Very short biography of annie besant photos

English writer and activist (1847–1933)

Annie Besant (néeWood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She became the first female president of the Indian National Congress in 1917.

She became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS), as well as a writer, and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. Thereafter, she became involved with union actions, including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888. She was a leading speaker for both the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was also elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll, even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky, and over the next few years her interest in theosophy grew, whilst her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject. As part of her theosophy-related

Annie Besant

First female President of Indian National Congress: 1847-1933 (Calcutta, 1917)

Annie Besant was born in London on 1 October 1847. Her father William Page Woods was half - Irish and half - English, and belonged to a distinguished family, one of his ancestors having been the Mayor of London and another a Lord Chancellor.

She was instrumental in helping to start the first trade unions in London. She joined the Fabian Society and was a close associate of Sydney Webbs, George Bernard Shaw, George Lansbury, Ramsay MacDonald and several other prominent socialists of the time.

In 1866 she read two theosophical books written by Mr A. P. Sinnet, a prominent theosophist and in 1889 she was given Mme H. P. Blavatsky's ‘The Secret Doctrine’ for review. This book was to her a revelation.

She joined the Theosophical Society in May 1889 and became Mme Blavatsky's devoted pupil and helper. She became a prominent worker in the Society and was elected President which position she held till her death on 21 September 1933.

She first came to India on 16 November 1893. In October 1913 she spoke at a great public meeting in Madras recommending that there should be a Standing Committee of the House of Commons for Indian affairs which would go into the question of how India might attain freedom.

She founded a weekly newspaper 'Commonweal' in January 1914 for her political work. In June 1914 she purchased the 'Madras Standard' and renamed it 'New India', which thereafter became her chosen organ for her tempestuous propaganda for India's freedom.

She called this freedom ‘Home Rule’ for India. She was a delegate to the Indian National Congress in 1914. In 1915, in Bombay, at a meeting called by her, she explained her plan for the establishment of the Home Rule League.

In 1916 this work intensified. People eagerly read the 'New India' for news of the progress of the movement and read Dr Besant's editorials in th

Annie Besant (1847–1933), second President of The Theosophical Society from 1907 to 1933, was described as a ‘Diamond Soul’, for she had many brilliant facets to her character.  She was an outstanding orator of her time, a champion of human freedom, educationist, philanthropist, and author with more than three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. 

She also guided thousands of men and women all over the world in their spiritual quest.

Early Days

Annie Wood was born on 1 October 1847, and educated privately in England, Germany and France.  She was a devout Christian, and was married at the age of twenty to an English clergyman, Rev. Frank Besant, Vicar of Sibsey, Lincolnshire, by whom she had a son, Arthur Digby, and a daughter, Mabel. However, the awakening of her character made her challenge several of the Christian dogmas.  ‘It was not the challenge of unfaith’, as Jinarâjadâsa was to say later, ‘but rather of a highly spiritual nature that desired intensely not only to believe but also to understand.’  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.  In 1879 she matriculated at London University and went on with her studies in science but met obstacles there owing to the sexist prejudices of her time.

She joined the National Secular Society in 1874 and worked in the free thought and radical movements led by Charles Bradlaugh, MP.  She co-edited the National Reformer with him and wrote many political and free-thought books and pamphlets from 1874–88.  At this point her husband moved 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 Labour and Socialist movements, a member o

The trade unionist, socialist, and later Indian nationalist who was the first woman to endorse birth control

Besant was born Annie Wood to Irish parents living in London in 1847. The Besant name came from her husband, Reverend Frank Besant, whom she married at the tender age of nineteen. Despite keeping her husband’s name throughout her social prominence and making it her own, by her admission they were an “ill-matched pair”. Her husband was controlling and, despite the fact that they had two children in 18 months, the couple became somewhat estranged early-on in the marriage. She took up writing in 1868, hoping to make a living out of it, and was horrified to realise that as a married woman, her husband took control of all of her earnings. This marked the beginnings of her interest in activism, as she herself was a victim of the sexist and restrictive laws regarding women at the time.

The turning point in her life came in 1871, when she almost lost her baby daughter to whooping cough. She began questioning her faith, something that angered her pious and conservative husband who presented her with an ultimatum- “Hypocrisy or Expulsion”, as Besant later put it. He demanded that she take communion regularly in front of his congregation, failing that she would be excommunicated from the church and from his life. She agreed to a legal separation from the Reverend, moving to London with her young daughter. Freed from the shackles of an unhappy marriage, Besant dedicated her life to activism.

Becoming a journalist with the secular periodical The National Reformer, B