The association of the Bahá'í Faith with India dates from the very year of its inception in 1844. One of the ‘Letters of Living’ [ so named by the Bab] Shaykh Saeed-I-Hindi journeyed to Shiraz and recognized the Bab . With the arrival in 1875 of Jamal Effendi, Baha’u’llah’s emissary to Bombay, the Teachings of the new Faith attracted the attention of several dignitaries and notables. During his travels in India, Jamal Effendi was the guest of many prominent Indian personalities including Col. Nawab Asghar Ali Khan of Rampur [ Uttar Pradesh], the Maharaja of Banaras and Nawab Walayat Ali Khan of Patna.
Jamal Effendi also attended Queen Victoria’s coronation ceremony in 1876 at Delhi where among other dignitaries, he met Swami Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj denomination of Hinduism.
Abdul Baha likewise dispatched a number of travelling teachers to India, among them Mirza Mahram to Bombay, Mirza Mahmud Zarqani to Kashmir, Sydney Sprague, Elizabeth Stannard, are noteworthy. However the number of believers remained small. Up until 1961 there were less than 1000 Bahá'ís in the entire subcontinent.
The First Local Spiritual Assembly was established in 1911 in Bombay. By 1940, Local Spiritual Assemblies were established in Bombay [now Mumbai ] Calcutta, Daidanaw [ now in Myanmar] , Delhi, Hyderabad, Kota, Karachi [ now in Pakistan] Mandalay [ Myanmar], Poona [Pune], Rangoon [ Yangon capital of Myanmar] and there were Baha’i groups in 22 cities and towns of which three come under Pakistan and two fall in Myanmar. During the final year of the Ten Year Crusade launched by the Guardian of Bahá'í Faith – Shoghi Effendi, [1953-1963] the magic performed by Hand of the Cause of God, R. R.Mohajer, raised the numerical strength of the Indian Baha’i community to some 65,000 and the number of Local Spiritual assemblies to hundreds.
MASS TEACHING:
During the 1960’s and 1970’s and
1980’s the mass teaching work in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh continued
with steady vigour.
By late 1970s, the Baha’is grew
in number to about 6 hundred thousand in these two states alone.
As for other States of India, the
growth of the Faith was gradual and most of the big town and city communities
were sustained by Persian pioneers who had taken up residence either as
students or had come specifically for service to the Faith. Financially
also, these pioneers provided much of the support to the local communities
and invariably there were a number of them in each city who served on the
local Spiritual assemblies and State Teaching Committees respectively.
The revolution in Iran in 1979 came as a serious blow to these Persian Bahá'ís. With the funds from their families stopped by the Government authorities they were forced to obtain refugee status with UNHCR. Under the circumstances, in a matter of 4 or 5 years most of them started migrating to countries like Canada, Australia and the United States.
At one time, there were as many as 1500 Persian pioneers in India but after the exodus by 1985, just about a 150 remained. There was a temporary vacuum but, thanks to the foresight of the Universal House of Justice, the creation of State Bahá'í Councils brought to the forefront a large number of Indian Bahá'ís who hitherto had remained in the background. Although financially most of the local communities could not recoup, the routine activities of the Faith continued. Today, there is no doubt, the foundations of the Faith of God in India are stronger than ever before. Numerically, there are 2.2. million Bahá'ís organized into 1650 Local Spiritual Assemblies and 25 State Bahá'í Councils. Three Continental Counsellors reside in India and there are some 80 Auxiliary Board Members and hundreds of assistants of these Board Members.
The services of pioneers from Malaysia is also noteworthy especially in southern states of India, like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
The National Spiritual Assembly in India was first established in 1923 and it has the responsibility of co-ordinating the activities of not only the councils and the Assemblies but also of hundreds of schools and socio-economic projects and training institutes for which funding is being received nationally and internationally.
The building of the Bahá'í House of Worship, [ inaugurated in 1986 ] famously known as the ‘Lotus temple’ in New Delhi brought the Bahá'í Faith in India out of obscurity and attracted the attention of millions of people. Annually some four million people visit this majestic edifice.
Yet another significant contribution
of the Indian Baha’i community is the recognition it has received by the
Supreme Court of India in appreciation for the efforts to promote national
unity and harmony in a judgement on the Ayodhya temple [ Writ Petition
No.20B of 1993 and No. 186 of 1994] it is stated by Justice J.S.Verma
and Justice G.N.Ray “ A neutral perception of the requirement for communal
harmony is to be found in the Bahá'í
Faith” . Fifteen lines are quoted from the booklet “Communal Harmony
– India’s Greatest Challenge” a statement issued by the Bahá'í
Community of India [ represented by
The National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha’is of India]
[ Courtesy: National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India ]