The Grand Occident of Punjab is the predominant Masonic organization of the Punjabi Republic and is the oldest natively-established Masonic organization in all of India. Known for its divergence from standard Masonic norms, it is part of the Continental rite and is heterodox even from that.
Punjabi Freemasony was formed gradually over the 1860s, when Punjabi students studying in France, after having been inducted into its Grand Orient, returned to Punjab. Socializing as a Punjabi branch of the Grand Orient, in 1871 they made the decision to form their own Grand Lodge. They chose to call it the Grand Occident, in an ironic reference to the Grand Orient of France, and here, by its very makeup of young graduates with Enlightenment influence, it quickly became deeply politicized. In 1875, the Punjabi imperial government banned the Grand Occident, forcing it underground where its political liberalism turned radical and, during and following the Great Famine, revolutionary. Masons achieved a following within the army, including a young ambitious colonel by the name of Prem Nath Kaul; his rapid ascent over the 1870s to general gave them vast influence in state, and other Masons were quick to discuss with him the need for revolution. The conspiracy theories promoted by some that the Grand Occident created the Punjabi Republic are a lie, but the same sorts of people that helped cause the revolution were members of the Grand Occident. And finally, in 1882 that grievance turned into a military coup that initiated the Punjabi Revolution.
During the 1882-3 "People's Monarchy" period the Grand Occident came out of the woods and many Masons became deputies of the Constitutional Convention; when Maharaja Dalip Singh treated the Constitutional Convention as a mere consultative assembly, it was they who were the most indignant and wanted him out. They strongly backed the 1883 coup and the subsequent declaration of the Punjabi Republic; Freemasons helped raise money from the army in the dark years of the republic's birth, when it seemed as if Punjab was doomed to be partitioned between Afghanistan and Britain. This period saw the birth of the nepotistic and cronyist networks that shaped the early Grand Occident, as it increasingly became an old man's club. Furthermore, the Sikh clergy, which viewed the Freemasons as a rival religion with a clergy and a mythos that due to its inclusion of Solomon seemed Islamic, called all Sikh Freemasons traitors to the faith. The 1890 coup which saw the end of the Assembly era and the rise of Prem Nath Kaul's dictatorship would see the Grand Occident co-opted into the state, and Kaul became its Grand Master. He also successfully resolved the religious crisis with the Sikh clergy and got them to accept the existence of Sikh Freemasons.
In this period, the Grand Occident strengthened its association of the state; though there were many non-Freemasons within the elite, it provided a step up with its networks. It also provided a useful vehicle for socializing and unifying the classes of the state in a nominally non-hierarchical establishment. As such, Masonic lodges spread across the nation in the Kaulist era, and the grand Masonic Palaces became symbols of grandeur with their typically Occidentalist Neoclassical setup. When Prem Nath Kaul died in 1903, the Grand Occident took the step to declare his widow Priyadarshini a member in her own right, in blatant disregard of the Constitutions which prohibited women from joining. While this wasn't quite a revolutionary steps as it was becoming a topic of discussion within French Masonry and widows had often been allowed in with various fictions, this step in and of itself was a scandal and it served as an important precedent for other women being allowed in smaller lodges. For this, the Grand Lodge of England rescinded amity with the Grand Occident, in what proved to be the beginning of the disputes which caused the great split between Anglo-American and Continental Masonry; afterwards, the Grand Occident declared itself in amity with Continental Masonry. This furthered the division between Punjabi Masonry and the colonialist Masonry of the British Raj. With this division, it went yet further, admitting open atheists into lodges and discarding the old mythology of its roots in Solomon's temple and deist language, on the belief that it was quasi-Islamic. This caused scandal and resulted in the formation of overlapping but separate lodges that sought to keep that matter; today, most of them have turned quasi-religious and Sufi-Bhakti in nature.
But resent at its status continued, and this inspired the rise of conspiracy theories that alleged it to be a deep state, as well as more reasoned resentment of its status as an opaque network of nepotism. The Hindustani War of Independence of 1937-39, which took a heavily anti-Masonic attitude towards the colonialist Masonry of the British Raj even as members of the provisional government hastily discarded their robes, had considerable spillover in Punjab and its ideas spread; though the 1940 victory of the Rawalpindi Compact had much to do with nativism and xenophobia towards Hindustani refugees it was also driven by anti-Masonic attitudes. It quickly disentangled Masonry from the state and sharply reduced its influence. And within the consolidated opposition, Freemasonry was deemphasized as Anti-Masonry was part of it, while even Masons understood there was a certain level of unpopularity with it. As such, the consolidated opposition's victory in 1947 and the subsequence collapse of the Rawalpindi Compact did not mean Freemasonry recovered its influence in state. But nevertheless, it remained a very influential fraternal order, and there have been recurring scandals between Punjab and Hindustan as the Hindustani constitution's ban on secret societies has resulted in Punjabi diplomats often falling foul of them and being accused of spreading "neocolonialist networks of Freemasonry" - even as Punjabi Freemasonry owes far more to the French revolutionary tradition than the British pseudo-apolitical one.
Today, the Grand Masonic Temple of Punjab, with its vast imposing architecture in the centre of Lahore, serves as a monument to Punjabi Freemasonry, while the Grand Occident's vast charitable role means that it is often present at all levels of society to a degree that cannot be underestimated. If it is not as influential as it once was, it is still influential enough - but as a great social club with semi-mysterious rituals, not as a deep state.