Our History

The Hindu School, Triplicane, which is celebrating its centenary this year cab be proud of its Old Boys Association which has been in existence for more than 40 years. The Association celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1939. The Association provides a meeting ground for the old boys of the school to meet one another and to renew their contact with the school and to render whatever service possible to their Alma Mater.

The Association appears to have been started as early as in 1907 but it was revived in 1914, since when it has been regularly functioning and is holding an annual day every year. Unfortunately, a connected record of its early activities is not available, but among its early Secretaries who laboured hard to build up the Association and to collect funds, mention should be made of the names of Sri S. Venkatarama Iyer, A.L., Late Sri T.Ramanujachari, teacher of the school, and late Sri T. G. Venkatarama Iyer, B.A., L.T.. Science Assistant. Sri T. G. Venkatarama Iyer was able to develop the funds to the extend of about Rs. 3,000 and he had high hopes of increasing it further, but unfortunately his premature death was a severe loss to the Association. His services to the Association can never be forgotten. The Association subsequently tried to add to its funds by enacting dramas on the Old Boys Annual Days, but not with much success and so the desired object of constituting a Scholarship Fund was not realised. Nevertherless the activities of the Association continued vigorously and during. The time when Sri T. E. Veeraraghavachari(now Deputy Secretary to Government, Finance Department) was Secretary in 1942 the Association presented and unveiled a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in the School hall. During these early years, the Association was ably guided by eminent old boys like Sri M. A. Tirunarayanachari, Advocate, and Sri T. V. Muthukrishna Iyer, Advocate, who were Presidents of the Association. The Association continued to progress with the abiding interest taken by subsequent Secretaries like Sri L. V. Krishnaswami Ayyar, Advocate and Sri R. Venkataraman, and presidents like the late Rao Bahadur P. T. Srinivasachariar, Retired Collector, and Dewan Bahadur Tadulinga Mudaliar, who happily continues to be the President to this day.

The Silver Jubilee of the Association was celebrated in 1939 when sir Md. Usman presided and the late Sri S. Sathiamurthy delivered the address. In connection with this occasion, the Association tried to augment the funds by appeal to the old boys donations. Though a few old boys readily responded, not much progress was made owing mainly to the difficulty in getting at the old boys who are scattered through the country. During the time when Sri S. Gopalan and Sri. N. Murugesa Mudaliar (now Deputy Secretary to Government, Food & Agriculture Department) were Secretaries, an attempt was made to complete a list as possible of the addresses of the old boys and to revise the rules of the Association to make its working more businesslike. Seeing that the funds of the Association had been slowly decreasing, steps were taken during this period to institute a scholarship known as the Hindu High School Old Boys Association Silver Jubilee Scholarship to be given to a poor and deserving boy of the school studying in VI Form. Accordingly, Government Promissory Notes of the face value of Rs. 1,700 were purchased and given to the School committee in 1941 in order to pay from the interest accruing from the amount the school fee every year of the recipient of the Scholarship. It may be stated incidentally, that this amount has been subsequently increased in 1950 by another Rs. 600 in order to yield sufficient interest to cover the school fees for VI Form which had been increased. Sri Arni Subba Rao, Secretary of the High School Committee, and Sri R. Nambi Iyengar, Headmaster, gave very sympathetic co-operation in the acceptance of the scholarship and its disbursement subject to the conditions stipulated by the Association. This scholarship is being regularly given every year from 1941, and it is one of the most tangible achievements of the Association.

The Annual Day of the old boys’ Association has always been an event eagerly looked forward to by old boys in the City and in the mofussil. Old boys used to foregather on the occasion and the reunion used to be one of great rejoicing with a tea party in the afternoon. The election of office-hearers used to give a lot of excitement and the day would conclude with a public meeting addressed by an eminent old boy and presided over by a prominent person, and a drama in which the old boys used to act, and the performance would be largely attended and appreciated. Among the old boys who presided over the annual days mention may be made of the following gentlemen: Dewan Bahadur M. O. Parthasarathy Iyengar, Retired Judge, Sri A. C. Natesa Mudaliar, Dewan Bahadur C. Srinivasa Rao, Post Master General, Sri T. S. Ramaswami Iyer, Advocate, Sri M. A. Singarachari, Advocate, Dr. P. Subbaroyan, Dr. Dinkar Rao, Sri Raja Venkatarayaningar Varu of Kalashasthi, Sri K. Krishnaswami Iyengar, Advocate, Sri Nilam Ranganathan Naidu, I.E.S., Prof. K. Ananda Rao, I.E.S., Sir S.P. Rajagopalachari, Member of Council, Mysore, Sri Arni Subba Rao, Retired Superintendent of Police, Sri R. M. Sundaram, I.C.S., Sri M. Kanthi Raj, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Sri M. A. Venkatramana Naidu, Chief Presidency Magistrate.

The Association have been giving a prize for the best student in Form IV from its own funds. It has also been giving from the year 1940 a prize on the basis of an essay competition for the publish in Forms IV to VI instituted by Sri N. Murugesa Mudaliar. It also conducted a Hindi class of the Madyama standard for a short time in 1949.

Among other activities of the Association, mention may be made of the fact that the school was presented with the portraits of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister and Sri Rajendra Prasad, President, Indian Republic. It also unveiled the portrait of late Sri P. T. Srinivasachariar, President of the Association. The Association also arranged occasionally lectures by eminent men like Sir C. V. Raman for the benefit of the old and present students.

In recent years the younger set among the old boys have begun to take increasing-interest and presons like Sri N. Ramachandran and Sri M. N. Krishnaswami rendered considerable help either as Secretaries or members of the Executive committee. Although, as a matter of convention, the seniormost old boy of the school alive and available is elected as the President of the Association, comparatively younger men like Sri S. T. Sadasivan, Director, Overseas Bank of India, and Rao Bahadur V. T. Rangaswami Ayyangar have taken a keep and active interest as Vice-Presidents.

The Association has been receiving the co-operation of the successive Headmasters in tis activities, and in the revised Rules of the Association, the Headmaster has been made an Ex-officio Vice-President of the Association. The Association has been for a long time urging the school authorities to give a place for a representative of the Association on the School Committee, but the latter could not see its way to comply with the request, but in recent years it has co-opted very largely only eminent old boys of the school to serve on the Committee instead of outsiders. To this extend the demand of the Association has been satisfied. In this connection it is pleasing to acknowledge the hearty co-operation of the present Committee of Management and the help given by the present Headmaster Sri T. P. Srinivasavaradan, particularly in the collection of subscription for the Association from the outgoing boys after they pass the S.S.L.C. Examination.

Among the generation of old boys of the school could be counted very many eminent men in all fields of life like the public services, the legal, medical, teaching and engineering professions, the judiciary, the business world, etc. The Association could claim two old boys as having been the Chief Ministers of the Province, viz., Raja Rama Rayanangar of Panagal and Dr P. Subbarayan.

Thanks must be rendered to all those who have laboured for the School, to all the masters who taught in them and to all those who worked for the development of the Old Boys’ Association, which is the living bridge between the old and new generation of students.