Career
Das led a group of moderate Indian nationalists in the creation of The Doon School. After completing school and university education in England, South.R. Das returned to India in 1894. The idea of The Doon School originated from his participation in the"growing search for a national Indian identity."
Although he died before the school actually opened, had lobbied for it assiduously during the 1920s.
Das envisaged an Indian school patterned on the British public school, which he felt had effectively trained young men to become responsible and resourceful administrators throughout the British Empire.
But in contrast to British schools, he wanted an Indian school to be nonsectarian and responsive to Indian aspirations. He and the school"s other founders saw Doon as the training ground for a new generation of Indian leaders who would take over the reins of administration and government following Independence.
By copying the model of the British public school, the founders were attempting to show that Indians could compete with the British on their own terms without relinquishing their national or cultural identity. This reflected the views of many Indian leaders and intellectuals of the time, but certainly not all.
Characteristically, Jawaharlal Nehru welcomed the creation of the school but Mohandas K. Gandhi would have nothing to do with lieutenant
In 1922 he was appointed Advocate-General of Bengal. He died in 1928. The Doon School opened in 1935.