Annie Besant in India

Annie Besant in India

Compiled by C. V. Agarwal and Pedro Oliveira

Olive Tree Publishing

2021
 Copyright © 2021 by Pedro Oliveira

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be
reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quota-
tions in a book review or scholarly journal.

First printing: 2021

ISBN 978-0-646-81229-8

Cover design: Neeta Agrawal

www.cwlworld.info
For Radhaji
 Contents

Introduction …………………………………………..
1. An Enduring Dedication (1847-1891) ……………
2. From England to India …………………………..
3. Sanātana Dharma:
Education through Timeless Values ………………
4. President of the Theosophical Society:
‘Theosophy is for All’ …………………………….
5. Krishnaji and the World Teacher Movement
6. Her Vision for India ……………………………...
7. India’s Awakening ………………………………….
8. Home Rule for India ……………………………..
9. Commonwealth of India Bill:
Foundation for the Future ………………………..
10. The Departure of the Diamond Soul …………….
11. Epilogue …………………………………………
Appendix 1 …………………………………………..
Appendix 2 .………………………………………….
Appendix 3 …………………………………………..
 Introduction

In July 1924, at the Queen’s Hall in London, the Golden

Jubilee of Annie Besant’s public work was celebrated. C.
Jinarājadāsa, who was the time in Adyar, Madras, India, quoted from
a telegram he received concerning the occasion which said: ‘I am
amazed… this is no narrow Jubilee; it is the history of the past fifty
years.’ A number of her former colleagues were there, including the
MP George Lansbury.
From the Irish struggle to Home Rule for India, from fiercely
fighting social injustice and inequality in England to tackling child
marriage in India, from exposing the hypocrisy of the upper classes
in London towards the appalling poverty of its East End, from
becoming Madame Blavatsky’s successor (according to Blavatsky’s
own words) to being elected President of the Theosophical Society
(TS) and an open target for malice and unending misrepresentation,
even to this day, Annie Besant made history.
Most public figures retain a form of protective shield, even
in these days of electronic media. Annie Besant’s public work was
direct, open, uncompromising, relentless and effective. Her
protective shield, if there was one, was a sound, calm and life-
altering unselfishness. As a deep student of the Bhagavad Gitā, she
knew that only selfless action can transform the mind and therefore
the world. She was, indeed, the ‘sage of stable mind’ described by
Sri Krishna to Arjuna in chapter two of that pearl of world
spirituality:
He whose mind is free from anxiety amid pains,
indifferent amid pleasures, loosed from passion, fear and anger, he
is called a sage of stable mind. (56)
He who on every side is without attachments, whatever
hap of fair and foul, who neither likes nor dislikes, of such a one
 the understanding is well-poised. (57)

Her Autobiography, published in 1893, narrates her personal

journey as it happened and provides compelling evidence that
unselfishness and a profound sense of justice were the driving forces
of her life, much before she joined the Theosophical Society. She
was portrayed during the serious institutional crises in the TS, in a
similar way as in the Judge and the Leadbeater cases, as a power-
hungry, deluded, ambitious and weak woman. Her accusers had a
psychological need to thus portray her as such, for at every step she
was making her own decisions without fear or favour. However, life
shows that smearing a leader that does not work for self eventually
backfires.
As an example, two scholars in our century (Daniel H.
Caldwell1 and David Reigle2) presented unbiased, technical and
scholarly evidence that the Third Volume of The Secret Doctrine,
published by Annie Besant in 1897, with the notes which were left
behind by Madame Blavatsky in her care, was indeed the work of
the author of The Secret Doctrine and not an adulterated text. For
publishing it she endured widespread abuse and malice from
Theosophical groups in different parts of the world, not affiliated
with the International Headquarters at Adyar. The abuse continued
in the twentieth century through books, magazines, journals, blogs
and websites, and it continues even today.
As President of the Theosophical Society she spearheaded an
unprecedented popularization of Theosophy. Her books became
widely popular, bringing the message of Theosophy to remote
corners of the globe. The TS expanded its presence to countries in

1
‘The Myth of the “Missing” Third Volume of The Secret Doctrine’, Blavat-
sky Archives, https://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiipt1.htm
2
Secret Doctrine Würzburg Manuscript by David Reigle, Eastern School
Press, Cotopaxi, Colorado, 2014.
which it did not exist before. She helped in making the light of
Theosophy shine far and wide.
She introduced to the world a young, shy, sometimes vacant-
looking young boy called Jiddu Krishnamurti. She was completely
convinced that one day he would become the vehicle for the
Bodhisattva Maitreya, the World Teacher. Again she was ridiculed
and abused, even by some of her own TS members. But if you read
Krishnamurti’s final statement of February 1986, recorded a few
days before he died, and included in Chapter Five, you will see how
her vision for him was completely fulfilled. Those who knew him
closely reported on the depth of his love for ‘Amma’, as Krishnaji
referred to Dr Besant.
But it was her work for Mother India that occupied a great
deal of her time, to which she lent a mind and a heart galvanized by
the ever-present holiness which dwells in Āryavārta, the ancient
name for India. An essential part of this book consists of the many
and moving testimonies of her Indian colleagues and contemporaries
about how complete, self-denying and compassionate was her
dedication to India, and equally her courage and determination while
working for that nation. The testimonies reveal how her life and love
for the country was poured through the hearts and minds of her
colleagues and co-workers. She was venerated almost like a spiritual
political guru, with the fundamental difference that while many
‘political gurus’ use the adulation to pursue their own self-interest,
Dr Besant channelled the veneration towards her into a mass
movement that was instrumental in awakening India from its
slumber.
The real core of this book is her vision for India. Essential to
that vision is the principle that the state does not exist for itself but
must wisely use its powers and resources to awaken the potentialities
of every individual, to bring opportunities to all, to educate its citi-
zens in the truth that all life is one. In Dr Besant’s vision, the essence
of religion – which the Indian ethos calls dharma, duty, law, order,
essential nature – can provide the living background to the education
and growth of individuals. This comes about not by inculcating be-
liefs and dogmas, but by sharing the view that we do not exist for
ourselves alone. The significance of our lives is achieved when we
realize that we have a duty to society, and that duty is service. For
Dr Besant, that duty was spiritually compelling: “The Theosophic
Life must be a life of service. Unless we are serving, we have no
right to live. We live by the constant sacrifice of other lives on every
side, and we must pay it back; otherwise, to use an ancient phrase,
we are but thieves and do not repay the gift.” (The Theosophist,
March 1909)
When she publicly differed from M.K. Gandhi in his policies
of civil disobedience and non-cooperation, and was practically
shunted aside by the leadership of the freedom movement, she would
still press on with her work. She continued to maintain that India one
day would be a spiritual democracy. In his book, A Theosophist
Looks at the World, N. Sri Ram (TPH Adyar, 1950), who was at one
time Dr Besant’s private secretary, describes the concept:
A spiritual democracy can only mean for us a democracy in
which there is the preference of Wisdom to ignorance; order
brought by elimination of those conflicts which now tear the
democratic body; freedom for each to grow to his possible
stature; a democracy in which all laws and institutions in
every department will exist to afford an outlet to the creative
energies of the people and make an appeal by their rightness
to the good sense and idealism in every uncorrupted
individual. It must be a democracy planned and constructed
with proper measures and in due proportion, showing a
perfect adaptation of its various parts to each other and to the
whole.
This book contains three Appendices: ‘A Besant Diary of
Principal Events’, ‘A List of Books and Pamphlets Written by Annie
Besant’ and ‘Annie Besant and the Judge Case’. The first two were
selected by Dr Agarwal and the third one by me. Since so many
books, articles and essays have been written for more than one hun-
dred and twenty years condemning Dr Besant for her role in the
Judge Case it seems only appropriate to present her views of that
difficult period in the life of the Theosophical Society, together with
those of Col. Henry S. Olcott and some of his fellow workers in the
TS.

Acknowledgements
Radha Burnier, President of the Theosophical Society (1980-
2013) mentioned to me and to others at Adyar that, before he passed
away, J. Krishnamurti asked her to write a biography of ‘Amma’ (as
he used to refer to Annie Besant). While keeping the idea in her mind
she was constantly hampered by lack of time due to her heavy re-
sponsibilities, including many international travels. Mrs Burnier
then asked Dr C. V. Agarwal, former General Secretary of the The-
osophical Society in India and the author of the book The Buddhist
and Theosophical Movements, which depicted the unparalleled con-
tribution of Col. H. S. Olcott to the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka, to
come to Adyar.
Dr Agarwal took up residence at Adyar, the International
Headquarters of the TS in Chennai, India, and conducted research on
the book for a number of years, until he passed away in June 2009.
He was also at that time Officer-in-Charge of the TS Archives.
Mrs Burnier realised that it was not possible to undertake a
full biography of Dr Besant. Instead, she said that the book should
concentrate on her work in India. She also decided that the first chap-
ter should consist of a condensed version of Annie Besant’s
Autobiography, which was duly prepared by Dr Agarwal.
After Dr Agarwal passed away, I went to Mrs Burnier’s of-
fice and indicated to her that with notes and material prepared by
him I could try and produce a manuscript for her consideration, to
which she agreed. After I left Adyar, in September 2011, I worked
on the manuscript in my spare time. A triennial meeting of the Indo-
Pacific Federation of the TS was scheduled to take place in Bali,
Indonesia, at the end of October 2013. I had planned to attend that
meeting and then proceed to Adyar in order to conduct a course at
The School of the Wisdom. I was also going to show the unfinished
manuscript to Radhaji.
On the morning of 1st November 2013, when my wife Linda
and I were at breakfast, John Vorstermans, National President of the
New Zealand Section of the TS, told us the news that Radhaji had
passed away on the night of 31st October at her residence at Adyar.
The news travelled very fast throughout the TS. Tributes to her came
from different parts of the world. After I arrived at Adyar I went up
to Parsi Quarters, her residence, now empty, to pay my respects to
her. She had helped me to dedicate myself to the work of the Society.
Before I left Adyar, in September 2011, Radhaji had ap-
proved the table of contents and chose the title for the book, Annie
Besant in India. We had several telephone conversations between
the end of 2011 and her passing in 2013. Working full time and with
a schedule of travels within Australia and sometimes also overseas,
my time allocated to work on the book was limited until more recent
times.
Sincere thanks are due to Mrs Radha Burnier for her encour-
agement, guidance and inspiration, as well as for conversations over
a period of more than seven years about the history of the TS and the
role of Adyar, about Dr Besant and also Krishnaji. [I would also
eventually ask her some Sanskrit questions, like the meaning of the
word stitha (in stithaprajña, the stable mind of the sage mentioned
in the Second Discourse in the Bhagavad Gitā). She said: ‘Immova-
ble’. In other words, a mind unshaken by experiences, steady, firm,
unassailable. That was her mind. My respect for her is renewed every
day, both in my mind and in my heart.]
This book would not have seen the light of day without the
steady and dedicated research work of Dr C. V. Agarwal. He
produced most of the content for the first four chapters: ‘An Endur-
ing Dedication (1847-1891)’ – a much condensed version of
important points in Mrs Besant’s Autobiography; ‘From England to
India’, containing Basil Hodgson-Smith’s serialized articles in The
Theosophist about Mrs Besant’s work from 1891 to 1911, entitled
‘Twenty Years of Work’; ‘Sanātana Dharma: Education through
Timeless Values’ and ‘President of the Theosophical Society: “The-
osophy is for All”’. The first two appendices are also the fruit of his
research: ‘A Besant Diary of Principal Events’ and ‘A List of Books
and Pamphlets Written by Annie Besant’, both originally published
in The Theosophist, October 1947, Besant Centenary Number.
Sincere thanks are also due to the Adyar Library and Re-
search Centre at the International Headquarters of the Theosophical
Society in Chennai, India. It was there that Dr Agarwal conducted
most of his research for this book over a number of years. Gratitude
is also expressed to the TS Archives at Adyar for the photographs
included in this book. Appreciation is also extended to the Campbell
Theosophical Research Library in Sydney which contains a unique
collection of Theosophical periodicals from the earliest years of the
TS.
I am grateful for the help given by Sri S. Sundaram, former
General Secretary of the Indian Section of the Theosophical Society,
and resident at its Headquarters, for providing information about Dr
Bhagavan Das and Dr Besant, in particular his moving testimony af-
ter the former had immersed her ashes in the Ganga. Srimati Manju
Sundaram, Visiting Professor of the Benares Hindu University, pro-
vided much needed information on the Indian pandits that helped
Mrs Besant with her translation of the Bhagavad Gitā into English.
Special thanks are due to Neeta Agrawal, an accomplished
designer, for her unique cover design and blurb, and also for her gen-
erous assistance over a long period of time. She has undertaken
voluntary work for the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar for
many years thus enhancing, with her artistic acumen, the quality of
books and magazines that TPH Adyar brings out. Her work can be
seen on Instagram under ‘neetadesign’.
It is hoped that an Indian edition of this book may be pub-
lished in the not too distant future.

Pedro Oliveira
Compiler
 1

An Enduring Dedication (1847-1891)

The world into which Annie Besant was born was a period
of traumatic social and political upheaval and nervous change. The
Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1852) caused unprecedented mass
starvation, disease and emigration, during which more than one mil-
lion people died and another million emigrated from Ireland. It
would have a strong impact on the relations between Ireland and
Britain, eventually leading to the Irish independence. The impact of
the famine was nothing short of graphic:

The starving peasants streamed into the nearest considera-

ble town, hoping for relief there, and found too often that there the
very sources of charity were dried up. Many, very many, thus dis-
appointed, merely lied down on the pavement and died there.
Along the country roads one met everywhere groups of gaunt dim-
eyed wretches, clad in miserable old sacking and wandering aim-
lessly with some vague idea of finding food, as the boy in the fable
hope to find the gold where the rainbow touched the earth. Many
remained in their empty hovels and took death there when he came.
In some regions the country seemed unpeopled for miles. A fervid
national writer declared that the impression made on him by the
aspect of the country then was that of ‘one silent vast dissolution’.
(McCarthy, Justin, A History of Our Times, vol. I, George
Robertson, Melbourne, 1881, p. 225)

During 1848 Europe was swept by revolutionary movements

that affected over fifty countries, including some in Latin America.
They were a cry for more social and political participation brought
about by a heightened political awareness. What was known as the
year of ‘unfulfilled revolutions’ included the Crimean war, the In-
dian Mutiny, the war between France and Austria, the long civil war
in United States and the campaigns of Garibaldi in Italy.
Around the same time period in India, during what became
known as the British Raj, the approach to education of Indians was
exemplified by Macaulay’s stand ‘who strongly believed that India
had nothing to teach its own subjects and the best education for them
should happen in English’.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_the_Indian_subco
ntinent)

After a hot debate in council between Macaulay and Prinsep,

it was decided on 7 March, 1835, that the great object of the British
Government ought to be the promotion of European Literature and
science among the natives of India; and that all the funds appro-
priated to education would best be employed on English education
alone. … No more students, however, were to be supported during
the period of their education and no money should be employed on
printing Oriental works. All funds thus released should be em-
ployed “in imparting to the native population a knowledge of
English literature and science through the medium of the English
language”.
(The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Volume V,
Edited by H. H. Dodwell, Cambridge, At the University Press,
1932, p. 112)

Annie Besant would address these and other vital issues for
India’s life and progress vigorously and with sharp and focused in-
tent. Her kind, intelligent and compassionate nature responded to the
great social, economic and political issues of her time always with
energy, determination and selflessness. And throughout her strug-
gles one common factor was her heartfelt resonance to the vast and
appalling suffering she saw in the world. The lot of those who
suffered always received more attention from her than her own well-
being and comfort. Hers was a dedicated life.
Below are some of the highlights of Annie Besant’s life story
up to 1891 based on her Autobiography. In its Preface she wrote:

It is a difficult thing to tell the story of a life, and yet more

difficult when that life is one's own. At the best, the telling has a
savour of vanity, and the only excuse for the proceeding is that the
life, being an average one, reflects many others, and in troublous
times like ours may give the experience of many rather than of one.
And so the autobiographer does his work because he thinks that,
at the cost of some unpleasantness to himself, he may throw light
on some of the typical problems that are vexing the souls of his
contemporaries, and perchance may stretch out a helping hand to
some brother who is struggling in the darkness, and so bring him
cheer when despair has him in its grip.3

And she adds: ‘it may well be that the story of one may help
all, and that the tale of one soul that went out alone into the darkness
and on the other side found light, that struggled through the Storm
and on the other side found Peace, may bring some ray of light and
of peace into the darkness and the storm of other lives.’(op. cit., p.
xiv.)
No one, not even her loving parents, could have ever
dreamed that the baby, who was born in London on 1 October 1847,
would become known to people around the world for more than six
decades of sustained and courageous service to humanity and whose
example and teachings continue to inspire and elevate countless peo-
ple almost ninety years after her passing.

