Biography of Annie Besant

Annie Besant was born October 1 1847 in Clapham, London. She was the daughter of impoverished parents. Her father died when she was five years old. At the age of 20 she married the Anglican clergyman Frank Besant and soon became the mother of two children, Arthur Digby Besant and Mabel Besant-Scott. The following year she met the radical free-thinker and journalist Charles Bradlaugh know, was a member of the Secular Society and took charge of the weekly National Reformer. In the 1870s and 1880s , Annie Besant debating on various as those which were in fashion in London, including The Zetetical and The Dialectical Society. It was considered a brilliant speaker, which she also earned money and acquired in atheist intellectual circles a certain reputation. On one of these events in 1875 she met the aspiring writers George Bernard Shaw. She was influenced by Shaw; she was a member of the Fabian Society , where she once was one of the leading figures as well.
               In 1888 she successfully led the Match Girls 'Strike (match Workers' Strike) in the fight against poverty wages and inhumane working conditions in the UK match factories. Shortly after, she was elected to the London school board, where she was for education reforms began. Besant heard in 1902 by Francesca Arundale in London by the Masonic obedience Le Droit Humain , which in 1893 by Georges Martin and Maria Deraismes had been established and accepted women as members. In Paris Besant was in the first three grades recorded and was mainly responsible for the London founded the first English Masonic lodge of the Droit Humain. In 1913 she undertook a tour India, under the self-chosen motto Wake up India. In 1914, she joined the Indian National Congress (INC). There, they struck in 1915 founded the Home Rule Leagues and propagated before the Indian Self-Government in loyalty to the British Empire . At that time, Besant was one of the heads of the Indian national movement. In 1917 she was elected President of the Annual Congress of the INC. In the following years she campaigned strongly against the non-cooperation movement of Gandhi , and lost political importance. Annie Besant remained its president until her death on 20th September 1933.