Background

Annie Besant was born as Annie Wood on October 1, 1847 in Clapham, London in a middle-class family of Irish descent. She was the daughter of William Page and Emily Wood.

Following the death of her father, young Annie was kept under the care of her mother’s friend Ellen Marryat due to the family’s lack of financial means.

Education

From 1880 to 1882, Annie attended London University (formally Birkbeck College), passing there the initial scientific examination with honors.

Career

Annie was a devout Christian. However, the awakening of her character made her challenge several of the Christian dogmas. Unable to make logic out of Christian traditions, she left the Church in 1872 and became a freethinker, thus ruining her social position through her passion for Truth; consequently, she had to leave her husband and young son.

She joined the National Secular Society in 1874 and worked in the free thought and radical movements led by Charles Bradlaugh. She co-edited the National Reformer with him and wrote many political and free-thought books and pamphlets from 1874 to 1888. At this point her husband moved the court to take their little daughter away from her, alleging that she was ‘unfit’ because of her ideas. This deprivation caused her profound grief. However, when the children were older they became devoted admirers of their mother. She was prominent in the Labor and Socialist movements, a member of the Fabian Society and Social Democratic Federation, and took an active part in Trade Union work among unskilled laborers; with Herbert Burrows she led the path-breaking 'match girls’ strike to a successful conclusion.

Annie Besant joined the Theosophical Society on 21 May 1889, and became a devoted pupil and helper of HPB, pledging her loyalty to the President-Founder, Col. H. S. Olcott, and the cause of Theosophy. She became the most brilliant exponent of Theosophy, both as orator and author. In 1893, she represented The Theosophical Society at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

The same year she landed in India, made a tour of the country in the company of H. S. Olcott, and, by her splendid presentation of Indian philosophy and her undisguised personal preference for the Indian spiritual heritage, won the support of orthodox Brahmins to Theosophy. The transformation of the religious life in India, particularly among Hindus, is one of the wonders she performed.

She soon gathered round her a band of Indians to work for the regeneration of the country and in 1898, after much planning, founded the Central Hindu School and College in Benares (now Varanasi). A few years later she started the Central Hindu School for Girls. Theosophists from overseas came to help her in the work of the college, which was established with the object of impressing India’s past glory on the minds and hearts of the students. A brilliant band of workers gathered round her, including Dr Bhagavan Das, his brother Govinda Das, Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti, Upendranath Basu, I. N. Gurtu, and P. K. Telang, all of whom worked in an honorary capacity.

As Lord Baden-Powell deemed that Indians were unfit to be scouts, the Indian Scout Movement was founded by her in 1918, the boys wearing Indian turbans. When Baden-Powell came to India and saw how successful was the movement created by Annie Besant, it was amalgamated with the world movement, and she was made the Honorary Scout Commissioner for India. In 1907, after the passing of Col. H. S. Olcott, Annie Besant became the second International President of the Theosophical Society, an office which she held until her death in 1933. Besant continued to tour and lecture all over India, dealing extensively with education. Lodges of the Theosophical Society undertook to open schools wherever they could. She also tried to draw women into the movement wherever possible, for at that time women were not encouraged to take part in public life.

In 1908, she announced the formation of a Theosophical Order of Service, which aimed at banding members together in groups with the motto ‘Union of all who Love in the Service of all that Suffer.’ From 1908 onward Dr. Besant proceeded to enlarge the Headquarters estate at Adyar. In order to link Adyar more intimately with the rest of the Theosophical world, she started The Adyar Bulletin, which continued until 1929.

A new phase of Besant’s activity began when she came into contact with two remarkable Indian boys and declared that the elder of them, J. Krishnamurti, was destined to be the vehicle of the ‘World Teacher’, the Bodhisattva Maitreya. In 1910, she assumed the guardianship of J. Krishnamurti and his brother, and despite great difficulties launched him on his remarkable career.

A new period in Annie Besant’s life began in 1913 when she became active in Indian politics and gave a lead by claiming Home Rule for India. She entered politics because she saw that India’s independence was essential for her age-old wisdom to become a beacon for the whole world. The Home Rule movement she organized spread all over India. She used all her resources to bring together on the common platform of the ‘All India Home Rule League’ the two sections of the Indian National Congress which had been divided since 1907.

Later, she was elected President of the Indian National Congress inspiring Indians with a dynamic vision of India’s future. Since the British government merely suppressed agitation but did little to remove the grievances, she started the Young Men’s Indian Association in 1914 to train them for public work and donated Gokhale Hall in Madras as a center for national awakening and free speech. She also started two journals: The Commonweal, a weekly dealing with issues of national reform; and New India, a daily newspaper which for fifteen years was a powerful instrument promoting Home Rule and revolutionizing Indian journalism.

