Himachal pradesh: Residential schools
Mark of excellence

Rakesh Lohumi on Bishop Cotton School, the oldest public school in Asia, where the focus is on the overall development of personality

WHILE most of the prestigious schools of the pre-Independence era in the "queen of hills" have over the years shed their elite character, Bishop Cotton School is still carrying forward the British legacy to retain its distinct identity as a premier residential school.

Besides the cluster of old buildings and the sprawling premises, the ambience and time-valued traditions have also been well-preserved. It was Bishop George Edward Cotton, son of an Army captain, who came up with the idea of setting up a boys residential public school at some hill station in the Himalayas. A special service was held on July 28, 1859, and collections made at most of the churches of the diocese for raising the institution. It was the first school in Asia to introduce the house system and the prefect system on the pattern of the British public schools, which is still continuing. In fact, it adopted the system almost at the same time as it developed in England. The housemasters have a key role in the development of students, while prefects and captains of each house are actively involved in running the affairs of the school.

The institution was initially started at Jutogh, near here, for which land and buildings were given by the Viceroy free of cost. Later, a new complex was built on the south end of the Knollswood spur. The school moved to the new premises in 1868 and with subsequent additions acquired the present shape.

Bishop Cotton personally reconnoitred 10 sites and finally selected the thickly wooded spur for the school. As luck would have it, Bishop Cotton was drowned in an accident after laying the foundation stone of the complex and to perpetuate his memory the school was named after him. The school moved to Knollswood in 1868.

The complex is spread over 35 acres and even today a thick forest covers more than 10 acres.

Rooted in the European tradition of scholarship and learning, it grew into a leading educational institution, drawing students from all over the world. Even today, 37 out of the total 510 students are from abroad. It remained an exclusive preserve of the British for almost 50 years. The first Indian student was admitted as late as 1917. Today, a majority of the students are from the northern states and even those from abroad are the wards of non-resident Indians settled in England, the USA, Thailand, Bangladesh and Nepal who want their children to grow in an Indian environment.

The focus is not only on academic excellence but the overall development of personality through a range of extra-curricular activities. It has the infrastructure for sports with facilities for games like squash, tennis, badminton, cricket and also an indoor shooting range.

The Headmaster, R. C. Robinson, finds the system of housemasters and prefects very effective in managing the affairs of the school. It ensures maximum involvement of the students who feel a part of the decision-making process. The personality of teachers, administrative and domestic staff does find a reflection in the boys. However, it is the sixth form (senior students of plus two classes), the captains and the prefects who give the school its character in the subtle alchemy of psycho-educational growth, he asserts.

The number of students in a section is restricted to 25 so that the teacher can establish a personal rapport with the taught. Even as the students are involved in a host of extracurricular activities round the year, they do very well on the academic front with a good number of them scoring over 80 per cent in the board examinations, he says with satisfaction.

Cottonians are in a class of their own and to be a Cottonian is a matter of pride. The alumni of the school have made their mark in various spheres of life. The school has the honour of producing some eminent bureaucrats, army officers, engineers, sportspersons, politicians and businessmen. They include famous writer Ruskin Bond, Sir William Willcock, who constructed the dam on the Nile in Egypt, golfer Chiranjiv Milkha Singh, international commentator Melville de Mello, film actor Benjamin Gilani and Justice R. S. Sodhi of the Delhi High Court. General Dyer, who was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also studied in the school.

Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, a former minister, are also the products of BCS.

Pilgrims’ progress

Shirish Joshi on Kanwarias who trek to Neelkanth on foot to fetch the sacred Ganga water

THE months of June and July are the months of Kanwarias. The kanwarias, in their bright orange T-shirts, are all over the place.

Kanwarias are the pilgrims who trek to Neelkanth, near Hardwar in Uttaranchal, to fetch sacred water from the Ganga and take it back to their home place. They travel all or part way on foot and take one meal a day.

Many journey hundreds of kilometres to and from their villages throughout Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states. Many others make the arduous trek on foot from Delhi.

The name comes from the decorated pole (kanwar) that each one carries on his shoulder. It has a pot on either end to hold the water from the Ganges. The 210-km trip from Neelkanth back to Delhi takes about six days on foot.

Kanwarias don’t undertake this journey for penance. They carry it for two reasons — to thank God for fulfilling their wishes, or to pray for things to remain as they are. The journey is not without its dangers, however, and each year a few kanwarias are injured or killed in road accidents.

The government authorities and local religious organisations set up hundreds of camps during these months to shelter and feed the kanwarias passing through their towns. At these places, pilgrims could spend the night on a carpet, wash and feed themselves and, if necessary, bandage their worn feet. In keeping with tradition, they offer a portion of their Ganga water to a nearby Shiva temple.

Similarly Sultanganj, 28 km west of Bhagalpur, in the north-western part of Bihar comes alive with thousands of kanwarias bathing in the holy Ganges and departing for Deoghar (the home of God), or Baidyanath dham, 140-km away, with the pots of Ganga water on kanwars to offer prayer to Lord Shiva in the month of Shravan (July/August).

The water of the Ganga at Sultanganj is considered especially sacred because of its unusual direction. This is the one of the two stretches of the Ganges that, contrary to the usual flow from north-west to south-east, flows from South to North. The other is in the holy city Varanasi.

Core of darkness

A dangerous eight-hour 62-km ride by a steamer connects thousands of tribals in Orissa to civilisation. Bibhuti Mishra reports

FORTY years ago thousands of villagers were cut off the mainstream following a decision of the state. Two big reservoirs — Chitrakonda and Upper Kolab — came up and marooned 20,000 tribals in 191 villages of Rayagada district of Orissa.

There was no provision for compensation at that time and these homeless people trying to survive in forests with water staring at them everywhere were cruelly forgotten. They lived on hilltops encircled by water with a rusting steamer their only connection with civilisation. They could not be rehabilitated as Orissa’s rehabilitation policy came only in 1977 more than 15 years later.

Many of them have vanished with no one having any idea about their whereabouts. Those who stayed back eke out a precarious existence having been pushed from the mainland to islands most cruelly.

In government records, they are just "cut-off". It is a dangerous eight-hour 62-km drive by the old steamer that connects them to civilisation. They spend three days and not less than Rs 100 to fetch half a kg of salt and oil. People walk up to 90 km to access the steamer points as the steamer reaches only 10 reservoir side villages.

According to a survey, the landholding per family has come down by 99 per cent. The nearest health centre is miles away. Infant mortality is high. Every third child dies before the fourth birthday.

This is the nightmarish life lived by the people who slogged to build the dams and bring electricity. They gave light and stayed back in the core of darkness. Ironically, Orissa made a leap forward in electricity generation and the undivided Koraput district with the highest percentage of tribals (more than 55 per cent accounting for 70 per cent of Orissa’s tribal population) became India’s largest electricity generating district with 18 major hydroelectricity projects.

Photographer Santosh Mohapatra calls them "the first orphans of free India" and chronicles their marginalised lives. His photos, products of his six month-stay in those villages in different phases, display malnourished children, women trudging miles to get salt and oil, men travelling famished and fatigued in the lone steamer that takes eight hours, old, haggard faces stare at one and tell in their own way the tragedy that is the daily grind of survival for these people.

For six months, Santosh Mohapatra, a photo chronicler, made his journeys into a little known history and confronted the tragic life of these tribals. His pictures were displayed at a photo exhibition in Bhubaneswar titled "Core of Darkness" that brought a human tragedy to the fore.