The Doon School

The Doon School
Location
The Mall Dehradun – 248001 India (Map)
Information
School type	Independent boarding school
Motto	Knowledge our Light
Founded	September 10, 1935
Founder	Satish Ranjan Das
Sister school	Welham Girls School
Chairman of Governors	Analjit Singh
Headmaster	Peter McLaughlin
Founder Headmaster	Arthur Foot
Faculty	67
Gender	Boys
Age	13 to 18
Number of pupils	480
Campus	69 acres (280,000 m²)
Houses	5
Colour(s)	Blue and White
Publication	The Doon School Weekly
Affiliation	IB ICSE
Former pupils	Doscos
Website	www.doonschool.com

The Doon School is an independent boarding school in Dehradun, India. Founded in 1935 by Satish Ranjan Das, its first headmaster was Arthur E. Foot, a former science master at Eton College. Foot's desire was to establish a public school for Indian boys in Colonial India during the 1930s. The present headmaster is Peter McLaughlin, a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).

The school enrolls boys aged 13 in January and April of each year. Admission is based on a competitive examination and an interview. The teacher to student ratio is about 1:10. Since 2008 the school has begun to teach the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme following the trend set by other public schools.

The former pupils of Doon are known as Doscos and they include ministers, diplomats and bureaucrats, one of them was Rajiv Gandhi, the sixth Prime Minister of India. At one point in his tenure, so many of the highest positions were filled by Doon alumni that his inner circle was referred to as a "Doon cabinet"; there had been some criticism of said cabinet, and Doon school graduates were not seen in high political positions for some time afterward.

The Doon School has been consistently ranked as the top residential school of India by newspapers such as The Times of India and Outlook. According to the survey conducted by Education World magazine in 2011, the Doon School's four-year winning streak was broken by Rishi Valley School after it slipped to the second place. Doon is often referred to as the 'Eton of India' by the international and home press alike. In 1990, a survey conducted by The Economist declared that the Doon School's Old Boys' network is the second-most influential alumni network after Harvard's.

History

Origins

A portrait of S.R. Das, founder of The Doon School.

Doon was founded by Satish Ranjan Das, an eminent lawyer from Calcutta who in 1927 became a member of Lord Irwin's Executive Council on the condition that he would use the prestige of this position to raise funds for a new type of school in India. He traveled widely in India with a goal of collecting Rupees 40 lakhs (4,000,000 rupees), but at the time of his death had raised only ₹10 lakhs (1,000,000 rupees) in cash, and another ₹10 lakhs in promises. With the money, Das formed the Indian Public Schools Society (which owns the school and manages its affairs through a Board of Governors) with the object of founding new public schools in India that would admit students without regard to caste, creed or social status.

Following Das's death in 1928, the IPSS did not accomplish very much and by 1934 some of the original donors to the project 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 IPSS Chairman and, with Sir Akbar Hydari as secretary, worked to obtain the former estate of the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun on favorable terms. Lord Halifax, then Board of Education president, 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:

• Hyderabad House, after Sir Akbar Hydari secured a contribution of ₹2 lakhs from the Nizam of Hyderabad's Government.
• Kashmir House, after Maharajah Hari Singh promised a contribution of ₹1 lakh which was delivered in 1935.
• Tata House, after the Tata and Wadia Trusts promised ₹1.5 lakhs, of which half was delivered in 1935.
• Jaipur House, after Rai Bahadur Amarnath Atal arranged for contributions of ₹1 lakh from the Jaipur Durbar and smaller contributions from the tributary Thikanas.

(No building was named after Rai Bahadur Rameshwar Nathany since his donation of ₹1 lakh was initially made anonymously.)

On October 27, 1935, the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, came to preside over the formal school opening. There were 70 boys enrolled in the first term, and another 110 boys had signed up for the second term.

Founding ethos

Arthur Foot had never visited India before accepting the position, and knew little of Dehradun 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).

The Doon School's main building in 1915; it was then part of the Forest Research Institute

In an essay entitled The Objects of Education published in the school magazine, Foot outlined what he believed should was basic template for a complete, Doon education. Among those points Foot stated that the student should be able to distinguish, and then choose, between good and evil as well as think logically, express himself clearly and be healthy. In other essays, Foot marked the milestones in the development of each student:

File:Lord Mountbatten with A.E. Foot in Doon School (1948).jpg

Arthur E. Foot, first headmaster of Doon, with Lord Mountbatten in 1948.

