This chapter explores why the Theosophical objective “to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour” became important to the Theosophical Society. The chapter identifies and analyzes the intellectual contexts that informed the development of the idea as it entered the Theosophical Society, such as the great Enlightenment ideals of the eighteenth century, spiritualistic reform movements, and freemasonry in the nineteenth century, and argues that the idea became central to the relocation of the Theosophical headquarters from New York to India (1879–82).