India, April 12 -- Should Doon School, which considers itself India's premier boys' boarding school, become co-educational? To be honest, this question has arisen earlier as well. The last time was in 2010 when then President Pratibha Patil raised the issue at the School's 75th Founders Day. An appreciative titter ran through the listening schoolboys. The thought warmed the cockles of their hearts. But the adults were not amused.

Many of them felt this was a kneejerk Pavlovian pronouncement made in the pursuit of misplaced gender equality. After all, if Welham Girls' or Maharani Gayatri Devi or all of the different Loretto Convents in India can remain girls-only schools, why should the Doon School change its character as a boys-only scho...