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 Gandhi or to the Viceroy, 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.

Martyn, who became Doon's second Headmaster and had a continuing involvement with Doon over several decades, acknowledged the influence of the "very remarkable German Jew", Kurt Hahn, in the development of Doon's ethos. Even with no prior experience in India he jumped at the opportunity to join Foot because of the chance to implement Hahn's ideas, which he had not been able to do at Harrow. Martyn acknowledged Foot's leadership in the development of the school, but added that the pair's ideas were the same: "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."

Headmasters

Period	Headmaster
1935–1948	Arthur E. Foot
1948–1966	J.A.K. Martyn
1966–1970	C. J. Miller
1970–1979	Eric J. Simeon
1979–1988	Gulab Ramchandani
1988–1996	Shomie Das
1996–2003	John A. Mason
2003–2009	Kanti Bajpai
since 2009	Peter McLaughlin

The early headmasters of Doon played a pivotal role in its establishment in India. Arthur Foot and John Martyn, the first two headmasters at Doon, were both from two elite British institutions - Eton College and Harrow School. They were determined to model Doon on those two institutions but both agreed that the school should cater to Indian boys and not the sons of British Raj. The technical terms that were brought by these headmasters to Doon are still in use. For instance, Foot started a weekly teachers' meeting titled Chambers, which was a term straight from Eton. Also, the evening prep (study hour) Toye comes from Winchester College, England. Apart from these, there are terms like tuck shop (school café) and call-over (attendance) that are still shared between Eton, Harrow and Doon due to the background of Doon's headmasters. Arthur Foot, from the very beginning, was enthusiastic about the idea of social work and though he modelled Doon on Eton and Harrow, he did not want Doon to be labelled 'elitist'. Arthur Foot, in an essay, famously said that "the boys should leave Doon 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".

In 1970, Eric Simeon was appointed as the first Indian headmaster ever since Doon's inception. Due to his military background, he laid great emphasis on monastic and disciplined living which further propagated the idea of social service which Foot had originally introduced. Eric also became one of the longest serving headmasters in the history of Doon. After his retirement in 1979, Gulab Ramchandani became the first Doon School alumnus to head the school. Ramchandani has been credited with modernising the school by improving the outdated infrastructure of the school. After Ramchandani's stint, Shomie Das - another Old boy - became the headmaster. Shomie was the grandson of Satish Ranjan Das, the founder of Doon, and hence he was quite familiar with its peculiarities and systems before he took charge. It was during his tenure, that the Oberoi house was introduced, in addition to the four houses. Das's retirement paved way for John Mason in 1996. John's main emphasis was to make Doon affordable for distinguished pupils. It was this reason that throughout his tenure Doon did not experience any fee hike. After Mason left in 2003, Kanti Bajpai became the third Old Boy to head Doon. His tenure oversaw the infliction of numerous punishments, notably Yellow Cards, to control the outburst of bullying in school. In 2009, after a period of almost four decades, a non-Indian headmaster was appointed — Peter McLaughlin. As of 2012, Peter continues to run the school and his headmastership has overseen inception of numerous social-service projects, thereby preserving the legacy of Doon's founding headmaster Arthur Foot.

DS-75 celebrations

File:Doon School 75 Logo.jpg

The DS-75 Logo

The annual Founder's Day celebration is a three to four day celebration of the school's 1935 founding. It is held in the Autumn Term, usually in the last week of October. Many ex-Doscos come from all parts of the world to celebrate the event. Security on campus is tight since alumni attending the event frequently include senior politicians and government officials, and the Chief Guest is usually someone of considerable public prominence. The major English Drama Productions are held as part of the event, which is followed by a Orchestral Music Production organized by School Music Society members.

Doon celebrated its 75th Founder's Day (Platinum Jubilee) in October 2010 with an event christened DS-75. The Chief Guests included Pratibha Patil (President of India), Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (King of Bhutan) and Kapil Sibal (Union Minister for Human Resource Development). An important figure in the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, did not attend, however; he left from (or was asked to leave) the school after two years. One of the event's main attractions was a discussion (dubbed the "Chandbagh Debate") held during the event between alumni including Vikram Seth, Kanti Bajpai, Kamal Nath, Manpreet Singh Badal and Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia.

