Chapter I: (PRELUDE) 1

CHAPTER 1 (PRELUDE)

Sixty one years have passed since Scouting was born in England. The movement came to India about two years later. During this long spell of fifty eight years since its introduction in our country, in course of which two World Wars intervened. India, like many other countries of the World, particularly those in the South East Asian Region, had to adjust of her political economic and social structures to meet the challenges of the unprecedented changes in every sphere of life, necessarily, Indian Scouting could not avoid the pressures of these contemporary developments and had to adapt progressively its approaches, its structure and its scope to the changed social, political and economic aspirations of the people.

This was no easy job for its leaders, both men and women. Particularly for those who had to pioneer the promotion of the movement. In the beginning, it had to counteract the hostile forces both from within and outside. For the ideas embodied in the movement, although of universal appeal, were conceived by a citizen of a ruling country and were imported into our country from the Lord of its birth So, the start of the movement in our country was bedeviled by mutual suspicion and distrust. Moreover, some parts of the Scout Promise, which every enrolled member of the movement has to take, appeared to some people to contradict the political aspirations of emerging Indian nationalism. It was only through a determined spirit of adjustment and understanding that accommodation of conducting views was possible, and Scouting eventually emerged as a National Movement.

The two sections of the present unified organisation, viz.. Scouting and Guiding, started on their careers separately under the same conditions and situations, the former having an earlier start over the latter by three years only.

Moreover, although in the beginning both the sections suffered more or less from the same handicaps, the one which had an earlier start had to encounter further difficulties. By 1920, two organised Scouting camps were established in India. There was very little difference between their fundamental principles, and both the camps claimed to draw their inspiration from the Founder. Yet one of these camps was affiliated to the Imperial Headquarters of the Boy Scouts of England and enjoyed the blessings of the establishment of the then Indian Government while the other camp enjoyed the goodwill of a