

Made famous by the bestsellers of Dan Brown, like ‘The Da Vinci Code’, the Freemasons society commands a huge global membership.

A coffee table book, charting the history, heritage and masonic activities done so far, has also been put together to mark the diamond jubilee,” he told PTI. We have lined up a number of events for the next one year. “The consecration of GLI took place 60 years ago on November 24, 1961. While some lodges chose to remain with the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), with affiliation via English Constitution (EC), Scottish Constitution or Irish Constitution (IC), other lodges came together to assume a new identity as the Grand Lodge of India, said Vishal Bakshi, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of India (GLI). Panels representing sun and moon, which stand for enlightenment in the Freemasonry, flank the dominant masonic symbol of Square and Compass on top of its facade. It was opened in Februby the then Maharaja of Patiala, according to a volume ‘Freemasonry in India’, published in 1991. The striking building, whose interior chambers house a grand masonic temple on the first floor, where members of the fraternity in shining regalia have been gathering since the 1930s to perform elaborate and arcane rituals involving a checkered-board floor and a ‘Grand Master’, was designed by architect F B Blomfield, who was also a Freemason. However, the iconic double-storey masonic hall, embedded with arcane symbolism, in the heart of the national capital was built neither by Lutyens or Baker or even Robert Torr Russell, who designed the Connaught Place - named after the Duke of Connaught, who was also a Mason. The foundation of the grand building was laid on Apby the then Viceroy of India Lord Willingdon, soon after the new capital was built by legendary architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker.
