The Lawrence School, Sanawar is a private boarding school in Himachal Pradesh, India. Located near Kasauli in Shimla Hills, it was established in 1847. Its history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious and oldest schools in the world. It is the oldest co-educational boarding school in Asia.
Situated in Solan district, Sanawar is about an hour's drive from Chandigarh. The school, founded by Sir Henry Lawrence and his wife Honoria, is one of the oldest surviving boarding schools.
The school is often referred to as "Sanawar". It is situated at a height of 1,750 metres and spread over an area of 139 acres, heavily forested with pine, deodar and other conifer trees. The school has been ranked among the best residential schools of India. In May 2013 Sanawar created history by becoming the first school in the world to send a team of seven students to climb Mount Everest. The motto of the school is "Never Give In".
Sanawar is affiliated to India's Central Board of Secondary Education. Children are admitted to Sanawar in February each year, at the age of nine and ten years. Class Five (Lower III) is preferred as the entry point. Admission is based on a competitive entrance examination, held the preceding November, followed by a personal interview.
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History
In the school's name, "Sanawar" is the name of the hill on which it stands. The nearest railway station is now usually spelt "Sonwara". Sanawar is believed to be the oldest mixed-gender boarding school anywhere in the world.
Henry Lawrence's intent was to provide for the education of the orphans of British soldiers and other poor white children. In 1845 he outlined the creation of a boarding school in the Indian highlands for boys and girls.
The school at Sanawar was established as the first such asylum on 15 April 1847, when fourteen girls and boys arrived at Sanawar in the charge of Lawrence's sister-in-law Charlotte Lawrence, wife of George Lawrence, and a superintendent Healey. The school was co-educational from its beginning. The site had been chosen by Lawrence, after discussions with William Hodson and others, considering that it was an "ideal location" which "afforded the necessary requisites: isolation, ample space, water, a good altitude, and all not too far from British troops". The construction of the buildings was paid for by Lawrence and other British officers, with a large contribution from Gulab Singh, the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hodson, who later became famous for Hodson's Horse, supervised the construction of the school's first buildings and is still commemorated by the annual Hodson's Run, a competition between the school's houses. In the early days some Anglo-Indian children were admitted, but Lawrence insisted that preference should be given to those of "pure European" parentage, as he considered they were more likely to suffer from the heat of the plains.
Under its first professional headmaster, W. J. Parker, who was appointed in 1848, the school was known as "Lawrence's Asylum", reflecting its focus on orphans. In 1858 it was renamed the "Lawrence Royal Military School".
In its first two decades, the school suffered an unexpectedly high death rate, with forty children dying between 1848 and 1858, of whom thirteen were the victims of an outbreak of cholera in 1857. In the next ten years, there were seventy-two further deaths, and in 1870 a Punjab Medical Department report proposed measures to improve the school's sanitation, as well as "a separate hospital for the treatment of contagious diseases". The headmaster, John Cole, was inspired to write a book called Notes on Hygiene with Hints on Self-discipline for Young Soldiers in India (1882).
Present day
In 2003, The Tribune described it as one of about half a dozen elite public schools in India, catering to "an upwardly mobile landed and commercial elite". It is an international member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, based in England.
Together with some other leading Indian schools, including The Doon School, The Scindia School, The Daly College, Mayo College, Rajkumar College, and Baldwin Boys High School, Sanawar is a member of the Round Square Conference, a worldwide association of some eighty schools which exchange students with each other. Other member schools include Aiglon College in Switzerland, Ballarat Grammar School in Australia, Deerfield Academy and Chadwick School in the United States, Wellington in England, and Gordonstoun in Scotland.
The school honours its original purpose by continuing to offer a reduction in fees for the children of military families. About a quarter of the boarders are the sons and daughters of former pupils. Till recently, as part of its annual Founder's Day celebrations, attended by many Old Sanawarians, the school continued to troop the Royal colours. Until 1990, a significant number of school-leavers continued to join the armed forces but there has been a sharp decline in this tradition, and in 2011 one Old Sanawarian brigadier was quoted in The Times of India as saying that in his day "the main aim was to join the forces, but now hardly anyone is interested in doing so".
Sanawar is divided into four houses—Himalaya, Nilagiri, Siwalik and Vindhya. The houses compete with each other at activities such as cricket, cross country running, debating and many other activities.
