Chapter II: STORY OF INDIAN SCOUTING 3

number of Indian public men and women, working and agitating for the attainment of self-government for the Indian people.

It will, therefore, be appropriate to recount the story of the growth and development of Scouting and Guiding in India in the first two chapters of this volume; and in another chapter to deal with the processes of the merger of the two branches into a joint movement and the working of this movement during the last eighteen years.

The writer was a close witness to the happenings in their post merger period and has been personally involved in the developments that have taken place in recent years, particularly since 1964, in her capacity as National Commissioner of the Joint Organisation of Scouts and Guides. In this capacity she had to function as the ultimate decision-making authority. It would, nevertheless be her endeavour in the following chapters to narrate the story as objectively as possible.