Ten months after she began her political work, the Great War broke out. India was called upon to make great sacrifices, which she did gladly but not a single word was said by any British statesman as to India’s contribution. It was this blunder of British statesmen that convinced Besant that the political work in India had to continue, and could not be modified or slackened because the Empire was at war. She was interned in 1917 for three months because of her success in arousing the love of freedom in the Indian people. She took as her motto not only ‘strike while the iron is hot’, but also ‘make it hot by striking’. She taught Indian journalists to write strong leading articles denouncing the action of the government, yet keeping within the letter of the law. As President of the Indian National Congress; she made the office one of active work throughout the year, instead of only presiding over it during the four-day annual meetings, as was the practice earlier.

By 1918 she had started the Madras Parliament, opened Madanapalle College (now in Andhra Pradesh), inaugurated the Adyar Arts League, started the Home Rule League in Bombay (nowadays Mumbai), started the Girls’ College in Benares, founded the Order of the Brothers of Service, presided over the Women’s Indian Association at Adyar - from which grew the All-India Women’s Conference at Poona (now Pune) in 1927 and the All-Asian Women’s Conference at Lahore in 1931 - and started the Society for the Promotion of National Education (SPNE).

Unfortunately, she fell into disfavor with the Indian National Congress because of her opposition to Mr. Gandhi’s plan of non-cooperation and civil disobedience as she foresaw the danger of instilling disrespect for the law. Although she had deep regard for Gandhi as someone whose life was guided by truth and compassion, she herself stood by constitutional methods for achieving political reform. Mr. Gandhi’s policies were adopted and the disasters she had anticipated occurred in various parts of India. Though she became unpopular and lost her position as a political leader, she still continued with her work for India.

Achievements

• Annie Wood Besant is known as a prominent leader of India's freedom movement, member of the Indian National Congress, and of the Theosophical Society. She made important contributions to a number of reformist and religious causes. She was a leader among Europeans in reviving and disseminating Hindu religion and culture.
  
  Annie was also a founding secretary of the Malthusian League (a forerunner of the Family Planning Association) and wrote numerous pamphlets and books on progressive themes. Her own birth control pamphlet, The Law of Population, sold 175,000 copies. She could write about historical topics, science, religion, women's rights and philosophy all from a freethinking perspective. She founded her own journal, Our Corner, as well as contributed to others. Annie loyally supported Bradlaugh throughout his parliamentary struggle.
  
  Clear explanations of the many enigmas of life and the universe were presented in her outstanding books such as A Study in Consciousness, which is used in some universities as a textbook. Another of her major works, Esoteric Christianity, has been considered a historical document; and has helped to revive true knowledge of Christianity. Her lectures at Theosophical conventions on the great religions of the world were put into a valuable book entitled Seven Great Religions, presenting the core teachings of each one of them.
  
  After her death, colleagues Jiddu Krishnamurti, Aldous Huxley, Guido Ferrando, and Rosalind Rajagopal, built the Happy Valley School in California, now renamed the Besant Hill School of Happy Valley in her honour.

Works

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  • Marriage: As it was, as it is, and as it should be

    (A married woman loses control over her own body; it belon...)

    1879
  • The Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students

    (The Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students ...)

    1909
  • Avataras

    (This classic book contains four lectures delivered at the...)

    1900
  • My Path to Atheism

    (My Path to Atheism is a remarkable document in many ways,...)

    1877
  • The Christian Creed: or, What is Blasphemy to Deny

    (A Struggle has began, which promises to be one of the fie...)

    1883
  • Fabian Essays in Socialism

    (Since 1889 the Socialist movement has been completely tra...)

    1891
  • Autobiographical Sketches

    (This important edition brings Annie Besant's first autobi...)

    1885
  • Modern Socialism

    (Modern Socialism is an interesting piece written in the l...)

    1890
  • Sanatana Dharma

    (Santana Dharma is the Eternal Wisdom or Order. Through th...)

    1904
  • On the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth 1873
  • On the Nature and the Existence of God 1875
  • The Law of Population: Its Consequences, and Its Bearing upon Human Conduct and Morals 1877
  • Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History 1881
  • History of the great French Revolution 1883
  • Why I Am a Socialist 1886
  • Why I Do Not Believe in God 1887
  • Why I Became a Theosophist 1891
  • Annie Besant: An Autobiography 1893
  • The Building of the Kosmos and Other Lectures 1894
  • In the Outer Court 1895
  • The Case Against W. Q. Judge 1895
  • Four Great Religions: Four Lectures 1897
  • Ancient Ideals in Modern Life 1901
  • Esoteric Christianity Or The Lesser Mysteries 1901
  • Death - and After? 1901
  • Shri Rama Chandra The Ideal King 1905
  • Hints on Study of Bhagavad-gita 1906
  • London Lectures of 1907 1907

• Other Work

  • Is the Bible Indictable? 1877

Religion

Besant, early in her life, switched to anti-religious views which led her to work tirelessly as a reformist and secularist. She constantly questioned the status of Church of England and demanded for a secular state through her write-ups, columns and public speeches. Over the course of her marriage, she became more and more radical in her views. She began to question her faith and stopped attending the Communion as she no longer believed in Christianity.

