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| Mayo College | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms of Mayo College | |
| Location | |
 | |
| |
| Coordinates | 26°26′42″N74°39′24″E / 26.445°N 74.6567°E /26.445; 74.6567 |
| Information | |
| Type | Private boarding school |
| Motto | Let there be Light |
| Founded | 1875; 151 years ago (1875) |
| Founder | The 6th Earl of Mayo |
| Authority |
|
| President of General Council | HH Maharaja Gajsingh of Jodhpur |
| Principal | Saurav Sinha |
| Founder Headmaster | Col. Sir Oliver St. John |
| Gender | Boys |
| Number of pupils | 750 |
| Language | English |
| Campus | 74 hectares (180 acres) |
| Houses | 12 |
| Colour | |
| Mascot | Peacock |
| Nickname | Mayo |
| Publication | Mayoor, Cyber Quest |
| Annual tuition | |
| Affiliation | Central Board of Secondary Education |
| Former pupils | Mayoites |
| Website | www.mayocollege.com |
Mayo College (informallyMayo) is a boys-only private boarding school inAjmer, Rajasthan, India. It was founded in 1875 and named afterthe 6th Earl of Mayo, who was theViceroy of India from 1869 to 1872, making it one of the oldestpublic boarding schools in India.
The idea for the college was proposed in 1869 by Colonel Walter. It was founded in 1875 andColonel Sir Oliver St John became its first principal.[2] The founder intended to create an "Eton of India".The 2nd Baron Lytton, Viceroy of India, said in a speech on campus in 1879:
It aimed to provide the leaders of theprincely states with an education similar to that given by Eton College. The British built Mayo for the sons of the Indian upper classes, particularly the princes and nobles of India. Mayo College holds the privilege of educating many members of the Indian Royal Families and also the Royal family of Oman, Said bin Taimur (the 13th Sultan of Muscat and Oman) attended Mayo College from 1922 to 1927 where he mastered English and Urdu.
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The coat of arms was composed from the design furnished byLockwood Kipling, a former principal of theSchool of Arts, Lahore, and father ofRudyard Kipling.
In the upper centre of the shield are Mayo Arms and Quarterings, aLion Rampant and an open hand. On the right and left are the sun and the moon, typical of Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi, the two great families of Rajputs. Below are the Panch Rang, the five sacred colours of the Rajputs, Red, Gold, Blue, White and Green. In the centre is a Rajput fort – two towers connected by a curtain. The supports are on the right: aBhil warrior with string bow and full quiver of arrows. On the left aRajput, armed at all points, wearing a steel helmet with three plumes, a shield on his back, a dagger and katar in his belt, and a suit of chain covered with embroidered cloth and gauntlet on his hand.[citation needed]
The motto "Let there be Light" is derived from the Bible. The badge is a peacock, the sacred bird of Rajputana, standing on a double-edged, two-handed Rajput sword called Khanda.
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There are more than 40 members of the Mayo College General Council including patron, life members, old boys' association representatives and MCGS old girls' representatives.
The school has a council of monitors consisting of students with posts dealing with school and house duties. There is a monitor and a prefect from each senior house. There are positions held by the students who excel in fields like academics, sports and co-curricular activities. Apart from the council of monitors, there are captains for each sport. Positions are held by the students of 12th class or, rarely, by juniors.
There are twelve houses of which Eight are senior houses, 1 holding house (for Class 7) and three junior houses (for Class 4, 5 and 6)
The senior houses are Ajmer, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kashmir and Rajasthan, Bikaner & Tonk, Colvin. The holding house is Oman. The junior houses are Ajaypal, Durgadas and Prithviraj.
Each house can accommodate 60–75 students, except for Oman which has a capacity of 120–130 students.
Mayo College has sporting facilities afor students and staff consisting of playing fields for football and hockey and a cricket ground with a view of the Aravali Hills and an old red sandstone pavilion.
Horse riding was discontinued after Independence and revived again in 1993 with ten horses. Today, Mayo College has more than 60 horses and close to 250 boys and girls are trained. Mayo has ten polo players who practice at the Sawai Man Singh II polo ground. Students are trained in events like Show Jumping, Pig Sticking, Tent Pegging, Dressage, etc. Mayo College has participated in national level polo competitions and produced players like Himmat Singh Bedla, Nagender Singh, Pratap Singh, Sarveshwar Singh, Dhruv Singh. The school participated in the SUPA International Polo Tournament held in the UK in 2008. Mayo College actively participates in the Jodhpur polo season and the Delhi Horse Show.
There are sports facilities for students and staff consisting of playing fields for football, hockey and a cricket ground with a view of theAravali Hills and a beautiful old red sandstone pavilion calledBikaner Pavilion.[4][5]
The modern glass-backed courts for squash or the historic Fanshawe courts, open to the sky.[6][7] Mayo College has a nine-hole golf course[8] which was built recently. It also has many basketball courts. There is a standard 400m track. Athletics is one of the major seasonal and coaching sports. There are around 17 tennis courts on the campus. There are 5 all-weather synthetic courts and 4-5 clay courts in the senior school.[9] The junior school has 4 clay courts. The 10m Shooting Range is used by boys and girls (from Mayo Girls) of all classes and is one of the best shooting range available at any school in India.[10]
Mayo College Ground has hosted 19first-class match stating in 1926 to 1986; since then, the ground has notfirst-class matches but regularly hosts other matches.[11]
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Publications are supplied internally and sent to other public schools in India and abroad.
