Foreword

Foreword

The history of the Faith in the Indian sub-continent started when S̱hayḵh Sa’id Hindi, travelled to Írán to seek the light of the Promised Qá’im, and attained the bounty of becoming one of the Letters of the Living. During this time at least three other individuals in India independently recognized the Báb as the Promised One of all ages.

Some years later Bahá’u’lláh instructed a well-known Persian Bahá’í scholar, Jamál Effendi, to visit India and Burma and to teach the new Faith to dignitaries and people of learning. Jamál Effendi arrived in Bombay in 1872 and was instrumental in attracting a large number of prominent people to the Faith, some of whom received Tablets from Bahá’u’lláh and were praised by Him. Among them was Siyyid Muṣṭafá Rumi, the recipient of many tablets from Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi. He was posthumously appointed a hand of the Cause of God by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith.

During the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, under his watchful guidance, the newly-born communities grew and strengthened. He showered his love and bounties upon them through more than 700 tablets.

The Local Spiritual Assembly of Bombay, the first to be formed in India, acted as the coordinating centre for Bahá’í activities throughout that land. In Burma, the Local Spiritual Assembly of Mandalay, under the guidance at Siyyid Muṣṭafá, served as the mother Assembly of that region.

With the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the guidance that flowed from the pen of Shoghi Effendi, for thirty six years, united the separate elements existing in that community into one coherent, spiritually dynamic and organically expanding force and brought the fledgling community of the Bahá’ís of India and Burma under the banner of the worldwide Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

Through Shoghi Effendi’s copious letters to India and Burma, we can glean his loving vision for the future of the masses in that vast region. To India he wrote in one of his earliest letters: “India, whether by virtue of its size and the ancient history of its civilization, or diversity of its beliefs, religions and races, and the receptivity of its inhabitants, is a ripe and vast field for the diffusion of the word of God and the hoisting of the banner of His Religion. Particularly, it was, in the latter years of the Centre of the Covenant, the recipient of His special favours and derived joy and hope from His divine promises.”¹ To Burma he said, “How sweet and glorious to remember in these days of strife and turmoil how the mighty hand of our beloved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has gathered together peoples of divers tongues and distant climes and united their hearts in one common spirit of love and servitude to the sacred Threshold of Bahá’u’lláh.” This sense of love and encouragement persisted throughout his ministry.

Patiently and painstakingly, Shoghi Effendi established the framework of the Bahá’í Administration in India and Burma. He guided the newly-established National Spiritual Assembly to translate Bahá’í literature into several Indian and Burmese languages, assisted financially for their publication, instructed them to purchase Bahá’í Centres and establish Bahá’í Summer Schools, advised them to purchase the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds and the Temple Land, contributed for the publication of Bahá’í magazines and periodicals, guided them in all details of hosting national and intercontinental conferences, defined the means and paths of community development encouraged and praised them for the successful completion of the Plans they had devised, which led to the active participation of the Bahá’ís of India in the world-embracing Ten Year Crusade. Throughout the years he emphasized the importance of spreading the Message of Bahá’u’lláh to the masses of the Indian Subcontinent and urged the friends to “forget their former and traditional prejudices whether religious, racial or social, and commune together on a common basis of equality, love and devotion to the Cause.” His heartfelt desire for the masses of India to respond to the Divine Message of Bahá’u’lláh was realized, shortly after his ascension to the Abhá Kingdom.

This massive expansion continues under the infallible guidance of the Universal House of Justice. Bahá’ís of India, who now number more than two million, will surely ponder the words of the beloved Guardian, in his letter of January 9th, 1923, to fulfil his wish to surpass all past records:

“True, that land seems now unhappily to be plunged in the darkness of prejudice, hate and mistrust, yet however dark the immediate prospect may appear, our confidence remains unshaken that ere long these mists shall clear away, the dawn of a New Day shall break upon that land and Rays of Divine Revelation shall make of India a spiritually-quickened, peaceful and united country.”

National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India April 1995