Ashoke Chatterjee ’51

Woodstock: Past Forward

A Quarantine Story

Ashoke Chatterjee, Class of 1951

The roots of the present day lay in the past and so I made voyages of discovery into the past ever seeking a clue in it, if any such existed, to the understanding of the present.

As I write, educators and learners are returning to our hillside after the incredible disruption of Covid-19. Everyone up there is praying that things will work out according to plan. There are other plans as well: plans for Woodstock’s 175th anniversary celebrations. Over the coming years each Quadrangle will culminate in a very special 2029 issue, and a third volume of Woodstock’s published history. Monica thinks that as an alumnus entering his ninth decade I should have something to contribute to all this. She has a point, and it’s not just about survival.. For everyone on the planet, Covid 19 and all that comes with it has demanded confronting mortality and what we consider of value. What we value reflects where our memories are rooted. Things taken for granted suddenly acquire new meaning, like the Woodstock that dwells within us. How did that get us to where we are? Each of us is participant in a strange saga of a far-flung tribe bound together by what the Quadrangle represents: loyalty to a hillside perched on the tallest mountain range on earth that burst out 50 million years ago from cataclysmic collisions of landmasses floating on a primordial sea. So should our history begin with a plunge into the evolution of the mighty Himalaya, etched into fossils discernible to this day on rock-faces along the Tehri Road? Should we acknowledge Neolithic settlers on these hills 10,000 years before Woodstock? You can read all about it in Stephen Alter’s brilliant rediscovery of these mountains. A Woodstockwallah, his knowledge is deep of a Himalaya that has cradled one of the world’s great civilisations. Its legends, dreams and prayers offer a sanctity that has endured within these hills for thousands of years. Later histories of war and conquest would link the region to Nepal and Afghanistan and to the biggest empire of them all. When Britain’s East India Company set to work on its plunder of India, Biblethumping missionaries were just behind. The stated intention was to save the heathen from hellfire while India’s new rulers hoped that submission to a ‘foreign’ god might translate as loyalty to the British crown. 1854, the year of Woodstock’s founding in Mussoorie, witnessed on the plains below the seizure of Nagpur, Oudh, Chhatisgarh and even the domain of the Rani of Jhansi whose valour would one day enliven Hindi classes at Woodstock. Earlier, in 1823 as other conquests were well under way, a certain Col Frederic Young built a shooting box in our vicinity. Two years later he constructed Mullingar. That landmark brings familiar terrain into the Woodstock story which actually begins beyond Kulri at Caineville House before arriving at its ‘proper’ place. Apparently Woodstock almost did not make it. In another great book , we learn that in 1871 Woodstock had fallen on tough times, and property was put up for sale. Then Rev Samuel Kellogg and another missionary intervened, leading to a historic 1872 cable that crossed the oceans from distant Philadelphia: “Buy Woodstock”. (Had I known that years ago, I may have forgiven those long hikes up from dorms to Kellogg Church every Sunday). Early School history may begin with British conquests, but it would soon blaze another path into these hills. Education which started by serving the needs of Bible-toting parents evolved into India’s introduction to American education, including scandalous notions in Victorian India of a co-educational boarding school and to pedagogical practices incomprehensible to prevailing ideals of British public school discipline. Another century would find “Woodstock, known over all the land, sung of on every hand”’, once Alan and Irene Parker arrived from California in the 1920s to guide the unfolding of Woodstock’s important transformations.

I was part of that. My own Woodstock history began some twenty years later. In 1942 I arrived in Upper Kindergarten, having been ‘dishonorably discharged’ from a school in Allahabad. Fortunately the Parkers, who were family friends, had come down for a break at the time of this catastrophe. Delinquent Ashoke was taken to them for counseling. “Nothing wrong with Ashoke” Allen Parker is said to have advised my parents, “He knows a bad school when he sees one. Take him to Woodstock.” Other reasons made 1942 a tumultuous year. The Landour community was sheltering refugees fleeing from Hitler in the west and Japanese invasions on the east. Mahatma Gandhi launched the ‘Quit India’ movement that would bring India its independence in just five years. As India’s freedom fighters were dragged into British jails, Woodstock became a shelter for their children. Among them, Jawaharlal Nehru’s nieces Nayantara (author and herself a Distinguished Alumni) and Chandralekha. Both would add Woodstock memories to published accounts of growing up in such turbulent times. Padmaja Naidu, a heroine of the freedom struggle, was appointed governor of Uttar Pradesh (no longer His Majesty’s United Provinces). She arrived at Parker Hall to share gratitude to Woodstock and the Parkers for protecting her daughters while she languished in prison. Woodstock was now a bridge between a colonial past and a new era in which the School would emerge as another thread in the tapestry of a new nation, torn apart by a brutal Partition yet committing itself to diversity, inclusion and an ability to stand on the shoulders of the past and to learn from it.

