Lionism reached India 1956. Strangely enough, it was in intimate friendship among three scout officers that became instrumental in introducing Lionism in India.

Lion Robert Williams, a member of Lions Club of Saxton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A came to India as Scouts Officer and it gave him an opportunity to come into close contact with Scout Commissioner Mr. Noshir N. Pundole and Mr. K.J. Khan, who were running a scout troupe and also the then State Commissioner Commander Kaiki B. Godrej. The intimacy developed among them helped the Indians learn about Lionism and the first club in Bombay on 3^rd February, 1956 was inaugurated with Noshir N. Pundole as charter president. Only a week later, on 11^th February, Lions Club of Delhi was also inaugurated.

The beginning was so splendid that Lionism in India began to spread very fast. During the first year, itself as many as ten clubs were organized in different parts of the country with Noshir N. Pundole as the driving force behind this amazing achievement. The charter president of Bombay club Ln.Pundole was later chosen to become the first District Governor of the combined District 304, comprising India, Burma and Ceylon. Three years later he was made International representative and finally Asian Secretary with his office at Bombay. Ln. Noshir Pundole is remembered as the founder of Lionism in India.

The growth of Lionism since its inception in India, has been so rapid that in 1959 the single District 304, had to be subdivided into four Districts, 304 West, 304 East, 304 South, 304 North. Burma, Ceylon and Nepal were still in the Multiple 304. In 1956, a further re-organisation increased the number of Districts in India to seven. They were, 304N, 304E1 &E2, 304WI, 304W2, and 304 S2 &S2 In 1969. 304N was also divided into 304N, N1 & N2. In 1970 S3 and In 1972 W3 were also formed to make the total as 11 in India.

In 1973yet another re-organisation became necessary and accordingly the Multiple District 304 was replaced by 322, 322, 323 & 324 with subdivisions as under:

M.D. 321 - Dist.321A & 321B

M.D.322 Dist.322A 322B &322C

M.D.323 Dist.323A, 323B, 323C &323D

M.D.324 - Dist.324A, 324B, 324C, 324D & 324

With the continued growth Lionism in India assumed such dimensions that today we have over 3,000 clubs in 46 Districts with a membership of over 1,50,000. Though India started as 62^nd entrant in Lionism, today it stands 3^rd in membership. At present, the four Multiples are divided into 46 Sub Districts as under:

MD 321 Dist.321-A1,A2, A3, B1, B2, C1, C2, D, E & F (10 Districts)

MD 322 Dist.322-A, B, C1, C2, D & E (6 Districts)

MD 323 Dist.323-A1, A2, A3, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E2,F, G, H &J

(13 Districts)

MD 324 Dist.324-A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2,

D3, D4, E1 & E2 (17 Districts)

Lion Rohit C. Mehta is the first Indian who adorned the chair of the International President in the Lionistic year 1992-93. He was elected the Third International Vice President at the International Convention held at St.Louis.

Lionism started its glorious march in the state of Kerala with the organization of the Lions Club of Calicut, sponsored by the Lions Club of Coimbatore, on December 28, 1959, more than three and half years after it found its roots in the Indian subcontinent. When the Calicut Club was formed, it became part of District 304-S, comprising the entire south India and also Sri Lanka, with the late M.V. Venkataraman of Madras(Host) as District Governor from south, but also the first Multiple District Council Chairman of India. Venkataraman was District Governor for 1959-60 and was elected for a second term, 1960-61, but he expired on October 12, 1960 when three more Lions Clubs were organized in Kerala as given below:

Cochin Sponsored by Madurai-February 2, 1960

Palghat Sponsored by Calicut-April 26, 1960

Cannanore Sponsored by Calicut-April 26, 1960

Thereafter, the late. T. Sundaram Chettiar was nominated District Governor for the remaining part of the fiscal year. He was elected for a second term, 1961-62. It was during this period that Kerala had the next 6 Lions Clubs organized:

Trichur Sponsored by Palghat-October 2, 1961

Alleppey Sponsored by Cochin-October 10, 1961

Quilon Sponsored by Cochin-October 11, 1961

Trivandrum Sponsored by Cochin- October 12, 1961(Host)

Kottayam Sponsored by Cochin- December 23, 1961

Tellichery Sponsored by Canannore-February 12, 1961

In July 1964, Kerala had its first District Governor in the person of Dr. A.K. Haridas of Palghat. He was Governor, not only of District 304-S which was made up of the whole of South Indian and Sri Lanka, but he was also Council Chairman of Multiple District 304 comprising of the Clubs in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Burma. When he took over as District Governor, Kerala had 16 Clubs and 586 members; at the end of his term there were 19 Clubs and 703 members. At the beginning of July 1, 1966, District 304-S was redistricted into 304-S1 (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka) and 304-S2 (Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka). And, the first District Governor of the newly formed district 304-S1 was the late Justice P. Govinda Menon (for 1966-67), elected from Cochin Lions Club, Kerala continued as part of District 304-S1 till July, 1970, when as per the decision taken, the District was redistricted into 304-S3 and A.G. Nayar of the Lions Club of Calicut was its first District Governor.

District 304-S3 (Kerala) continued to be part of Multiple District 304 (whole of India) till 1973 July. We were able to have 3 Council Chairmen during the 14 years period: Dr. A.K. Haridas, Prof. N.S. Panchanath and Justice P. Subramonian Potty. At the end of the 1972-73 fiscal year, the entire country was redistricted into 4 Multiple Districts. 321, 322, 323 and 324 and the erstwhile 304-S3 became 324. E.P Dinakaran Achan of Lions Club of Trichur became the first District Governor of the newly named District 324- E.J. Chinnaswamy of Lions Club of Erode, District Governor of 324-B, was the first Council Chairman of Multiple District 324.

In 1989, District 324E was subdivided into two as 324 E1 & E2. The southern part of Kerala from Angamaly in the north to Parassala in the south became the jurisdiction of 324 E1. Ln. James Cherian of Lions Club of Palai was elected as the first District Governor of District 324E1. Under the leadership of many of our District Governors, 324 E1 has now grown considerably large. Today there are 190 clubs of good standing in the District with a total of 5454 members.

Eentually in the year 2004 the District 324E1 has been Trifurcated and has been divided in to 324E1,324E2,324E3,324E4 and our club is presently part of District 324E4 which comprises of Clubs in Ernakulam,Alleppey and part of Iddukki District.