Note on controversy
Besant's life had several distinct phases. Before Theosophy she was a secularist, birth-control campaigner, socialist and labour organiser, and her 1877 prosecution and her turn from atheism to Theosophy were both hotly debated. In India she was a major figure in the Home Rule movement and president of the Indian National Congress in 1917, though her influence in Congress declined as Gandhi's mass movement rose. Within Theosophy she promoted Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming 'World Teacher' and headed the Order of the Star in the East; Krishnamurti renounced that role and dissolved the Order in 1929. She also stood by C. W. Leadbeater despite the allegations against him, backing his readmission in 1908 and defending him later, which divided the Society. We present these facts neutrally; her social and political work is judged separately from her Theosophical claims.
Life
Annie Besant was born Annie Wood in London. After her marriage to the clergyman Frank Besant broke down over her loss of faith, she became a leading speaker for the National Secular Society alongside Charles Bradlaugh; in 1877 the two were prosecuted for republishing a pamphlet on birth control. She joined the Fabian Society, helped organise the London matchgirls' strike of 1888 and was elected to the London School Board. In 1889, after reviewing Blavatsky's 1888 work, she joined the Theosophical Society, and she moved to India in 1893. She helped found the Central Hindu College in Benares, became president of the Theosophical Society in 1907 and remained so until her death. During the First World War she launched the All-India Home Rule League, was interned by the British authorities in 1917, and that year became the first woman president of the Indian National Congress. With Leadbeater she raised Jiddu Krishnamurti as the expected 'World Teacher'. She died at Adyar in 1933.
The system
- Theosophy as a universal 'ancient wisdom' behind all religions.
- Karma, reincarnation and the evolution of consciousness as the basis of ethics.
- Service: education, social reform and Indian self-government as spiritual work.
- Clairvoyant study of thought and the subtle bodies, with Leadbeater.
Key works
- An Autobiography (1893) Amazon
- The Ancient Wisdom (1897) Amazon
- Thought-Forms (1901, with C. W. Leadbeater) Amazon
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Where to start
- An Autobiography covers her reform years and her turn to Theosophy; The Ancient Wisdom is her clearest outline of Theosophical teaching.
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