Rotary In India
Inspired by Paul Harris, a young Chicago lawyer, Rotary-- a service
organisation--came into being in the U.S.A. on 23rd February 1905.
So sound was the thinking on the point of rendering service that
the movement soon spread to neighbouring Canada and then to the
British Isles. This was apparently a free masonary with a wider
base and bigger scope. It came to India via England in 1919, when
the first club was established at Calcutta. This was the first club
in Asia. Calcutta was the premier city of India (comprising then
of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Republic of Burma, and
Sri Lanka) nay of the Orient. Although Delhi was declared the capital
of the country in 1916, it took quite sometime, more for the government
residences and offices to be shifted here. Naturally, therefore,
Calcutta was the first place which could be thought of for establishing
Rotary in India. The Rotary movement had gained adequate momentum
by this time and the Rotary International had even given formal
recognition to the RIBI (Rotary International in Britain and Ireland).
There were, therefore, no reason why Rotary should not be brought
to India. Nonetheless only in 1929, a decade later, clubs came up
at Bombay and Madras, the other two presidency towns in the country.
Naturally, Delhi could not he overlooked, being the country's political
capital. Therefore on April 6th the same year, the first meeting
of the provisional Rotary Club of Delhi was arranged under the presidentship
of Mr. R.T.H. Makenzie, then Manager of Burma Shell Oil Company
at Delhi. However, the bureaucratic setup in Delhi, with a preponderance
of over-busy government officials, conscious of their rank and position,
resulted in this club converting itself into a rendezvous of administrative
functionaries. With the British elements occupying all the top positions,
the Rotary club became a meeting point of foreigners resident in
Delhi and no Indian was admitted into its "sacred" portals.
A movement such as this could not be sustainable and even before
formal recognition came from USA, the club stopped functioning.
India became Rotary's provisional district 'A' in 1931-32, provisional
District was given No. 89. The first District Governor of the new
District was Sir Fredric James of Madras, who was earlier president
of the Rotary Club of Calcutta in 1925-26. Succeeded by Sir Phiroze
Sethna of Bombay as Distt. Governor the next year. Sir Fredric had
to be recalled and was given another term though only for part of
the year as the Governor for the District in 1938-39. Sir Phiroze
passed away while in office. Mr. Bryant had by then been placed
in charge of the Regional office of Rotary International at Bombay.
Sir Fredric's stewardship of the Distt. was of great significance
to Delhi as he renewed efforts for establishing a club at Delhi
aided by Mr. Bryant. Under his guidance an organisational meeting
was held at the Western Court, then a "hostel residence"
of the elite in Delhi. Those attending were generally speaking foreigners
resident in Delhi, but now there was a sprinkling of Indians too.
The assumption was that Indians, with different tradition, customs
and way of life, would not fit into Rotary as would the foreigners
whose concepts were more in line with the way of thinking of the
founders of the movement. The idea of service is in fact ingrained
in the Indian way of life and could have been chanelled through
Rotary movement under proper guidance, but this was entirely overlooked.
It is interesting and it should not be overlooked that a Rotary
club had come into being at Amritsar already in 1933, an offshoot
of an earlier club at Lahore established in 1927. Clubs were also
established in Bangalore in 1934, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Jamshedpur,
Poona, and Sholapur in 1935, at Cochin, Lucknow, and Surat in 1937,
and at Agra and Jabalpur in 1938: With the convening of the meeting
in Western Court, regular .meetings started in right earnest at
the Maiden's Hotel, which was then the hub of activity in Delhi.
These meetings were held on the first and third Thursday in each
month. Rotary rules provided for fortnightly meetings then. These
rules were changed later laying down weekly meetings but the day
of the week i.e. Thursday on which these meetings are held, has
remained unaltered to the present day. This new club could take
in a larger number of Indians and only a few Britishers, who were
in the business and commercial undertakings in Delhi, joined in.
