From ‘Child’ to ‘Cadet’: A Case Study of Sainik Schools System in India.

A school education is a primary way through which an individual gets socialized either through peers, teachers and curriculum. Indian Educational System involves various types of school but one of important are the residential schools which roots in colonialism. British started Rashtriya Indian Military College in 1922 as military training school for Indian boys. It was a Pre-Sandhurst institution to train selected boys along the lines of British Public School before joining pre-commission training. Later this became a feeder institution for officers in Armed forces. Along these lines in 1961, Sainik Schools, a premier military boarding schools, were started by then Defence Minister with objectives to remove regional imbalance in officers cadre and to bring public education to common masses. Funded by Ministry of Defence it is considered as feeder institution for officers in Indian forces.

This research paper first traces the history of military educational training and its roots in Indian Colonial history and how it shaped the initial level educational training for the cadets in military boarding schools. It further explore the evolution of Sainik School Systems in India and its schooling process which transforms the child into ‘cadets’ through its curriculum. This research intends to look at the construction of social identity through the mechanism of discipline to pursue the goal of defence officer in these school. Through Goffman’s ‘Total Institution’ and developing over Susie Scott ‘Reinvented identities’ this paper aims to look at the identity construction of cadets in these schools to homogenised identity of ‘Sainik’. This paper also compare Sainik School in India to the military culture in past in other parts of world like in Turkey, Taiwan, Britain etc. Overall this paper attempts to critically analyse the transformational journey of children through military training even if they are selected into defences forces or not.