About Us

 

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell of Gilwell, known to millions by his magical initials B.P. Founder of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide Movement was born in London on the 22nd February 1857. He was the sixth son of professor H.G. Baden Powell and Henrietta Grace, daughter of Admiral William Smyth. Professor Baden Powell died when B.P. was three years old and the burden of bringing up the family, therefore, devolved entirely on Mrs. Baden Powell. She allowed them a good deal of freedom to go about and lean things for themselves. This early up-bringing gave B.P. the real start for his future life as a soldier and an outdoorsman.         It was almost an accident that took him to the army. He was very popular with all the men and officers in the regiment. He was a great hoarse-man, an expert at polo and pig-sticking, clever at many kind of theatricals and play-acting and a skillful artist. He also did hard work at soldiering and rose rapidly to be a Captain in 1823.
To know how Scouting began we must go back a few years prior to the Siege of Mafeking. His army manual Aids to Scouting was being used in many schools and boys in outdoor activities. He collected together twenty boys, some from the Boys' Brigade and others sons of his friends and held a camp for them on Brown Sea Island in Poole Harbor in August 1907. the camp was a great success and B.P. decided to write his now famous book Scouting for Boys. It was published in 1908 in six fortnightly parts. Boys everywhere began to buy up copies and to start Scouting on their own, asking likely men to become Scoutmasters. Thus Patrols and Troops began to spring up rapidly all over England, and B.P. was therefore, forced to retire from active service to look after the growth of this new youth movement. It is, in a way, correct to say that the boys themselves started the movement, because B.P. himself had only thought the he was giving out a scheme to be used by boys' club and societies already in existence then.
After the formation of the Boy Scout Movement, B.P. came to India twice, once in 1921 when he bought about an amalgamation of the two out of three separate Scout organizations then in existence and again in 1937 when he came to attend the First-All-India Jamboree in Delhi. After going back he attended the world Jamboree in Vogelensang in Holland. This was his last Jamboree.          The end came suddenly on the 8th January 2941. He was buried in Nyeri amidst natures' most beautiful vistas with his head to the north to the snowcapped mountains of Kenya which he loved so much.   There are more than 26 Million Scouts, Youth and Adults and Girls,     in 216 countries and Territories.

 

The Scout Movement came to India in 1909. As it was then open to Anglo-Indian and European boy  sonly, it was thought necessary to organize a Scout Movement for the benefit of the Indian boys and girls.

Some Indians and English people started the troops for Indian Boys in 1913. But it was officially started by Dr.Annie Besant assisted by Dr.G.S.Arundale in 1916 through Boy Scouts association in Madras. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Pandit Hriday Nath Kunjaroo and Pandit Bahpeyi founded the Seva Samithi Scout Association Allahabad in 1917.         In the year 1921 Lord & Lady Baden Powell visited the Indian   Scout movement and were satisfied with the activities. However, they tried to bring together the different organizations working for the movement but they did not succeed.

In 1937 Lord and Lady B.P. again visited India. The National movement for freedom was intense in those days. B.P. attended the first Indian Jamboree at Delhi from February 1-7, 1937. In his address B.P. advised the scouts to do their best to make the country happy and prosperous by their good turns.           After the attainment of Swaraj in 1947 all the differences that existed previously between the different Associations disappeared. The Boy Scout Association in India and Hindustan Scout Association merged themselves on 7th November 1950 under the name of the Bharat Scouts and Guides.         The Girl Guides Association in India, which all along functioned as a separate organization for girls, also joined the Bharat Scouts and Guides on 15th August 1951. "The Bharat Scouts and Guides" is thus the only Scout Association in India recognized by the Government both at the center and the states functioning both for boys and girls.         The Bharat Scouts and Guides is the only Association in India having International reorganization. The Scout section is registered with the World Scout Bureau and the Guide section a full member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.