The Daly Life
The Daly Life
Driving in through the hallowed gates of this 19th century educational institution is like entering a palace. Set on 118+ acres, Daly College will take you a day to explore thoroughly, with its learning halls, auditoriums, hostels, places of worship, sports grounds and so much more
Text: Team UpperCrust
Photographs: Farzana Contractor
Most of us take pride in the schools we went to. It’s an emotional bond like no other. It’s where we spent our growing years, learning, playing, making friends. School friends, they say, are the best kind of friends. Once out of school, nostalgia and sentimentality only grows. As was apparent in the voice and words of Adiraj Singh, an ex-student, who was guiding us around.
Driving through the impressive gates of Daly College, we gasped. The long and picturesque avenue stretching out in front of us seemed endless. The speck at the end of this road was, we presumed, the school. It was. A beautiful heritage building made of stone, with its emblem right in front standing on the manicured lawns, with a cannon right beside it. The motto in Sanskrit, Gyanamev Shakti (Knowledge is Power), doesn’t really require any elaboration.
The sense of awe Daly College arouses is vested in its size, stature, rich history and the charming campus. All of 120 sprawling acres, 118.8 to be accurate, which was donated by the Holkars, houses the school in addition to many structures and faculties, lawns and lakes, playgrounds, sports fields, a swimming pool, even a temple and a mosque.
It was started in 1870 as the Residency School and later renamed as the East Rajkumar College in 1876. Six years after that it became known as Daly College, so called after its founder, Sir Henry Daly of the British Indian Army during India’s colonial British Raj. It follows an English public school model.
As exclusive schools from that era, this school was also established to educate children from the Central Indian Princely States of the Marathas, Rajputs, Mohameddans and Bundelas. Needless to say, those who pass through this establishment receive the best of education, it is one of the oldest schools of the world, not just India.
The school offers both boarding and day scholar options. It offers co-ed education from pre-primary to 12th grade. In all, it has a junior school, an undergraduate management school and a post graduate business school. It is affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE).
The fortunate 2000 students who pursue academic disciplines such as arts, science, commerce and other vocational courses will be proud of the fact that Education World India ranks it the best among the country for day-cum-boarding schools. Names of a few of the student lodgings; Old Boarding Houses, The Gwalior Boarding House, The Holkar Boarding House, The New Boarding House…
Sports has been pursued in a big way at Daly College ever since its inception. In addition to cricket, hockey and football there was also riding, fencing, bayonet, sword and lance practices. Makes one conjure quite a picture. Wonder is these exercises are still
in practise.
The value system the school is steeped in very sensibly allows its ‘old boys and girls’, to keep in touch with it. Not just the faculty, but even on daily visits if they so desire. Within a fixed time in the evening they may come to the campus for walks, to play, visit the library, use the swimming pool, etc. Now how many schools and colleges do you know that allow such a facility. The Old Dalian Association must be a happy lot.
As we browsed through the list of alumni, some of the names of Old Dalians that cropped up read as follows: Digvijay Singh, Dr CS Ranawat, Raj Singh Dungarpur, HH Bhanu Prakash Singh Narsingharh, HH Maharaja KS Rathore, Vikram Rajadhyaksha, Saeed Khan Malek, Ganesh Singh Jhabua, Kiran Kumar, Brigadier Akashdeep Bhanot...
Additionally, there have been historical figures who supported the college as patrons and governors, like Fleet Lord Mountbatten and Major Lord Willingdon.
Daly, hence, has, and continues to be a symbol of pride for Indore.