Clubs began to
organize in India after the Great War in 1919. In September
of that year, R.J. Coombes returned to his city of residence
after a business trip to the USA. Coombes had gained
authority to organise a club in Calcutta.
Coombes
interested about 45 men –mostly of European backgrounds- to
meet for lunch. Most of these businessmen had experience of
freemasonry and a resolution was adopted to form a Rotary
club. The first meeting was on the 26th of
September at Peliti’s Restaurant with the charter date of
January 1st 1920. Meetings would usually last for
about 50 minutes with one particular meeting having an
attendance of 5 (plus 2 guests)! After 5 years, the club
moved to the Grand Hotel.
Initial
membership was only 15. We know 9 of the initial members –
R.J. Coombes (classification – Engineering); A.C. Atkinson
(Schools); E Acton (printing); W.K. Battey
(Paper-Wholesale); A.E. Harris (Artist); W.W. Kennedy
(physician); H. Marshall (Architect); H. Newman
(Newspapers); F. Tydeman (Department Stores). The honour of
being the first Club President fell to Dr. Kennedy, a
prominent physician and freemason.
Calcutta
was the first club in India and only the third in Asia just
being pipped by the Shanghai Rotary Club, China 1919 and
Manila Rotary Club, The Philippines 1919. The fact that The
Calcutta club was so isolated meant that visiting Rotarians
were a rarity – usually an annual event – and that it took
10 years for any official representative from Rotary
International headquarters to visit!
The
Calcutta Club had initial difficulties in recruiting the
right type of Rotarian. Most of the businessmen were not of
Indian origin and had come to India in order to make money.
Their lifestyle was very comfortable and the idea of
community spirit sadly lacking. However, potential Rotarians
were present within this community – those who had a
charitable and public-spirited ethos on life – but often the
strict attendance rules of early Rotary put many off.
In 1921, the
first true native Indian joined the club. Sir Surendranath
Banerjea was a veteran of Bengal politics and accepted
honorary membership. Banerjea would go on to write “A Nation
in the Making”. The first native Indian active member also
joined in 1921 – S.C. Rudra (classification – Mining
Engineer).
At the end of
the first 5 years, Calcutta’s membership had rocketed to 65.
Of these, 6 were Indians including Sir Deva Prasad
Sarbadhikari who would become the first Indian
Vice-President of the club.
In Banerjea’s
book, he noted how Rotary served a useful purpose in
strengthening the bonds between the European and Indian
communities. The club would rely on its “Public Affairs
Committee” to carry out its community work which included
contributing to the Unemployment Relief Fund and engaging on
a public information project to deal with the Leper problem.
Source - Rotary’s 25 Years in Calcutta (written
to coincide with Rotary’s Golden Anniversary)