3
Annie Besant, An Autobiography, The Theosophical Publishing House,
Adyar, Madras, 1983, p. xiii.
 Annie Besant’s father was Irish on his mother’s side ‘though
belonging to the Devonshire’s Woods on his father’s’. Her mother
was of pure Irish descent. Although born in London Annie Besant
declared that ‘three-quarters of my blood and all my heart are Irish’.
The mother instilled into Annie the ideal of acting honourably in the
face of suffering; she might starve but not run into debt, any sugges-
tion of shame must be shunned. Heart-breaking suffering must be
borne with a smile. This strict training established in young Annie a
sense of honour, reticence, and prepared her to face storm, slander
and attack in her future public life. There arose in her an attitude of
‘stubbornly resistant feeling’ and ‘inwardly asserted its own purity
in face of foulest lie, and turning scareful face against the foe, too
proud either to justify itself or to defend’.
A beautiful relationship existed between her father and
mother. ‘He was keenly intellectual and splendidly educated; a math-
ematician, a good classical scholar, and a master of six languages,
‘with a smattering of Hebrew and Gaelic’. As a student of philoso-
phy, he was profoundly sceptical to the extent of sending away the
priest who was brought to his death bed. Her mother was selflessly
devoted to those she loved, contemptuous of all that was mean or
base, highly sensitive on every question of honour, sweet in tender-
ness yet of iron will. She was a devout Christian but her husband’s
‘liberal and unorthodox thought modified and partially rationalized
her beliefs’. She did not have faith in doctrines like eternal punish-
ment, the vicarious atonement, the infallibility of the Bible, the
equality of the Son with the Father in the Trinity.
Such was the home atmosphere into which Annie was born,
deeply religious at heart but rebellious against dogmas that crushed
the reason and did not satisfy the soul. A calamity befell the family
when Annie was five years old. Her father caught a cold which set-
tled in his chest and he passed away. A few months later her infant
brother passed away leaving her and her elder brother as sole conso-
lation to the bereaved mother.
 As a child Annie was ‘mystical and imaginative’, highly reli-
gious and ‘with a certain faculty for seeing visions and dreaming
dreams’. The sensitiveness to impressions other than physical ones
was a marked feature of her family. In her childhood elves and fairies
were real things, and she saw her dolls as real children.
Now began a period of struggle and hardship. Her father had
a good income but he left hardly anything for the family to live on.
On his death bed he urged that Harry, Annie’s elder brother, should
receive the best possible education. Her mother resolved to fulfil that
last wish and decided to educate him first at Harrow and later at
Cambridge or Oxford. This was a bold scheme for a penniless
widow, but she had a strong mind and will. Two of the family friends
had offered to educate him but could not afford such an ambitious
project, however, they helped. She moved to Harrow and the parents
of a boy Harry’s age kept him under her charge, which gave her an
income.
Soon afterwards a kindly maiden lady of means, Miss Mar-
ryat, came to the home and took an interest in Annie’s education.
She had already undertaken to educate one of her nieces and thought
it would be good to have two girls to teach. After some persuasion
and seeing the larger interests of the daughter the mother agreed to
leave Annie under the charge of Miss Marryat.
Miss Marryat delighted in seeking out children from families
of very small means and giving them the best possible education.
She had a perfect genius for teaching and taught everything except
music for which she engaged a teacher. She was very gentle and
taught in a manner that was a delight to the children, who called her
‘Auntie’. She strongly disapproved of learning by rote material they
did not understand. The emphasis was about children expressing
what they learnt. Thus, Annie covered a wide spectrum of subjects
including languages, and a joyous and healthy clarity of thought and
expression was ingrained in her.
 Annie started reading from the age of five when she was fre-
quently absorbed in fairy land or in dreams of heroes or martyrs. Her
religious education, with a strongly evangelical bent, began at the
age of eight. Her memory was very good and took dreamy pleasure
in reciting from memory many parts of the Old and New Testaments.
When Annie was about fourteen years old Miss Marryat,
with a view to give a broader based education, took her along with
her other ‘children’ to Germany and France. While in Germany the
girls went to some lovely excursions such as climbing mountains,
rowing on the Rhine and wandering in exquisite valleys.
In Paris they spent seven happy, busy months, as part of her
training which stood Annie in good stead for later life. They had to
work hard at their studies on four days a week and spent time in gal-
leries of the Louvre crowded with Madonnas and saints, visited
almost all the beautiful Churches – that of St Germain de l’Auxerrois
impressed Annie. She remembers the solemn beauty of Notre Dame,
the gaudy magnificence of La Sainte Chapelle, the stately La Made-
leine and impressive St Roch. The English Chaplain at the church of
the Rue d'Aguesseau taking advantage of the visit of the Bishop of
Ohio there arranged for a confirmation ceremony. Annie had already
taken the vows made in her name at Baptism very seriously. She
carefully prepared for this ceremony with prolonged prayers, the
‘sevenfold gifts of the spirit’, which were to be given to her by ‘the
laying on of hands’.
Wise teacher as Miss Marryat was, she gradually and gently
withdrew her constant supervision and left Annie to find her own
way through her studies. She would intervene only when some mis-
take was made. Thus, Annie gradually became more and more self-
reliant. When sixteen years of age Annie perfected her French and
German and returned home to live with her mother, going each week
for a few lessons at Miss Marryat’s place. Her mother had a passion
for music and so arranged lessons with an able teacher.
 The study she chose shows her bent of mind. She dwelt on
Fathers of the early Christian Church into whose writings she delved
deeply. Conception of a Catholic Church lasting through the centu-
ries gave her great joy. She dwelt on apostles and martyrs from the
early days of Christianity. ‘One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism’ and
considered herself a child of the Holy Church. Keen to tread the path-
way trodden by the Saints she fasted as enjoined by the Church and
flogged herself to see if she could bear physical pain. Constant study,
weekly communion, ecstatic meditation became part of devotional
life she voluntarily chose for herself.
At the Christmas in 1865 a little mission church was opened
near Annie’s grandfather’s house in a very poor district of Clapham,
in which she and her aunt worked hard for the as a preparation for
Easter decorating it beautifully. She had mentally prepared herself
for the great event of Resurrection, following the traditional Catholic
practice of fasting, prayers and mentally following the historical
events. For better understanding she compiled the occurrences from
the Four Gospels. As she proceeded, she became very uneasy on ac-
count of discrepancies and contradictions that increased as she
proceeded with the task. As all doubt is considered to be sin and ap-
parent contradictions were supposed to be tests of faith, she
shuddered and imposed on herself an extra fast as penance for her
‘ignorance and lack of firmness in the faith’. She had been indoctri-
nated against heresy. She was pained that doubt had struck her and
quickly buried it. ‘But it had been there, and it left its mark’.
Idealism led her to have a special regard for the priests and
the position of the wife of a priest seemed to her second only to that
of the nun. In the light of higher emotions and rise of the spirit of
real self-sacrifice the false prophets’ veil of youthful fancy are lifted.
Then follow either wreckage of life, or through all tribulations, outer
destruction and life ‘is steered by firm hand into the port of a nobler
faith’.
 In the Easter of 1866 Annie met the Rev. Frank Besant who was
appointed a deacon in the little Mission Church; they hardly knew
each other. In the summer a small party went on holiday in which
these two were the only young ones and naturally in walks, rides and
drives they were together. A little before leaving he asked her if she
would marry him. She was startled and could not believe that her
going with him would be interpreted as flirtation whereas her
thoughts were in a totally different direction. She wanted to refuse
but remained quiet. He urged her to remain silent on the matter till
he had spoken to her mother and left to catch the train. This incident
put her to great distress and she was highly upset. In spite of this her
sense of honour was such that she did not speak to her mother. A
fortnight or so later when Mr Besant returned Annie refused to re-
main silent ‘but out of sheer weakness and fear of inflicting pain’ she
got engaged to a man she did not love.
So, she was betrothed and later married as she entered the
twenty first year of her life. On her broaching to mother the subject
of breaking the engagement she was reprimanded for being so dis-
honourable as to break her word. A few months before marriage
Annie and her mother stayed with an old friend, Mr Roberts, who
was reputed to be ‘the poor man’s lawyer’. There she began to take
an interest in the world of politics. He described the pitiable condi-
tions of women, naked to the waist with petticoats only up to the
knee, working even with three or four year old babies. Annie con-
sidered Mr Roberts as ‘her first tutor in Radicalism’ and he found in
her ‘an apt pupil’.
On 18 September a police van carrying two Fenian leaders
to jail was stopped and the entire Irish population surrounded it,
broke open the strong van and led the two to a place of safety. In this
process a policeman was accidentally shot and died. Violence broke
out between the Irish and the English. The poor naturally turned to
Mr Roberts for pleading the case in which five persons were accused
of murder. As Annie drove the wife and two daughters of Mr Roberts
through the Irish section of Manchester to the court the angry crowd,
waving fists, surrounded the vehicle shouting against the English. In
this critical situation Annie informed them of their identity where-
upon the mood changed completely in their favour and the road was
cleared for them.
The court was comprised of highly prejudiced judges one of
whom was predetermined to convict, and the jury paid little attention
to the arguments of Mr Roberts. Two were released as not being pre-
sent and the other three were hanged. Annie read in the National
Reformer that Charles Bradlaugh had written earlier against the man-
ner of trial and pleaded for the release of the innocent. She also read
his pleading for Ireland. At the close of his reasoning he wrote, ‘Let
a commission … sit solemnly to hear all complaints, and then let us
honestly legislate, not for the punishment of the discontented, but to
remove the causes of the discontent’.
In her Autobiography Mrs Besant writes: ‘In December
1867, I sailed out of the safe harbour of my happy and peaceful girl-
hood onto the wide sea of life, and the wave broke roughly as soon
as the bar was crossed.’4 Annie was accustomed to freedom, had
never a harsh word spoken and was indifferent to household details.
Mr Besant was very authoritarian, wanted things arranged and done
exactly as he wanted, was ill-tempered and spoke harshly to Annie
if his wishes were not carried out in detail. This shocked her first to
indignant tears which gradually led to defiant resistance.
Annie’s first serious attempts at writing were made in1868
when she was only twenty-one years old. She laboriously studied
and collected facts about the saints after whom Black Letter Days
were marked in the Calendar but details were not supplied. The man-
uscript seems to have been appreciated but mysteriously
disappeared. A Church brotherhood offered to publish it if she would
give ‘an act of piety to their order’. Its ultimate fate was unknown to
Mrs Besant. Her short stories regularly appeared in the Family

