One of the defining aspects of a boarding school education is the lifelong affiliation of that individual with their old school. It is common to see 80-year-olds go back for the school founder’s day or annual prize-giving every year to renew their bonds with old friends—who always remain their most constant ones—and to revel in the feeling of being physically back in their cherished alma mater. The clubs and hotels of most Indian and British cities see the enthusiastic, periodic reunions of alumni of such residential public schools—marked by unfettered laughs, unselfconscious hugs, and bonhomie. The closest parallel emotion to this is probably that of the rural individual who goes back to his native village for a break from the trials of life in a menial job in a big city—that renewed sense of being whole only when with his original folks in his original setting.And thus it is with the erstwhile denizens of the nearly 150-year-old Daly College in Indore.Underfunded, Understaffed, Underwhelming: Why Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is FailingThe Making of a Public-School GiantEstablished in the late 19th century to educate the scions of the then-princely families and aristocracy, it is the oldest of the triumvirate of schools, along with Mayo College in Ajmer and Aitchison College in Lahore. These institutions were set up soon after the First War of Independence in 1857 to create later rulers more amenable to British influence and ways of life, given that fractiousness and hatred of the colonial regime had become evident across the princely states of India. This was possibly also a latter-day result of the Macaulay Minutes, which aimed to create a class of Indian "brown Englishmen."The freedom struggle and Independence saw these schools open their portals by the 1930s to the emergent, educated middle classes of India. Drawing its pupils from families of Indian doctors, lawyers, other professionals, army officers, bureaucrats, freedom fighters, and later the politicians of early modern India, Daly College established itself as a premier institution of early learning—not only for the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh and parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh) but also for the major cities of India, as well as for the children of the diaspora.Through the egalitarian system of the Government Scholars (whose tuition fees were wholly paid by the then- Government of India for deserving children of modest rural families to study in hallowed public schools), the school saw the entrance of industrious students from Bihar, Jharkhand, the far-flung North East, and the Deep South, among other Indian states. This exposed the other pupils to diverse influences from across the nation, with the school becoming a veritable melting pot of fast-dissolving distinctions of social rank, income, and cultural factors.No wonder, then, that alumni have been discernible in the last five to six decades in the most senior of bureaucratic positions in the central and state administrations, at Indian chanceries abroad, at the level of judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as well as among politicians of national stature. Scions of old industrial families are matched by self-made entrepreneurs in the Fortune 200 lists, while senior executives occupy the boardrooms of international corporations across Indian metropolises and the globe. Leading figures in Indian sports and creative professionals, such filmmakers, authors, journalists, architects, artists, and musicians, as well as leading academics in the halls of Oxbridge, JNU, or St. Stephen’s, too, trace their roots to the verdant 125-acre campus in Indore. The all-around education, with ample opportunity to develop sporting, artistic, or literary and linguistic skills, provided opportunities for each individual to hone his or her own abilities and paths.These, then, were the individuals who woke up about six to eight months ago to deep rumblings of discontent and rumors of maladministration emanating from their alma mater—at a distance from their physical selves across the globe, but never far away from their grateful and loving hearts. Communication methods like WhatsApp saw the emergence of multiple thousand-strong groups of alumni worriedly catching up with what was afoot and threatening their beloved college, while social media platforms like Instagram allowed many to learn about the rot that had beset their own roots.When a School Became a City InstitutionDaly College was established in Indore in 1870. Later, in 1882, through the generous and large land grant of 125 acres by the princely Holkar rulers, the development of the campus followed, with rulers of neighboring states like Gwalior, Ratlam, Bhopal, Dewas, and Dhar, as well as the Thakurs, Jagirdars, and Sardars of vassal principalities, contributing a large corpus. The campus is marked by many a fine Indo-Saracenic building—including the stately marble main school, a design of the then-popular architect Sir Swinton Jacob—equipped playing fields and courts, schools for art, crafts, and music, and one of the finest school libraries in South Asia.Run by a Society largely comprising alumni, much like many a legacy educational institution—whether Mayo in India, Eton or Rugby in the UK among schools, or Harvard and Yale among universities—Daly College too largely thrived due to the nurturing by committed old students over the century until the 1980s.But given the emergence of Indore as a bustling industrial and commercial center at the heart of India—possibly because of the inherent cosmopolitanism of the town, populated by the Holkars initially with Marathas, Rajputs, and Marwari traders, and later after independence by migrating Sindhis, Punjabis, and others drawn to employment and commerce as the town graduated to a city—the fact of its being within the city limits of