The Regional Grand Lodge of Northern India (RGL-NI), one of the four Regional Grand Lodges of India, based in New Delhi, is organising its half-yearly meeting at Mussoorie on September 22 and 23.
These meetings are an occasion for Masons of Daughter Lodges to come together, get the ‘macro’ picture of the activities of the Grand Lodge and the Regional Grand Lodge from the highest functionaries, the Grandmaster and the Regional Grandmaster. Masons of all ranks from all over the region meet, renew bonds of Brotherhood, plan out the shape of Masonic activities in the coming period, share information about the various charitable and other activities being carried out in various Lodges and return, rejuvenated, with a renewed sense of purpose and zeal to further the basic objectives of Freemasonry –Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.
This year’s Half-Yearly Meeting is being facilitated by Masons of the two Lodges of District Dehra Dun namely Lodge Dalhousie No. 10 (situated at Masonic Bus Stand, Mussoorie) and Lodge Siwalik Dr Durga Prasad No 62 (situated at 18 Beacher Road, Dehra Dun Cantt.).
A Half-Yearly Meeting of the RGL-NI is being held in Uttarakhand after a gap of nearly seven years–the previous one having been hosted by Lodge Siwalik, Dehra Dun in October 2011.
Freemasonry has been particularly active in Uttarakhand and Masons have always been at the forefront of relief activities in cases of natural disasters, be it medical aid teams to provide Relief in the aftermath of the natural disaster the struck Garhwal in 2013, and then the complete rebuilding of two Inter colleges of Rudraprayag District–Ladoli and Nagrasu. The two Masonic Lodges at Mussoorie and Dehra Dun are amongst the oldest and finest Lodges in the country, the Lodge at Mussoorie tracing its history (consecration) to the year 1854 and the one in Dehra Dun to year 1902.
This year, over 350 Freemasons of the region are expected to congregate at Mussoorie for the Meeting of RGL-NI, and renew their pledges to carry forth the tenets of Freemasonry in one of the world’s oldest secular fraternal societies.
It is a world-wide organisation based on the principle of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man. It is a society of men concerned with moral and spiritual values. Its members are taught its precepts by series of ritual which follow ancient forms and use stone masons’ customs and tools and allegorical guides. Freemasonry has been in existence in the present form for over 300 years in the world and for nearly 290 years in India.
Freemasonry traces its origin from King Solomon’s times, but its real origin is lost in antiquity. Freemasonry came to India at Calcutta in 1729, 12 years after it was established in its present form in England. The Grand Lodge of India (the apex body) came into existence in 1961 when most Indian Lodges came under an Indian banner, with Maj Gen Dr Sir Syed Reza Ali Khan, HH the Nawab of Rampur, as the first Grandmaster. Freemasonry exists in over 190 countries with over 5 million Freemasons; in India we have about 25,000 Freemasons coming from a cross section of society, across religions. There are as on date, 425 Lodges in 147 locations all over India, which are the basic units for membership. Prominent Indian Freemasons include Swami Vivekananda, Motilal Nehru, C Rajagopalachari, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr S Radhakrishnan among other luminaries.