Besant, Annie

Besant, Annie (née Wood) (b. 1 Oct. 1847, d. 20 Sept. 1933). British social reformer, theosophist, and campaigner for Indian Home Rule Born in London, and originally an evangelical Christian, she separated from her clergyman husband in 1873 and joined the National Secular Society a year later. She began promoting birth control in 1877, and during the early 1880s was attracted to socialism. She had become a Fabian by 1885, and a trade-union organizer, most notably being involved in the ‘match-girls' strike’ of 1888. In the early 1890s, she became a leading exponent of the religious movement of theosophy (emphasizing an individual spiritual awareness of God), and went to live in India. There, she founded what later became the Benares Hindu University of India. In 1916 she helped to form the All India Home Rule League. She became a hero for the Indian cause when she was interned for three months in 1917, and briefly became the president of the Indian National Congress (1918–19). She published a number of books on theosophy.