In 1844 twelve young men led by George Williams founded the first YMCA in London, England. Their objective was the “improvement of the spiritual condition of the young men engaged in houses of business, by the formation of Bible classes, family and social prayer meetings, mutual improvement societies, or any other spiritual agency.”
Together with the other founding members, George Williams wasted no time in organizing YMCA branches throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Over the next ten years, YMCA Movements also began to develop across Western Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and India.
The idea of creating a truly global movement with an international headquarters was pioneered by Henry Dunant, Secretary of YMCA Geneva, who would later go on to found the International Committee of the Red Cross and win the first Nobel Peace Prize. Henry Dunant successfully convinced YMCA Paris to organise the first YMCA World Conference. The Conference took place in August
1855, bringing together 99 young delegates from nine countries.
The Conference adopted the Paris Basis affirming the YMCA’s mission and purpose, and created the Central International Committee. The Committee operated without a headquarters until 1878, when a permanent headquarters and formal structure for the Committee was created in Geneva, Switzerland. This was a turning point for the Central International Committee that would eventually become known as the World Alliance of YMCAs.
YMCA-INDIA
India – National Council of YMCAs
Date of foundation of the YMCA: 1854
Membership Status: Full Member
Full member of the World Alliance of YMCAs since: 1891
Brief YMCA History
YMCA IN THE BEGINNING
The first YMCA organised in Calcutta in 1854 functioned only briefly; a second attempt in the same city in 1857 failed. The association established in 1875 has continued, as have the YMCA’s organised in Bombay and Lahore the same year and in Trivandrum in 1873. The first full-time YMCA Secretary, Mr. David McConaughy, was made available by the International Committee of the YMCAs of the USA and Canada in 1889. He helped to start the Madras YMCA in 1890 and to organise the first National Convention in 1891 which brought together representatives of 35 local associations. The Indian movement became a member of the World Alliance of YMCAs the same year.
In the beginning the YMCAs where mainly meant for prayer meetings, Bible study, Sunday school, Libraries and lectures of various top1cs-Later, it was realised that the YMCA needed to address other issues as well, in order to establish its identity with the society of those times.
As the Movement gained popularity, most YMCAs wanted to have their own buildings and by the early part of the 20th Century, a good number of local associations managed to acquire sites and construct their own building establishment. Subsequently, in later years many other YMCAs have acquired their own properties.
STUDENT YMCAs
Work with the students was initiated in the year 1886, in an attempt to establish itself and turned its attention towards young men studying in colleges and high schools. Students YMCAs were formed in a number of local units and a Student Committee was formed, which established helpful relationship with the students department of the inter-national Committee, whose headquarters were in New York, It also established relationship with the World Student Christian Federation, which had been organised in 1895, to co-ordinate the work of Christian Student Organisation, including the Student YMCA, under the leadership of John R. Mott.
LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
The YMCA Publication Programme was started in 1893. In 1894 the first publication of YMCA Magazine was called ‘The Young Men of India’. This was followed by establishment of ‘Association Press’ and the ‘Literature Department’ in 1912. Following this example, by 1955 there were a good number of Christian and non-Christian publishing houses, and a question of whether the YMCA should continue its publication and literature work arose. It was decided that there was need to continue the pioneering work in the production of literature, designed to meet the interests of people.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
The Bombay YMCA was the first to recognise that Physical Education was an important and integral aspect of its programme. Later, other YMCAs took up physical education as a part of their programme. It was realised that to further develop the ongoing programmes, there was need for a full-time Secretary to guide it. In 1908, Dr. J.H. Gray was assigned to the Physical Education Programme. In 1913, the National Council established the Department of Physical Education, at Madras. In 1920 National Council established the first college of Physical Education in Madras. By the end of the 1960, the department had grown to the point where there were 14 Physical Directors.
In 1920 the International Committee of the Olympic games sent an invitation for India’s participation in the Olympics, to the then Secretary of the Department of Physical Education. The YMCA trained the team which participated in the 1924 Olympics.
SERVICE WITH THE ARMY
In both the first and the Second World War, the YMCA was actively involved in service to the troops and war victims, along with the Red Cross. It looked after entertainment for the troops and the rehabilitation of the wounded and disabled soldiers. The moral and spiritual aspects were all throughout kept in focus.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Besides services towards the youth, the YMCA found that there was need to extend its services to the rural areas. Under the leadership of K.T. Paul, who was one of the greatest pioneer and visionary of the Indian Movement, rural reconstruction work was initiated. This did a great deal to make the YMCA movement mindful of the needs of the village community; and in many ways initiated the present rural community work and the National extension service to the union and the state governments. In 1930 a plan was outlined for the development of rural welfare in India, with the aid of the cooperative movement, very much in line with the present plans of the government.
Lighthouse centres for training and demonstration towards rural reconstruction were established in various places, notable among them are the centres of Martandam and Indukurpet.
INDIAN STUDENT HOSTEL, LONDON
Another pioneering work which the YMCA decided to take up was the establishment of the Indian Student Hostel in London in 1920 for the benefit of young Indians. This hostel flourishes even today and is still a home away from home for the Indian students who go to London for studies. The efforts of K.T. Paul was largely responsible for this achievement.
TRAINING DEPARTMENT
Since the YMCA career called for professionalism, in 1907, the YMCA planned to start a training school for professional secretaries. The first training batch commenced in January 1911 at Calcutta. In 1912 the Training Department was shifted to Bangalore where it was attached to the Union Theological College and continued to function till 1993, when it was shifted to the Bangalore YMCA. In 1997 the training department was moved to the National Council’s own building at Pune.
PRESENT SET UP
For many years the national alliance was known as the National Council of India, Burma, and Ceylon. In 1947 it became the Council of YMCAs of India, Pakistan, and Ceylon. A few years later when the YMCAs in Burma, Pakistan, and Ceylon set up their own national organisations, the Council became known as the National Council of YMCAs of India.
The YMCA brings together people of all faiths. In the Indian movement, a majority of its members were members of religious faiths other than Christian. However, full members – those who are entitled to vote for and be elected to the governing bodies of the associations – must on a constitutional basis be professing Christians.
During the last quarter of the century, the Indian YMCAs moved out of its buildings to the community-based activities for the empowerment of people, Community development programmes were initiated and civil societies have been started.