Annie Besant (1847-1933)

A leading member of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant was an Irish English woman who came to India in 1893 to spread the beliefs of the society which she had joined in 1889.

In India, Annie Besant settled in Varanasi where she founded the Central Hindu College in 1898. In 1907, she was elected president of the Theosophical Society. In 1914 she started the publication of the Commonweal and New India. These journals soon became her chief vehicle for propagating the beliefs of India’s freedom.

In 1916 Besant established the Indian Home Rule League. She was a leading member of the Indian National Congress of which she was elected president in the Calcutta session in 1917. She was also the founder of Indian Boy Scouts Association and Indian Woman’s Association.

Credited with the foundations of several schools and colleges, she had also established the National University at Adyar in 1918. Besant died in 1933.

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