St. Xavier's High School, Fort
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St. Xavier's High School, Fort, is a
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Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
primary and secondary school for boys located in
Fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
,
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. The English medium school was founded in 1869 and is run by the
Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...
.


History


First century

The school was built when the Bombay port took on new importance as the "Gateway to India", in the same year as the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
was built, 1869. At that time it incorporated primary students from the Jesuit St. Mary's on Cavel Street that had been opened in 1860. By 1870 there were eight years of school and a seminary on the premises, with boarding facilities for the St. Mary's boys and seminarians. The 512 students came from diverse religious backgrounds: 337 Catholic, 98 Hindus, 45 Parsis, 20 other Christians, ten Muslims, and two Jews. The top floor became the Jesuit residence, then housing sixteen Jesuits. Music was taught from 1873 – singing, the
harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...
, piano, flute, and violin. A band followed in 1878. Cricket was played at the school since 1874 and
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
from 1896. German fathers founded and ran the school, but during World War I they were sent to concentration camps; Jesuits from
Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...
Spain and some from Switzerland filled in for them. In 1936, five graduates were in the top twenty among 7,014 successful candidates who passed the Matriculation Examination. In 1940 the East Wing was completed to accommodate the upper standards, including a hall with a capacity for 700. In 1948 a night school was opened with members of the Catholic Young Men's Sodality as staff; it soon had an enrollment of 200 for courses like fitting and mechanics.


Memorabilia

St. Xavier's occupies the
neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...
building it had from its foundation by the Jesuits in 1869. Fragments of its history are visible in the corridors of the primary section in the form of stuffed hunted animals shot by priests during the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
. Notable among these is the butterfly and bird collection on the first floor and the stuffed tiger on the third floor. The tiger was donated by the Maharaja of Vanzra, Gujarat, who attended St. Xavier's. The butterfly and bird collection is the work of Brother Navarro, a Spanish Jesuit and a naturalist who was associated with the school. At one corner of the primary quadrangle is a section of a ship's propeller which landed there at the time of the Bombay Harbour Explosion of 1944. St. Xavier's High School is approaching its 150th jubilee.


Education

St. Xavier's follows the SSC board which is the state board of the Government of Maharashtra. It runs classes from standard one to standard ten. The primary (standard one to four) and secondary school occupy different buildings. A class has four sections (A to D) with about fifty students per section. All students of the secondary school belong to one of four houses - Claver (blue), Gonzaga (yellow), Britto (red), Berchmans (green). These were earlier known as Ashoka (blue), Tilak (yellow), Nehru (red), and Tagore (green). Each house has an elected House Captain from standard ten and a Vice-Captain from standard nine. Additionally, a
School Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
and Vice-Captain are elected from standard ten. There is a sports captain and a sports vice captain also. These student representatives maintain student discipline and lead student and ceremonial activities.


Principals

The following individuals have served as principal of the school:


Notable alumni

*
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- anthropologist * Somnath Bharadwaj - Indian theoretical physicist *
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- former Chief Minister of Maharashtra *
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- architect * Nari Gandhi - architect *
Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...
- captain of Indian cricket team *
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- Indian businessman and industrialist * Rais Khan - musician *
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- banking * Gautam Rajadhyaksha - photographer * Milind Rege - former Indian first-class cricketer * Julio Ribeiro - Police Commissioner of Mumbai, DGP Punjab, Ambassador to Romania *
Homi Sethna Homi Nusserwanji Sethna (24 August 1923 – 5 September 2010) was an Indian nuclear scientist and a chemical engineer, gaining international fame as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (India) during the time when the first nucl ...
- scientist *
Aham Sharma Aham Sharma (born 22 July 1989) is an Indian actor from Salimpur, Bihar, India. Best known for his work in Indian television, he has also featured in several Bollywood films including '' 1962 My Country Land'' which premiered at Marche du F ...
- actor *
Aftab Shivdasani Aftab Shivdasani (born 25 June 1978) is an Indian actor, producer and model known for his works in Hindi and also working for Tamil and Kannada film industry. Shivdasani was selected as the Farex baby at the age of 14 months and eventually app ...
- actor *
Sidharth Shukla Sidharth Shukla (12 December 1980 – 2 September 2021) was an Indian actor, Television presenter, host and model who mostly appeared in Hindi television and films. He was known for his roles in ''Balika Vadhu'', ''Broken But Beautiful, Broken ...
- actor * Soli Sohrabjee - Attorney General of India *
Tiku Talsania Tiku Talsania (born 7 June 1954 ) is an Indian actor, known for his work in Hindi films. He is primarily known for his comic roles in popular comedy films. Apart from acting in films and television serials, Talsania also performed as a freelan ...
- Indian film and television actor * Hosi Vasunia - actor


See also

* List of Jesuit schools * List of schools in Mumbai * List of schools in Malaysia


References


External links

*
Videos of school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Xavier's High School, Fort Jesuit secondary schools in India Jesuit primary schools in India Boys' schools in India Christian schools in Maharashtra High schools and secondary schools in Mumbai Educational institutions established in 1869 1869 establishments in India