THE DOON SCHOOL

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

The Doon School is one of the most prestigious public schools and boarding schools in India.^[1] It is located in Dehra Dun, in the state of Uttarakhand.
Doon's 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.^[2]''

Contents

Overview

The boys and campus

Headmasters

Doon in Fiction

Doon in Research

Doon in the Press

Notable alumni

External links

Notes

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.

The Doon academic year starts at the beginning of February, and the first ''Term'' (or semester) 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 fall 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.

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. The campus is stunning, the sports and science facilities are first rate, but the students' lives might be considered almost monastic. While seldom appreciated during their education, this asceticism is a source of much pride among the alumni.

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.
Doon clearly has an edge over othet top schools of India, such as Bishop Cotton School, Simla, St. Paul's School, Darjeeling, Lawrence School, Sanawar and Lovedale, Mayo College, Scindia School Gwalior and others, though Doon is a much younger school.
Old boys of the school (a.k.a. ex-doscos) who have achieved prominence in politics include:

★ Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi

★ 6 Cabinet Ministers, including Kamal Nath, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Karan Singh

★ 15 Members of the Indian Parliament, including Sanjay Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Jyotiraditya Scindia

★ 2 Chief Ministers (Naveen Patnaik and Amarinder Singh)

★ the ex-Governor of Pakistani Punjab Lt. Gen. Jilani Khan and the former secretary general of the government of Pakistan Rafiq Akram.
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.

The writers Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh, journalists Prannoy Roy and Karan Thapar, film actors Roshan Seth and Chandrachud 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.

Headmasters

★ A.E. Foot

★ J.A.K. Martyn

★ C.J. Miller

★ E.J. Simeon

★ Gulab Ramchandani

★ S.R. Das

★ John A. Mason

★ Kanti P. Bajpai

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 on Wings'' 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.

Doon in Research

★ ''Doon School Chronicles'': a series of ethnographic films made by David MacDougall between 1997-2000 that study the unique culture of the school.

★ ''Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School'' by Sanjay Srivastva is a detailed sociological study of the school's culture and how it has influenced modern notions of India's national character.

Doon in the Press

★ ''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.

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?²

External links

★ Official Website of the Doon School

★ Official website of the Doon School Old Boys Society

★ The Official Dosco Network

Notes

1. ''Delhi Public School most respected school in India: Survey'' Deccan Herald August 18th 2007. Accessed August 21st 2007
2. Source: The Doon School Sixty Years On, published by the Doon School Old Boys Society October 1996