Annie Besant

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Annie Besant (picture from 1890)
Annie Besant in the regalia of the 33 ° of the Scottish Masonic Order " Le Droit Humain ".

Annie Besant (born Annie Wood ; born October 1, 1847 in Clapham , Surrey , † September 20, 1933 in Adyar , Madras , British India , today Chennai , Tamil Nadu , India ) was a British theosophist , women's rights activist , author and politician.

Life

Youth and first years

Annie Besant was born in 1847 to the Irish-English doctor William Burton Persse Wood and Irish mother Emily Morris; her father died when she was five years old. She was adopted by Ellen Marryat and raised a Calvinist . However, she turned to Catholic theology early on and studied the writings of Augustine and Ignatius of Loyola .

Marriage, studies and work

At the age of 19 she met the Anglican clergyman Frank Besant, brother of the well-known socially critical writer Walter Besant , and became his housekeeper. The two married in 1867 and had two children, Arthur Digby Besant and Mabel Besant-Scott . After making contact with atheist circles, the marriage became unhappy and eventually divorced in 1873.

Besant was now active in the English labor movement. The following year she met the radical freethinker and journalist Charles Bradlaugh , became a member of the Secular Society and took over the management of the weekly National Reformer and various left-wing press products. She was also the first student at the University of London to earn a Bachelor of Science (in biology).

Left activism in London and George Bernard Shaw

In the 1870s and 1880s Annie Besant was a member of various debating clubs , such as were fashionable in London at the time. a. The Zetetical and The Dialectical Society . She was considered a brilliant speaker, making money from her, and gained a certain reputation in atheist intellectual circles. At one of these events in 1875 she met the budding writer George Bernard Shaw , with whom she had a two-year relationship.

Besant promoted the still penniless writer, published his novels Die foolichte Marriage and Künstlerliebe in their magazine Our Corner and employed the friend as a reviewer for the art section of this journal. Influenced by Shaw, she became a member of the Fabians , where she was also soon one of the leading figures.

Shaw described her in his diary entries and letters as an energetic woman “who made quick decisions”, but also as “completely humorless” and “absolutely without sex appeal ”. Their not always tension-free relationships with men after their hapless marriage are said to have been without exception platonic . With Shaw, she even wanted to lead a marriage-like community and presented him with a point by point, elaborate draft contract in which - expressly sex-free - coexistence should be meticulously regulated. Shaw, who was considered a bon vivant and at that time still had relationships with two other women, refused and separated from Besant.

At first they continued to work together politically. Besant, who was one of those forces among the Fabians who wanted to weld the anarchist and collectivist wings into a left bloc, arranged a general conference of all socialist associations in December 1886 , at which the Marxists prevailed.

On November 13, 1887 Besant and Shaw were involved in protests against unemployment and the restrictive Ireland policy of the Conservative Prime Minister Lord Salisbury . Clashes with police and military resulted in 75 people injured and 400 demonstrators arrested.

In the following years Besant accelerated their political activity and became active in the trade union movement. In 1888, she successfully led the Match Girl's Strike ( Match Workers' Strike ) in the fight against starvation wages and inhumane working conditions in the British matchmakers. Shortly thereafter, she was elected to the London school board, where she campaigned for educational reform.

Shaw had not forgotten the quarrelsome Annie even after she left the Fabians: in 1898 he created the role of Raina Petkoff in his play Heroes based on her model. However, he had never taken her political activities very seriously: “Like all great public speakers, she was a born actress,” he wrote in 1947 on the occasion of her hundredth birthday.

During her active time in London Besant was also active as a book author: In The Laws of Population (1877) she advocated birth control . In 1887 she wrote the atheistic pamphlet Why I Do Not Believe in God with Charles Bradlaugh .

