BENGALURU: Located on Museum Road, the 160-year-old St Joseph’s Boys’ High School stands testimony to an institution that has weathered the test of time. The school, which was intended primarily for the education of Catholic boys and of the Anglo-Indian community, has witnessed an era when students travelled to classes in cycle rickshaws to the latest Benz, in the present day.
The school was established in 1858. An alumnus, Christopher Rego, has documented the history of the school in the book Faith and Toil named after the first words of the school anthem. Four generations of his family have been attending the same school.
“Our entire family has been serving the army except my son. I passed out from St Joseph’s in 1976 and served the army for 35 years before retirement,” he says.
He narrates in his book, “The Paris Foreign Missions Society came to India in 1700s.
As they were the main catholic organisation, they established churches in Bengaluru such as St Mary’s Church near Russell Market, St Patrick’s Church and St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral. Along with them, schools were also established. The St Joseph’s Boys’ High School was established in 1858 by them as they wanted a place for seminarians, those who study to become priests...” The school functioned for 30 years before shifting to the current location on Museum Road. They bought the plot of land for `1,000 at St John’s Hill in Frazer Town.
Fr Bouteloup, a French priest had a house constructed in 1854 at a cost of `3,000 and this was named St Joseph’s Seminary. This house also contained an orphanage and a residential school. The French Fathers, a group of French missionaries, were finding it difficult to staff the school after several died on the battlefield of Europe in the World War I. They then handed over the school to the Jesuits, who have been running the school since.
Fr Clifford says, “We have a war memorial in our school with names of the martyrs etched on it.” Around 369 Josephites, including 94 officers, fought in the battle and 28 of them laid down their lives.
Changing with times
Boarders were admitted to prepare for the matriculation examination of the Madras University established in 1858. Fr Charbonnaux who was in-charge of the school had made this entry in his diary.
It reads, “We decided to open a school for European boys as knowledge of English was necessary for our Indian pupils and that of Canarese (old term for Kannada) for European boys. This was the beginning of St Joseph’s College. Rev Fr Clifford Sequeira, the present principal of the school, says, “Then, in
European usage, a college was what we today call a high school.”
It became difficult for a seminary, orphanage and school to function in the same building. Hence, in 1875, the orphanage was transferred to St Patrick’s Church which exists even today as St Patrick’s Orphanage. The seminary closed down and all the buildings were utilised for the school and boarding. The school had a total of 144 students, 64 boarders and 80 day scholars.
In 1898, the school was shifted to the new buildings on Museum Road. Later, as the number of pupils increased, two new blocks were added to the original block, and a playground called New Field was purchased on Vittal Mallya Road. This was a tank bed and the land had to be drained to prepare extensive play fields for the students. Nelson De Souza, another alumnus, recalls playing cricket and football on the playground.
The oldest Josephite
Nelson’s 102-year-old father Hugo De Souza is the oldest surviving Old Boy (the alumni association is called Old Boys’ Association with each member referred to as Old Boy).
He recalls, “My father was a boarder. His father was in service in Africa. He passed out in early 1930s. He had lot of Britishers and other expatriates studying with him. It was during his last years at school that the management was handed over to Jesuits.” Nelson used to walk down to school as it was close to his residence on Brigade Road, but he used to see ‘rich’ students coming in motorcars.
“Those days, the mode of transport used to be convertible cars, horse carriages and cycle rickshaws. The school had Catholic education but catered to all religions. We had classes specific to Catholics and the rest studied moral science. We had strict but dedicated teachers,” he says adding, “When I was in middle school, the name of the school changed from St Joseph’s European High School to the present name of St Joseph’s Boys’ High School. If you take a close look at the old inscription at the front gate, you might notice that the ‘B’ in St Joseph’s BH School has been changed from E, adding two curves.” In 1968, the name of the school was changed to St Joseph’s Boys’ High School.
Nelson’s children also attended the same school. “It’s always a preferred educational institution for us. My son studied from class 4 to 12. My daughter has just joined, as girls are admitted only in class 11 and 12,” he adds. Admissions for girls have been open for plus two since 2006. While there were boarding facilities earlier, it stopped as most students getting admitted in the school were from nearby localities.
“The school was renovated in 2006. The aim was to maintain the look and feel of the old building. More floors were added and hence, the number of arches have come down. The Old Boys’ Association (OBA) helped with the fund raising for the redevelopment,” says Shivprakash, who recently retired after serving the school for over three decades. “The construction was done in phases so that construction work would not affect classes,” adds another retired staff Uday Kumar.
Jyotinath Ganguly who passed out from the school in 1975, says during his time, the school was smaller than what it is today. “There were about 700 students. We had only class 4 to 10 and each class had two sections with a strength of about 40 each. Today, we have 3,500 students. Sports is the strong point of the school. We have produced nine Olympians and several have participated in Asian Games,” he says. Members if one family would study in the same school.
“I had a classmate whose nine siblings studied in our school. We have had 20 to 30 people from the same family studying in this school. Mostly, students were from Kerala, Coorg and Goa, Kenya and Tanzania,” he adds. The association is celebrating centenary this year.
Sportsmen and stalwarts
Sports has been a lifeline for the school. Equal importance is given to co-curricular activities along with academics, say the staff. The school has produced many famous personalities such as Rahul Dravid, former Indian cricket captain, Dr Vece Paes, former Indian hockey midfielder and father of tennis player, Leander Paes and Sandeep Somesh, Indian women’s hockey team coach.
Two Josephites were part of Indian hockey team that won India its first Olympic gold medal. The Loyola Sports Complex in the premises have facilities for indoor cricket, badminton, basketball, swimming and other sports. Apart from the indoor facilities, the school has a playground for various sports. Retired teacher Shivprakash says, “Rahul Dravid used to practice here. He was interested in hockey initially.”