Annie Besant

Annie Besant was a prominent British theosophist and reformer, who was a supporter of Indian Independence. On this day, August 1, 1916, she started the Home Rule League.

Annie was born on October 1, in the year 1847 in London into a middle-class family of Irish origin.

When Annie Besant’s mother could not afford her education, she sent her to a friend, Ellen Marryat’s care

In Marryat’s care, Besant was given a sense of duty to society and what independent women could achieve

Besant fought for the causes she thought were right. She fought for freedom of thought, women’s rights, secularism, birth control, and workers’ rights

She was also a leading member of the National Secular Society

After her divorce, she began to question her long-held religious beliefs and began to write attacks on the churches and the way they controlled people’s lives. She was against the role of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith

Annie Besant was a brilliant speaker. Through her speeches, she always demanded improvement, reform, and freedom

• She published foothills of essays, wrote a textbook, and became the editor of the New India newspaper
• Besant came to India on November 16, 1893 to attend the Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society in Madras and after five years she established the Central Hindu College at Benares which is one of the largest schools in India. It is also called the nucleus of the Benares Hindu University
• In 1914, Besant founded a weekly newspaper Commonweal in January 1914. In June, she purchased the Madras Standard and renamed it ‘New India’
• In 1917, Besant started the Women’s Indian Association. In 1932, she was made Honorary Commissioner for India
• Besant also participated in Indian political matters and joined the Indian National Congress
• In the year 1916, Besant flung open the All India Home Rule League along with Lokmanya Tilak

• In June 1917, Besant was arrested for participating in Indian political matters. It is said that in prison, Besant disobediently flew a red and green flag.
• She died in India on September 20, 1933.