The Theosophical Society and the work in India until death

On May 21, 1889, Besant joined the Theosophical Society (TG) in London after she had become acquainted with the work of Helena Blavatsky and had written a review of their secret doctrine . Soon after, she became a close associate of Blavatsky. In the following period she took over the publication of theosophical journals and developed a certain position within the theosophical movement. In 1893 she represented them in the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. ( See also: Vivekananda , Anagarika Dharmapala )

Besant with Henry Steel Olcott (left) and Charles Leadbeater (right) in Adyar , Madras , December 1905

She first traveled to the USA, then to India in 1893, where she toured the country as a successful speaker for several years. In 1894/95 she was instrumental in the Judge Case , which led to the division of the TG into the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) on the one hand and the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA) on the other. Besant himself followed the Adyar-TG. In 1898 she founded together with u. a. Bhagavan Das the Central Hindu College (CHC) in Benares, to which she mainly devoted herself over the next few years. For the CHC in 1901 she drafted the ongoing text of an Introduction to Hinduism , which has Reform Hindu and theosophical traits and was published in 1903. The Central Hindu College became part of the Banaras Hindu University in 1916 , which was then in its founding phase.

In 1902 Besant heard from Francesca Arundale in London about the Masonic Grand Lodge Le Droit Humain , which had been founded in 1893 by Georges Martin and Maria Deraismes and which also accepted women as members. Besant was admitted to the first three degrees in Paris and was primarily responsible for the first English Masonic lodge, the Droit Humain, founded in London .

In 1907 Besant became president of the Adyar-TG after the death of Henry Steel Olcott . 1909 her staff believed Charles W. Leadbeater in Jiddu Krishnamurti a theosophical-Hindu form of " Messiah to recognize." The Order of the Rising Sun and then the Order of the Star of the East were founded in 1911, primarily with staff and students from the CHC in Benares . The onset of the Krishnamurti cult brought her increasing criticism and led to conflicts within the Adyar-TG and the CHC. In 1912/13 most of the German theosophists under Rudolf Steiner split off after years of preparation from the Adyar Theosophical Society, which they led, in order to follow Steiner and his teachings exclusively.

Photograph of Krishnamurti with his brother Nitya, Annie Besant, and others in London 1911
Besant in 1911 in England together with Jiddu Krishnamurti , his brother Nitya and George Arundale

In their allegedly clairvoyant investigations, Leadbeater and Besant reported on the past lives of members of the Adyar-TG, including the development of Besant as a human being: In their previous life, Besant was an ape . As a monkey, she rescued the Buddha at risk when his family was attacked by savages. This act led to cosmic reactions that brought about the evolutionary leap of the Besant monkey to Homo sapiens in the next "incarnation".

Besant was politically involved in the Indian independence movement . In 1913 she made a tour of India under the self-chosen motto Wake up India , in 1914 she joined the Indian National Congress (INC). There she proposed the establishment of Home Rule Leagues in 1915 and propagated Indian self-government with loyalty to the British Empire. After the INC did not want to accept this proposal, it initiated this movement on its own (at about the same time as a similar initiative by Tilak ); In 1917 she was interned for this.

After her release that same year, she was elected President of the INC's annual congress. In the period that followed, it agitated against Gandhi's non-cooperation movement and lost its political importance.

Besant played a special role in the prominence of the Aryans in the Indian national movement and the renewal of Hinduism. Their interpretation of the theosophical root race theory conformed to the race theories of Ernest Renan and Matthew Arnold . She advocated the thesis that Hindu India could build on its golden “Aryan” past through the colonial experience in order to enable a renewal of Hindu spirituality and culture on a higher level.

After Jiddu Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star of the East in 1929, the Adyar-TG lost significant ground in India. Besant remained its president until her death on September 20, 1933.

Descendants

Annie Besant's great-great-grandson is former British tennis player and sports commentator Andrew Castle .

Works (selection)

  • The Political Status of Women (1874)
  • On The Nature And The Existence Of God (1875)
  • Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, And As It Should Be: A Plea For Reform (1878)
  • The Law Of Population (1877)
  • Autobiographical Sketches (1885)
  • "Why I became a Theosophist" (1889)
  • An Autobiography (1893)
  • The Ancient Wisdom (1898)
  • Sanatana Dharma (with Bhagavan Das), Advanced Textbook, Elementary Textbook, Catechism (1903)
  • Bhagavad Gita (Translation) (1905)
  • Introduction to Yoga (1908)
  • India: A Nation (1917)
  • Occult Chemistry (with Charles W. Leadbeater ) (1908)
  • The Doctrine of the Heart (1920)
  • Esoteric Christianity
  • Thought power
  • HP Blavatsky and the Masters of Wisdom, Leipzig 1924

literature

Autobiographical fragment 1875-91:

Biographies:

  • John Algeo: The power of thought, a twenty-first century adaptation of Annie Besant's classic work . Quest Books, Wheaton 2001, ISBN 0-8356-0797-6 .
  • Shiri Ram Bakshi (Ed.): Annie Besant, Struggle for Independence . Anmol, New Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7041-142-4 .
  • Olivia Bennett: Annie Besant . Hamilton, London 1988, ISBN 0-241-12224-4 .
  • Theodore Besterman : Mrs. Annie Besant. A modern prophet . Kegan Paul & Co., London 1934.
  • Jyoti Chandra: Annie Besant, from theosophy to nationalism . KK Publications, Delhi 2001.
  • Rosemary Dinnage: Annie Besant . Penguin, Harmondsworth 1986, ISBN 0-14-008663-3 .
  • Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa : Biography of Dr. Annie Besant . Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar 1981.
  • Iychettira Madappa Muthanna: Mother Besant and Mahatma Gandhi . Thenpulam Publishers, Vellore 1986.
  • Arthur Hobart Nethercot: The First Five Lives of Annie Besant . Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1961.
  • Ders .: The Last Four Lives of Annie Besant . Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1963.
  • Sri Prakasa: Annie Besant . Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay 1954.
  • Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Aiyar: Annie Besant . Ministry of Information and Broadcasting , Delhi 1963.
  • Anne Taylor: Annie Besant, a biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-211796-3 .
  • Catherine Wessinger: Annie Besant and progressive Messianism (1847-1933) . E. Mellen Press, Lewiston 1988, ISBN 0-88946-523-1 .
  • Geoffrey West: The Life of Annie Besant . Howe, London 1929.
  • Gertrude Marvin Williams: The Passionate Pilgrim, A life of Annie Besant . John Hamilton, London 1932.

Works with biographical notes and other references to Annie Besant:

  • Michael Holroyd : Bernard Shaw. Magicians of Reason, A Biography . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-518-40722-8 . (One-volume adaptation of the three-volume English original edition, London 1988–1991, in Part III for details on Besant)
  • George Bernard Shaw: Annie Besant's Passage through Fabian Socialism . in: Dr. Annie Besant, Fifty Years in Public Work . London 1924 (under the title Mrs. Besant as a Fabian Socialist ) first published in: The Theosophist , Adyar October 1917.
  • Ders .: The Diaries , Volume 1 (1885-1897), ed. by Stanley Weintraub, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1986, ISBN 0-271-00410-X .
  • Gauri Viswanathan : Outside the fold. conversion, modernity and belief . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1998, ISBN 0-691-05899-7 .

swell

  1. ↑ a b Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Original edition; and 3rd updated edition, both Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , p. 104.
  2. ↑ James Webb : The Escape from Reason. Politics, Culture and Occultism in the 19th Century. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 162 f.
  3. ^ Peter van der Veer : Imperial Encounters. Religion and Modernity in India and Britain. Princeton University Press, 2001, p. 65
  4. ↑ Daily Mail of December 8, 2007, GMTV's Andrew Castle finds rebel with an 'indecent and lewd' cause in his family tree (English)

Web links

Commons : Annie Besant  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Besant, Annie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Besant, Annie Wood; Wood, Annie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British suffragette, theosophist and author
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Clapham , Surrey , England
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1933
Place of death Madras , British India