Politics

It was after her marriage to Anglican clergyman, Frank Besant that Annie Besant developed a political bent of mind. Her friendship with English radicals and Manchester Martyrs of the Irish Republican Fenian Brotherhood shaped much of her political thinking.

She became widely recognized for her radical views, as she openly expressed her support for freedom of thought, women’s right, secularism, birth control, Fabian socialism and worker’s rights.

Views

Quotations: “The position of the Atheist is a clear and reasonable one. I know nothing about ‘God’ and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self‐contradictory, and therefore incredible. I do not deny ‘God, ’ which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God.”

“Thought creates character.”

“No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.”

“The Atheist waits for proof of God. Till that proof comes he remains, as his name implies, without God. His mind is open to every new truth, after it has passed the warder Reason at the gate.”

“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.”

“Just as the sun in the heaven is unchanged, but is mirrored as a thousand suns in ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans, so do you know the Sun of the Spirit within you from the broken reflections that you find in the lower self.”

“This world is full of forms that are illusory, and the values are all wrong, the proportions are out of focus. The things which a man of the world thinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside as worthless.”

“To see the Logos, the principle of consciousness, crucified on the cross of time and space in our own selves is not an evasion but among the most profound insights a human being can have.”

“The moment a man uses a woman's sex to discredit her arguments, the thoughtful reader knows that he is unable to answer the arguments themselves.”

“Someone ought to do it, but why should I? Someone ought to do it, so why not I? Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.”

“Over against those who laud the present state of Society, with its unjustly rich and its unjustly poor, with its palaces and its slums, its millionaires and its paupers, be it ours to proclaim that there is a higher ideal in life than that of being first in the race for wealth, most successful in the scramble for gold. Be it ours to declare steadfastly that health, comfort, leisure, culture, plenty for every individual are far more desirable than breathless struggle for existence, furious trampling down of the weak by the strong, huge fortunes accumulated out of the toil of others, to be handed down to those who had done nothing to earn them.”

“We shower money on generals and on nobles, we keep high-born paupers living on the national charity, we squander wealth with both hands on army and navy, on churches and palaces; but we grudge every halfpenny that increases the education rate and howl down every proposal to build decent houses for the poor. We cover our heartlessness and indifference with fine phrases about sapping the independence of the poor and destroying their self-respect.”

“Mysticism is the most scientific form of religion, for it bases itself, as does all science, on experience and experiment—experiment being only a specialised form of experience, devised either to discover or to verify.”

Membership

Besant was a member of the National Secular Society, Theosophical Society, and Fabian Society.

Personality

Being blessed with excellent oratory skills, Annie became a public speaker. She traveled far and wide, giving lectures and speaking on day-to-day issues. Through her public speeches, she demanded improvement, reform and freedom from the government.

She was an untiring worker for the upliftment of women, and pleaded again and again for a radical change in social conditions, but never desired any modification of the Indian woman’s temperament which she held to be one of the most spiritual in the world.

Mrs. Besant had always been a great traveler, having visited in the course of her Theosophical work nearly all the countries of Europe more than once, and making several visits to the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Her great organizing capacity was used to ‘make theosophy practical’, and action became her ‘slogan’.

Quotes from others about the person

• Shaw described her as "a sort of expeditionary force, always to the front …, carrying away audiences for us…, founding branches …, and generally … taking on the fighting…. "

Connections

In 1867, Annie married an Anglican clergyman, Frank Besant. They had two children, Arthur and Mabel. Annie and Frank’s marriage did not last long due to their polarized opinions. They separated in 1873.

During her Presidency of Theosophical Society, she served as the legal guardian of Jiddu Krishnamurti and his younger brother Nityananda. Her bond with Jiddu Krishnamurti grew so strong that he eventually considered her as his surrogate mother.

Father:

William Page

Mother:

Emily Wood

Ex-husband:

Frank Besant

Daughter:

Mabel Besant-Scott

28 August 1870 – 22 May 1952

Son:

Arthur Besant

adopted son:

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Friend:

Charles Bradlaugh

26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891

References

• Invisible Worlds: Annie Besant on Psychic and Spiritual Development "To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in humanity" is one object of the Theosophical Society.
  2013
• Mrs Annie Besant: A Modern Prophet Having already published a bibliography on Annie Besant, Theodore Besterman in this book continued with the story of her life. She was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator who lived between 1847 and 1933.
  1934