4
Op. cit. p. 64.
Herald. Her novel was not accepted as it was considered ‘too politi-
cal’ by the same magazine. She contributed a theological pamphlet
dealing with the duty of fasting incumbent on all faithful Christians.
Annie’s literary career was checked for some time when a
son was born in January 1869 and a daughter in August 1870. She
was ill on both occasions as her general health had been failing for
some time. As she could not afford to keep a nurse the young ones
kept her busy and also brought a new ray of happiness into her life.
The son was healthy but the daughter was delicate. Both caught
whooping cough in the spring of 1871. Young Mabel suffered bron-
chitis followed by congestion of the lungs. For weeks she lay in peril
of death on the knees of her loving mother day and night. The doctor
pronounced that she could die any moment but she survived mirac-
ulously. The child remained ailing and delicate but those weeks of
anguish exhausted Annie so much that after the danger was over she
collapsed and lay in bed for a week. This was followed by a struggle
in another dimension which lasted over three years and almost cost
her life. The struggle transformed her from a Christian to an Atheist.
She later wrote about the stand taken by Atheists on the question of
God: ‘The Atheist does not say “There is no God”, but he says, “I do
not know what you mean by God.”’
This added to the intensity of her suffering. To Mr Besant,
an ordained priest, such enquiry and questioning were intolerable for
they were considered inexcusable sins of doubt, more particularly in
the wife of a priest. This attitude greatly increased conflict and un-
happiness in the couple. Her unsuspected strength rose up in
rebellion; yet she did not dream of denial but refused to kneel.
One day in the summer of 1871 Mr Besant was away after a
fierce quarrel with her husband. She was desperate as she had lost
hope in God and had not learnt to live for hope for humans. She de-
cided to put an end to her life, brought a bottle of chloroform which
the doctor had left for the baby to relieve temporarily the intense
suffering of whooping cough, and was about to drink it. She heard
in a clear and soft voice, ‘O coward, coward, who used to dream of
martyrdom, and cannot bear a few short years of pain!’ She flung
away the bottle out of shame and for a moment felt strong enough
for a struggle, and then fell fainting on the floor. The thought of su-
icide occurred momentarily and only once again in her long periods
of strife but she put it aside as ‘unworthy of a strong soul’.
The kind clergyman to whom she had met some months be-
fore continued to write understanding letters, declaring the doctrine
of eternal punishment as baseless, that God is much better than what
she was taught to believe, and so on. But Mrs Besant could not be
moved by arguments that ‘appealed to emotions’ alone, leaving ‘the
intellect unconvinced’. She pined for rational answers to problems
of human misery on a vast scale, regardless of differences between
the innocent and the guilty. The long struggle shattered her health.
She lay for weeks helpless and prostrate with ceaseless headache,
unable to sleep.
As her condition improved slightly her doctor brought her
books on scientific subjects and would spare time to explain knotty
points on physiology. He perhaps saw that diversion of thought from
the channels in which it had been running to a dangerous extent was
necessary.
In her studies she could not find solution to four problems,
namely:
(1) Eternal punishment after death,
(2) The meaning of ‘goodness’ and ‘love’, as applied to a God
who had made this world, with all its sin and misery.
(3) The nature of the atonement of Christ, and the ‘justice’ of
God in accepting a vicarious suffering from Christ, and a vicarious
righteousness from the sinner.
(4) The meaning of ‘inspiration’ as applied to the Bible, and
the reconciliation of the perfections of the author with the blunders
and immoralities of the work.
 It will be noticed that after the agony Mrs Besant had suf-
fered the progression of thought was orderly and steadily grew. The
doubts posed above are of a moral nature, ‘a protest of the conscience
rather than of the brain’. The deeper intellectual problems of religion
– the deity of Christ, the existence of God, the immortality of the
soul – came up later.
Later she would maintain that the rising tide of materialism
cannot be checked by sharp criticism and denunciation but by offer-
ing ‘a loftier ethic and a grander philosophy’ so as to satisfy the
educated conscience and the enquiring intellect.
The family eventually moved to Sibsey, in Lincolnshire.
Here Mrs Besant found more time to read and to continue with her
service to the poor. She studied heretical and Broad Church books
as well as orthodox ones. A year later, after Christmas in 1872, an
epidemic of typhoid fever broke out. She went from one home to
another nursing the sick most effectively, with great tenderness and
love. However, she found it impossible to return to the old faith.
Church services became a torture week after week. She kept doubts
to herself as she thought she should not shake the faith of others.
She found some relief from the mental strain in practical par-
ish work, nursing the sick, trying to brighten the lot of the poor. As
she had herself visited their dwelling places, ill-ventilated, with bro-
ken and leaking roofs, crowded to the full, her sympathies were
naturally with the claims of the agricultural labourers. One night she
found in one bed a drunken man, fever-stricken wife, the fever-
stricken child and a dead child. This became an integral part of her
political education.
Then a ray of light came as she went with her mother to a
Sunday morning service where there were people who had passed
through difficulties similar to hers. Her meeting and subsequent dis-
cussions with the Rev. Charles Voysey and his wife opened up to her
new views on religion, as their theism was free from defects that had
revolted her. She read newer books and the nightmare of an
Almighty Evil passed away and she felt relaxed to be able to com-
fortably renounce the orthodox dogmas.
In the autumn of 1872 Mrs Besant was introduced to Mr and
Mrs Thomas Scott. Their home was open to all who had a love of
Truth and the desire to spread freedom among the people. He was an
old man and for years had issued a series of monthly pamphlets on
various shades of thought but all were heretical. However, they were
all cultured and polished in tone. A few months later Mrs Besant
wrote a pamphlet, ‘On the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth’, which was
followed by others, though all were anonymous.
The year 1873 was a very crucial year in Mrs Besant's life.
She returned to her home in Sibsey, no longer in a state of doubt for
she had rejected the teachings of the Church. She was willing to at-
tend Church services not directed to God Himself but could no
longer attend the Holy Communion for that involved recognition of
Jesus as Deity. On the first ‘Sacrament Sunday’ with much pain she
left the church service as she could not take communion.
The knowledge of the great power of oratory that was hidden
in her came to her when one day when she was alone in the church,
ascended the pulpit and delivered her first lecture which was on the
‘Inspiration of the Bible’. ‘A feeling of power and delight’ came to
her as her voice went ‘ringing down the aisles’ and the passion in her
‘broke into balanced sentences’. She had never to pause for ‘musical
cadence or for rhythmical expression’. She then knew that she had
the ‘gift of speech’ which she could use to convey the intended mes-
sage.
The continual refusal of Mrs Besant to take communion led
her husband, in July or August, 1873, to tell her to conform or leave
the house. In spite of her ill-health she chose the latter. Her mother
was heartbroken.
She tried all possible avenues for work so as to maintain her-
self and her sickly daughter Mabel. After much searching work was
found in a household where she had to work as governess to young
ones, a cook and a nurse for which only board and lodging for her
and Mabel were given. The two young wards soon afterwards got,
one after another, serious infections and sickness and Mabel was sent
to her caring grandmother whereas Mrs Besant was to live in an iso-
lated room with an ailing ward under the risk of becoming ill, for not
even the mother of the boy would come to see her own son.
Her mother went to town and fell dangerously ill and Annie
rushed to nurse her. She had an intense longing for communion but
absolutely refused to do so unless her darling Annie did also. She
declared that she would rather be lost with Annie than saved without
her.
No clergyman would agree to give communion to Annie on
account of her anti-church views. In desperation and with hesitancy
she went to Dean Stanley who knew her mother. He graciously
came, had a quiet chat with mother, returned and travelled again the
next day to see her. After talking to mother he tried to understand
Annie’s position. Dean Stanley was very liberal and understanding
and told Annie that conduct was far more important than theory, that
he regarded all as ‘Christians’ those who tried to follow the moral
law of Christ. On Annie’s question of the absolute Deity of Jesus he
paid little stress saying that Jesus was ‘in a special sense the Son of
God’ and considered it a folly to quarrel over words when dealing
with the mystery of the Divine existence.
The following day Dean Stanley celebrated the Holy Com-
munion at the bedside of her dear mother and told her to remember
that ‘our God is a God of truth, and therefore the honest search for
truth can never be displeasing in his eyes’. It was after eighteen
months that Mrs Besant took the Sacrament for the last time. Her
mother passed away on 10 May.
Mrs Besant wrote for Mr and Mrs Thomas Scott pamphlets
on subjects like Inspiration, Atonement, Meditation and Salvation,
Eternal Torture, Religious Education for Children, and earned a
small amount to run the household of two. Often she went to the
British Museum to study and could not afford to buy meals. Mrs
Scott would come to see her if she was absent for two days and of-
fered most needed dinner. She was always very welcome to their
household. When in 1879 Mr Scott died Mrs Besant wrote: ‘To no
living man – save one – do I owe the debt of gratitude that I owe to
Thomas Scott.’
At about this time she bought a copy of the National Re-
former. In it was a long letter attacking Mr Bradlaugh and a brief,
self-restrained answer from him. There was in the paper an article on
the National Secular Society devoted to the propagation of Free
Thought. As no dogma was attached to membership Mrs Besant ap-
plied for it and was informed that she could receive membership
certificate from the hands of Mr Bradlaugh.
It was a fateful Sunday evening of 2 August 1874 that Mrs Bes-
ant went to listen Mr Charles Bradlaugh from whom she learned
much while working in closest collaboration during the years to
come. He would become an enduring and significant influence on
her life.
The sound advice that he gave her included: ‘You should
never say you have an opinion about a subject until you have tried to
study the strongest thing was said against the view to which you are
inclined.’ ‘You must not think that you know a subject until you are
acquainted with all that the best minds have said about it.’ ‘No steady
work can be done in public unless the worker studies at home far
more than he talks outside.’ ‘Be your own hardest judge, listen to
your own speech and criticize it; read abuse of yourself and see what
grains of truth are in it.’ ‘Do not waste time reading opinions that are
mere echoes of your own; read opinions you disagree with, and you
will catch aspects of truth you do not readily see.’
As her study and reflection matured, her perception of the
world showed signs of a deeper understanding which was not limited
to traditional Atheism. In 1874, in her paper ‘On the Nature and Ex-
istence of God’, her advice was: ‘Study nature’s laws, conform to
them, work in harmony with them, and work becomes a prayer and
a thanksgiving, an adoration of the universal wisdom, and a true obe-
dience to the Universal law.’
She gave overwhelming importance to conduct as is evident
in her pamphlet of 1874 on the ‘True Basis of Morality’. She cau-
tioned her fellow workers in the Freethought movement to ensure
that while striking down dogmas of the Church people are not up-
rooted from the sanctions of morality before better basis is
implanted. ‘That which touches morality touches the heart of soci-
ety; a high and pure morality is the life-blood of humanity. ... It is,
then, a very important question whether we, who are endeavouring
to take away from the world the authority on which hitherto has been
based all its morality, can offer a new and firm ground whereupon
may safely be built up the fair edifice of a noble life.’
Her extreme political views as on the land question, taxation,
the cost of Royalty, the obstructive power of the House of Lords,
also gave rise to opposition towards her. She was a Home-Ruler, an
expression that later became well known in India, and opposed all
injustice to the weaker nations. She opposed the oppressive policy in
Ireland, in the Transvaal in South Africa, in India, in Afghanistan, in
Burma and in Egypt. She demanded national education instead of
big guns, public libraries, instead of warships.
She was given a place on the staff of the National Reformer
which could afford to pay her only a guinea a week. She wrote reg-
ularly under the pseudonym ‘Ajax’ from August 1874 and was sub-
editor, later co-editor, from 1877 until the death of Mr Bradlaugh in
1891. She started by taking part in informal debate, then reading of
a paper on ‘The Political Status of Women’. The title of her second
lecture, ‘True Basis of Morality’ shows the direction in which her
thinking was moving.
In January 1875 after much thought and self-analysis Mrs
Besant resolved to give herself wholly to propagandist work, as a
Freethinker and a Social Reformer. She counted the heavy cost. It
would outrage the feelings of her new friends and was likely to im-
peril the custody of her darling little Mabel. ‘But the desire to spread
liberty and truer thought among men, to war against bigotry and su-
perstition, to make the world freer and better’, all this impelled her
with a force that could not be denied. She seemed to hear the voice
of Truth ringing over the battlefield and she offered herself, risking
everything, for the cause she considered sacred.
‘Civil and Religious Liberty’ was the title of her talk with
which she started her definite lecturing in January 1875. On 12 Feb-
ruary she started on her first provincial lecturing tour and on the 28
spoke for the first time from the platform of the Hall of Science to
the Secularist audience with whom she stood leading them to the
cause of liberty. Such platform work continued for eighteen years,
in the course of which she bravely faced many hardships, slept in the
cottages of miners, dined at their tables.
In 1877 Mrs Besant was plunged into one of her most bitter
struggles from which she came out victorious, and her role and that
of Mr Bradlaugh were highly acclaimed. It brought with it such pain
and anguish that she did not want to recall it. Rev. Mr Malthus had
put forward the doctrine that married people should be taught to limit
their families within their means of livelihood. Dr Charles Knowl-
ton, convinced of the doctrine, wrote in 1835 a physiological treatise
giving practical advice on conjugal prudence and parental responsi-
bility. He was for early marriage, so as to avoid prostitution and
limiting the family so as to look after the children better. Four dec-
ades later, with a view to profiteering, a publisher added some
obscene and indecent pictures. On being prosecuted he pleaded
guilty and was convicted.
Mr Bradlaugh and Mrs Besant carefully considered the mat-
ter. He risked his Parliamentary position. For her much greater risks
were involved, facing slander, allegations of scandal, and most pain-
ful deprivation of the custody of her daughter. But the public cause,
the good of all would not deter them from sacrificing all. Their stand
was simple and definite. They would not have published the original
pamphlet – of course, no pictures. They believed that ‘on all ques-
tions affecting the happiness of the people … fullest right of free
discussion ought to be maintained at all hazards’. Mrs Besant could
not keep her out for she had seen the misery of the poor, of her sister
women with children crying for bread.
Mrs Besant and Mr Bradlaugh decided to sell the pamphlet
themselves in their personal capacity and not involving anyone else.
They delivered copies of the pamphlet to the concerned judicial and
police authorities and announced the place and time of sale. Both of
them were arrested. They would have been acquitted in the first sit-
ting of the case but for the insistence of one of the seven jurors. A
clause was added to the verdict that, the book ‘is calculated to de-
prave public morals’. The jurors, as well as the Lord Chief Justice,
entirely exonerated ‘the defendants from any corrupt motive in pub-
lishing it’. In fact the Lord Chief Justice described Mrs Besant and
Mr Bradlaugh as ‘two enthusiasts who have been actuated by a de-
sire to do good in a particular department of Society’. He added a
splendid statement on the law of population and praised their
straightforwardness.
Sadly, although an attempt made in April 1875 to deprive
Mrs Besant of the custody of Mabel had been unsuccessful a fresh
case was made out on the basis of the Knowlton pamphlet case and
her own views on atheism and the pamphlet ‘Law of Population’.
The judge before whom the case came up was a highly prejudiced
person and of very orthodox views. He passed an order to deprive
her of her child not allowing time for appeal. The judge admitted that
the mother had taken the greatest possible care of the child, but held
that mother, in deciding not to give the child religious education, was
sufficient ground for depriving her of custody of her child. Later an-
other very senior judge sharply rebuked the judge for going outside
the case and considered the judgement an ‘abuse of an unpopular
opinion’.
 A messenger came from Mr Besant who virtually snatched
away the shrieking and struggling child. Digby and Mabel both came
back to their mother as soon as they reached of age of leaving behind
a miserable father whom none could help in spite of the best inten-
tions on account his irrational views.
As a result of the prosecution Malthusian views, which in
modern days are known as family planning, aroused interest all over
the country. Wherever Mrs Besant and Mr Bradlaugh went there
were crowds overflowing the lecture halls to listen to their Radical
and Freethought lectures and thousands heard for the first time what
secularism really meant. Her writings and speeches were, naturally,
marked with considerable bitterness against Christianity. Later in
life she admitted that her attacks should have been directed towards
dogmatic practices of the Church but not against Christianity and
need not have been so harsh.
In early 1879 she started studying under Dr E. B. Aveling
who was an able teacher in scientific subjects and had started writing
for the National Reformer. At the age of thirty-two, when most peo-
ple stop studies, she matriculated from the London University. Her
studies were in addition to her ever increasing writing, editing and
lecturing from one end of England to the other besides the ‘wear-
and-tear of pleading her case for the custody of her daughter’ in the
courts. As a result of her pleadings which were not merely for the
sake of her children but also for the cause of the free thought move-
ment, she gained full access to her children. The victory was hailed
by Mr Bradlaugh as ‘on with a pleading unequalled in any case on
record for the boldness of its affirmation of Freethought’. He added,
‘the most powerful pleading for freedom of opinion to which it has
been our good fortune to listen’.
Mrs Besant’s pleading exposed in the Press comments that it
was an offence in the eye of the law to hold unpopular opinion. The
outcome of all this long and painful struggle ‘was a change in the
law which had rested all power over the children in the hands of the
father, and from thenceforth the rights of the married mother were
recognized to a limited extent’.
Mrs Besant took advanced certificates and became a quali-
fied teacher in several branches of science. She took examinations
of London University and failed in B.Sc. Practical Chemical Exam-
ination, after having passed for more difficult examinations earlier.
On account of her views some attempts were made to prevent her
from studying in the University. She was denied permission to visit
the Botanical Garden in Regent’s Park. In spite of all this she gained
the distinction of being the only student to gain an Honours degree
in Botany in England.
In October 1879 Mrs Besant met Mr Herbert Burrows who
had come to attend a meeting to consider organizing Land Law Re-
forms. He worked with her in close cooperation in reform
movements in the years to come.
From 1880 began the long Parliamentary battle of Mr Brad-
laugh in which Mrs Besant was most closely associated with him.
She learned many lessons from Mr Bradlaugh in his dealings with
those who were bitterly against his principles, who did their best to
ruin him. He addressed in an exemplary manner the members of Par-
liament who had acted against the law, having harmed him to the
greatest extent, who did not let him take the seat to which he had
been elected, who had drawn him into expensive legal battles in
which he came out triumphant and, in spite of his poor resources,
they had him thrown out of the Parliament causing physical injury.
In spite of all such treatment from the members he upheld the dignity
of Parliament, never breaking the rules or violating the law, bearing
no ill will or bitterness against any. He believed in justice.
On 3 May Mr Bradlaugh presented himself and respectfully
begged the permission of the Speaker of the House of Commons ‘to
make a solemn affirmation or declaration, instead of taking an oath’
as provided under the Evidence Amendment Acts (of 1869 and
1870). He added that under these Acts he had made affirmation in
the highest courts of jurisdiction. The matter was debated more than
once and referred to Committee after Committee but no eloquence,
no plea for justice made in greatest humility and respect for the
House allowed him to take the oath. He refused to obey ‘because that
order was against the law’. The Serjeant-at-Arms, who happened to
be physically of a much smaller statue than Mr Bradlaugh, was or-
dered to remove him. All awaited in silence how he would do so. To
the surprise of all at the light touch of his shoulder he bowed and
accompanied his small captor to the prison of the House.
On the following day appeared a leaflet from Mrs Besant on
‘Law Makers and Law Breakers’. Her thesis was, ‘On freedom of
election depends our liberty; on freedom of conscience depends our
progress’. There was so much protest that the House rescinded its
resolution, Mr Bradlaugh was released from prison and allowed to
take the affirmation. Immediately after he had taken his seat he was
served with a writ for having voted without taking the oath and a
long and expensive battle in the law, court after court, began and was
finally won in the House of Lords. However, the Court of Appeal
decided against him and declared the seat vacant.
In the subsequent election Mr Bradlaugh was re-elected. A
similar drama began. A large crowd had gathered from all parts of
England and at one stage wanted to enter the House by force but Mrs
Besant stepped in between the crowd and the police and pacified the
masses not to break the law, thus preventing large scale violence.
However, from inside the House the Law-abiding, courteous
Mr Bradlaugh was flung out by fourteen hefty guards. He lay outside
the members’ door in torn clothes, injured, after which his arms had
to be kept bandaged for weeks. Someone remarked: ‘This man might
be broken but not bent’.
Mr Bradlaugh’s struggle with Parliament continued. In spite
of large scale protests, surprisingly, the House refused to allow him
his seat, at the same time refusing to declare it vacant for fear of his
being returned still more triumphantly. The House was started when
Mr Bradlaugh took the oath on 21 February and it expelled him. He
was returned for the third time to the House elected by more votes
but the House once again refused to let him take his seat. The entire
Liberal Press agitated.
In May 1882 Mrs Besant wrote that Mr Bradlaugh was a man
‘who by the infliction of great wrong had become the incarnation of
a great principle’. In the next general election he again won, took the
oath and his seat and brought in and carried an Oath’s Bill which
gave Members of the Parliament the right to affirm. It also made
Freethinkers competent as jurymen and witnesses.
She reprinted an article ‘Coercion in Ireland and its Results’
exposing wrong done under the Coercion Act. It had a wide circula-
tion. She pleaded for the release of the suspects and those who
pleaded for them. This had some effect, but an unfortunate incident
struck a blow. The Government reconsidered the policy and sent
Lord Cavendish with a message to release the suspects but he was
stabbed to death. Mrs Besant was shocked. She wrote: ‘They have
stabbed the newborn hope of friendship between two countries, and
have reopened the gulf of hatred that was just beginning to close.’
There was a wave of retaliation and hastily a new coercion Bill was
passed.
Mrs Besant's sympathy is to be seen in her sketch of ‘the
misery of the peasants in the grip of absentee landlords, the turning
out on the roadside to die of the mother with a newborn in her breast’.
All this was for want of a few shillings for overdue rack-rental. The
Bill was said to be for the ‘repression of crime’, for reconciliation of
England and Ireland, for friendship, but Mrs Besant observed that
‘they dug a new gulf’.
In the midst of this political and social strife Mrs Besant
heard for the first time about the Theosophical Society and she
thought that with no definite ideal for membership it had only a
dreamy, emotional, scholarly, interest in religio-philosophical fan-
cies; some having strange theory of ‘apparitions’ of the dead and
interest in otherworldism. In reply to a query she wrote in the Na-
tional Reformer while secularists have no right to refuse membership
to Theosophists, the consistent secularists cannot join the TS.
These views came to the notice of Madame H.P. Blavatsky
and she wrote in The Theosophist, August 1882, that the above views
have been expressed out of entirely misconceived notions and added:
‘The term “Supernaturalist” can no more apply to the latter [Theos-
ophists] than to Mrs A. Besant and Mr. C. Bradlaugh.’ She
occasionally commented appreciatively on the struggle of Mr Brad-
laugh in Parliament and for other causes. In one such note she wrote
very appreciatively of the work of Mrs Besant.
As a result of harassing persecutions, the circulation of theo-
logical and political writings of Mrs Besant and her associates
increased greatly and they moved to Fleet Street at larger premises
where she continued to work until Mr Bradlaugh’s death in 1891.
Mrs Besant wrote: ‘... it killed him at last, twenty years before his
time, sapping his splendid vitality, undermining his iron constitu-
tion.’ As Mrs Besant was all along helping him there was a great
strain on her also. Her remarkable legal acumen and persuasive elo-
quence showed forth when she appeared as a witness. These legal
battles ended in 1883 with a total victory for Mr Bradlaugh when the
House of Lords gave a judgement in his favour.
Paying tribute to him Mrs Besant wrote: ‘Nothing more
touching could be imagined than the conflict between the real reli-
gious feeling, abhorrent of heresy, and the determination to be just
despite all prejudice.’
This driving force that pushed her into politics was necessary
to help certain laws protecting the rights of the downtrodden. In 1884
a bill was introduced to Parliament fixing a twelve-hour day as the
limit of a young persons’ toil. She considered it to be brutal and de-
clared that the ‘legal day’ should be eight hours for five days in the
week and not more than five hours on the sixth. She was about to
embrace the Socialist viewpoint and praxis.
 She pointed out that affluent people gave in the name of char-
ity, say, a meal in a year to a half-starved family whereas if they had
paid fair wages the family could have earned a hundred extra meals.
Out of the exploits of the ill-paid workmen they built hospitals and
pretended to be very generous. She added: ‘... and we see idlers
flaunting in the robes woven by the toilers, a glittering tinseled su-
perstructure founded on tears, the struggling, the grey, hopeless
misery of the poor.’ She says: ‘Socialism in its splendid ideal ap-
pealed to my heart, while the economic soundness of its basis
convinced my head.’ In it she saw a hope for brotherhood and pos-
sibility of a freer life for all. She said that conflict between ‘a
personal tie and a call of duty could not last long, and with heavy
heart I made up my mind to profess Socialism openly and work for
it with all energy’.
Eventually Mrs Besant joined the Fabian Society as it was
less antagonistic to the Radicals. It had eminent members, George
Bernard Shaw being the most widely known. There she worked hard
as a speaker and writer popularising socialist thought, sound eco-
nomics, and the effort to turn the workers’ energy towards social
rather than merely political reform.
During the same year (1885) a movement was started in Eng-
land to draw attention to the terrible sufferings of the Russian
political prisoners, and it was decided at a meeting held at Mrs Bes-
ant’s house to form a society of friends of Russia. Mr Bradlaugh
attended the meeting. She had moved to a sixteen-room mansion in
June 1883 on 19 Avenue Road which later in the early nineties be-
came a centre of Theosophical activity.
The impact of the Socialist movement, with its eminent and
forceful speakers, can be judged by the fact that the police authorities
stopped their speaking in the open air whereas they closed their eyes
to others so speaking. Herbert Burrows, later associated with Mrs
Besant in theosophical work, won a seat on the London School
Board, to which Mrs Besant was elected in 1888. He was the first to
demand industrial education.
The year 1886 was terrible for labour, with reduction in
wages and increase in the number of unemployed during a bitter win-
ter. Agitation for the eight hours day increased. Wages were so low
that some said: ‘We may as well starve idle as starve working.’ The
wrongs done to those poor hard working people set Mrs Besant’s
heart and tongue afire for those ‘trampled on, abused, derided, who
asked so little and needed so much, who were pathetically grateful
for the pettiest services, who were so loving and so loyal to those
who offered them poor services and helpless love’. The feelings urg-
ing her heart can better be expressed in her own words:

