Outside of Pakistan and sometimes even within, I have met people who had no idea what ‘Cadet Colleges’ are and who went to these schools. I attended two such institutes between 7th and 12th grade. These schools have been compared to residential schools like Eton and Harrow or military academies in the United States, and are vestiges of British Raj in India (where they are called Sainik schools) and in Pakistan (where they are called Cadet Colleges). In the broader subcontinent the two types of dedicated schools created by the Raj included ones for the landed elite/gentry, which includes Aitchison College, previously Chiefs College, in Lahore, and The Doon School in Uttarkhand, India. The second type included military schools such as Military College, Jhelum (MCJ) and Cadet College Hasan Abdal (CCH).
These places were created as feeder institutes to Pakistan Military Academy (a counterpart to West Point or Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) and catered broadly to a mix of aspirational middle classes and people from the lower strata of society who wanted quality education for their sons without spending an arm and a leg, while being kept in a militarized, regimented daily routine.
I spoke with Muhammad Hasan Mairaj, who is a polymath and went to Pakistan Air Force College, Sargodha, a military school run by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), about history of these colleges in the subcontinent and our own journeys through these schools. I attended a much-later opened school called Pakistan Scouts Cadet College (PSCC) in Batrasi, between Mansehra and Balakot in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for four years, and then for two years at CCH. We also briefly discussed the preparatory academies set up in different cities, focussed on getting their students to these cadet colleges. We spoke in mostly Urdu and some Punjabi and English words thrown in there. When we started, we thought we could wrap this up in maybe two episodes, but we were wrong and it took five to get us there.
Here’s the first part of our conversation, in which we discuss the history of such colleges in India and Pakistan, and briefly, my time spent there.
In part 2, we talked about detailed instructions that we received before joining the cadet colleges, our first days in the colleges, teachers at PAF college, my reaction to being left alone in Batrasi, my getting adjusted there, barbers, compulsory sports (and how I tricked my way out of them for a while), using religiosity to distinguish oneself, Parents day in Hasan Abdal and my shortcut, and collective punishment.
In part 3, we talked about talk about chachas, how they affected his culinary choices, how they knew about students' emotional states, the mandatory tradition of sending letters home (or elsewhere), daily routine at PAF college, the centrality of maghrib prayers, which cohort got exception to that, similar exceptions to sportsmen in the army, sports fixtures with other colleges, how things ebbed and flowed in different months of the year depending on what was going on, how people marveled when returning seniors came back to PAF about their new itinerant lives, Dr. Mehboob Alam Khan (then principal of PAF), the pre-internet, pre-phone days, first sighting of mobile phone, Diana's death, Pope's death, mock elections in 1997, smoking in PAF days, arrival of sindhi students in PAF college, post-graduation memories and meeting old friends, my observations on smoking in Hasan Abdal, having a 'walkman' in Batrasi and when I was caught listening to it too loud, memories of Sir Haroon ur Rasheed in Batrasi, me sending some of my poetry to Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and his letter to me, Muzaffar's fascination with Diana, my journey to Cadet College Kohat and winning the quiz there, my dislike of food in Batrasi and the hot roti system in Hasan Abdal.
In part 4, we talked about our respective experiences of being at different places on 9/11 and during the 2005 earthquake in Northern Pakistan
In the last part, part 5, we discussed if cadet colleges are even necessary for current educational landscape in Pakistan and how they have contributed to Pakistan's culture and history.