Gwalior

Gwalior
City in India
Bahá’í Winter School in Gwalior, 1968.
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 -  Email lsagwalior@ibnc.in 
 -  State Madhya Pradesh
 -  Country India
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Gwalior is a city in Madhya Pradesh state, in central India.

The Bahá’í Faith was established in the city in the late 1940s with a community becoming well established in the 1950s. In the early 1960s mass teaching caused a rapid increase in the number of Bahá’ís in rural areas surrounding the city. The Rabbani Bahá’í School was established in a village neighboring the city as a Teaching Institute for Bahá’ís in 1962 to assist with consolidating the sudden growth and it became a secondary school in 1977.

History[edit]

Jamál Effendi visited Gwalior in approximately 1878 while on a travel teaching trip across India. He returned to the city in approximately 1888 on another teaching trip.[1]

In approximately 1947 Shirin Boman and her husband pioneered to Gwalior,[2] and in 1953 Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker visited the city during a travel teaching tour of India.[3][4] A Local Spiritual Assembly for Gwalior was established in the early 1950's with the body being incorporated in 1955,[5][6] and in 1957 a Bahá’í Summer School was held in the city.[7]

In 1961 mass teaching began in the area surrounding Gwalior resulting in twenty thousand people declaring by 1964.[8] In 1962 a Bahá’í Teaching Institute was established near Gwalior for the deepening of new Bahá’ís and training travel teachers in order to consolidate the sudden growth of the community,[9][10][11] and in 1964 the community purchased a large piece of land to serve as the physical location of the Institute.[8] Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Gwalior in February, 1964, and dedicated the Institute which was named the Rabbani Institute.[12][13]

In 1968 the first Bahá’í children's camp of Gwalior was held at the Teaching Institute building.[14] The same year Enoch Olinga visited Gwalior to participate in a Bahá’í Winter School held in the city, and the School received the following message from the Universal House of Justice:

DELIGHTED LARGE ATTENDANCE WINTER SCHOOL PRESENCE HAND CAUSE OLINGA HIGHLY COMMEND EMPHASIS UNIVERSAL PARTICIPATION. BESEECHING BAHA’U’LLAH SHOWER BLESSING ASSISTANCE SERVICES BAHA’IS INDIA.[15]

In 1969 a major teaching conference was held at the Gwalior Bahá’í Institute attended by Hand of the Cause Adelbert Mühlschlegel, House member Hushmand Fatheazam, and Auxiliary Board member Perin Olyai,[16] however in 1970 the Institute was closed.[17]

In 1973 the Gwalior Bahá’í community established a Local Youth Committee,[18] in 1976 a National Teaching Conference for all of India was held in the city,[19] and in 1977 the Rabbani Bahá’í School was reopened using the Rabbani Institute buildings purchased in 1964.[17] Dwight Allen visited Gwalior during a teaching tour of India in 1981,[20] and as of that year the Rabbani School had over one hundred students.[17] By 1986 the school had almost two hundred students.[21]

In 2005 the National Spiritual Assembly of India organized a three day Institutional Consultative Gathering in Gwalior which gathered representatives of State Bahá’í Councils, administrative committees, training institutes, cluster agencies, and Auxiliary Board members to consult on the progress of the Faith in the country.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Moojan Momen, Jamál Effendi and the Early History of the Bahá'í Faith in South Asia, Bahá'í Studies Review, 9. Accessed 11/05/2026
  2. ↑ William Garlington Bahá'í Proselytization in Malwa, India, From Iran East and West: Studies in Babi and Bahá'í History Volume 2, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984/2001
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 275, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 278, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1955). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 297, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1956). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 302, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1958). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 323, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Baha'i News (1964). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 399, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ Baha'i News (1975). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 529, Pg(s) 21. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1962). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 380, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 385, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1968). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 444, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Violette Nakhjavani, Amatu'l-Baha Visits India, Baha'i Publishing Trust of India: New Delhi, 1984/2000, p 32
  14. ↑ Baha'i News (1968). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 450, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ Baha'i News (1969). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 454, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 467, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 602, Pg(s) 1. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ Baha'i News (1973). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 507, Pg(s) 23. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ Baha'i News (1976). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 544, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 601, Pg(s) 15. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ Baha'i News (1985). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 650, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2006). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 33 (2004-2005), Pg(s) 107. View as PDF.
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