I had long given up my social reputation, I now give up with

ever-increasing surrender ease, comfort, time; the passion of pity
grew stronger and stronger, fed by each new sacrifice, and each
sacrifice drew nearer to the threshold of that gateway beyond
which stretched a path of renunciation I had never dreamed of,
which those might tread who were ready to strip off self for man’s
sake...

In 1887 the agitation for social justice intensified. Mrs Bes-

ant took part in five long debates, and some of them were published
as pamphlets. She found the Charing Cross Parliament which met on
Fridays, with various portfolios given to eminent persons both in the
‘Socialist’ Government and the opposition. When Mrs Besant was
invited to address it she, strictly following the etiquette of Parlia-
ment, respectfully bowed to the speaker. This provided a good
training for future parliamentarians. In October 1887 she formed a
Socialist Defence Association with some well-to-do and respectable,
ready night and day to bail out any prisoner arrested for exercising
the right of walking in procession and speaking. This she did because
the large number of unemployed began walking in procession and
harshness on the part of police led to some disturbances.
She was a party to organizing in November a meeting of like-
minded organizations to protest against the interference with the fun-
damental right to hold meetings. Several groups, one led by Mrs
Besant, marched silently to Trafalgar Square. The police suddenly,
unannounced, charged upon the people: men and women fell under
a hail of blows. Then came a rattle of cavalry and Life Guards fol-
lowed by the Scot Guards with bayonets fixed. The soldiers were
ready to fire. So word was passed round, ‘Go home’, with a view to
avoiding large-scale bloodshed. Peaceable, law-abiding workmen,
who had never dreamed of rioting, were left with broken limbs. The
next day there was a regular court-martial; witnesses were kept out
by the police and innocent, decent workmen were sentenced to im-
prisonment. Mrs Besant team arranged bail after bail, an eminent
barrister offered devoted service and she saw to it that they were re-
leased and sent to their homes.
Mrs Besant then organized the Law and Liberty league to
defend all unjustly assailed by the police. A poor workman killed in
the incident was given a public funeral with Mrs Besant and other
eminent public figures leading the procession with a mass of human
beings, bear headed following respectfully making a mute protest,
unknown before, against the outrage that had been wrought. The re-
sult of all this was that indignation grew and the people tactfully
avoided excuses for violence. This created so much pressure on the
tory Government that a new Prime Minister had to be installed.
In the struggle that had been going on for the sake of suffer-
ing humanity, persons widely differing in theological creeds toiled
together to aid and relieve the oppressed. They worked in absolute
harmony side by side with a common goal, showing that there is a
unity stronger than any antagonism, deeper than speculative theories,
which divide. With such thought in her mind Mrs Besant mooted in
Our Corner, February 1888, the idea of founding a new Brotherhood
in which service to Man should take the place previously spent in
service of God. In this brotherhood work should be worship and none
should be regarded as alien who was willing to work for human
good. Mr W.T. Stead editor of the Pall Mall Gazette and who had
worked with her during a recent agitation for the oppressed ex-
pressed to similar thought. Thus a close link in work was formed
between the two.
Towards this end Mrs Besant and Mr Stead started a half-
penny weekly, the Link. It was aimed at speaking for the silent, dumb
sufferers. It announced its object as the building up of a New Church
dedicated to the service of man. In this small paper week after week
were highlighted the starvation wages paid to working people –
women, children and men. Another part of the work was defending
people from unjust landlords, exposing workhouse scandals, enforc-
ing various Acts to protect the working class. ‘Vigilance Circles’
were formed in various districts to keep watch over cases of cruelty
to children, extortion, insanitary workshops, sweating, etc. and to re-
port to Mrs Besant for remedial measures.
Crusades for the poor in all walks of life were organized, for
the dockers for a minimum to wage, for children going to the school
to be fed, against production of ‘cheap goods’ which meant robbing
the helpless of fair wages. Interestingly, a Consumers’ League was
formed the members of which pledged to buy from shops certified
‘clean’ from unfair wages.
As a result of an investigation and pressure, and to avoid risk
of prosecution the employer of the match-girls, Bryant & May (Lim-
ited), asked them to sign a paper certifying that they were well
treated and contented. They refused to sign and came in as a group
to the office of Mrs Besant in Fleet Street. Mrs Besant met the dele-
gation which explained to her their pitiable condition. The leader
was dismissed next day and all went on strike. Mrs Besant and Mr
Herbert Burrows had to work very hard looking after their griev-
ances and collecting donations to support them. Mr Bradlaugh asked
questions in Parliament. Numerous meetings were organized and fi-
nally a procession of the girls was led to the House of Commons.
Ultimately a settlement was arrived at.
There were other areas in which the condition was so miser-
able that Mrs Besant’s heart grew sick and ever louder sounded the
question: ‘Where is the cure for sorrow, what is the way of rescue
for the world?’ This questioning eventually led her to Theosophy.
Mrs Besant asked for a ‘match-girls’ drawing-room where
they could relax, read, play and have recreation. Two years later, in
August 1890, Madame H. P. Blavatsky opened such a home, the
Working Women’s club at Bow Street. The reputation of Mrs Besant
increased demands on her time and energy from many quarters, like
tin-box makers, shop assistants, fair wages to be paid by all public
bodies, dockers, and so on. All this was besides scores of lectures for
secularist, Labour, Socialist organizations, writing articles and pam-
phlets. With a view to helping the children she contested the School
Board and returned triumphant. She was instrumental in introducing
many reforms. Besides meals, she arranged a system of medical ex-
amination and treatment of the children.
Since 1886 there had been a growing conviction that her phi-
losophy was not sufficient, that life and mind were more than she
had dreamed. Into this darkness a ray of light came through A. P.
Sinnett's The Occult World. By early spring of 1889 she was con-
vinced that there was some ‘hidden thing, some hidden power’ and
grew desperately determined to find at all costs what she was search-
ing for. In this state of seeking she ‘heard a Voice that was later to
become for her the holiest sound on earth, bidding her to take cour-
age for the light was near’.
A fortnight later, Mr Stead gave her two volumes of The Se-
cret Doctrine written by H. P. Blavatsky, asking her if she would
review them. As she turned over page after page the interest became
absorbing and she seemed to be on familiar ground. The doctrine put
forward was natural, coherent, subtle yet intelligible. In a flash she
knew that the weary search was over.
After writing the review she sought an introduction to Mad-
ame Blavatsky and asked to be allowed to call. On receiving a
welcome note she and Herbert Burrows, whose aspirations were sim-
ilar, went to 17 Lansdowne Road. After passing through the hall and
outer room, in her own words se said: ‘... a figure in a large chair
before a table, a voice vibrant, compelling, spoke: “My dear Mrs
Besant, I have so long wished to see you”, and I was standing with
my hand in her firm grasp, and looking for the first time in this life
straight into the eyes of ‘HPB’. I was conscious of a sudden leaning
forth of my heart – was it a recognition?’ The conversation was a
general one, no word of occultism. As she rose to leave, two brilliant,
piercing eyes met hers, and with a yearning throb in the voice: ‘Oh,
my dear Mrs Besant, if you would only come among us!’
When she told Madame Blavatsky she wanted to join the TS,
the latter asked: ‘Have you read the report about me by the Society
for Psychical Research? Go and read it and if, after reading it, you
come back – well.’ Mrs Besant carefully read the said report and
found it to be based on slender evidence. It needs to be added that
the article which maligned Madame Blavatsky and had been called
for a hundred years a report of the Society for Psychic Research and
the views expressed in it have now been disowned by that Society.
The next day she signed an application for joining the Soci-
ety and on receiving her membership diploma went with it on 10
May 1889 to Madame Blavatsky, who was alone, and bent down and
kissed her. Mrs Besant then expressed the desire to be a pupil of hers.
Madame Blavatsky’s stern face softened and with tears in her eyes,
put her hand upon Mrs Besant’s head and said: ‘You are a noble
woman. May Master bless you.’
Mr George Bernard Shaw, on coming to know of Mrs Bes-
ant’s joining the TS, rushed to her office to tease her. He has written:
‘... she was no longer in the grip of her pride; she had after many
explorations found her path and come to see the universe and herself
in their real perspective.’
In her review of The Secret Doctrine Mrs Besant surveyed
fields of knowledge as propounded by Eastern and Western thinkers
and sages and also the field of science, made it clear that there is very
much more to be known than our present faculties can grasp; she
stated that there is nothing supernatural, ‘any more than your
knowledge is supernatural, though much above that accessible to the
fish; ... we know then by personal knowledge ... The powers we pos-
sess are not supernatural, they are latent in every human being, and
will be evolved as the race progresses.’
In the midst of all this she, with Mr Herbert Burrows, went
to the great Labour Congress held at Paris from July 15 to 20 and
spent a day or two at Fontainebleau with Madame Blavatsky who
had gone there for rest. There she was translating from ‘The Book of
the Golden Precepts’, now so widely known under the name of The
Voice of the Silence.
After returning to London, and in reply to many criticisms
and queries, Mrs Besant gave two lectures on 4 and 11 August 1889
in the Hall of Science on, ‘Why I became a Theosophist?’ These
were condensed into a pamphlet bearing the same title. In it she said:
‘An imperious necessity forces me to speak the truth, as I see it ...
That one loyalty to Truth I must keep stainless, whatever friendships
fail me or human ties be broken ... and I ask no other epitaph on my
tomb but “she tried to follow Truth”.’
She continued to work for the School Board, made possible
by the financial assistance of a friend. She also continued to cham-
pion the cause of struggling labour movements, reducing the
exploitation and hardships of fur-pullers, tram and busmen, feeding
and clothing children. It was during this period that Mr Bradlaugh
fell very seriously ill and was advised rest and a sea voyage. He went
to India to attend the National Congress, where he was acclaimed as
‘Member for India’, and died in the spring of 1891.
 Madame Blavatsky was ‘very poor towards the end of her
earthly life, having spent all on her mission, and refusing to take time
from her Theosophical work to write for the Russian papers’ which
paid her highly. ‘But her slender purse was swiftly emptied when
any human pain that money could relieve came her way. To give just
one example, coming to know how some poor children were happy
to receive country flowers from Mrs Besant she gave thirty shillings,
which was all that she had of her own money, to ‘buy thirty dinners
for thirty poor little starving’ children. In 1890 she was given £1,000
to use at her discretion. It was decided to use the money to renovate
a large old house … a large hall attached to it was built and opened
by Madame Blavatsky on 15 August 1890. She dedicated it to ‘the
brightening of the lot of hard working and underpaid girls’. It was
tenderness of heart that led her pupils to found, after her death, the
‘HPB Home for little children’.
As lease of the headquarters of the T.S. in Europe was expir-
ing it was moved to 19 Avenue Road, where Mrs Besant lived. Some
alterations were made and a hall was built for the meeting of the
Blavatsky Lodge of the TS. Madame Blavatsky and her staff of
workers came to live there in July 1890.The rules of the household
were simple but HPB insisted on great regularity of life. After dinner
at 7 pm, the outer work of the Society was put aside and all gathered
in her room. Plans for work were discussed and above all, HPB pa-
tiently taught her pupils according to their needs and understanding
and explained knotty points. During the day she wrote incessantly in
spite of severe handicaps of the body. Her life was a lesson to her
close pupils to lead a life of unselfish beauty, following the nobility
of her character.
‘And thus I came through storm to peace’, writes Mrs Besant,
‘not to the peace of an untroubled sea of outer life … but to an inner
peace that outer troubles may not avail to ruffle – a peace that be-
longs to the eternal ...’ ‘Quiet confidence has taken the place of doubt
... In life, through death, to life, I am but the servant of the great
Brotherhood.’5

* * *

Below is the text of Mrs Besant’s address, on 30th August

1891, in the Hall of Science, London. It was later published as Adyar
Pamphlets No. 84, TPH Adyar, December 1917. It is entitled ‘1875-
1891: A Fragment of Autobiography’.

Annie Besant, on Sunday evening, the 30th of August, de-

livered an address on “1875 to 1891: a Fragment of
Autobiography”, at the Hall of Science, Old Street, St. Luke’s. The
occasion was her last appearance on the platform of this Hall,
which has now passed entirely under the control of the National
Secular Society. There was a very crowded and very interested au-
dience.
Mrs Thornton Smith presided and, after making various an-
nouncements, said: “Tonight my friend [Mrs Besant] speaks from
this platform for the last time.” Annie Besant, who was greeted
with most cordial and prolonged cheers, said:

On the 28th of February, 1875, I stood for the first time on

the platform of the Hall of Science to speak from that platform to a
Freethought audience. I spoke then, announced under my own name,
but with another name added thereto – one under which, since the
preceding August, I had written in the National Reformer. It was the
name of “Ajax”, and I used that name for writing in the Reformer
because when the darkness came down upon him and his army, the
words which were said to have broken from his lips expressed my
own feeling then, as they express it now. Out of the darkness and the
danger, his voice is said to have rung over the battlefield: “Light,

5
Annie Besant, An Autobiography, p. 332.
more light”. It is that cry for “light” which has been the keynote of
my own intellectual life, then and ever since, light – whithersoever
the light may take one; light, through whatever difficulties the light
may lead one; light, although in its brightness it should blast the eyes
that gaze upon it: I would rather be blinded by the light, than sit will-
fully in the twilight or the dark. Months before – in the August of the
preceding year – I had come to the Hall for the first time to receive
my certificate of entrance into the National Secular Society. I re-
ceived it then from the greatest president that Society has had or is
likely to have. From that time there dated a friendship to which no
words of mine can do justice, or speak the gratitude I feel – a friend-
ship that was only broken by the grave. Had he lived, this lecture
would, probably, not have needed to be given, for, if there was one
thing that Charles Bradlaugh did, it was to keep free the platform
which was given him in charge, and to permit no test of doctrine or
of belief to claim a right to bar the platform that was free in name
and in deed as well.
I pass hurriedly – for I have but brief time tonight – I pass
hurriedly over many years, taking but one point after another that
seems to me to be of interest in the retrospect of tonight. Not very
long after I came on to this platform, in the May following, I was
elected a vice-president of the National Secular Society, and that po-
sition I laid down when the late president gave up his office. I began
my service in the Society under him, and I could serve under no
lesser man. From that time forward – from the time, that is, of the
commencement of my service – I constantly occupied the platform
here and elsewhere. And they were rougher days then with the Free-
thought party in the provinces, than those they have now to face.
During my first year of lecturing work I can remember some rough
scenes that now it would not be easy to parallel. Stones that were
thrown as the most potent argument to use against a lecturer, even
though that lecturer were a woman; the broken windows of a hail; a
bruised neck at one place; a walk through waving sticks and a
cursing crowd at another place – these were the kind of arguments
which Christians were readier to use then than they are now. The
party has grown very much stronger during the sixteen and a half
years which have passed from then to now. I well remember, looking
backward, and recalling incident after incident that marked those
passing years, the memorable Conference in 1876, when there was
present on the platform a miner of Yorkshire who, a member of the
Society and an Atheist, was the first to spring into a cage to go down
where 143 of his comrades lay dead and others were in danger of
death after a colliery explosion – the cage into which none dared to
spring until the Atheist set the example and stimulated the courage
of others. My experience in the National Secular Society has taught
me that you may have the most splendid courage, the most absolute
self-devotion, the most heroic self-sacrifice, that those virtues can
exist without possessing faith in God or belief in a hereafter: they
are, indeed, the flowers of man’s nature springing up fragrant and
beautiful in every creed and in none.
It was not so long after my entrance into the National Secular
Society – a little more than two brief years – that that struggle came
upon us in which Charles Bradlaugh and I myself defended the right
to publish, at a cheap rate, information which we believed to be use-
ful to the masses of the poor and of the weak. What the upshot of
that struggle was you all know. How bitter the struggle was some of
you, perchance, may have gauged. I, who went through it, know its
results were that no amount of slander or abuse could hereafter make
much difference, when one thought it right to take a particular line
of conduct; for in the years that followed that trial there were no
words too foul, no epithets too vile, to be used in Christian and in
Freethought journals, against my co-defendant and myself. When
one has once been through that fire of torture, when everything that
man and woman hold dear, fame, good name, reputation, character,
and all else – when all have been sullied, slandered and maligned,
after such a hammering all subsequent attacks seem but poor and
feeble, and no words of reproach or unkindness that later can be used
avail to touch a courage that has held through trials such as that. And
I do not regret (I never have regretted and don’t now) the steps that
then I took, for I know that both in the eyes of the wise today, and in
the verdict of the history that in centuries to come shall judge our
struggles, the verdict that then shall be given will not be given on
what one has believed but on how one has worked: and I know that
though one’s eyes may often be blinded, and one’s efforts wrong,
the courage that dares to speak, the courage that dares to stand –
those are the things that men remember, and if you can never write
“coward” on man or woman’s grave, their place is safe in the hearts
of men, whether their views are blessed or banned in days to come.
I pass, however, to the theological position, for that is one
that interests all, is the most important, and the one to which your
thoughts and minds will most strongly turn tonight. In 1872 I broke
with Christianity, and I broke with it once and for all. I have nothing
to unsay, nothing to undo, nothing to retract, as regards my position
then and my position now. I broke with it, but I am no nearer to it in
1891 than I was when I first joined the ranks of the National Secular
Society. I do not say that my language then was not harsher than my
language would be now, for in the first moments after a great strug-
gle, when you have paid such a price as I paid for intellectual liberty,
you do not always in the first moments of freedom, in the reaction
from a great conflict, you do not always think of the feelings of oth-
ers as charity and as true toleration would command that you should
think. I spoke words bitterer then than I should speak now; words
harsher and more critical than I should speak today; but of the
groundwork of my rejection then I have nothing to alter, for I stand
upon that ground today as I stood then. I did not give up that Chris-
tian faith without much and bitter suffering; and I do not know
whether, if anyone set to work to fabricate some physical apparatus
which would give the best opportunity for suffering during life – I
do not know that any ingenious artificer could do very much more
cleverly, than to weld together in one human body the strong brain
of a man and the warm heart of a woman: for where a man can break
with opinions where logic tells him (not always, indeed, without bit-
ter suffering), I doubt if there can be any woman who can break with
any faith she has ever held, without paying some heart’s blood as the
price of alienation, some bitter need of pain to the idol which is bro-
ken.
In looking back, as I have been looking today over some of
my own past writing, I saw words with respect to the giving up of
Christianity which were true: true in the feeling that they then de-
picted, and true in my remembrance of it now for the deity of Christ
is the last Christian doctrine, I think, to which we cling when we
leave Christianity. “The doctrine was dear from association: there
was something at once soothing and ennobling in the idea of a union
between man and God, between a perfect man and a divine suprem-
acy, between a human heart and an almighty strength. Jesus as God
was interwoven with all art, with all beauty in religion; to break with
the deity of Jesus was to break with music, with painting, with liter-
ature. The Divine Child in his mother’s arms, the Divine Man in his
Passion and in his Triumph, the human friend encircled with the maj-
esty of the Godhead – did inexorable truth demand that this ideal
figure, with all its pathos, its beauty, its human love, should pass into
the pantheon of the dead Gods of the past ?” People speak so lightly
about change in theological belief. Those who speak lightly never
felt deeply. They do not know what a belief is to the life that has
been moulded round it, to the intellect that has accepted it, to the
heart that has worshipped it; and those are not the feeblest but mostly
the strongest Freethinkers who have been able to break with the faith
that they have outgrown and still feel the pang of letting the intellect
be master of the hearts. On that I have nothing more to say than this:
that, in the newer light into which I have passed, return to Christian-
ity has become even more impossible than in my older days of the
National Secular Society; for, whilst then I rejected, seeing the
logical impossibilities, now I understand why that faith has held men
for centuries as I never understood before; and if you want to be safe
against a superstition, know the human truth that underlies it, and
then no fresh name can ever take you back to it, no sort of new label
can ever make you accept as true the myth that covers the truth you
know.
To pass from that to the other two great points around which
the struggle of the age today is raging: belief in a personal God and
belief in the persistency of life after death. As regards the first, belief
in a personal God, I have again nothing to say different from that
which I wrote many years ago: “Existence evolving, into endless
forms, differing modes, changing phenomena, is wonderful enough;
but a God, self-existing, who creates out of nothing, who gives birth
to an existence entirely diverse from his own – ‘matter’ from ‘spirit’,
non-intelligence from ‘intelligence’– who, being everywhere, makes
the universe, thereby excluding himself from part of space, who be-
ing everywhere, makes the things which are not he, so that we have
everywhere and somewhere else, everything and something more –
such a God solves no question of existence, but only adds an unnec-
essary riddle to a problem already sufficiently perplexing.” Those
were the words with which I summed up an argument against a per-
sonal God outside nature. By those words I stand today, for the
concept is as impossible to me now as it was to me then.
Some years later, in 1886, I come across a phrase which shows
how at that time my mind was beginning to turn towards a different
conception. I was speaking of the various religions of the world, and
alluded to those of Hinduism and Buddhism as dealing with the
problem of existence, and then went on to say: “These mystic Ori-
ental religions are profoundly Pantheistic; one life pulsing through
all living things; one existence bodying itself forth in all individual
existences; such is the common ground of those mighty religions
which number amongst their adherents the vast majority of human
kind. And in this magnificent conception they are in accord with
modern science; the philosopher and the poet, with the far-reaching
glance of genius, caught sight of that unity of all things, the ‘one in
the many’ of Plato, a belief which it is the glory of modern science
to have placed on the sure foundation of ascertained fact.” I do not
mean that when I wrote those words I was a Pantheist; but I mean
that you have in them the recognition of that unity of existence which
is common to Pantheism and to Materialism, the great gulf between
the two being this: that whereas Pantheism speaks of one universal
life bodying itself forth in all lives, Materialism speaks of matter and
of force of which life and consciousness are the ultimate products
and not the essential fact. That is the difference in the opinions that
I held, and that I hold now. I still believe in the unity of existence,
but I realise that that existence is a living force, and not only what is
called “matter” and “energy”; that it is a principle of life, a principle
of consciousness; that the life and the consciousness that pulse out
from its centre evolve from that one eternal life without which life
and consciousness could never be. That is the great difference which
separates the position of the Materialism that I once held from the
position I hold today; and that has its natural corollary that, as the
essence of the universe is life, so the essence of each man is life as
well; that death is but a passing phenomenon, as simple and as natu-
ral as that which is spoken of as life; that in the heart of man as of
the universe, life is an eternal principle fulfilling itself in many
forms, but immortal, inextinguishable, never to be either created or
destroyed.
Now, glancing back to the Materialism to which I clung for so
many years of life, glancing back over the training it gave me, and
the steps by which slowly I left it behind, there is one point that I
desire here to place on record. You have Materialism of two very
different schools. There is the Materialism which cares nothing for
man but only for itself; which seeks only for personal gain, personal
pleasure, personal delight; which cares nothing for the race but only
for self; nothing for posterity but only for the moment; of which the
real expression is: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ With
that Materialism neither I nor those with whom I worked had aught
in common. With that Materialism, which is only that of the brute,
we never had part nor lot. That is the Materialism that destroys all
the glory of human life, it is the Materialism that can only be held by
the selfish and, therefore, the degraded. It is never the Materialism
that was preached from this platform, nor which has been the training
school in which have been trained many of the noblest intellects and
truest hearts of our time.
For what is the higher Materialism after all? What is it but
the reason and thought which is the groundwork of many a noble life
today? It is that which, while it believes that the life of the individual
ends in death, so far as he himself is concerned, recognises the life
of the race as that for which the individual is living, and to which all
that is noblest and best in him is to be devoted. That is the Material-
ism of such men as Clifford, who taught it in philosophy, and of such
men as Charles Bradlaugh, who lived it out in life. It was that Mate-
rialism which was put into words by Clifford when, for the moment
fearing he might be misunderstood, he said: “Do I seem to say, ‘Let
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’? Nay; rather let us take hands
and help, for today we are alive together.” Against that Materialism
I have no word of reproach to speak now. Never have I spoken word
of reproach against it, and I never shall; for I know that it is a philos-
ophy so selfless in its noblest forms that few are grand enough to
grasp it and live it out, and that which I have brought back as fruit
from my many years of Materialism is the teaching that to work
without self as the goal is the great object-lesson of human life. For
there can be no selflessness more complete than that which accepts
a life of struggle for itself that the race may have an easier life in
years to come, which is willing to die that, from its death, others may
have wider life; which is willing to sacrifice everything, so that even
on its own dead body others may rise to greater happiness and a truer
intellectual life.
 But – and here comes the difference – there are problems in
the universe which Materialism not only does not solve but which it
declares are insoluble, difficulties in life and mind that Materialism
cannot grapple with, and in face of which it is not only dumb but
says that mankind must remain dumb for evermore. Now, in my own
studies and my own searching, I came to problem after problem for
which scientific Materialism had no answer – nay, told me that no
answer could be found. There were things that were facts, and the
whole scheme of science is not that you are to impose your own will
on nature, but that you are to question nature and listen to her answer,
whatever that answer may be. But I came upon fact after fact that did
not square with the theories of Materialism. I came across facts
which were facts of nature as much as any fact of the laboratory, or
any discovery by the knife or the scalpel of the anatomist. Was I to
refuse to see them because my philosophy had for them no place?
Was I to do what men have done in every age – insist that nature was
no greater than my knowledge, and that because a fact was new it
was, therefore, a fraud or an illusion? Not thus had I learned the les-
son of materialistic science from its deepest depths of investigation
into nature. And, when I found that there were facts that made life
other than Materialism deemed; when I found that there were facts
of life and consciousness that made the materialistic hypothesis im-
possible; then I determined still to study, although the foundations
were shaking, and not to be recusant enough to the search after truth
to draw back because it wore a face other than the one I expected.
When I found that in the researches of men of today, who still are
Materialists, there are many facts which they themselves admit they
cannot explain, and about which they will endeavour to form no the-
ory; when I found in studying such branches of mental science as
hypnotism and mesmerism, that there were undeniable facts which
had their place in nature as much as any other facts; when I found
that as those facts were analysed and experimented on, conscious-
ness did not rise and fall with the pulsations of the brain or the
vibrations of the cells of the brain; when I found that as you diminish
the throb of physical life your intellectual manifestations became
more vivid and more startling; when I found that in that brain in
which the blood ran freely, from which, on examination, every care-
ful instrument of science gave an leverage of the lowest conditions
that made life possible at all, when I found that from the person with
a brain in such a condition thoughts could proceed more vividly than
when the brain was in full activity – then do you wonder that I began
to ask whether other methods of investigation might not be useful,
and whether it was wise for me to turn my back upon any road which
promised to lead towards a better understanding of the subtlest prob-
lems of psychology?
Two or three years before, I had met with two books which I
read and re-read, and then put aside because I was unable to relate
them to any other information I could obtain, and I could find no
other method then of carrying my study further along those lines.
They were two books by Mr Sinnett. One was Esoteric Buddhism
and the other The Occult World. They fascinated me on my scientific
side, because for the first time they threw an intelligible light upon,
and brought within the realm of law and of natural order, a large
number of facts that had always remained to me unexplained in the
history of man. They did not carry me very far, but they suggested a
new line of investigation; and from that time onward, I was on the
look-out for other clues which might lead me in the direction I
sought. Those clues were not definitely found until early in the year
1889. I had experimented, to some extent, then, and many years be-
fore, in Spiritualism, and found some facts and, much folly; but I
never found there an answer, nor anything which carried me further
than the mere record of certain unexplainable phenomena. But in
1889 I had a book given to me to review, written by H. P. Blavatsky,
and known as The Secret Doctrine. I was given it to review, as a
book the reviewers of the paper did not care to tackle, and it was
thought I might do something with it, as I was considered more or
less mad on the subjects of which it treated. I accepted the task, I
read the book, and I knew that I had found the clue that I had been
seeking. I then asked for an introduction to the writer of that book,
feeling that the one who had written it would be able to show me
something at least of a path along which I might travel with some
hope of finding out more than I knew of life and mind. I met her for
the first time in that year. Before very long I placed myself under her
tuition, and there is nothing in the whole of my life for which, I am
one tithe so grateful as the apparent accident that threw her book into
my hands, and the resolution taken by myself that I would know the
writer of that book.
I know that in this hall there will not be many who will share
the view that I take of Helena Blavatsky. I knew her, you did not –
and in that may lie the difference of our opinion. You talk of her as
“fraud”, and fling about the word as carelessly of one with whom
you disagree, as Christians and others threw against me the epithet
of “harlot” in the days gone by, and with as much truth. I read the
evidence that was said to be against her. I read the great proofs of
the “fraud”: how she had written the letters which she said had come
to her from the men who had been her Teachers. I read the evidence
of W. Netherclift, the expert, first that the letters were not written by
her and then that they were. The expert at Berlin swore that they were
not written by her. I read most carefully the evidence against her,
because I had so much to lose. I read it; I judged it false on the read-
ing; I knew it to be false when I came to know her. And here is one
fact which may, perhaps, interest you much, as rather curious from
the point of view that Madame Blavatsky was the writer of those
famous letters.
You have known me in this Hall for sixteen and a half years.
You have never known me lie to you. My worst public enemy,
through the whole of my life, never cast a slur upon my integrity.
Everything else they have sullied, but my truth never; and I tell you
that since Madame Blavatsky left, I have had letters in the same
writing and from the same person. Unless you think that dead per-
sons write – and I do not think so – that is rather a curious fact against
the whole challenge of fraud. I do not ask you to believe me, but I
tell you this on the faith of a record that has never yet been sullied
by a conscious lie. Those who knew her, knew she could not very
well commit fraud, if she tried. She was the frankest of human be-
ings. It may be said: “What evidence have you beside hers?” My own
knowledge. For some time, all the evidence I had of the existence of
her Teachers and the existence of those so-called “abnormal powers”
was second-hand, gained through her. It is not so now, and it has not
been so for many months: unless every sense can be at the same time
deceived, unless a person can be, at the same moment, sane and in-
sane, I have exactly the same certainty for the truth of those
statements as I have for the fact that you are here. Of course you may
be all delusions, invented by myself and manufactured by my own
brain. I refuse – merely because ignorant people shout fraud and
trickery – to be false to all the knowledge of my intellect, the per-
ceptions of my senses, and my reasoning faculties as well.
And so I passed out of Materialism into Theosophy, and
every month that has gone since then has given me reason to be more
and more grateful for the light which then came; for it is better to
live in a universe you are beginning to understand than in one which
is full of problems never to be solved; and if you find yourself on the
way to the solution of many, that gives you at least a reasonable hope
that you may possibly at last be able to solve those that are at the
moment beyond your grasp. And, after all, those with whom I stand
are not quite the persons whom it is the part of wise men merely to
scoff at and make a jest of. Amongst them are men well able to in-
vestigate; many are men of the world, doctors and lawyers – the two
professions which are just the two which ought to be able to deal
with the value of scientific and logical evidence. Already you may
find the ranks of Theosophy winning day by day thoughtful and in-
tellectual adherents. Even in the ranks of my own party I have not
gone over quite alone, for my friend and colleague, Mr Herbert Bur-
rows, went over with me; and since then, Br. Carter-Blake has joined
us.
Are you quite wise to be so sure that you are right and that there
is nothing in the universe you do not know? It is not a safe position
to take up. It has been taken in all ages, and has always proved mis-
taken. It was taken by the Roman. Catholic Church centuries ago,
but they have been driven back. It has been taken by the Protestant
Church time after time. They also have been proved mistaken. If it
is taken by the Freethought party now, is that to be the only body in
human history that is the one and final possessor of the truth and
knowledge that never in all the centuries to come may be increased?
For, friends, that, and nothing else than that, is the position that you
are taking in this Hall at the present time. [“Quite Right”, and “No”,
“No”.] You say “no”. Listen for a moment, and let us see if it be not
so. What is the reason I leave your platform? Because your society
shuts me off it. [“No”, and “Yes”.] When you have done shouting
“no”, I will finish my sentence. The reason that this is my last lecture
in this Hall is because the condition which was placed upon my com-
ing on the platform, after the hall passes into the hands of the
National Secular Society, is that I shall not in my lectures say any-
thing that goes against the principles and objects of the Society.
Now I will never speak under such conditions. I did not break
with the great Church of England, and ruin my social position, and
break with all that women hold dear, in order to come to this platform
and be dictated to as to what I should say. Your great leader would
never have done it. Imagine Charles Bradlaugh standing upon this
platform and, when he went up to the room of the Committee of the
National Secular Society, their corning to him and saying: “You
should not have said so and so it your lecture.” And do you suppose
that I, who have spoken on this platform so long, will place myself
in that position? Mind, I do not deny the right of your Society to do
it. I do not challenge the right of your Society, or any other, to make
any conditions it pleases round its platform. You have exactly the
right that every church and sect has to say: “This is my creed and,
unless you accept it, you shall not speak within my walls.” You have
the right; but, O my friends and brothers, is it wise? Think. I have no
word today to say against the Society; no word to say against its
committee; but I have sat upon that committee for many a year, and
I know on it are many young men sent up by their societies – when
they have only been members a very short time – to take part in the
deliberations. Are these young fellows, who are not my equals in
training or knowledge, of the world, of history or theology – are they
to have the right to come and say to me, when I leave the platform:
“Your lecture went beyond the limits of the principles and objects of
our Society”? It is not thus I hold the position of a public teacher, of
a public speaker.
I will only speak from a platform where I may say what I
believe to be true. Whether it be true or not, it is my right to speak
it; whether it be correct or not, it is my right to submit it to a tribunal
of my fellows. But you, what is it you are saying? That you will have
no word from your platform save that which you already know, ech-
oing back from your brains to the brain of the speaker the truth you
have already discovered. While one more truth remains in the uni-
verse to be discovered, you do wrong to bar your platform. Truth is
mightier than our wildest dreamings; deeper than our longest plum-
met-line; higher than our loftiest wings; grander than you and I can
even imagine today. What are we? People of a moment. Do you think
centuries hence, millenniums hence, your principles and objects will
count in the truth which our race then will know? Why bar your plat-
form? If you are right, discussion will not shake your truth. If you
are right, you ought to be strong enough to hear a lecturer put views
you don’t agree with. I never dreamt that from this platform, identi-
fied with struggles for human liberty, a platform on which I have
stood with half the world against me, I never thought I should be
excluded from it by the barrier of objects already accepted; and while
I admit your right to do it, I sorely misdoubt the wisdom of the judg-
ment that so decides.
In bidding you farewell, I have no words save words of grat-
itude to say in this Hall; for well I know that for seventeen years I
have met with a kindness that has never changed, a loyalty that has
never broken, a courage that has always been ready to stand by me
and defend me. Without your help I had been crushed many a year
ago; without the love you gave me, my heart would have been bro-
ken many long years since. But not even for love of you, shall a gag
be placed upon my mouth; not even for your sake will I promise not
to speak of that which I know to be true. Although my knowledge
may be mistaken, it is knowledge to me. As long as I have it, I should
commit the worst treachery to truth and conscience if I allowed an-
yone to stand between my right to speak that which I believe I have
found to those who are willing to listen to me. And so, henceforth, I
must speak in other Halls than this; henceforth in this Hall – identi-
fied to me with so much of struggle, so much of pain, so much of the
strongest joy that anyone can know – after having tried to be faithful,
after having struggled to be true, henceforth in this Hall my voice
will not again be heard. To you, friends and comrades of so many
years, of whom I have spoken no harsh word since I left you, and of
whom through all the years to come no words save of gratitude shall
ever pass my lips – to you, friends and comrades, I must say farewell,
going out into a life that is shorn indeed of its friends, but has on it
that light of duty which is the polestar of every true conscience and
brave heart. I know – as far as human being can know – that Those
to Whom I have pledged my faith and service are true and pure and
great. I would not have left your platform had I not been compelled
but if I must be silent on what I know to be true, then I must take my
dismissal, and to you now, and for the rest of this life, to you I bid –
FAREWELL.
[As attempts are being made to misrepresent what is above
said, I add here that the above Farewell was meant, as was plainly
said, for the Hall of Science and its audience. In future, as since May,
1889, when joined the Theosophical Society, I shall speak to any
Branches of the National Secular Society, as I do to Spiritualists and
others with whom I disagree, so long as they do not claim a censor-
ship over what I say.]
After this period Mrs Besant would embark on a life of ener-
getic work for the Theosophical Society, visiting many countries,
writing many articles and books and establishing herself as a real
leader of the movement and a continuator of the work of the Found-
ers. She would go through a number of institutional crisis without
hesitating or doubting her ability to deal with them. Under her lead-
ership the Society would experience unprecedented growth and
influence and become a recognized force for change in the world.
But it would be in India that her skills, wisdom, courage and deter-
mination would place her at the centre of a renaissance movement, a
true awakening of the motherland, a spiritual spring, which in San-
skrit is called Vasant.
 2

