Picture of Scindia School taken from top swimming pool visible (2009)

The Scindia School is an Indian boarding school for boys, established in year 1897, and situated in the historic

Gwalior Fort The Gwalior Fort commonly known as the ''Gwāliiyar Qila'', is a hill fort near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The fort has existed at least since the 10th century, and the inscriptions and monuments found within what is now the fort campus in ...

, in the city of

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

. It was originally started exclusively for royals and nobles of

Indian princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to a ...

, particularly the

Marathas The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

, though it no longer discriminates on class. In 2010, the school has enrolled 606 students, with a teacher:student ratio of 1:12.

History

The Scindia School was founded by the late Maharaja

Madho Rao Scindia Maharaja Sir Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior (20 October 1876 – 5 June 1925), was the 5th Maharaja of Gwalior State, Gwalior belonging to the Scindian dynasty of the Marathas. Biography Madho Rao acceded to the throne in 1886 and ruled until ...

of Gwalior in 1897, as the Sardar School. It was meant exclusively for sons of Indian royalty and nobility. It was renamed, "The Scindia School", in 1933, as it evolved into a public school with a Board of Governors, presently headed by

Jyotiraditya Scindia Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971) is an Indian politician who serves as the Minister of Civil Aviation, a position his father also held from 1991 to 1993. He also heads the Ministry of Steel. He is a Member of Parliament i ...

, scion of

Scindia family The Scindia dynasty (anglicized from Shinde) is a Hindu Maratha dynasty of maratha origin that ruled the erstwhile State of Gwalior. It had the Patil-ship of Kumberkerrab in Wai. It was founded by Ranoji Scindia, who started as a personal servan ...

. It was in the city of

and was shifted to the

around the turn of the century. The Scindia School eventually became a public residential school for boys under the headmastership of F G Pearce. The school celebrated its centenary in October 1997. Scindia School was ranked as the best boys boarding school in India 2020 according to the Education World Magazine.Rankings 2020

Student life

The school is situated on the historic hill fortress of

, above the surrounding city. The school has classes from grade 6th to 12th. It is believed to be the first school in India to be a member of an international organization,

Round Square Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...

, a group of the most reputed schools in the world.

Housing

The school is in the erstwhile barracks of British soldiers and the teachers live in the residential quarters once occupied by the British officials. The school is divided into twelve houses, four for juniors and eight for seniors, each named after places and individuals from

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

history. Junior houses are Jankoji, Dattaji (Sarvapalli), Nimaji and Kanerkhed (Siddharth). Senior houses are Jayaji, Ranoji, Mahadji, Jeevaji, Madhav, Shivaji, Daulat (Vivekanand) and Jayappa (Chaitanya) (Jyotiba house was discontinued in 2003). The four houses for the junior boys are looked after by housemistresses, matrons and other domestic staff. The senior houses have a housemaster and a resident tutor along with the domestic staff. The housemaster's residence and that of another faculty member are attached to each house to ensure the availability of pastoral guidance.

Activities

Extracurricular activities are organised by students and supervised by faculty. The school has Junior and Senior Debating Society teams and two literary societies — one for English and one for Sanskrit and Hindi. The students run societies to cater to interests in history, geography, mathematics, science, and ICT. The School Council, composed of elected students teachers, give students a large degree of self-government. Students take up hobbies like music, photography, painting, glass painting, batik dying, papier-mâché, clay modelling, pottery, stone carving, wood work and metal work. They are encouraged to learn first aid, automobile mechanics and to develop an interest in Information Technology. Students participate in educational camps, nature camps, adventure activities — outdoor survival, mountaineering expeditions, white water rafting, skiing and cycling being a few of many examples.

Sports

Students participate in sports including track & field athletics, soccer, hockey, cricket, basketball, skating, horse riding, archery, rifle shooting, boxing, equestrian, squash, tennis, badminton, swimming and deep-pool diving and more. A large multi-purpose gym serves the students in their indoor sporting pursuits.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of the school include eminent personalities from the armed forces, politics, academics etc such as Gp Capt Amit Sinha, Air Chief Marshal PC Lal,

Raj Zutshi Rajendranath Zutshi, more commonly known as Raj Zutshi (born 4 February 1961), is an Indian film and television actor. Personal life Zutshi was born on 4 February 1961 in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India into a Kashmiri Pandit family. Raj Zut ...

, Anurag Kashyap,

Salman Khan Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan (; 27 December 1965) is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. In a film career spanning over thirty years, Khan has received numerous awards, including two Nation ...

References

External links

*
The Scindia Old Boys AssociationThe Common Room - Scindia Old Boys
{{Coord, 26.2175, 78.1672, type:edu_region:IN, display=title Round Square schools Boys' schools in India High schools and secondary schools in Madhya Pradesh Boarding schools in Madhya Pradesh Schools in Gwalior Educational institutions established in 1897 1897 establishments in India