GURUKUL is a wing of United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (UELCI) established in 1953 to impart theological education and train ministers, teachers, and leaders for the churches in India. GURUKUL means “family of teacher”, which is derived from two Sanskrit terms: guru (teacher) and kula (extended family). It is a unique ancient Indian education system where the shishyas (students) live with the guru (teacher) as one family to learn and gain knowledge. The founding fathers and mothers had chosen this name with a vision to make the college indigenous in nature where teachers and students live together and engage in contextually relevant praxis-oriented theological education.

Gurukul has a long history of its origin. The All-India Lutheran Conference, in its second meeting held in 1912, discussed about the necessity of establishing a standard theological institution to train pastors and other Church workers for the Lutheran Churches in India. The plan, however, could not be pursued due to the outbreak of First World War in 1914. In 1923, the then secretary of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) attended the first meeting of the Lutheran World Convocation held at Eisenach, Germany and expressed the urgent need for establishing the proposed Lutheran Theological College in Madras (now known as Chennai). This concern was presented to the Mission partners in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the United States of America. In the meantime, the Federation of Lutheran Churches in India (FELCI – now known as UELCI) was formed in 1925 and the first step was taken in July 1927 to establish a Lutheran Theological College in Madras for the Tamil area. The Leipzig Mission offered its Kilpauk property in Madras to run a Seminary as a common Theological School to serve all the Lutheran Churches in India. Finally, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute was established in July 1953 to impart higher theological education for the efficient training of ministers, teachers, and leaders for the Indian churches. It was registered under the Society Registration Act of 1860 on 18 June 1962 to function as a full-fledged theological institution, and thereafter affiliated with the Senate of Serampore College (University), Serampore, West Bengal.

Later in 1971, with a vision of strengthening ecumenical relations with other Churches, and to make Gurukul a praxis-oriented continuing theological education Centre, the advanced academic programme of the College was merged with United Theological College, Bangalore. However, having realized the need for new directions to make theological education in India more relevant and the role and potentiality of Gurukul in this regard, the advanced programme was revived in 1985. So, the new Gurukul, with her motto – “Towards A Bold Theological Vision” started offering Bachelor of Divinity Course in 1985; Master of Theology in 1989; and Doctor of Theology in 1998.