Indore brought with it many developments now discernible as the initial ills that pulled the school down. Whereas the comparable Mayo is in dusty little Ajmer, various other Rajkumar’s Colleges are in much smaller Raipur and Rajkot, while the Lawrence Schools at Sanawar and Lovedale are safely nestled in the hills far from larger towns and cities.Many alumni were from vassal families who maintained large establishments in the city close to the Holkar rulers in Rajwada palace; many others belonged to the powerful industrial families which clustered in Indore with their industries in the hinterland. By the '70s, while alumni from the larger cities of India went back to further education in the equally hallowed portals of Delhi and Bombay Universities and further on to education and work opportunities abroad, local families remained tethered to their homes or business interests in Indore and its surroundings.The facilities of the erstwhile school almost came to be seen as a parallel to those of the prestigious Yeshwant Club of Indore, as well as subject to the constant interference of influential local Old Dalians. It did not help that most of the political class of Madhya Pradesh, too, had passed through its portals.The Beginning of the SlideBy the 1970s and '80s, Daly College began to be coerced by Old Boys themselves to accept their children as day boarders (along with the children of teachers resident in the school)—a minuscule number at the outset, but one which swelled to half or more of the current alumni by the Noughties. These day boarders returned every late evening to their families and the life in town, not necessarily exhibiting the same fealty to the continued glory of the college as boarders resident within the campus for eight months a year, who saw their housemasters more than they saw their parents.A number of malign factors had begun to creep in: the peddling of influence by the members of the Board of Governors of the school in matters of admissions, as well as while administering the large budget of a residential school. Yet, it must be acknowledged that the petty pilfering and influence-peddling by those elected to run the school was, at least until the last century, managed while ensuring the school did not slip in reputation or inherent excellence—their own selves deriving validity from its pre-eminence. Principals and teachers were then hired from among academics with experience in the other established public schools of India. Academic results, as well as those in sporting competitions held with competing teams from other public schools of the Indian Public School Conference, were watched with a hawk's eye so that their own school did not fall in the eyes of the world, even if its coffers allowed them a little comfort now and then. It may have also helped that Indians, at least until the deprived '90s, had a sense of honour raised to a higher pedestal than mere money or political pelf.Bigger Budgets, Smaller StandardsSymptomatic of the animal spirits unleashed by liberalisation in the '90s—where big money began to become much more widespread, and when people with little experience of balancing monetary urges against honour or a good reputation began to make their influence felt societally as well as in the college—came deeper corruptions to the College.As a side note, it cannot be argued that this is a factor almost uniquely seen across post-colonial South Asia and SE Asia, where rising and expanding economies see a parallel fall in societal honesty and a rise in political corruption—much more than one may see in the erstwhile colonial states of Holland, Great Britain, or France, where honour still has some meaning and importance in providing one’s place in society, and not one’s bank balance alone.And thus came rumours of widespread and entrenched corruption on a large scale in the affairs of the college, whose annual budget had by now swelled, first to 80 crores and lately to over 100 crores of rupees, and whose financial reserves too had swelled to a relatively gargantuan 140 crores.This was corruption that lately stretched from expenses during the Annual Prize-Giving week rising to Rs. 1.3 crores from a mere Rs. 32 lakhs in the year before; while the expense on teacher training shrank to a mere Rs. 3 lakhs a year. Dining hall bills during the COVID lockdown period escalated to Rs. 5.6 lakhs per day from the immediately prior Rs. 2.6 lakhs per day, even as the greater number of alumni by then, being day boarders, were not eating meals in college. A 650 sq. ft. staff room renovation cost Rs. 60 lakhs—a per capita budget that rivals those of oligarchs’ homes.All this occurred as the once-resplendent school, which was ranked first among the boarding schools of India for quite a few consecutive years, saw both its public rankings and perception fall steadily, with open seats where earlier stood long waiting lists. And so matters carried on for quite a few years—possibly because too many alumni were at vast distances from the school and from each other, coupled with that sense of ennui common to all Indians who expect stories of corruption with a feeling of helplessness in dealing with it.It also did not help that many of the princely scions were too old and infirm to be regular attendees at all or most Board meetings, and the school gradually passed into the sole hands of a minority among the Board who were younger and sprightly: almost all erstwhile day boarders who allegedly looked upon the school as a cash cow. Certainly, marked improvements in personal financial and business status are discernible among a few of the same; others were people who could not have found social eminence otherwise, given their choice of business, while yet others could be political scions struggling to find relevance after the demise of a more politically established parent.A Principal, a Board, and Growing QuestionsThe