Each of the thousands of lives that have gone through Woodstock’s halls over 170 years will have a history of its own. What we share together is the incredible coincidence — or divine plan? – of being thrown up together on a Himalayan hillside by the tides of fortune, members of a community that we may take for granted while others can find us amazing to behold and often impossible to comprehend. Even for us, it can be easier to regard our moorings as DNA rather than attempt

explanations of a bizarre and wonderful past in terms comprehensible to others. Some have tried linguistic inventions to explain our tribal reality: mishkids, Yanks from that school, Third Culture Kids, confused desis, global citizens, or just “those Woodstockites”. Yet do any of these do us full justice? Just think about it.

Long before a pandemic would transform every person and every agenda on the planet, I found myself gazing out at the Haunted House and the Tehri Hills from Bob Alter’s rock-side bench at Oakville. Sitting there under a Landour sun with snowclad Banderpoonch just visible through the trees, I wondered what qualities or memories or values held us together as a worldwide Woodstock community. How could one discover those ties? And if one could indeed discover them, could that help ensure that our

Woodstock amidst history

Abit of history with a Woodstock alum as witness. In this historic photograph by the great Henri Cartier-Bresson taken just after Gandhiji’s assassination in January 1948, we see Tara Sehgal (Nayantara Pandit, Class of 1943) joining mourners at Birla House where Gandhiji had been staying and where he was shot while going to his prayer meeting on the lawns of the House. Tara is seated on the floor at the back on the extreme left, with her gaze directed at Bresson’s camera. To Tara’s left in a white shawl is Sarojini Naidu, the freedom fighter who sent her daughters to Woodstock and to Alan Parker’s care, just as Tara’s mother Vijaylakshmi Pandit had done – Woodstock would take care of these children while their parents were locked up in British jails. Tara and her late sister Chandralekha have both written about those years, Tara in Prison and Chocolate Cake and Chand in Freedom’s Child. (Both books hopefully in that alumni writers’ cupboard above the Quad). Sarojini Naidu spoke at Parker Hall once freedom came. She was then Governor of UP.

History tells us that Gandhiji’s body was laid out on the floor as hundreds tried to enter Birla House to pay homage. To the shock was added the tension about ‘who killed the Mahatma?’ and the terrible fear that if it was a Muslim the mayhem would be even worse than the Partition killings the nation had already witnessed. Soon Nehru would make his statement that it was a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, who had killed Bapu, followed by his famous address to the nation “The light has gone out……”.

Gandhiji made several visits to Mussoorie, despite British resistance that his visits might disturb the peace of the hills! His first in the 20s was when the motor road ended at Bhatta. He apparently walked up from there. I recall his 1946 prayer meeting at what was then the Sylverton Hotel which had a tennis court – Woodstock gave us permission to attend. Sylverton was across from and below Picture Palace. It may have been on that visit that I was to greet him as he walked on the main road near what was the Charleville Hotel (now the LBS Academy). He must have been on his way to Birla House in Happy Valley, where he used to stay. I wonder if that Birla home still exists. community stayed resilient and relevant in a world transformed in such fundamental ways since that 1872 cable “Buy Woodstock?” I returned home to Ahmedabad. There I looked at my pile of Quadrangles going back decades, dusted them off, and embarked on a quest over the next several months.

I started with the Quadrangle Jottings. I tried to categorise my notes into some kind of coherent pattern. First, I tried an analysis by Class. That proved too much. I tried special interests. Two were overwhelming: passion for the great outdoors and music, music, music. Then I tried each decade as a marker. From the ’30s and ’40s, close to my own early Woodstock years, came thanksgiving and acceptance: “As we draw near the end of our lives I want to thank and greet the others from Woodstock for our years together”. I found gratitude of those who survived a World War and of some with memories of another that had once promised to end all wars. From the ’50s, a global perspective emerged from families now spread across a post-colonial world that was marked by changing patterns of travel and communication. Careers in education, diplomacy and a variety of social causes were hallmarks along with an outpouring of creative writing. Classes of the tumultuous ’60s were blending their careers with memories of Vietnam, campus revolts and flower children giving India memories a strange new edge. International relations, global development and emerging IT were being shaped by WOSA hands. Some were involved in anti-nuclear, anti-war and civil rights movements. Many seemed to be finding new ways to look at the faith of their fathers and those of the India they once knew. Moving away from dogmas toward human well-being seemed a preoccupation in the 70s, marked by books, paintings and music. In the 80s career opportunities had moved into international businesses, media, design and health emergencies like HIV-AIDS. One noticed how many alums were now drawn to international education as their natural terrain. By the 90s development had taken new meanings as alumni engaged in conflict resolution, human rights issues, and crises emerging in through the loss of natural resources. When the century turned, Woodstockites were being increasingly involved in international sectors of health, education and even disarmament. Environmental consciousness was underlined through outdoor activity, yoga, gluten-free diets. Some were studying of Chinese and Tibetan, while others were polishing their Hindi. The hillside was alive with Class reunions.

