How did Freemasonry develop in India?
A deputation to open a lodge in Bengal was issued in 1728, leading to the constitution of Lodge East India Arms in 1730 1. A petition sent to England resulted in the appointment of a Provincial Grand Master for India in 1729, as the Grand Lodge of India notes. The Craft expanded through the East India Company, civil bureaucracy, and military lodges, reaching Madras on the Coromandel Coast by 1752 and Bombay by 1758 23. More than one hundred lodges were warranted in India under English, Scottish, and Irish constitutions by the close of the French and Indian Peninsula wars, as the Grand Lodge of India records.
Native Indians were initially admitted in very small numbers 2. Broadening participation began in 1844 when Dr. James Burnes, serving as Scottish Provincial Grand Master for all India, established Rising Star Lodge in Bombay specifically for Indian brethren 2. Prominent Indian figures subsequently entered the Craft, including the son of the Nabob of Arcot, Prince Keyralla, Maharajah Duleep, and Maharajah Rundeer Sing 2. Overseas English provincial bodies were redesignated as Districts in 1866 2. In November 1961, the sovereign Grand Lodge of India was consecrated with full territorial jurisdiction over the Republic of India, as the Grand Lodge of India states.
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