Teachers' Day 2026: Honouring the Hills' Long Tradition of Teacher-Scholars
Today, 5 September, is Teachers' Day across India — and in the Darjeeling hills, where the region's identity has long been built around its schools, the day carries a little extra weight. From Mount Hermon and St. Paul's to St. Robert's and Darjeeling Government College, this has always been a place where teachers shaped far more than syllabi.
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Why September 5
Teachers' Day marks the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, born on 5 September 1888, who went on to become India's second President. When his students asked to celebrate his birthday in 1962, he asked instead that the day be dedicated to teachers everywhere. India has observed it that way every year since.
Teachers should be the best minds in the country.
— Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Darjeeling's own teacher-scholars
The hills have produced educators whose influence reached well beyond their classrooms.
Kumar Pradhan (1937–2013), born in Kurseong, taught at St Robert's High School before becoming a lecturer in history at Darjeeling Government College and later Principal of Kurseong College. Alongside his teaching career, he became one of the most important historians of Nepali literature and the Eastern Himalayas, authoring *The Gorkha Conquests* and *A History of Nepali Literature* — work that still anchors Gorkha literary and historical scholarship today.
Hari Dang (1935–2016) served as Rector of St. Paul's School, Darjeeling from 1977 to 1984, bringing together academics and mountaineering in a way few educators have. A member of India's first non-Sherpa Everest expedition in 1962, he later led the first Indian schoolboy expedition to Jaonli peak. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 for his contributions to education.
| Institution | Known for |
|---|---|
| Darjeeling Government College | Where Kumar Pradhan lectured in history |
| St Robert's School | Early teaching post of Kumar Pradhan |
| St. Paul's School | Rectorship of Hari Dang, 1977–1984 |
| Mount Hermon School | One of Darjeeling's oldest heritage schools |
| Bhutia Boarding School | Historic institution serving the hills |
A day still marked in classrooms across the hills
Schools across Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong typically mark the day with student-led assemblies, tributes, and — in many schools nationally — a half-day holiday for students so the occasion is genuinely about honouring teachers rather than a routine school day.
For a region where teachers have doubled as historians, mountaineers, and custodians of Gorkha language and culture, Teachers' Day is less a formality than a reminder of how much of Darjeeling's identity was built, quite literally, in its classrooms.
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Sources:
- Teachers' Day 2026, Date, Theme, History & Significance — Vajiram & Ravi
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