Chiefs' College

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Chiefs' College was the name for educational institutions for the children of Indian princes during the colonial period , colloquially they were also called Rajkumar College .

history

Main building of Daly College (Indore)

Special schools for princely sons were suggested by Colonel Richard Harte Keatinge , VC (1825–1904), the political agent for Kathiawar from 1863–67. The proposal was taken up by the Viceroy Lord Mayo . The boarding schools were open to the sons of princes and zamindars . The entry age was usually under 14. In many cases, visiting was viewed as a chore by the noble families, some of whom had their sons trained by private tutors. Some princes were also sent to England, where they also received university education , especially after the First World War .

The curriculum followed the pattern of the British public school , with its focus on sports and certain vices, but otherwise hardly taught anything substantial. When an orphaned Raja was a minor , his state was under direct British administration through a Court of Wards , which of course had a special interest in indoctrinating the young prince in the spirit of the colonial rulers. The independent Doon School , founded in 1935 with high academic standards, soon after its establishment became an alternative for the Indian elite, despite the hardening practice and the notoriously miserable catering.

Regional colleges:

  • Keatinge Rajkumar College in Rajkot (Kathiawar), opened by Sir Seymour FitzGerald , the governor of Bombay in 1870. Chester MacNaghten was the first director until 1896. In 1938 opened to the public as a public school .
  • Mayo College in Ajmer , founded in 1872. Thought as an "Indian Eton ."
  • Aitchison College (1886), in Lahore , for princely sons of the Panjab . Emerged from the Wards' School in Ambala, founded in 1864 . At the turn of the century, orphans were charged 12% of their income as school fees. Until 1933 there was separate accommodation for Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. In the same year connection to the University of Cambridge . Open to Lahore boys from the people since 1935.
  • Rajkumar College Raipur (CP), opened November 1894. Derived from the Rajkumar School of Jabalpur . The school fees in 1902 averaged 40 Rs. (Range 25–100 Rs.), Plus 50 Rs. Pocket money. The students were not allowed to have more than three servants.
  • Daly College in Indore , India, founded in 1870 as "Indore Residency School", expanded to "Indore Residency College" in 1874-6 with Mr. Aberigh Mackay as director. Renamed in 1882. The old main building now houses the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College . 1903-5 downgraded to a school for the sons of Thakurs , but soon after expansion (completed in 1910) it became a central educational facility for the sons of the princes. 1918-9 Training School for Indian Army Cadets on the premises. Managed by the Viceroy's College Council since 1925 . Self-government since 1933.
  • Rajkumar School, founded in Nowgaon near Chhatarpur in 1872 , was merged with Daly College in 1898.
  • Taluqdars' School (Canning College) in Lucknow , initially only for orphans of Talukdars from the former Oudh .

A Higher Chiefs' College in the new capital New Delhi was suggested in 1913 by Charles Hardinge (Viceroy 1911-16). It was supposed to create an all-Indian outlook, but it was not realized.

The curriculum was reformed at the time of Viceroy George Curzon , including the establishment of:

Imperial Cadet Corps

In order to give the young gentlemen a little "polish" and to remove them from the effeminating influence of the Zenana (women's palace), the Imperial Cadet Corps was set up at the Dehradun Military Academy at the instigation of Curzon , in which the training as an officer took two years. This training was unpopular because it was worthless. The young officers received their ranks only on account of honor, that is, they did not have the right to command. A colored superior was inconceivable in colonial ideology, even if he, like many British officers of the Empire, was of noble birth. It was not until the necessities of the world wars that Indians served in Europe.

The cadets, who acted as honor guard of the viceroy on certain occasions, were dressed in splendid parade uniforms. They rode black horses, wore leopard-skin cloaks and purple turbans. The pale sky blue skirt symbolized "the still unclouded sunshine of youth and the clear sublimity of a level-headed, ambitious life, the 'first gentlemen'"

literature

  • Oswell, GD; Rajkumar College, Raipur, Central Provinces: A Sketch; Allahabad 1902
  • Magazine: The Aitchisonian from 1944
Individual evidence
  1. Barabar Ramusack; Indian Princes and Their States; New Cambridge History of India, Chapter 5: "Princes as Men"
  2. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, New Edition; Oxford 1908, Vol. XXI "Pushkar to Salween," p 74
  3. cf. Oswell (1902)
  4. Server-Ul-Mulk; Yar Jung (Ed .; Ex .; Son); My Life: Being the Autobiography of Nawab Server-Ul-Mulk Bahadur; London sn [after 1911; Orig. Urdu], p. 30f
  5. ^ Abdullah Yusuf-Ali; Life and Labor of the People of India; London 1907, p. 148.

Web links

The colleges continue to exist today as general secondary education institutions: