Annie Besant

Annie Besant, English writer, socialist and feminist activist, was born in 1847, the only daughter of William B. P. Wood, a non-practicing physician, and the former Emily Morris. Both were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Annie was raised a devout Anglican, and religion remained an important factor throughout her life, providing the decisive spur to her pioneering work for social justice. Educated privately by Miss Marryat, sister of the novelist Frederick Marryat, Annie Wood married Frank Besant, a clergyman, in 1867. The marriage produced two children, a daughter, Mabel, and a son, Digby. Frank's mental cruelty and physical violence led to a legal separation in 1873 and Annie's abandonment of her naive Christianity. She was associated with the radical atheist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) and the socialist Fabian Society. Besant and Bradlaugh published a treatise advocating birth control and were prosecuted; as a result she lost custody of her daughter. In 1889 she became a disciple of the Russian spiritualist and mystic Madame Blavatsky. Thereafter she went to India where she founded the Central Hindu College in 1898. Her Theosophy and the New Psychology was published in 1904. She became president of the Theosophical Society in 1907, a post she held until her death. She also became involved in the Indian independence movement, established the Indian Home Rule League in 1916, and became the only British woman to serve as president of the Indian National Congress in 1917.