Ashvin Kumar made a film for the event entitled Dazed in Doon using pupils for the cast and crew. Most of the film was shot in June–July during the Summer Break, and the scenes which required the entire student body were filmed after the school re-opened in August. The Doon School has, however, objected to the film and its distribution, including getting legal injunctions against the film as "defamatory".

Shayan Italia, another ex-Dosco, composed the song Doscos Forever, Brothers for Life to mark the event and gave a live performance of the song. On October 22, 2010 a commemorative postage stamp was released by the Indian Postal Service to mark the occasion of 75th Founder's Day. The school's main building was the face of the stamp.

Campus

Lawns in front of the main building.

File:KashmirHouseinDoon.jpg

Kashmir House behind the main field.

The school consists of a single campus, covering approximately 70 acres (280,000 m²) in the city of Dehradun, Uttarakhand in India. The school campus comes under the Dehradun Cantonment area and is flanked by Chakrata Road and Mall Road (usually called The Mall) on both sides.

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 campus part 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.

The new Art and Media School, located at the old Music School site and inaugurated in October 2010 by Kapil Sibal, was nominated for an international design award. The school’s South Garden has been mentioned in Inside Outside Magazine’s Annual Awards for its green principles and GRIHA standards of environmental compatibility.

The Chandbagh estate is located in the greenest part of Dehradun and a wide variety of flora and fauna may be found on the estate. These include many rare trees that date back to the estate's original use by the Forest Research Institute, while the formal gardens attract a variety of birds. The school has over 150 species of trees on its campus. In 1996, a book titled Trees of Chandbagh was released which carried information about the varieties of plants, shrubs and trees found on the campus of Doon.

Houses

Doon follows the house system, with five administrative units, or dorm-like houses, named Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kashmir, Tata, and Oberoi. 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.

Each house is run by a housemaster, who is also an active member of the teaching staff. Housemasters are assisted by a senior boy known as the House Captain. One senior boy serves as school captain and is assisted by school prefects from each house. Boys are assigned to houses at the time of admission, and develop great loyalty to their houses since all intramural sports involve fierce competition between houses. Boys with even the most distant family connections to a particular house are invariably assigned to that house in order to further promote loyalty to the house. For some alumni, inter-house rivalry continues well into middle-age.

For many decades, housemasters were always men but now there are housemistresses as well. Housemaster and housemistresses are assisted by a matron known as "The Dame" of the house in providing important pastoral care for pupils, some of whom take several terms to fully adjust to life in a boarding school, particularly given Doon's monastic lifestyle and strict regimen for daily life. Housemasters and housemistresses live in homes that are adjacent or physically attached to their houses so that they can remain close at hand for both supervision and support.

Panoramic view of main field of the Doon School.

Academic life

File:Nehru in Kashmir House, Doon School.JPG

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, with the pupils of Doon in 1950.

The school follows flexible modular scheduling to educate the pupils. The school practices a five and a half day week consisting of 40 periods (each period is referred to as a 'school' of 40 minutes each). The school day begins with first bell, soon after 6:15 am. 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.

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; the difficulty was overcome by the prime minister's intervention.

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." All boys of the school must complete a mandatory quota of social service hours every term. Both pupils and alumni have frequently organized efforts, across India to assist people affected by natural disasters. During the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake the school’s HAM radio club was used by the government for communication purposes. Doon also oversees a Panchayat Ghar teaching impoverished children, as well as many building projects and workshops designed to improve the local community.

Doon has exchange programs with a number of overseas schools; at present, a small number of Doscos are attending Eton College, Harrow School, Millfield, Schule Schloss Salem, The Armidale School, Bridge House School, Deerfield Academy, King's Academy, Stowe School and St. Mark's School (Texas). Doon is currently hosting students from Ballarat Grammar School, Brunswick School, Groton School, St Edward's School, Oxford, St. Mark's School (Texas) and Stowe School.

Awards at Doon include the privilege of wearing a different-coloured blazer. These are blue for achievement in sports and black for achievement in academics.

Pupils

Pupils are known as Doscos; the term is a contraction of "Doon" and "School". Alumni are often referred to in the press as "Doscos", although within Doon itself alumni are referred to as ex-Doscos, or simply as Old Boys. The vast majority of alumni are Indians, but a dwindling number are from Pakistan; 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. Boys from Bangladesh and Nepal continue to study at Doon.