current Principal—allegedly more malleable, with a lesser CV than many prior ones, yet hired at an eye-watering salary to helm the school after getting rid of her predecessor, who had a more questioning disposition but also a more distinguished career graph—is allegedly simultaneously running a franchise of a well-known school brand in distant Rajpura in Punjab, dividing her time between her true duty and personal financial interests, as also allegedly diverting Daly College’s resources and staff to her private business enterprise.What is definitely less arguable is the undeniable fall of the school in public perception and formal rankings alike, as upstart local schools in Indore itself eclipsed the achievement of a haughty school that hitherto only engaged with faraway but similarly privileged schools of the Indian Public School Conference (about 20 schools in the '80s, but still an exclusive club of about 80 even today). Much can be traced back to the Board of Governors of the last decade or so—boards that had nearly the same members or those they collude with—deciding to dilute Daly College’s true nature as a boarding school of small numbers (the boarding houses can only accommodate maybe 600) to allow it to swell into a school with about 2,300 current students by allowing many more day boarders. Some are in the status of "false boarders" who, though their parents pay full boarders' fees, are allowed to return home every evening. This merely needed the enabling of more classrooms and staff. The understanding of a malign few that a vastly increased number of students similarly swells the school's coffers, with more to be pilfered, is most rankly apparent. Though, sadly, concomitant with the increase in student numbers was a reciprocal and resultant dilution of ethos—a larger mob, nowhere having a similar commonality of understanding that a smaller number could have through closer interaction, whether among fewer staff or fewer students.Thankfully for the school’s future (and definitely thanked by concerned Old Dalians who have massed around him latterly in great numbers), a lone Board member arrived about five years ago. Already comfortably financially established and visibly not hankering for more, this Old Dalian began to raise uncomfortable questions about probity and propriety in the administration—questions that began to see a disconcerting fightback by those with greater self-interest of one sort or the other. A report commissioned to Deloitte has never seen the light of day since the commissioning board could also have sat on it.When Government Schools Close, Who Wins in India's Education Market?As Politics Walks Through the School GatesA school that had always had the children of people in diverse and senior political positions in its dormitories, but where political alumni and parents alike left their politics at the school gates and mingled as only old boys or parents at the school’s many gatherings, began to see its facilities lent out to the current political dispensation for large political gatherings. These included the celebrations by the RSS of its centenary in the school’s plush auditorium named after its donor, Mukesh Ambani; the recent BJP training camp within the campus that saw 300 party workers and the CM of MP attend; and the unveiling of a statue of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar by the Vice President of India, along with the Governor and CM of MP—strangely within an institution that much succeeded her times, whereas Indore’s Rajwada palace or the Maheshwar ghats may have been much more apt locations. These gatherings compromised the safety of the college’s innocent young protégés as much as they disturbed its secular, apolitical character.What is apparent is the attempt to cozy up to the dispensation, by a select few to stay far from their wrongdoings being exposed to the light of day. And, sad to say, the dispensation seems more than dazzled by the newly found recognition of a hallowed old institution to wonder why the sudden, newly found attention, or to worry about whether their involvement is covering up the alleged sins of a few rankly corrupt individuals.Rewriting the Constitution This whole sad saga of the near ruin of an institution has culminated lately in the kind of publicity hitherto eschewed, as vast ranks of old students rose up to publicly denounce recent developments. When the tenure of the outgoing board expired in December 2025, they extended their own tenure for no visible reason and went against past precedents, when no such extensions were envisaged (barring once during the COVID lockdown, which probably inspired them). Then came their surreptitious move to amend the constitution of the Daly College Society.This society was formed in 1948, concurrent with India’s birth, and envisaged a truly democratic set-up in which each of the (now 6,000-odd) alumni of the school elected members to the Board of Governors that administered the school. Selected by diverse electorates, the original donor families and their successors elected one among themselves; the newer donors (a category created in the '70s and '80s when the school felt a need to create more facilities but lacked the wherewithal) elected likewise; whereas the Old Dalians’ Association’s members directly elected two from among themselves to the Board. Other than this, the government nominated two members, and the elected members selected two current parents for the final board of nine.While, according to the Constitution of the Nation and the laws governing an Association of Persons (which forms the birthright of every Indian), only a large general body meeting is empowered to amend the constitution, here, a mere fraction of the board which was now in its extension period—and thus merely a caretaker board—carefully excluded the minority of members who might have protested from even attending a