As the last of my Quadrangles went back on the pile, two threads had emerged as ties that bind our wondrous community: caring

“We don’t have to be in a shared physical space in order to be together”.

Principal Dr Craig Cook, October 2021

and creativity as distinctives of a Woodstock culture, shining through limitations of amateur research. For one, most voices were north American, with Asia and Europe less evident in Quadrangle Jottings. Yet if fostering attitudes of care and building creative life-skills were indeed how Woodstock’s Christian heritage had evolved over 170 years, how could this heritage be acknowledged and communicated? I put together my pages of findings and mailed them carefully to the School. I got a short, polite acknowledgement. I mailed them to my mates in the Class of 1951. “Hey, caring and creating is what our Class has always known. So what else is new?” came one response. “Cool” came another. My pile of Quadrangles seemed destined to gather dust. Just then, a Woodstock parent of distinction reported a survey of Nobel laureates. Asked what they regarded as their most significant contribution, they spoke not of professional achievements but of some act of service which they had offered to others. Caring and creativity, perhaps “a form of soul-making” described by a Woodstock principal as linking privilege to responsibility?

Has there ever been a greater challenge to privilege and responsibility than this pandemic, revealing as it has the harsh inequity and injustices of our world? During these long Covid-impacted months, I have found myself returning to those old notes, trying to find in them some anchor from the past. The challenges of today were once beyond imagination as Woodstock evolved from being a missionary school to a Christian expression of “education for a world of difference” set in the Indian Himalaya, and then into Woodstock’s understanding of tolerance, diversity and inclusion as global citizenship. Up there, beyond a familiar gate with its brown-andgold arch, the community is now gathering to bravely imagine Woodstock’s ‘new normal’. The Quadrangle will be there as constant scribe, giving new generations fresh reasons to look up to that hillside for strength, and to listen once again as “the bells of Mussoorie are calling…”. 1 Jawaharlal Nehru in The Discovery of India, written from his cell in Ahmednagar Prison, 1941 2 Wild Himalaya, Stephen Alter. Aleph Book Co., 2019 3 Mussoorie and Landour: Footprints of the Past, Virgil Miedema/Stephanie Spaid Miedema. Rupa Books, 2014 4 Principal Jonathan Long, in “Eliciting Greatness: An educational philosophy for Woodstock School”. 2013

A world-class education for gifted young people from conflictaffected regions

Woodstock School’s Scholars for Peace initiative enables students from conflict-affected regions to join our international community. Part of our wider financial aid programme, Scholars for Peace provides financial support to deserving students who can demonstrate merit and financial need. This support covers 100% of school fees as well as some other expenses such as travel, visa, technology costs, college application fees, and pocket money.

At the heart of Woodstock School’s philosophy is a commitment to global mindedness and peace. The Scholars for Peace programme aims to provide gifted young people from conflict-affected regions with opportunities they would not otherwise be able to access.

Students at Woodstock have always had the privilege of learning alongside students who come from a diversity of ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Scholars for Peace programme ensures that a Woodstock education includes living and learning alongside peers who, because of their personal experience, have a commitment to end conflict at all levels of society.

Woodstock School has hosted Scholars for Peace from countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somaliland, and Palestine, and we welcome applications from students from any regions which are affected by war, violence, fragile states or oppressive regimes. Many have become hugely important members of our school community, including the school president and basketball team captain in the 2020/2021 academic year. Beyond Woodstock, they have earned scholarships at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and Europe, and have gone on to play key roles in organisations working to build a better future in conflict-affected regions.

Woodstock School is committed to hosting two new Scholars for Peace students each academic year. Students start in Grade 9 or Grade 11, enabling them to gain the whole Upper Year’s educational experience at Woodstock. The financial commitment of each Scholar for Peace’s Woodstock School education from Grades 9-12 is currently in the region of 90 Lakhs INR (US$ 120,000). To create a truly robust programme which continues to deliver both for individual scholars and humanity as a whole, we soon hope to be able to create an endowment fund to finance the programme and ensure its sustainability into the future. If you, or your Class, are interested in finding out more about how you can support Scholars for Peace students’ Woodstock education, we would love to hear from you.

To find out more about Scholars for Peace programme, including how you can support the programme, email Admissions Director Vidur Kapur at vidurkapur@ woodstock.ac.in or visit www.woodstockschool.in/scholars-for-peace.