From England to India

1891 Succeeded H. P. Blavatsky as Outer Head of the E.S.T.

1893 September represented the Theosophical Society at the World Par-
liament of Religions in Chicago;
November 9th, arrived in Colombo, and on Nov. 11th lectured on
‘Karma’;
November 16th, landed in India, at Tuticorin, 10.24 a.m.;
December, her first Convention Lectures delivered: ‘The Building
of the Kosmos’
1893-94 First lecture-tour in India, attracting audiences of thousands
1894 Engaged in the Judge ‘case’;
First lecture tour in Australia and New Zealand;
First address to Indian National Congress
1895 January, settled in Benares;
Translated the Bhagavad-Gita;
Awarded the Subba Row Medal;
Summer, began clairvoyant research
1896 April, lecture series in London, later published as
The Ancient Wisdom
1897 Reorganized the American Section;
Edited and issued The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III
1898 July 7th, started the Central Hindu College in Benares
1900 First lectured in India on Social Reform
1901 Started the Central Hindu College Magazine, which soon
attained a circulation of 15,000
1902 Joined Co-Freemasonry
1904 Started a Girls’ School in Benares;
 [The sources for this chapter are ‘HPB and the Present Crisis in the
TS’ by Constance Wachtmeister (https://theosophists.org/library/books/h-
p-b-and-the-present-crisis-in-the-theosophical-society-1895/), originally
published in Theosophy In Australasia, July 5, 1895, pages 5-8; A Short
History of the Theosophical Society by Josephine Ransom, The Theosoph-
ical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, 1989; and ‘Twenty Years of Work’,
a compilation by Basil Hodgson-Smith from the ‘Watch-Tower’ notes and
‘Supplement’ in The Theosophist, from Lucifer and The Path, for the pe-
riod between 1891 and 1911.]