surreptitiously arranged Board meeting held in early March.They chose to see only the board of 9 as the whole society and passed amendments disenfranchising the old students’ category. Without even the minutes of this surreptitious meeting being shared with the other board members, the Principal of the school, in her role as Secretary of the Board, approached the Registrar of Societies of M.P. to record and approve the amendments. This came in the teeth of standing preceding orders of the Registrar of the Societies cautioning that the constitution of the society not be amended until a duly elected new board assumed its position, as also an MP High Court order requiring that an AGM be held for any amendments envisaged.An Election Many Refused to AcceptThis superannuated caretaker board then suddenly announced belated elections prohibited by standing court orders—that too by a single advertisement in Hindi alone in a small local newspaper, without considering that alumni are spread across India and the world. And it is easily discernible that some pressure was obviously brought to bear on the Asst. Registrar of Societies, M.P, since he rushed to Indore on 24 April and signed a cryptic order recognizing the new constitutional amendments, stating no reason why he had chosen to countermand or negate his own well-considered and reasonable earlier order of weeks before.It is noteworthy that elections were announced on 21 April 2026, which should have been as per the long-standing and more democratic Constitution of the Society (as even the result on 23 April of an R.T.I. application showed, since until that day it was the old Constitution that was prevailing). However, the Election Officer demonstrated his malleability by accepting applicable rules as per the amended constitution, whose approval post-dated the notice by three days. And thus, merely a 30-day period from the notice until the election date was allowed, whereas the far-flung electorate is spread across the globe. The Daly College Society not having kept up with the times and elections not being held through electronic means—perhaps even purposefully—the earlier 90-day period at least allowed for realistic timelines for paper ballots to reach the U.S. or Ukraine and back again. The new rules, disenfranchising about 90 percent of the prior electorate, also became enforceable—in dilution of a widespread and universal democracy in what was a rankly illegal action.Murking up matters further, it is provable that election guidelines post-dated the announcement by a few days, and that too after nomination forms had been accepted. They seem to have been designed after the acceptance and closure of nominations purely to exclude the inconvenient applications.The thus-disenfranchised alumni, obviously, moved the courts for redressal in a continuation of litigation starting August 2025 when the nefarious actions first became apparent. But, as our Indian legal system took its own time to hear the various cases, this illegal election was allowed to culminate—fructifying in a Board where the two candidates to the Old Donor category were elected by default since other applications were summarily rejected. In the New Donor category came back a liquor baron of M.P., who a few days back was seen seated next to the lady principal of the school chauffeuring a golf cart, ferrying around the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh to the above-said and much-derided BJP conclave held on the Daly campus—a function that had precisely nothing to do with the school.It also probably helped that the same liquor baron—having noticed a loophole in the sadly never-updated Constitution of the College which, since the 1970s or '80s, allowed anyone at all who donated a mere one and a half lakhs of rupees (sadly much devalued half a century later) to take his or her place as a New Donor—had added about two hundred irrelevant and quite undistinguished people with fealty to him to the electorate.This Board of merely three supposedly elected members chose within 24 hours, at random from the 6,000-odd Old Dalians (again, as the new distorted constitution allowed them to), to co-opt three to the Board—people of no particular standing or expertise suited to the role. The Govt. of M.P. too hastily, that very same next day, nominated two members of the local legal profession to the Board—where the school had in earlier years seen the Secretary for Education of the Govt. of India relevantly occupy that nominated post.The Fight for the Soul of Daly CollegeThis mutually cooperative, small number of individuals now hold the century-and-a-half-old institution’s affairs in their hands. A Board that hitherto had a majority of members elected from among the alumni (a significant 5 of 9 persons) now has a majority by arbitrary co-option/selection (3 elected among 10 members) envisaged by the undemocratic and arbitrary new Constitution, which seems to allow the dominance of only the like-minded—in a rank distortion of a true democracy with varied (and sometimes differently thinking) participation. A total lack of feedback mechanisms for the once-elected facing any later queries or worries from the electorate, already sadly established at the college for decades, only worsens matters for the alumni truly worried about the future trajectory of their alma mater, by now allowing the supposedly elected and legitimate Board to work in total isolation and as they please.The matters are now in our slow-moving courts of law, and the alumni wait with bated breath to see what transpires—whether the courts of a New India are capable of going against the tide of the current dispensation to recognise and admonish true chicanery and worse.(The author is a principal architect and partner at Kumar Moorthy & Associates, a Delhi-based architecture and interior design firm. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)