Annie Besant. An autobiography, etc. [With portraits]

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Title
Annie Besant. An autobiography, etc. [With portraits]
Author
  • Besant, Annie
Document Type
  • Printed Book
Date
1893
Biography
Annie Besant (nee Woods) was a British social reformer and Indian independence leader born in London in 1847. After her father died when she was five years old, Annie was looked after by a family friend Ellen Marryat and received a good education. She married clergyman Frank Besant in 1867 and together they had two children. Annie’s anti-religious views, however, led to their divorce in 1873, after which Annie became a member of the National Secular Society and the socialist Fabian Society. Throughout the 1970s, Annie edited the weekly National Reformer, advocating for women’s rights, birth control, trade unions, and national education, for example. In 1888, she helped organise a strike of female workers at a match factory in London which led to significant improvements in women’s working situations. In 1889, Annie also became interested in Theosophy, a religious movement based on the Hindu notions of karma and reincarnation, and became a leader of the Theosophical Society. She wrote numerous books and articles, considered some of the best expositions of theosophical belief. She visited India in 1893 and later moved there, establishing the Indian Home Rule League. There she promoted her protégé and adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she claimed was the new Messiah. She died in India in 1933.
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