Within a year of shifting to Avenue Road Madame Blavatsky

passed away. Let us consider what Countess Constance Wachtmeis-
ter, who had lived for six years with her as her close friend and
helper, has written about finding a replacement. Madame Blavatsky
considered several persons who might have guided and taught after
her but was unsuccessful in her search and became ‘depressed and
downhearted’, saying ‘There is nobody left to take my place when I
am gone.’ Long before Annie Besant appeared on the scene Madame
Blavatsky had told Countess Wachtmeister that a woman would be
her successor. On seeing Mrs Besant for the first time she exclaimed,
‘My dear Mrs Besant, I have so long wished to see you.’
Her hopes revived but as Wachtmeister had been discouraged
by failure of various persons who it was thought could be possible
successors, she looked upon Mrs Besant with critical, if not suspi-
cious, eyes. She thought it possible that Annie Besant might be an
ambitious person entering the Theosophical Society with the motive
of governing and controlling its affairs. She watched her closely,
judging and criticizing every action from this point of view. She no-
ticed that Mrs Besant continuously endeavoured to overcome her
shortcomings and was full of self-sacrifice in her daily life. The
watchful eyes of the Countess noticed in Mrs Besant an indomitable
will-power which overcame one obstacle after another. She became
convinced that Mrs Besant could succeed Madame Blavatsky.
 Two more incidences convinced the Countess. One day she
saw Mrs Besant ‘enveloped in a cloud of light – Master’s colour. He
was standing by her side with his hand over her head’. She rushed to
Madame Blavatsky and narrated what she had seen. Madame Bla-
vatsky confirmed the truth of the incident. At a lecture to workmen
she saw the Master by Mrs Besant’s and felt that she spoke with an
eloquence not noticed before.
While living with Madame Blavatsky, Mrs Besant spent
some time every evening with her to receive occult teachings.
Very soon after joining the TS she started speaking and writ-
ing about Theosophy. Mrs Besant first article appeared in the 15
August 1889 issue of Lucifer on ‘Karma and Social Improvement’,
next an article on ‘Hypnotism’ and this was followed by an article
on ‘Memory’. The article on ‘Theosophy for the Profane’ appeared
in March and April issues of Lucifer. Thereafter followed regular
contributions of articles, some under ‘Theosophical Gleanings’, in
the same journal.
A special mention may be made of an article in the December
1890 issue of Lucifer, on ‘T.S. and H.P.B.’ later published as a pam-
phlet, protesting against the constant petty criticism levelled at
Madame Blavatsky who came to know of it only after publication.
As Mabel Collins was unable to continue Annie Besant was ap-
pointed co-editor of Lucifer from September 1889.
In November and December 1889 Mrs Besant addressed
crowded audiences on Theosophy. These were followed by several
lectures delivered in 1890 at various places in England, Ireland and
on the continent. Her first lecture in Ireland was on 3 October 1890
in Dublin on ‘Why I became a Theosophist’. As early as that a com-
mentator said, ‘She understands, as few good speakers do, the beauty
of rhythm in a sentence, and the force that is gained by the reiteration
of some particular words’.
It was on 4 September that Colonel Olcott arrived in London
and was warmly greeted by Madame Blavatsky. On this day he saw
Annie Besant for the first time. She met Mr C.W. Leadbeater in 1890
at Mr A. P. Sinnett’s home in London. The President, Col. Olcott,
went several times to hear Mrs Besant speak, and was struck by her
forcible oratory.
Madame Blavatsky knew that her physical existence would
come to an end very soon. She wanted to place the work on a secure
foundation. She saw great organizational power in Mr Judge and po-
tentialities of teaching in Mrs Besant. It is possibly for this reason
that she asked Mrs Besant to go to America and with Mr Judge
should visit some Lodges there. As Mr Judge did not know Mrs Bes-
ant, Madame Blavatsky wrote to him on 27 March 1891 describing
Mrs Besant as, ‘the soul of honour and uncompromising truthfulness
… unselfishness and altruism is Annie Besant’s name ... It is only a
few months she studies occultism with me in the innermost group of
the E.S. and yet she has passed far beyond others... She is a most
wonderful woman, my right hand, my successor, when I will be
forced to leave you, my sole hope in England, as you are my sole
hope in America.’
Countess Wachtmeister has narrated that Madame Blavatsky
used to wear a signet-ring which had highly magnetic properties. The
ring was to be handed over to Annie Besant after her death according
to her express direction.
Mrs Annie Besant arrived at New York on 9 April 1891. Her
first lecture was on ‘London, its Wealth and its Poverty’. In this she
drew a vivid picture of the awful state of things there among the
poor, but with little relief offered by the rich. This was followed on
the 15th by a lecture on ‘Dangers Menacing Society’, showing dan-
gers not only of disproportionate distribution of wealth but also of
overproduction.
As the poor became educated they saw clearly all this and
became discontented. She spoke on the same subject in Washington
on the 24th. Returning to New York she gave two lectures, one of
which was to clear some misconceptions. Thence Mrs Besant and
Mr Judge proceeded to Boston to attend the Theosophical Conven-
tion on 24 April. She, designated by Madame Blavatsky as her ‘agent
and representative’ during her visit, gave greetings from her to the
Convention and read out her message pointing out that the present
cycle of great conflict and continued strain will continue up to 1897-
98. Madame Blavatsky’s message added, ‘If the T.S. can hold
through it, good; if not, while Theosophy will remain unscathed, the
Society will perish… and the world will suffer...’ Mrs Besant’s main
lecture to the Convention was on ‘Theosophy and its Message to the
Western World’. There were other lectures besides hers. A special
mention may be made of a reception given in her honour by New
England’s large and powerful organization ‘Women’s Press Associ-
ation’ where she addressed the gathering on ‘Women and Journalism
from the Theosophical Standpoint’.
Madame Blavatsky’s warning to the members came true.
The next few years were full of conflict and strain among some of
the principal workers but the T.S. did ‘hold through it’ and continues
to serve humanity even today.
Mrs Besant and Mr Judge returned to New York on 1May,
stopping at Springfield on the way. Her first American tour ended
with a lecture to the Aryan T.S. of New York. On 6 May Mrs Besant
accompanied by Mr Judge and Dr and Mrs J. D. Buck, left New York
for England. Madame Blavatsky passed away on 8 May while they
were on board.
After attending meetings and discussions with workers Mrs
Besant along with Mr Judge went on a lecture tour in England. Her
subjects included ‘What Education Should Be’, ‘Civilization and
Human Happiness’, ‘A Page of Forgotten Eastern Philosophy’. She
wrote for Lucifer, contributing an article in July on ‘Theosophy and
the Law of Population’. She lectured also before the London Spirit-
ualist Federation on ‘Where Materialism Breaks Down’. Her
itinerary included Bradford, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham,
Brighton, Brixton, and Battersea. In addition she lectured at the
Blavatsky Lodge, Manchester, Greenwich and thrice at the Hall of
Science.
In consultation with the Esoteric Section Council Mrs Besant
and Mr Judge agreed that they together should assume full leadership
of the E.S., Mr Judge for America and Mrs Besant for the rest of the
world, with the Headquarters in London.
Mrs Besant refused to stand for reelection to the London
School Board, as she wanted to devote her full time to T.S. work. At
this time was published the first installment of ‘The Seven Principles
of Man’ which continued monthly until it was completed.
Responsibility of editing Lucifer fell mainly on her shoul-
ders. As a result of the impetus given by her great interest was
aroused in theosophical subjects in various journals, and the lecture
halls were full to capacity. She wrote in the editorial of Lucifer, July
1891:

Theosophy is gaining in England a hearing such as it never

had before. Not only have many journals, finding the interest
aroused in the subject widespread and eager, readily printed arti-
cles on Theosophical subjects, but public meetings, limited only
by the size of the halls in which they were held, have attested that
interest in some of the provincial towns … Early in the year I came
to the conclusion that any effective propaganda on Theosophy
among the population at large was hopeless in this country, unless
we could get people to listen to the doctrine of Reincarnation …
So I told H.P.B. that I intended to take Reincarnation as a subject
for lecturing, and her prompt approbation told me the new depar-
ture was a step in the right direction.

During the remainder of the year she continued lecturing, and

wrote a vigorous editorial in the December Lucifer on ‘Ought The-
osophists to be Propagandists?’ urging all those who had received
Theosophic knowledge to pass it on. But her health suffered from
her overwork.
With the arrival of Mrs Besant on the Theosophical platform
there was a noticeable change in the quality of the audience. It was
not to listen to a political oration or to witness sensational miracles
or manifestations. It was an aggregation of truth-seekers. A few went
to scoff but many remained. In the audience an eminent Baptist, an
Independent deacon, now a Secularist next, a Swedenborgian and
also a Quaker sitting shoulder to shoulder with a Church Warden.
Lectures were followed by many questions, letters of enquiry asking
about libraries, from where further information could be obtained
and where books could be bought.
On 9-10 July 1891, at the First Annual Convention of the
Theosophical Society in Europe, the President-Founder took the
chair and Mrs Besant welcomed him and pledged the loyalty of the
Convention to the Cause. A largely attended public meeting was held
at which Col. Olcott, A. P. Sinnett, William Judge, Mrs Besant, Ber-
tram Keightley and Herbert Burrows spoke. On 17 July the European
Section was duly chartered.
On 30 August the President went with Mrs Besant to attend
her farewell address to the Secularists, for they had voted that she
should not speak to them on Theosophy. She explained her search
for Truth, her work for the Freethought movement and her contact
with Madame Blavatsky. A great sensation was caused when she de-
clared that she herself had received letters from a great Teacher in
the same handwriting as those which Madame Blavatsky had re-
ceived. This statement was discussed in the press with great
excitement. She continued lecturing during the year. Due to over-
work her health suffered towards the end of 1891. From the March
issue of Lucifer onwards she wrote a series of articles on Reincarna-
tion.
It may be relevant to mention that Col. Olcott on his way
back to India lectured at many places in the USA and in early
October met Mr Judge in San Francisco. There were already diffi-
culties concerning claims made by Mr Judge regarding his
relationship with the Masters. Col. Olcott came to an understanding
with him about Theosophical matters.
In spite of her poor health Mrs Besant lectured widely in early
1892 (at thirty-six places between January and June).
In February 1892, the first installment of Manual II, Reincar-
nation, appeared in Lucifer, which continued monthly till finished.
In July appeared her ‘Rough Outline of Theosophy’, and there was
held in that month the Second Annual Convention of the European
Section of the Theosophical Society, held in Manchester in July, and
continued her vigorous lecturing in England until she left for the
USA on 24 November. In September Mrs Besant began to publish
‘Death and After’, which was continued monthly and formed Man-
ual III.
Plans had been discussed as to the possibility of a visit to
India in the autumn of 1892, but the visit had to be postponed, Mrs
Besant sending the following letter [published in The Theosophist,
Vol. XIV]:

TO INDIAN THEOSOPHISTS
19 AVENUE RD., LONDON, N.W.,
October 21, 1892.

DEAR FRIENDS AND BROTHERS,

I am told much disappointment is felt because I cannot yet
visit India; and as India is to me, as to every Theosophist, the “Sa-
cred Land”, I earnestly desire that no harsher feeling may mingle
with that of regret. Last year I promised to visit India, if possible;
but there were two conditions necessary of fulfiment: (1) That my
health would bear the climate; (2) That as I live on what I earn,
and use my earnings for the support of Headquarters left in my
charge and that of others by H.P.B., enough money should be
raised in India to cover the cost of the tour and to pay towards the
maintenance of Headquarters that which I should have paid out of
my earnings if I were working in Europe or America. Neither of
these conditions was fulfilled. The physician who attended H.P.B.
while she lived in London stated positively that if I went to India
and lectured as I proposed, I should not return alive; that, over-
strained by the trouble of that year and the heavy work that fell on
me, my strength would not bear the hot climate and the complete
change of life-conditions; that, while I might get all right again
working in England or America – the latter being especially advis-
able because of the sea-voyage and bracing climate – a lecturing
tour in India must mean a hopeless breakdown. Apart from all else,
this opinion was enough to delay my visit.
But the second condition remained unfulfilled. There was
not sufficient interest at first felt in the proposed tour to raise the
necessary funds, and this by itself rendered delay imperative.
Some hasty members have spoken of breach of contract on my side
in my not visiting India this year. I made no promise to do so. I
promised to go last year if certain conditions were fulfilled, one of
which depended on members of the Society. The members did not
fulfil that condition, so the arrangement lapsed, and since then I
have made no promise and can therefore commit no ‘breach of
contract’. Now apart from all questions of promises, I am deeply
and earnestly desirous of visiting India; but I cannot consult my
wishes only. I have work placed in my hands which I am bound to
carry out, and you, my dear Indian brethren, cannot be the judges
of my duty. While I shall be grieved if you are angry with me for
my absence, the anger would not move me from doing what is
right. It may be that circumstances next year will permit me to visit
you; and if so, it will not be my heart or will that will place any
obstacle in the way. But I can make no definite promise…
India’s salvation depends on herself and her resident work-
ers, not on the passing excitement that might be caused by lectures
from me; and you, my brothers, are responsible for your own land.
 Ere long I hope to stand face to face with you, I, to whom India
and the Indian people seem nearer than the nations to which by
birth I belong. In heart I am one with you, and to you by my past I
belong. Born last time under Western skies for work that needs to
be done, I do not forget my true motherland, and my inner nature
turns eastward ever with filial longing. When Karma opens the
door, I will walk through it, and we will meet in the body as we
can already meet in mind. Farewell
ANNIE BESANT, F.T.S.

Mrs Besant landed in New York on 30 November and was

met by Mr Judge, Mr. Neresheimer, Dr. A. Keightley and others. Her
lecture programme was as follows: New York, Toledo, Fort Wayne,
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Sioux City, Omaha,
Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los
Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincin-
nati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, etc. She herself
writes (see Lucifer, Vol. 12, p. 105):

Landing at New York, I found the Aryan Branch as active

as ever and considerably stronger in numbers than on my last visit,
and the effective nature of the propaganda carried on was evi-
denced by the large audiences. The new Headquarters is a splendid
acquisition, and it is good to see the General Secretary (W. Q.
Judge) in his office like a spider in the middle of his web, and all
the strands running out in every direction . . . This floor may be
said to be the backbone of the Headquarters; above it are meeting-
rooms, and yet above again the dwelling-rooms of bachelor mem-
bers; below it is the Hall of the Aryan Lodge, and below this the
printing office where John, the brother of James Pryse, does for
the American Section the work done in England by his brother.
The Aryan Press and the H. P. B. Press are mighty twins without
 which the literary side of the movement would be sorely handi-
capped.