Doon remains a boys-only school despite continued pressure from political leaders, including President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, to become coeducational.

In 1950, Jawaharlal Nehru – the first Prime Minister of India – visited the Doon School to congratulate the Board of Governors on a successful model of a public school. His interaction with the school pupils impressed him and he made up his mind to send his grandson Rajiv Gandhi to the school.

Terms

The academic year has always consisted of two terms: the Spring Term and the Autumn Term. In the early decades, the academic year followed the calendar year; this changed in the late 1970s so that the Spring Term now runs from February through the end of May. New pupils ("D-Formers") join Doon at the beginning of April.

The Autumn Term runs from August through November, with year-end examinations in November after which the boys are promoted to the new class beginning February. Traditionally, year-end examinations were known as "trials", with the examinations that granted various certificates such as the Indian School Certificate known as "finals".

Student life

Sports

A cricket game in progress

Doon hosts the annual Afzal Khan Memorial Basketball Tournament – a major inter-school basketball tournament in the country. The tournament has since achieved international repute and is now popular among South-Asian countries.

The school has over 30 acres (120,000 m²) of playing fields. The two biggest playing fields are known as Skinner's and the Main Field. Sports are a compulsory part of school life: cricket, hockey, athletics, boxing and football are seasonal sports. Tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash, basketball, swimming and gymnastics tournaments are also available. During the Spring Term, the sport curriculum is dominated by cricket and hockey; while during the the Autumn Term it is dominated by football, athletics and boxing. Various Inter-house matches are played in cricket, hockey and football.

Clubs and societies

The Doon School Weekly is the school newspaper and was established in 1936.

Extracurricular activities are also a compulsory element of school life, and there are around 23 clubs and societies including debating and chess, and magazines are published in English and Hindi. In many societies pupils come together to discuss a particular topic, presided over by a schoolmaster and often including a guest speaker. Some societies are dedicated solely to music, some to politics, some to drama, and so on. The school has often invited prominent figures to give speeches and talks to the students; these have included heads of state and politicians; ornithologists and naturalists; artists and writers; economists and diplomats; and industrialists.

The Doon School Weekly is the official school newspaper and is distributed every Saturday morning. It chronicles school activities and is a platform for creative and political writing. It was founded in 1936 and is edited by boys at the school. Although liable to censorship, incidents of satire and criticism of school policies have surfaced in the past. More subversive publications have been produced in the past, without official sponsorship, that were far more critical of teachers and the school establishment.

Other school magazines include The Yearbook, The Doon School Information Review; publications by academic departments include Echo (Science), The Econocrat (Economics), Infinity (Mathematics) and The Circle (Political Science).

There are societies for photography, aeromodelling, first-aid, dramatics, painting, sculpture, music, carpentry, HAM radio, Trinity Guildhall music examinations, senior and junior English debating societies, Model United Nations, chess, and Astronomy.

Mountaineering

2008 expedition to the Mount Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar.

Halfway through each term, the boys take a one-week Midterm: a rugged trip often through the Siwalik Hills 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.

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. Everest Base Camp in 2008, 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.

Theatre

The school's amphitheatre – the Rose Bowl

An amphitheatre known as The Rose Bowl ("Rosy") was built largely by pupils in the 1930s. The open-air theatre's construction took two years; the first play staged on it was The Merchant of Venice. The Rose Bowl can seat up to 1,000 people and has been the setting for numerous Shakespearean plays, other classics of Western theatre as well as musical performances and speeches during important school ceremonies such as Founder's Day. The Multi-Purpose Hall is a more modern indoor theatre that can accommodate approximately 2,000 people.

Plays are staged in English and Hindi on a regular basis with 8–9 productions each year, including 2 major productions that are part of the Founder's Day celebrations. The Junior Dramatic Society stages one or two plays a year.

Waiting for Godot being staged in The Rose Bowl (Rosy)

Every year all Houses participate in the Inter House One-Act Play Competition which is directed, produced and staged by boys of respective Houses. The Founder's School Plays, staged in the Autumn Term, are the most prominent events, and usually benefit from a larger cast and budget. The stage design, sound design, stage lighting, and much of the set construction are the pupils' responsibility. The Founder's Day plays are sometimes staged in other Indian schools. Plays that have toured the country include Macbeth, The History Boys and The Sunshine Boys.