Mayoor was established in the late 1960s by the principal, Jack Gibson. It is a major bi-monthly newsletter with college news, updates and photos. The editorial team consists of an editor-in-chief who is an English teacher in the school and a team of editors from the student community.Mayoor used to have a Hindi section with articles and poems. This was removed when an independent Hindi newsletter calledParidrishya was established in 2006.
The Mayo Mail is a weekly newsletter, established in 2008 by a group of students of Grade 7. It has become a publication which prints four fresh sheets every week and is called the "newspaper" of Mayo College. It consists of write-ups on school happenings and activities like the trademark Mayo "Tweets" and "Howlers".
The independent Hindi magazine calledParidrishya was established in 2006. The magazine consists of articles, poems and jottings written by the school community. It has an editor-in-chief, who is a Hindi teacher in the school, and student editors.
Reflection, established in 2007, is the student magazine. It is filled with poems, articles and facts that are illustrated with pictures.Reflection comes out three times a year.
TheCollege Magazine is the yearbook of Mayo College. It has English and Hindi sections and contains reports, speeches, photographs, poems, articles and case studies of the school.
The Danmal Mathur Museum is housed in Jhalawar House, which it shares with the Art School. The museum showcases antiques and an armoury section. It is considered one of the best collections found in any in-school museum of the world.[12]
On 12 April 1986, theIndian Postal Service released a stamp showing the main building of Mayo College. The multicoloured stamp was designed by India Security Press. The first-day cover shows the emblem of the college. The cancellation was designed by Nenu Bagga.[13]
Alumni of Mayo College are known as Old Boys orMayoites.
Additionally, the school has educated two[citation needed] sultans of Oman, one of whom isSaid bin Taimur.
Mayo College has educated members of royal families includingBikaner,Alwar,Jammu and Kashmir,Kishangarh,Jaipur,Benares,Kangra,Udaipur,Jodhpur,Kutch,Kota andDewas (Junior).
Sadashiv Rao II Puar of Dewas (Junior),Muhammad Mahabat Khan III of Junagadh, Yeshwant Rao Puar of Dewas (Junior),[citation needed]Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur,Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, MaharanaMahendra Singh Mewar,Arvind Singh Mewar of Mewar-Udaipur,Pragmulji III of Kutch, PrinceShivraj Singh of Jodhpur of Marwar-Jodhpur andKirit Bikram Kishore Deb Barman, erstwhile Maharaja of Tripura from the second oldest continuing ruling lineage after the Mikados of Japan.
Alumni from Mayo have served in the armed forces and others serve as members of parliament and senior civil servants.Jaswant Singh is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs;K. Natwar Singh of theIndian Foreign Service was India's Ambassador to Pakistan and as External Affairs Minister, AdmiralSunil Lanba is the formerNavy Chief.
Lt. Gen.Nathu Singh Rathore, the second Indian officer to graduate from theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst, was a distinguished strategist who served as a Division Commander in Burma during the Second World War. He was offered the position of Commander in Chief of the Indian Army in 1949 but declined the position in favour of his senior,K M Cariappa.[14]
Alumni have been Indian ambassadors to Morocco, Spain, Norway, Brazil, Libya, Switzerland and France.
The vice-chairman ofTata Motors,Ravi Kant, erstwhile chairman ofShell Oil-India, Vikram Singh Mehta, erstwhile chairman emeritus ofNestlé-India, Narendra Singh of Sarila, former chairman ofAir India andIndian Airlines, Probir Sen, erstwhile chairman and MD ofAxis Bank, P.J. Nayak, member of theBank of England Monetary Policy Committee, Sushil Wadhwani, the retired chief general manager and executive director of theReserve Bank of India and erstwhile managing director of NABARD, Yashwant Thorat, as well asRakesh Mohan, who was deputy governor of theReserve Bank of India all studied at Mayo. Mayo also has produced academic economists likeAlok Bhargava who researches onfood policy issues indeveloping anddeveloped countries for formulating public policies. Mayo has produced scientists such as the eminent scientist in the field of electronic materials,Amit Goyal.
Tikaraj AishwaryaKatoch ofKangra, director ofIndiabulls, donated the Kangra Amphitheatre in memory of his great-grandfather Maharaja Jai Chand Katoch who was one of the first few students of Mayo College.
Actors who attended Mayo includeBobby Deol,Vivek Oberoi,Ajay Mehta,Tinnu Anand, the filmmakersPradip Krishen (also an environmentalist and writer ofTrees of Delhi),Samir Karnik,Goldie Behl, Heeraz Marfatia and the theatre personality, Amir Raza Husain.
Journalists who studied here includeVir Sanghvi,Siddharth Varadarajan andManvendra Singh. Writers includeVikram Chandra (Red Earth & Pouring Rain,Sacred Games) andIndra Sinha (Animal's People, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize).
Red Fashion designerRaghuvendra Rathore, Celebrity ChefJiggs Kalra and ArtistJaideep Mehrotra also studied here.
The school has produced sportsmen includingCharu Sharma, cricketerArun Lal, Col. Bhawani Singh,HH Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur andLokendra Singh Ghanerao (all 3 captained India at polo over the years).
Eknath Ghate, a mathematician and winner of theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, is an alumnus of Mayo College.
Jai Pratap Singh, politician and cabinet minister in theGovernment of Uttar Pradesh.
