Old Biscoe School Photograph collection

Old photographs related to Biscoe School found in Tyndale Biscoe’s book ‘Character Building in Kashmir’ (1920) –

One of the popular spots for boating expeditions

The above photograph has Biscoe boys dragging a “dead dog”. The story:

The school and particularly the methods of Mr. Biscoe faced stiff opposition from orthodox people of Srinagar, often leading the attack were Brahmins and the supporters of other “more normal” Schools including ones that had the backing of Mrs. Annie  Besant, of theosophical fame, who opened Hindu School, on the other bank just opposite the CMS school near the third bridge of Srinagar.  Often local Newspapers were filled with News snippets targeting the school and its way of functioning. In one such news story, the paper claimed that Mr. Biscoe made Brahmin boys drag dead dogs through the city. Stange as the news may seem,  Mr. Biscoe’s response was equally typical. He writes in his book ‘Character Building in Kashmir’ (1920):

Many of the native papers had done us the honour of telling their readers what they thought of us, and gave accounts of what had not, as well as of what had, happened chiefly the former. For many of the Indian papers greedily swallow the lies made red hot in Srinagar. One of the yarns that appeared is worth quoting :

” Mr. Biscoe, principal of the Church mission school in Srinagar, makes his Brahman boys
drag dead dogs through the city.”

This ” spicy ” bit of news took our fancy, and we thought it a pity that one of these yarns at least should not be founded upon something tangible, so we decided to help the editor of the paper in this matter.

We possessed an obedient dog, a spaniel, who was in the habit of “dying” for his friends when required to do so. The rest of the cast was quite easy a party of boys, a rope, and a photographer. The obedient spaniel died, and remained dead while we tied a rope to his hind leg, and placed the boys in position on the rope for the photographer to snap.

So henceforward if ever we find a citizen disbelieving Srinagar yarns, especially those spun against the schools, we can produce this photograph to show that one at least of their stories is true. Papers may err, but cameras never (?).

They still play these “cleaning” games in schools across the J&K state, but I doubt anyone can beat that number, they can barely manage the students to take these exercises seriously.

In the above  photograph you can actually see the famous “Monkey-Poles” of Biscoe School.  I was admitted to the school in the later 1980s as a young boy, only six or seven years old. Perhaps LKG, and stayed till 3rd standard. I distinctly remember relatives asking me if I had seen the famous  “Money-pole”. I had no idea what they were talking about. From their talks, I could infer that in Biscoe school bad boys were made to climb up the “Monkey Pole”. I didn’t know what the big deal was with that. Sounds fun. Unless. Unless, the pole had nails. So I always imagined that the pole had nails.

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Biscoe School Images from “Beyond The Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir” (1912 ) by Ernest F. Neve –

I love this photograph. [A story for later]

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