In 2009, the Rose Bowl underwent a major structural change while retaining its amphitheatre style.

Music

File:The Music School in Doon.jpg

The Music School's exterior

In 2001, a new music school was built beside the Rose Bowl. It houses multiple practice and teaching rooms, a music library and a concert hall. In 2011, the school invested in the music department with a substantial number of new instruments both western and Indian with new Yamaha pianos and guitars. Instruments taught at the Music School include piano, violin, classical guitar, drums, saxophone, clarinet, flute, tabla, santoor, sitar, mridangam, and synthesizer. Other percussion, wind and string instruments such as tambourine, caxixi, triangle, and xylophone are available for practice by the pupils.

In 2002, the school choir raised ₹20 lakh for 2001 Gujarat earthquake victims by organizing a charity concert titled Concerto 2000. The drummer Sivamani was also part of the project. Pupils are also responsible for the sound design, set design and stage management for all music productions and competitions.

To commemorate the Platinum Jubilee (75th Founders' Day) of Doon, the school – in collaboration with EMI – launched a music album titled Spirit of Doon. The School Choir sang two songs (Lab pe Aati Hai Dua & Anand Loke) for the project. The tracks were penned by the lyricist Gulzar and were sung by: Sonu Nigam, Shayan Italia, Bhajan Sopori.

The school music society invites an Indian rock band to give a concert at the end of each term. Recent performances were given from such bands as Parikrama and Indian Ocean.

School songs

Attendance at the Morning Assembly is required for all pupils and schoolmasters, and traditionally begins with a song from the school's Song Book:

• Song No. 1 – Jana Gana Mana (by Rabindranath Tagore)

• Song No. 2 – Chisti Ne Jis Zamin Mein (by Muhammad Iqbal)
• Song No. 3 – Anand Loke (by Rabindranath Tagore)
• Song No. 4 – Saare Jahan Se Achcha (by Muhammad Iqbal)
• Song No. 5 – Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua (by Muhammad Iqbal)
• Song No. 6 – Vandana Ke In Swaron Mein (a Bhajan)
• Song No. 7 – Ghungat Ke Pat Khol Re (attributed to Meerabai)
• Song No. 8 – He Jagtrata Vishv Vidhata
• Song No. 9 – Pitu Matu Sahayak (a Bhajan)
• Song No. 10 – Vande Mataram (from a poem by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay)

Although Jana Gana Mana is India's National anthem, it is traditionally referred to as "Song No. 1" at Doon since it was adopted as the School Song in 1935, fifteen years before it was adopted as India's national anthem. The school songs were deliberately chosen to include both Urdu poetry and Hindu bhajans as a way of emphasizing Doon's secular ethos; similarly, the school prayers include a mix of Anglican hymns and Indian poetry.

Affiliations

Historic links

Welham Boys School, from its foundation in 1937 through the early 1980s, acted as a preparatory school (i.e. feeder school) 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 also had historic ties with Eton College since the days of British Raj.

Doon has long had a familial relationship with the Welham Girls School: several families who chose to send their boys to Doon also chose to send their daughters to Welham's, 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.

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 School (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.

Memberships

File:HMC logo.jpg

Doon School joined the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in March 2011.

The school is a member of:

• G20 Schools
• Round Square
• Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
• International Boys’ Schools Coalition
• Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
• International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO)
• Indian Public Schools' Conference
• Rashtriya Life Saving Society (India)
• International Award Association

The school is also a regional test centre for the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and SAT Tests.

Public image

The poster of Dazed in Doon, a film produced by Oscar-nominee director Ashvin Kumar, a Dosco, for Doon School's Platinum Jubillee in 2010

Doon in films

• The film Dazed in Doon, which was commissioned by the School on the occasion of its 75th anniversary and produced by an Old Boy (Ashvin Kumar), was banned because it "doesn't give the school a good name". The dispute remains unresolved between the school and Mr. Kumar.
• In September 2010, BBC Sport made a documentary on the Doon School for the World Olympic Dreams Project. The documentary was produced in association with the British Council. The main aim of the project was to show the school where Abhinav Bindra, the first Indian individual Olympic gold medallist, spent his formative years.
• In 2010 Bollywood film Aisha, the character Randhir Gambhir is a Dosco.

