The Grand Lodge of India (GLI) is the main

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

within

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, it was officially constituted on Friday 24 November 1961. There were three delegations from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Grand Lodge of Ireland and

Grand Lodge of England The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...

in that order. Out of a total of 277 individual Lodges in India already existing at the time, 145 opted for the new Grand Lodge of India. This represented a little over 52 per cent of the Warranted Lodges in India.

Advent of Freemasonry in India

Stamp of India - 2011 - Colnect 259286 - Grand Lodge Of India

Freemasonry traces its roots in India in the early years of the 18th century. In 1730 officers of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

held their meetings in Fort William in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. The number given to the Lodge was 72. Kollam Crowther masonic hall

The Goshamal Baradari,

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

, built in 1682 by Sultan Abul Hassan Tana Shah, is the oldest building used as a Masonic Temple in India. Built in 1682, it was donated to the fraternity in 1872 by the 6th

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

Kingdom of Hyderabad Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

Mir Mahbub Ali Khan Asaf Jah VI, also known as, Sir Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi (17 August 1866 – 29 August 1911) was the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad. He ruled Hyderabad state, one of the Princely states in India between 1869 and 1911. Early life Mahb ...

Philanthropy

Under the Jyotirgamaya, initiated by Grand Master Dr Balaram Biswakumar to mark the Golden Jubilee of the GLI; The Grand Lodge of India took the initiative to light up 50 villages across remote areas in the country that did not have access to electricity till date. The GLI constructed 74 houses for the tsunami-affected, building a 10,000 sq.ft hall in Pallam village in Kanyakumari. The GLI also organizes classrooms for children in prisons, and renders help for disaster victims. The GLI has close to 500 Lodges in India with close to 25,000 members.

References

External links

Grand Lodge of India official website
{{Authority control Grand Lodges Freemasonry in India 1961 establishments in India Clubs and societies in India Organizations established in 1961