ABSTRACT
In February 1889, N.G. Welinker, a teacher in the Free General Assembly’s Institution in Bombay, established a reading group to provide ‘regular moral instruction’ for his students. The class that he founded convened regularly every Sunday and soon came to be known as the ‘Students’ Brotherhood’. At these weekly meetings, Welinker took his pupils ‘through books of useful advice to students like Dr. Todd’s Students’ Manual and Blackie’s Self-Culture’. The Brotherhood sought to ‘encourage the habit of study’, to uphold the ideal of fellowship, and to engage in ‘social service as the path to the higher life’. In the pursuit of these aims, it aspired to bring together ‘persons of all communities desirous of raising the moral tone of the rising generation’.