Doon in literature

• 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.

Doon in research

• Doon School Chronicles: one of a series of ethnographic 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 sociological 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."
• Poor Children in Rich Schools, a 2005 report by Institute of Social Studies Trust, discussed why the Doon School has no reservations for its admissions process. The post quotes the then headmaster why it is so:- "passing the Doon School entrance exam means that you have proved yourself worthy of the school. Reserving seats for students seems to imply that the school must prove itself worthy of you."
• In 2010, Doon was mentioned by The Economist in a report titled Foreign university students : Will they still come?. The report discussed the demand of higher education in India and compared it with various countries around the world.
• BBC World Service in its radio programme The World Debate featured Doon along with Eton College, Philips Academy and King's College, Lagos in a discussion titled Elite schools of the world in 2009.

Notable alumni

Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India (Class of 1960)

Main article: List of Doon School alumni

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).

• Abhinav Bindra (first Indian individual gold medallist in Olympics, Class of 1999)
• Rahul Gandhi (politician, class of 1986)
• Sanjay Gandhi (politician, class of 1964)
• Amitav Ghosh (writer, class of 1972)
• Ramachandra Guha (writer, class of 1973)
• Nandu Jayal (pioneered mountaineering in India)
• Anish Kapoor (sculptor, class of 1970)
• Lovraj Kumar (India's first Rhodes Scholar)
• Kamal Nath (politician, class of 1964)
• Aroon Purie (publisher, class of 1962)
• Bunker Roy (social activist, class of 1962)
• Prannoy Roy (journalist, class of 1965)
• Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (politician, class of 1989)
• Roshan Seth (actor)
• Vikram Seth (writer, class of 1970)
• Himani Shivpuri (actor, class of 1971)
• Dr. Karan Singh (politician, class of 1948)
• Malvinder Mohan Singh (industrialist)
• Karan Thapar (journalist, class of 1971)

References

Notes

• A storied prep school sees old ways erode... Associated Press June 16, 2007.
• Class Up at Doon Outlook (magazine), April 17, 2006.

Further reading

• Chhota Hazri Days: A Dosco's Yatra by Sanjiv Bathla, Rupa & Co., 2010 ISBN 9788129116949.
• Sahibs who Loved India by Khushwant Singh, Penguin Books, 2010, ISBN 9780143415800.
• Earthquake:a Natural Disaster by Ashutosh Gautam, APH Publishing, 2008, ISBN 9788131303375.
• The Corporeal Image by David McDougall, Princeton University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780691121567
• The Doon Valley Across the Years by Ganesh Saili, Rupa & Co., 2007, ISBN 9788129112873
• Once Upon a Time in Doon by Ruskin Bond, Rupa & Co., 2007, ISBN 9788129112347
• Martyn Sahib, the story of John Martyn of the Doon School, by Mady Martin, University of California Press, 1985, ASIN B004VMXTXS.
• Trees of Chandbagh by K.C. Sinha, Konark Publishers, 1996, ISBN 9788122004571.
• For Hills To Climb by Gurdial Singh and Nalni Dhar, The Doon School Old Boys' Society, 2001.
• The Doon School:Class of '63 by Gudakesh, Kaagaz International, 2007, ISBN 9788190390200.
• Guide to good schools of India by Sandeep Dutt (NDTV), Book Cafe, 2007, ISBN 9788187531180.
• DoonSchools.com by Sandeep Dutt, English Book Depot, 2002, ISBN 8187531169.
• An Indian Englishman by Jack Gibson, Lulu Press , 2008, ISBN 9781435734616
• Doon, The Story of a School, IPSS (1985) edited by Sumer Singh, published by the Indian Public Schools Society 1985. ASIN B0006ENF66
• 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 PDF version is also sent by email to alumni. A copy can be found here [4].
• As I Saw It by Jack Gibson, Mukul Prakashan, 1976
• The Doon School – Sixty Years On, edited by Pushpinder Singh Chopra, published by the DSOBS in October 1996.
• Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School by Sanjay Srivastva, published by Routledge 1998 ISBN 0203980271.

External links

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• Official website
• Website of the Doon School Old Boys Society
• The Doon School on Google Maps
• The Doon School Model United Nations Website
• Dazed in Doon film Website