RGLSI HYL MEET 2010

Freemasonry was Brought to India by French Army and a French Lodge existed in Pondicherry till 1956 when Pondicherry merged with Indian Union and the French Lodge closed with exit of French Army.

It was a desire of many brethren from Tamil Nadu (then Madras) and Pondicherry to start a Lodge in Pondicherry. Thus was born Lodge Bharathi No.161. It was Warranted on 13 January 1963 & Consecrated on 7 February 1964 with 32 founder Brethrens, most of them from Chennai from Lodge Mount. The founder Master was W. Bro. A T Kathiresan, founder Senior Warden was Bro. S Chellappa & the founder Junior Warden was Bro. S K Sambamurthi. The first initiation was in the on 29 February 1964 & first initiate was Mr R K Selvaraj. The meetings were initially held at Marie Hall, Pondicherry and later on, on the second floor of Photo Patel building which belonged to late W.Bro. C.K. Patel. On 31 March 1984, the meeting place was shifted to the Bungalow of the R.W. Bro. R Rathanasamy, the then District Judge, Cuddalore. In the year 1991 the meeting place was again shifted back to Pondicherry in a temporarily constructed temple on the terrace of our W. Bro. Dr. R. Bhaskaran. After trying various Hotels the meetings were being held in the basement of commercial building owned by the W.Bro. Probir Banerjee.

The Bharathi Lodge had bought a piece of land consisting of 4 plots measuring 60 ft in width from East to West & 120 ft in length from North to South in Kumaran Nagar, Lawspet, Pondicherry in 1980 at a cost of Rs 14,000. The foundation stone was laid by the late M.W. Bro. Justice Prakash Narayan, the then Grand Master of India in the presence of the then Regional Grand Master of Regional Grand Lodge of Southern India Right Worshipful Bro. Rajendran on 18th August 1988. The building construction could not be started due to certain unavoidable circumstances. The land was transferred to a Trust with 2 permanent trustees in 1992. In October 1992 majority of the Brethren including the then Ruling Master resigned as a sequel to the misunderstanding between the Brethren of English & Indian Constitutions. The strength of the Lodge came down from 56 to 16. With W. Bro. Dr K P Singh as SW and W. Bro. D Balasubramanian as ?? the Lodge strength was increased to 36 in one year. The trust and land documents were taken away by this resigned group of Brethren. The land purchase document was later retrieved by sincere efforts of W.Bro. Dr K P Singh. However, since the property was attached to the Trust, the construction work could not start. In the year 2004, during the Mastership of W. Bro. V Gnanasambandam, with his official position as Deputy Commercial Tax Officer the property was retrieved from the Trust and building construction started. The Plan was to have Dining Hall in the Ground Floor and Temple in the First Floor. We are now able to complete the Ground Floor of the building. The current Temple being dedicated measures 23ft x 37ft & the lobby measures 15ft x 25ft with attached toilet and freshening up facilities. Most of the funds collected for the construction of the building are from Brethren of Lodge Bharathi. We have also received donations from the Brethren from Chennai & rest of the country amounting to Rs.54,968. Grand Lodge of India and Regional Grand Lodge of Southern India for sanctioned Rs.1 lakh each. The temple construction cost was Rs 10,68,000. We plan to build a Banquet Hall on 1st floor in near future.

W. Bro. Dr K P Singh is ARGM this year, and is Chairman for Regional Grand Lodge of Southern India Half-Yearly Meet on 7h & 8th August 2010 at Pondicherry.