First I must congratulate the pupils and staff for the wonderful display followed by an equally good ceremony. The pupils are very smart indeed.
However the method of celebrating Independence really amounts to a farce. It cannot be emphasised enough that Lawrence School is not a military school and the elaborate military style on display in an anachronism. It is a civilian school like any other higher secondary school, most pupils will not join the military and will follow the pattern of any other civilian school.
The excess of the Horse Escort was put in place by Headmaster Lahiri! The very man who was reluctant to have such an ostentatious Parade put in place such a farce!
The Coat of Arms on display in the pennons (flags) is a caricature of the original and the motto ‘Never Give In’ came into being more than a year after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence. The ‘dignity’ of a Baronetcy was granted to Alexander Hutchinson Lawrence in July 1858 and this required Alexander to have a Coat of Arms duly approved by the College of Arms. Both, the motto and the Coat of Arms belong to the Lawrence FAMILY and has no military significance, particularly as none of Sir Henry Lawrence’s descendants, to whom the ‘dignity’ of the Baronetcy passed on joined the military. Sir Henry himself was regarded as a civilian in the service of the East India Company.
It should be noted that the granting of the ‘dignity’ of a Baronetcy carries with it no significance except the right to use the honorific ‘Sir’. In India, under Article 18 of the Constitution, Titles such as ‘Sir’, ‘Rai Bahadur’ ‘Khan Bahadur’ ‘Raja’ ‘Maharaja’ etc were done away with!