by M. Prabha makes a case against writers from Doon, arguing that "the more affluent a writer, the less significant his writing."
Notable alumni
Old boy network
An old boy network, or society, can refer to social and business connections among former pupils of male-only private schools. British public school students were traditionally called "boys", thus graduated students are "old boys"....
of the school are known as Doscos, although the more correct term is ex-Dosco since within Doon itself pupils are known as Doscos and alumni are referred to as ex-Doscos or, more simply, as Old Boys. The term Dosco is a contraction of Doon and School.
Foot defined "success" for a Dosco in broad terms, with an emphasis on public service:
Malabar Hill
Malabar Hill, a hillock in southern Mumbai , India is an extremely upmarket residential area, most known for the Walkeshwar Temple which houses the Banganga Tank. Situated at a height of 50 metres Malabar Hill, a hillock in southern Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India is an extremely upmarket...
or will it be built up in the hearts of the people you have served?
Doscos have achieved prominence in politics, government service, and the armed forces of India and Pakistan, as well as commerce, journalism, the arts and literature. They include former Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
, nine Cabinet Ministers, two Chief Ministers, several members of the Indian Parliament
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
and state Legislative Assemblies
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....
; a Naxalite
Naxalite
The word Naxal, Naxalite or Naksalvadi is a generic term used to refer to various militant Communist groups operating in different parts of India under different organizational envelopes...
; nineteen generals, two admirals and the former heads of the Indian Air Force and the Pakistani Air Force; and twenty-four Ambassadors (including those from India, Pakistan, Nepal and the United Kingdom).
The writers Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
, Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha is an Indian writer whose research interests have included environmental, social, political and cricket history. He is also a columnist for the newspapers The Telegraph , and The Hindustan Times.-Early life and education:Born in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, India in 1958, Guha studied...
, Vijay Prashad
Vijay Prashad
Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He is the author of eleven books, most recently The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World...
, and Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...
, journalists Prannoy Roy
Prannoy Roy
Prannoy L Roy, Ph.D is an Indian journalist and media journalist. He is the founder and Executive Chairperson of New Delhi Television .-Early life:...
and Karan Thapar
Karan Thapar
Karan Thapar is one of India's noted television commentators and interviewers. He is the youngest child of General P. N. Thapar and Mrs. Bimla Thapar.-Education:...
, film actors Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
and Himani Shivpuri
Himani Shivpuri
Himani Shivpuri, is Indian, film, theatre and television actress, who is most known for her role in Sooraj R. Barjatya's film Hum Aapke Hain Koun...! , and as 'Devki Bhojai' in TV serial Humrahi .- Biography :...
, social worker Bunker Roy
Bunker Roy
Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy is an Indian social activist and educator. In 1972 he founded the Barefoot college in Tilonia, Rajasthan. The Indian non-governmental organization was registered as the Social Work and Research Centre...
and sculptor Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
are all Doscos. Lovraj Kumar was India's first Rhodes Scholar, Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Singh Bindra is an Indian shooter from Zirakpur, Mohali, Punjab and is the current World and Olympic champion in the 10 m Air Rifle event...
was the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal, and Nandu Jayal pioneered mountaineering in India.
Other Sources
- The Dosco Record is a book of short biographies, similar to what may be found in a Who's WhoWho's WhoWho's Who is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on a particular group of people...
, which was first produced by J.A.K. Martyn who deliberately modeled it on the Harrow Record. (Martyn had been a schoolmaster at Harrow SchoolHarrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
before helping A.E. Foot start The Doon School.) As a consequence, alumni are listed in the year in which they joined Doon, rather than the year in which they graduated; Martyn believed that this would make it easier for Doscos to look up their friends. The book is updated every 8 years or so, and is published by the The Doon School Old Boys Society ("DSOBS") and distributed only to alumni. It includes biographical information about every Dosco (even people like Sanjay GandhiSanjay GandhiSanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician. The younger son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi, he was a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family...
who was expelled before completing his studies); it also highlights family connections between Doscos such as whether a particular Dosco was the son of another Dosco, or married the sister or daughter of another Dosco. - The Rose Bowl is a periodic newsletter that contains alumni news, obituaries, reminiscences, etc. It is produced by the DSOBS and distributed by post to all alumni; a PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
version is also sent by email to alumni. - The Doon School Register is published, every few years, by the DSOBS. It includes the contact details of every Dosco; deceased alumni are noted as such. Also included are the small number of "Associate Members" (honorary members) of The Doon School Old Boys: for the most part these include former teachers; also included are people such as Salim AliSalim AliSálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Known as the "birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and his bird books helped develop ornithology...
who had been frequent visitors to Doon and were considered to be part of the Dosco fraternity. - Doon, The Story of a School, edited by Sumer Singh, published by the Indian Public Schools Society 1985. This (somewhat slim) book was distributed to alumni and contains essays, reminiscences, and stories about the founding of the Doon School.
- The Doon School -- Sixty Years On, edited by Pushpinder Singh Chopra, published by the DSOBS in October 1996. This book is similar in many respects to Doon, The Story of a School, but much larger.
- Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School by Sanjay Srivastva, published by Routledge 1998.
External links
- Website of The Doon School
- Website of the Doon School Old Boys Society
- The Dosco Network on Ning
- Pictures of Doon on Flickr
- The Doon School on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Doon School Alumni on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Remembering Jack Gibson
Doon in the press
- Old boys' clubs of Doon School, IITs, IIMs, Harvard and others mean more than just databases The Economic Times; September 4, 2011
- How the playing fields of Doon nurture India Inc's best leaders The Economic Times; November 5, 2010
- Boys will be boys Hindustan Times October 26, 2010
- 75 Years of Doon School NDTV October 22, 2010
- The school that breeds Indian medal winners BBC October 11, 2010
- A storied prep school sees old ways erode... Associated Press June 16, 2007.
- The Andover of India? Graduates From Doon Score Top U.S. Jobs The Wall Street Journal June 3, 2006.
- Class Up at Doon Outlook Magazine, April 17, 2006.
- Liberal Streak Financial Times January 2, 2004.
- Climb Every Mountain The Hindu Feb 24, 2002.
- India's Old School Tie: The Harrow by the Himalayas The New York Times November 12, 1985.