Theos-Talk Archives (January 2012 Message tt00225)

Here is an update on Krishnamurti School located in TS Adyar Property

Since 1979, Krishnamurti School has been functioning on the TS Adyar
Property known as Damodar Gardens. The lease ends in 2014 and at the recent
General Council meeting a decision was taken not to renew the lease. It was
also decided to use the property to provide vocational education by the
Olcott Memorial School, established by Col Olcott, which serves the poor
students in Adyar fishermen community.

Annual General Council meeting of TS takes place in greatest secrecy and
very little is known what goes on except for brief report published
annually. (Most of us here have not forgotten the failed ultra secret
attempt by a quartet of GC members from the West to disenfranchise all the
members of TS and seize control of the Presidency.) Occasionally few crumbs
of information  trickle out through grapevine.

Let us briefly revisit the situation surrounding the K School lease of
Adyar property..

Krishnamurti School is a super elitist school which serves the super rich.
This is well known in Chennai. Moneyed parents send their average kids to
the school in the belief and hope they will come out appearing smart.

On the other hand, Colonel Olcott, in 1894, founded âThe Panchama Free
Schoolâ as it was then called, to provide free schooling access to the
children of the fifth caste (untouchable) who were denied access to the
regular schools. Olcott Education Society (renamed from Panchama Free
Schools Society) the education arm of the Theosophical Society continues to
run the school with the vision âSocial change through the education of the
underprivilegedâ. It continues to provide free education upto high school
and continues to benefit the poor kids in the neighboring fishermen
community.

Olcott School is planning to use the Damodar Garden facilities after K
school leaves, to offer vocational education for the students who complete
high school. This plan is in line with the thrust of what Olcott wanted to
do and is a laudable humanitarian endeavor that TS can be proud of. As a
long time member of the TS, I see no way any theosophist can support the
use of TS  property for an elitist school. (By the way, it is reported that
the K school has been enjoying the TS property for a pittance all these
years.). There is continued strong support from the average public for the
work done by Olcott School and its future plans.

It is a well known that supporters of Krishnamurti School - followers of K,
parents of students, alumni of the school - made a concerted effort to get
the lease renewed. It was unsuccessful for now.

It is learnt through grapevine that the supporters of the school were
successfully lobbying many members of the General Council from the West to
renew the lease and they fell for it. It was amazing that they were
successful in convincing a significant number of members and they were
supporting the renewal of lease at the GC meeting. One is wondering if the
GC members were aware of the facts as explained above and the soundness of
the recommendation of the committee which looked into the lease issue.

I was in surprise for another new piece of information. The earlier reports
show that the lease expires in 2014. But the School website says that it
can operate till September 2016. Few people would have noticed the
significance of this date.

The present term of office of the International President expires in 2015.
Considering the fact that the current president is currently in 89th year,
the likely hood of having a new president in 2015 is very high. The
supporters of K School may be hoping and planning to revive the issue with
a new administration and continue to permanently use TS property to benefit
the elite. How and why there is discrepancy in the lease expiration date
need to be investigated. Has a behind the scenes deal been stuck?

MKR

PS: If anyone has additional info on the above, feel free to post or email
me off-list.


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