India was the second foundation of the Brothers of Charity in Asia. Brothers from England went to Kottar in 1936 to work as educators and teachers at the Carmel School. Because of the war, this project was not pursued and the presence of the Congregation in India ground to a halt in 1945. Initial steps were taken only in 1991 with the formation and training of Indian candidates. In 1996, we welcomed our first Indian brothers. The first group would develop mainly in the north, in Ranchi.
With the opening of ‘Param Mitra Sadan’, or ‘House of Best Friends’, in 1997, they took on the care of chronic mental patients. Cardinal Toppo, Archbishop of India, called this initiative truly innovative for the Church in India. Later on, the brothers addressed the need for education of the poorest part of the population in Ranchi with the founding of Saint Peter’s School in Simalia in 2010. Meanwhile, the brothers went back to the south, to Karaikudi in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, to open a new psychiatric centre, which they named after Saint Giuseppe Moscati. In 2012, the brothers took over an initiative from the Norbertines in Calicut, Kerala, also a rehabilitation home for chronic mental patients. Recently, they established an institute for training mental health workers in Ranchi.
Training and formation of young people wishing to join the Congregation are still being offered in Ranchi. Several brothers from India work within the Congregation at an international level.
