Annie Besant
Source: Wikipedia: Annie Besant
Humanitarian & Peace • Historical Archive • 🇬🇧 Great Britain • 1 views

Annie Besant 🇬🇧

Annie Besant (nee Wood)
["Social Reformer", "Theosophist", "President of Indian National Congress"]
Born Oct 01, 1847 🇬🇧 Clapham (London), Great Britain
Passed Away Sep 20, 1933 Adyar (Madras), India
Lifespan 85 years old
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Notice / Correction
"Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it as a continuous service to humanity."

Archival Overview

British social reformer, trade union champion, and orator who organized the historic 1888 London Matchgirls' Strike, moved to India to champion education and the Home Rule movement, and was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1917.

Biographical Record

Annie Besant (1847–1933) escaped an unhappy marriage to become a champion of free thought, publishing birth control pamphlets alongside Charles Bradlaugh. In 1888, she exposed the horrific working conditions and phossy jaw necrosis suffered by teenage matchgirls at the Bryant & May factory in London, leading their successful strike.

Moving to India in 1893, Besant founded Central Hindu College in Varanasi (later Banaras Hindu University). In 1916, she launched the All-India Home Rule League alongside Bal Gangadhar Tilak, enduring British internment before being elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1917.

Key Life Milestones

1888

Leadership of the London Matchgirls' Strike

Mobilized public opinion and strike action to defeat dangerous industrial exploitation of young women.

1917

President of the Indian National Congress

Elected as Congress President in Calcutta, leading the united movement for Indian swaraj (self-rule).

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Adyar River Garden Cremation Memorial
Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India
GPS: 13.0067, 80.2564
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