The official set generally kept away and devoted their energies
to Freemasonry. The membership of this club was of the order of
32 to begin with. This club was placed in Distt. 88 as the earlier
Distt. 89 (between 1936-37) had been bifurcated into two i.e. 88
and 89. These Districts were renumbered nine years later as 50 and
52. Our club was placed in Distt. 50. The Delhi Club was admitted
to Rotary International on 18-1-1939 and the charter was presented
by Sir Fredric in a glittering ceremony held at Maiden's Hotel.
In 1941 meetings of the club were shifted from Maiden's Hotel to
Imperial Hotel in a more central location vis-a-vis the fast developing
office and residential complex of the capital. The Maiden's Hotel,
however, continued to be the venue of the meetings in the hot weather
only when government offices shifted to Shimla. In 1944-45 the club
started holding all meetings at the Hotel Imperial throughout the
year. In 1968- 70 the meetings were shifted to neighbouring Hotel
Janpath. Thereafter, there was a shift back and Hotel Imperial became
the venue of the weekly meetings. Imperial Hotel was the venue of
the weekly Rotary club meetings till June 1990 but in 1977-78 Claridges
Hotel also had pride of holding these meetings as the Imperial hotel
management had some difficulty in allowing use of the Hotel premises
then. From June 1990, the weekly club meetings shifted from Hotel
Imperial to Hotel Ashok, the luxury 5 star hotel of the Government
and they continue till today. Roshanara club in old Delhi was also
the venue of several club meetings in the early years till 1944.
Rtn. G. Pershad, club President in 1943- 44 was the local representative
of Govan Bros. This firm had contributed large sums in the establishment
of the Roshanara club. Therefore Rtn. G. Pershad could easily arrange
for the holding of Rotary meetings in this club. The rules then
were more flexible in allowing change in venue of the weekly meetings
and so this was done without much troubles.
On renumbering of Districts, and as growth in India continued,
the Delhi club was placed in Distt. 310 in 1957 which included north-west
India upto the borders of U.P. but excluded the native states in
Rajasthan. Distt. 310 was bifurcated in 1970 as Distts. 310 and
311 with Delhi still in Distt. 310. This Distt. comprised the western
part of the old Distt.
District 309 came into being in 1977 after further bifurcation
of Distt. 310. Delhi club was placed in Distt. 309, which includes
J&K, Punjab, part of Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh
(U.T.) and part of the Delhi metropolitan area. In 1979 effective
1st July the Club was placed under District 310 and remained till
1991 when the Distt. was renumbered as 3010. The meetings were arranged
originally as dinner meetings and the seating was in accordance
with precedence over which many a wrangle is reported to have taken
place. The arrangement was that, a head table accommodated the President,
the Secy., the speaker, and some important person, while other members
and their guests were accommodated on smaller tables spread over
the hall. When the venue was shifted to Imperial Hotel, these meetings
were converted into evening meetings, which concluded before dinner
time. The meeting arrangement was changed with a head table and
rows of chairs on accommodating others and their guests much like
a class roam. The programmes consisted mainly of talks by some dignitaries,
which during the early years included, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, M.A.
Jinnah, and other stalwarts in public life. The community service
activity was at a rather low key and so were the activities in the
other two fields of service. The club committees were small in number
and each consisted of about three to four members
Rotary indeed was not functioning through the committees as is
often recommended. There used to be no contests for office and allocation
of offices was arranged by consensus amongst the senior members.
In the early years of the club, the annual subscription was of the
order of Rs. 60/- which included the per capita RI dues amounting
to Rs. 221- per member. The annual contribution towards community
service activity was roughly five rupees per member. With the attainment
of Independence in 1947 came the large number of foreign missions
and the embassies. The Rotary club became the epicentre of considerable
activities supported by the diplomatic corps. Quite a large number
of these dignitaries were invited to the regular meetings of the
club or joined as members themselves. In a way this allowed Rotary
to grow in the local elite. A map of South Asia showing the present
Rotary District boundaries is given below.
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