Notable alumni
Sanawar's former pupils are known as "Old Sanawarians", "OS" for short
Public life
Amarinder Singh (born 1942), Former Chief Minister of Punjab
Sukhbir Singh Badal (born 1962), Former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab president, Shiromani Akali Dal
Omar Abdullah (born 1970), Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
Naveen Patnaik, Former Chief Minister of Odisha
Dushyant Chautala, former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana
Gurinder Singh Dhillon, Sant Satguru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas
Chander Mohan, former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana
Navin Chawla (born 1945), former Chief Election Commissioner of India
Maneka Gandhi (born 1956), Union Minister Child and women welfare, environmentalist and animal welfare activist.
Jetsun Pema, Queen consort of Bhutan
Rao Inderjit Singh (born 1951), politician, Union Minister of State for Defence Production
Bikram Singh Majithia, Former Minister in Government of Punjab
Ajatshatru Singh, former Cabinet Minister in the Jammu and Kashmir Government
Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Lt Governor of Delhi
Uzair, former minister in government of Jammu and Kashmir.
Armed services
Vishnu Bhagwat, a former Chief of Naval Staff, India
Arun Khetarpal (1950-1971), youngest officer recipient of the Param Vir Chakra
K. C. Cariappa
Business
Sonny Mehta, publisher and editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf
Jehangir Wadia, managing director of GoAir and Bombay Dyeing
Ness Wadia (born 1970), managing director of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation
Rakesh Mohan, Mohan Meakin Limited
Nitin Khanna, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of MergerTech.
Satjiv S. Chahil, Silicon Valley multimedia marketer
Punit Renjen, Deloitte chairman
Pankaj M Munjal, Hero Cycles chairman and managing director
Kiran Nadar, Philanthropist and founder, Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts
Sports
Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Indian Olympic team, 2012, world trap shooting champion, 2010, and Commonwealth Games gold medallist
Ajeet Bajaj (born 1965), first Indian to ski to the North Pole and the South Pole within a year.
Ranjit Bhatia, athlete who ran in the marathon and 5000 meters events at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Shiva Keshavan, Asian Champion, represented India in luge in 6 Winter Olympic Games in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.
Lt Col Gautama Dutta, National Champion, represented India at Asian Games in sailing, Asian Bronze Medal 2003, World Record for Sailing at the Highest Altitude
Saif Ali Khan, actor, heir to last reigning the last Nawab of Pataudi State
Kirat Bhattal, actor
Papa CJ, stand-up comedian
Shaad Ali, film director
Pooja Bedi, actress and talk show host
Feroze Gujral, model
Siddharth Kak, film maker, television producer, and presenter
Iqbal Khan, actor
Apoorva Lakhia, film maker
Tarun Mansukhani, director and writer
Rahul Roy, actor
Parikshit Sahni, film and television actor
Other
Parveen Kumar, president of the British Medical Association
Iloosh Ahluwalia, artist
Headmasters
1848—1863: W. J. Parker
1864—1884: J. Cole
1884—1912: A. H. Hildersley
1912—1932: Rev. G. D. Barne, later Bishop of Lahore
1932—1933: E.S. Hunt
1933—1941: A.E. Evans
1941—1946: C.G O'Hagan
1946—1947: H.E. Hazel
1947—1956: E. G. Carter
1956—1970: Ravi Somdutt
1970—1970: Trevor C Kemp (acting)
1970—1973: B. R. Pasricha
1973—1974: Bhupendra Singh (acting)
1974—1988: Shomie Ranjan Das
1988—1995: Sumer B. Singh
1995—1999: Harish Dhillon OS
1999—2000: Rene A. Solomon (acting)
2000—2003: Andrew Gray
2003—2003 (May to September): Derek Mountford (acting)
2003—2004: Gautam Chatterjee
2005—2014: Praveen Vasisht
2014—2016: Shonu Mukherjee (Offg.)
2016—2019: Vinay Pande
In fiction
In Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim (1901), a priest called Father Victor proposes that the central character, the boy Kim, should be sent to Sanawar, of which he says "It's miraculous beyond all whooping" and adds "We'll make a man of you at Sanawar - even at the price o' making you a Protestant".
Parts of the movie Dhurandhar were filmed at this school. Jaskirat Singh Rangi's training location, shown in the song Destiny, and classrooms are from this school