After that she moved to Chicago, Milwaukee and then west-

wards to St Paul and southwards to several places. From Portland
again she travelled northwards to the State of Washington, travelling
southwards a thousand miles at stretch, arriving in San Francisco.
Mrs Besant describes the group as a great Theosophical centre on
the Western Coast, not only large in numbers but also strong in en-
ergy and devotion.
She spent a week there conducting a number of meetings be-
fore leaving for Los Angeles and San Diego for the second time.
After a five-day train journey she reached Kansas City. She says the
audiences at St Louis, Indianapolis, Dayton and Columbus were
small as not much Theosophical propaganda had been done. As a
result of work done by the Buck family a large enthusiastic audience
was present at Cincinnati. Then, via New York, she reached Boston
for a large meeting. Then again southwards she travelled in the east-
ern states. She was shocked at the sight of the workers in Pittsburg,
a familiar sight in the old countries, with ‘shoulders bowed with con-
stant burden of anxiety’.
Visiting a few more places she left New York to pick up
threads at the Headquarters in London. On 27 April 1893 Mrs Besant
wrote to Col. Olcott that she would be able to visit India in autumn.
In May her four-day visit to Holland put new energy into the Dutch
Headquarters staff. The title of the lecture on 19 May at Amsterdam
was ‘Evolution of Man, from the Animal to the Divine’. The next
day she spoke on ‘Theosophy, its Teaching and its Meaning’. A spe-
cial and uncommon feature of the visit was that her lectures were
appreciatively reported in detail in all the newspapers. These fol-
lowed two crowded meetings of members and enquirers at the
Headquarters.
 On 26 August Mrs Besant, accompanied by Miss Miller,
G.N. Chakravarti, and H. Dharmapala, sailed for New York. Col.
Olcott, by Executive Orders, deputed Mr Judge to represent him of-
ficially and Mrs Besant as ‘special delegate’ to speak on behalf of
the Theosophical Society at the First World Parliament of Religions
held at Chicago on 15-16 September 1893, with various organiza-
tions holding their own congresses. After overcoming several
hurdles the T.S. was granted permission to hold its own congress.
The lectures were crowded to such an extent that the hall allotted to
hold 500 was changed to one which would hold 1500 and then to one
which would hold 4,000 which was also packed but very few at-
tended other sessions of the Congress.
Dr J. Anderson, editor of The Pacific Theosophist, wrote of Mrs
Besant’s address: ‘Seldom has a tide of eloquence ever flowed from
human lips than came from those of Annie Besant.’ The Tribune re-
ported, ‘Occultism and esoteric subjects held full sway last evening
at the Hall of Washington. The hall was crowded with an audience
eager and anxious to listen to the words that fell from the lips of the
most prominent theosophist of the day, Mrs Besant, on whom the
mantle of Madame Blavatsky has fallen.’ Mrs Besant went on her
first visit to Canada soon after the World Parliament of Religions.
Mrs Besant arrived in Colombo on 10 November 1893 and
lectured to crowded meetings in Kandy, Colombo, Galle and Pan-
dure. She landed on Indian soil at Tuticorin on16 November and
lecturing at eighteen places to ever-increasing crowds and reached
Adyar on 20 December. The Convention had a larger attendance
than ever before and Mrs Besant gave all the four Convention lec-
tures on ‘The Building of the Kosmos’.
On New Year’s day Mrs Besant lectured on the Madras Es-
planade to a crowd of 6,000 in the open, without a microphone. So
far, she had given forty-eight lectures (including those at the Con-
vention). On 7 January 1894 she, with the President and others,
sailed from Madras to Calcutta and went up to Lahore in the West
and then via Bombay left for England on 20 March. In the April 1894
issue of The Theosophist Col. Olcott gave a detailed account of Mrs
Besant’s tour and the great impact it made:
The departure of Annie Besant for England closed the rec-
ord of one of the most remarkable lecturing tours in history. It is a
record of 15,000 miles of travel by sea and 6,500 by land, in Cey-
lon and India; of 121 public addresses to at least an aggregate of
100,000 people; of the widening of the hearts of several nations;
of the awakening of popular enthusiasm for the ancient faiths of
Hinduism and Buddhism among their much dejected adherents;
and of such a display of ability as an orator, philosopher and public
teacher, as to put her in the very highest place in the minds of East-
ern people. From the Southern province of Ceylon to Lahore, the
capital of the Punjab, and from Calcutta, the metropolis of the In-
dian Empire, to Surat, the ancient gateway on the Western sea of
the commerce of India with Western Nations, comes but one ver-
dict as to her preeminence in all those qualities that mark the civic
leader of men. Before November last her name was scarcely
known in the East, save among a few readers of Western free-
thought literature; it is now known and spoken of with benedic-
tions in tens of thousands of homes, by every class of people in the
countries through which she has passed triumphantly, during the
tour just completed. Instead of my exaggerating in what is said
above, our friends in every town visited will, upon reading these
lines, rather accuse me of understating the facts; for everywhere
there were the same crowds hanging upon her eloquent lips, the
same rain of tears when she pathetically described the fallen state
of the old religions and the spiritual degradation of the peoples, the
same wild applause when she sat down, almost exhausted, after
her fervid perorations.
As regards her keeping within the constitutional limits of
our Society’s policy, I do not see how there can be two opinions.
Her theme was ever Theosophy, and besides being a Hindu by
religion she has ever declared herself a thorough-going Theoso-
phist. While she showed that Theosophy was more fully and
clearly taught, as she believed and as H. P. B. proved, in the Aryan
Scriptures than anywhere else, she also said that it was the indwell-
ing soul of every religion the world had ever known.
As regards the entire tour it may be said that there was a
monotony of exciting arrivals and departures from stations of gen-
erous, even lavish, hospitality; of smothering under flowers and
sprinkling with rose-water; of loving addresses presented in taste-
ful caskets by reception committees; of chanted Sanskrit ślokas
full of Eastern compliments and hyperboles, from both orthodox
and unorthodox pundits; of organisation by me of Hindu religious
and ethical societies among school-boys and undergraduates; of
visits to sacred shrines and holy ascetics; of morning conversazio-
nes when, for two hours or even three, Annie Besant would answer
offhand the most difficult and abstruse questions in science, phi-
losophy, symbolism and metaphysics; of grand orations daily to
overpacked and sweltering audiences, which found no halls big
enough to hold them, and so overflowed into the neighbouring
compounds or streets, sometimes by hundreds and thousands, and
had to be driven away by the police; of processions in palanquins,
by night with torches, by day and night sometimes with bands of
Hindu musicians, choirs of female singers and groups of bayaderes
with national music and dance, as though ours was a religious pro-
gress; of presents of Kashmir shawls by hosts and magnates who
could afford to comply with the ancient custom of thus honoring
scholars, that has come down from remotest antiquity; of rides on
elephants through crowds of pilgrims; of floating in quaint boats
down sacred rivers, past holy cities like Benares, Prayag and Mut-
tra, to see the bathing multitudes and the waterside temples,
houses, mosques and tombs of dead potentates, sages and ascetics;
of formal meetings with pundits for discussions; of receptions at
private houses where we were made acquainted with the most
educated and most influential personages of the great cities: this
for five months on end; a rushing up and down and across the great
Indian peninsula; a conscientious filling of engagements and strict
keeping to the advertised programmes; a series of meetings and
partings with beloved old colleagues and new acquaintanceships
formed with later corners.
Over all, through all, and lingering with me like the strain
of a sweet symphony dying in distance, the recollection of the most
splendid series of discourses I ever listened to in my life; and of
intimate companionship with one of the purest, most high-minded,
most intellectual and spiritually elevated women of our generation,
or of any previous age, of whom I have read in history. Unlike as
H. P. B. and I were in many respects, we were akin in more ways
than Annabai and myself can ever be. My praise of her is not tinged
with blind partiality. She is religious fervor and devotion personi-
fied, the ideal female devotee who in time evolves into saint and
martyr. Her Hinduism is the lofty spiritual concept of the Bhaga-
vag-Gitā, a splendid, perhaps unattainable, ideal.
If there was monotony in other things throughout the tour,
there certainly was not as regards lodging-places. At one station
we would be quartered by the local committee in a palace, bor-
rowed for the occasion from the local agent of some absentee
rajah; at the next at a bug-haunted, uncleanly, mud-floored and
mud-walled travellers’ bungalow, perhaps one where the wood of
the doors had been eaten out by white ants, or become so warped
as to defy the tight shutting of them. The charpoys (bed-cots) were
sometimes so soiled and full of animal life that we all preferred
sleeping on the floor on mats – no hardship for either Annabai or
myself, or for that matter, for our dear companion, the self-forget-
ting and humble-minded hard worker for Theosophy, the Countess
Wachtmeister, although she usually resorted to her deck-chair,
which she carried with her against such emergencies. Several
times we were put up at railway stations, where the journey had to
be broken to take another railway line; but in India that is no great
hardship. To people of our simple tastes, it was pleasanter than to
have to sleep in palaces full of costliest furniture; for one could not
help grieving over the human misery with which the latter con-
trasted. Yet, let me say, that whatever the temporary habitations in
which our friends lodged our party, it was given in love and the
sense of that made us happy, in the most gorgeous koti as in the
most humble bungalow. Our every wish was anticipated, our every
imaginary want provided for; and if the memory of Annie, her lec-
tures, talks and sisterliness, is sweet to the memories of the local
Branches who entertained us, so likewise does she carry away a
heart full of fraternal affection for the Hindu, Parsi and Mussalman
brothers she left behind – but not forever.
She landed at Colombo on November 9th, crossed over to
India on the 15th, visited thirteen stations before reaching Madras,
and stopped at Adyar until January 7th, 1894. At the Convention
she gave a series of lectures on “Sound”, “Fire”, “Yoga”, and
“Symbolism”, which were published under the title The Building
of the Kosmos. We sailed for Calcutta on the 7th, where she scored
the greatest triumph, we are told, that any public speaker had had
in the metropolis. The town hall was packed to suffocation with a
sitting and standing audience of 5,000, yet so complete was her
command over their feelings that when she sank her voice to a half-
tone of pathetic recitative, they listened in absolute silence to catch
every word, until at the fitting moment their suppressed feeling
found vent in torrents of applause. The description applies to each
of her Calcutta addresses; and the comments of the local Press and
those of the whole Presidency prove the depth and permanency of
the impression she made on the people, the high and low, the edu-
cated and uneducated. Her progress through Bengal and Behar was
almost a royal one in its exhibition of popular fervor. She could
not drive through the streets nor enter a lecture-hall without having
to pass through crowds who had gathered just to gaze at the
 champion of their hoary faith, the declared student of the old Ar-
yan wisdom, and to salute her reverentially with joined palms held
in front of their foreheads, as they have been taught to salute the
Brahman and the true ascetic from the earliest times to the present
day. At Berhampore, there was a great gathering of Nuddea and
other pandits to greet her, and in their joint address to her in Sam-
skrt they ingeniously paraphrased her name into the honorific title
of “Annavasant”, which means “the giver of nourishment to the
whole world”. The triumph of Calcutta was repeated at Lahore.
Fortunately the huge circular pavilion erected for the sessions of
the National Congress in December had not yet been dismantled,
and seating accommodation was available for some 4,000 people.
Annie Besant’s voice, which did not fail her throughout the tour,
was found equal to the occasion at Lahore and could be heard with
ease throughout the vast auditorium.
Having now reached our most northern point of travel, we
turned southward by Bareilly, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Nagpur, and
Poona, to Bombay; thence onwards to Surat in the west, and to
Baroda, half-way between the two; then back to Bombay, where
the 18th and 19th of March were devoted to public addresses and
private meetings, receptions and conversaziones; and the last event
of all was the embarkation of our dear apostle of Theosophy on the
P & O steamer Peninsular for Europe.

After returning to England from India she presided over

White Lotus Day meeting, afterwards lecturing for a fortnight at var-
ious places. Later Mr Bertram Keightley accompanied her on a tour
of Sweden where she patiently answered numerous enquirers.
She wrote about Mr Keightley: ‘[he] devoted himself during our
stay to the helping and enlightenment of the enquirers who thronged
round us. Noting his patience, his gentleness, his ready insight into
the often inarticulate difficulties of the questioners, and his lucidity
of explanation, I realised why our revered H. P. B. so deeply loved
and valued him as pupil and friend. The Theosophical Society has
few more useful servants and none who is more devoted.’
When she left India for England, she was requested by the
President-Founder to formulate charges against W. Q. Judge, the
Vice-President and the President-elect. From the time she arrived
until the Convention, she had led a lonely life, for thought and feel-
ing were strongly against her and she had a very hard time indeed.
The feeling in favour of W. Q. Judge was intense, and it was not until
he had alienated many by his shuffling that Annie Besant experi-
enced any warmth of support. She wrote: ‘No member of any weight
stood by me except Mr. Sturdy, Mr. Sinnett and Mr. Bertram Keight-
ley.’ She was regarded on all sides as mistaken and uncharitable, and
was treated like a guilty person. (See The Case against Mr. Judge,
and the Watch-Tower in Lucifer about that time.)
Mrs. Besant published in Lucifer (July, 1894) lectures given
at Blavatsky Lodge on ‘The Meaning and Use of Pain’ and ‘Devo-
tion and the Spiritual Life’. Mrs. Besant’s charges against William
Judge were not met but evaded; and statements were read by each,
after which resolutions were passed closing the subject. Mrs. Besant
and others sent out a circular which is printed in Lucifer (August,
1894) on ‘Occultism and Truth’, and almost immediately left Eng-
land for Australia, where she arrived in September, 1894.
In that year Mrs Besant undertook a long tour of Australia
and New Zealand. Col. Olcott, in his Presidential Address to the
Convention, says that the tour has ‘opened out a new field to us, and
the first practical result is the taking of steps to form an Australasian
Section.’
She arrived in Australia on 26 August 1894. In Melbourne
the general election happened to be in full swing, and actors and ac-
tresses were playing to empty benches, nevertheless hundreds were
nightly turned away from the doors of the Bijou Theatre where An-
nie Besant delivered her first four lectures. So great was the interest
that a second four had to be delivered at the Athenaeum. Mrs
Besant’s married daughter, Mabel Besant-Scott, was baptized by the
Archbishop of Melbourne the following May. Her husband, a Mel-
bourne journalist, undertook to edit the newly established Australian
Theosophist.
At Sydney her welcome from the Australian public was even
more enthusiastic. The Opera House was nightly packed to ever
flowing, and Mrs. Besant wrote: ‘The Society is making steady pro-
gress here and is harmonious and united.’ Eminent personalities of
the day presided over her lectures. It is an interesting coincidence to
find Sir William Windeyer, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
New South Wales, chairing one of her lectures in Sydney. It was he
who had delivered one of most favourable judgements, condemning
some remarks made against her by another judge in the matter of her
publication on birth control. The reporter of the Daily Telegraph of
Sydney noted this and commented on the response to her lecture as
‘one of the most critical assemblages ever allured within the compass
of speakers’ voice in Sydney’.
She delivered ten lectures and the tone of the Press was eve-
rywhere most appreciative. On October 1st she sailed for New
Zealand, where she received a similar cordial and appreciative wel-
come, visiting Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington.
She writes:
I rather hope that the general orthodox feeling may be a lit-
tle softened by one incident of my visit: the Bishop of Auckland
and his daughter called on me at the Theosophic rooms. By the
way, if you see a paragraph that I attended the cathedral service
and took the sacrament, it is not true! But the statement was all
over Auckland. I was at a meeting at the time, but that does not
matter. It will do with the Ganges bathing and the visit to the Ro-
man Catholic authorities on my joining the Roman Catholic
Church, to prove how variable are my religious opinions.
 She arrived in Madras on 22 December. At the 1894 Con-
vention Mrs Besant gave four Convention lectures on the famous
series called ‘The Self and its Sheaths’. They show her deep insight
into the Hindu scriptures, and her crowded audiences sat enthralled
under her eloquence. The Anniversary celebration in the Madras
town hall had a packed audience, and at each of her remaining two
public appearances she had 6,000 and 7,000 hearers.
She proposed at the Convention that W. Q. Judge should be
asked to resign as President-elect, which was carried. On landing at
Colombo on December 18th, she had received a file of the Westmin-
ster Gazette containing articles by Mr. Garrett on certain frauds in
the Theosophical Society. Having read them carefully on the railway
journey from Colombo to Madras, she wrote a long reply to The
Daily Chronicle, which, with a speech at the Adyar Convention on
‘Should Mr. Judge Resign?’ is contained in Lucifer (February,
1895). She prefaces her statement with these words:

I fully admit that anyone who takes on the platform the po-
sition of public teacher of morality is rightly challenged for
explanation if anything arises that throws doubt on his probity and
purity; if he is not prepared to answer the challenge, he should re-
tire from the public position; he is bound in honor to declare what
he believes to be the real state of the case, and to leave the issue
clear . . . I am therefore ready to answer, ready to let the public
pass its verdict on me. Then I shall go on with my work, whatever
the verdict may be; for I have been condemned before by the pub-
lic and then have been as extravagantly praised. If now the wheel
has turned for another period of condemnation, I can work as con-
tentedly through it. Those who build on the rock of pure intention
may, from folly or ignorance, use poor materials in their building.
Who should be more glad than they if the fire burns these up, so
teaching more care for the future?
 It had been planned that Mrs. Besant’s second Indian tour
should be on a much more restricted scale than the former: the Con-
vention lectures, a tour in the Punjab, visits to a few stations in the
North-West Province, a course in Calcutta, and a very short one at
Bombay. Her progress through the country provoked the same pop-
ular enthusiasm as had the first tour. Touching on the then crisis in
the Theosophical Society, she said:

The Society’s work is not to be judged by the actions and

peculiarities of those who were and are at the head of it, but by the
work they had done and were doing in the spiritual regeneration of
the various nationalities of the world.

Mrs Besant was very active in England after her return in

April 1895 and lectured at many places there till the beginning of
December 1895. Her first lecture in St James Hall was on ‘Mahatmas
as Facts and Ideals’, Mr. Sinnett presiding and giving a short prelim-
inary address; the lecture was issued in pamphlet form, and sent to
all members of the Society. Three series of four lectures were deliv-
ered on Sunday evenings: (1) Man and Law (2) Reincarnation and
Devachan (3) Man and his Bodies. Besides these she gave a series
of five lectures in August 1895 entitled ‘The Outer Court’.
Between this time and the Annual Convention, there was a
perfect deluge of pamphlets. Mrs. Besant presided at the Northern
Federation on May 11th, and gave a short account of her travels in
Australia and India, and lectured in the evening on ‘Brotherhood,
True and False’. Other lectures were on ‘The Brotherhood of Reli-
gions’ and ‘The Pilgrimage of the Soul’.
The Fifth Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society on
July 4th was a stormy one and Mr Judge’s adherents left the Conven-
tion after an excited protest. They in future called themselves the
‘Theosophical Society in England, America’, etc., as the case might
be.
 Mrs. Besant gave a series of lectures on Sundays in St.
James’s Hall on Karma, which were published as Manual IV. In this
there is evidently an increased development of astral and mental
sight. Unlike the former Manuals, it is the result of personal obser-
vation and not derived from H. P. B.’s teachings. She visited Holland
for the second time, and during August gave a very notable series of
lectures to Blavatsky Lodge entitled ‘The Outer Court’.

Dr. Besant’s First Use of Clairvoyance

(first printed in The Theosophist, October 1932, p. 11.)

‘In the year 1895, Dr. Besant and her colleague C.W.
Leadbeater, accompanied by Mr. Bertram Keightley, went for a short
holiday to Box Hill, Surrey. The holiday lasted from Friday, August
16, till Wednesday 21st. What happened during the trip was reported
at the time in a letter received by Miss F. Arundale in Benares. C.J.
[C. Jinarajadasa]

From C.W. Leadbeater to F. Arundale

August 25, 1895

Turning to other matters, we had a capital time at Box Hill.

The weather was splendidly fine all the time we were there (from
Friday night to Wednesday evening) so we simply climbed the hill
directly after breakfast (which was always at eight), took a rug with
us to sit upon, and remained there either all day, if we had taken up
some lunch, or at any rate till two o’clock. When we descended for
lunch we camped out in the garden (which was large) directly after
it, had our tea out there about five, and came into dinner about seven,
after which we took a two hours walk and went to bed. That was our
life all the while we were there, and we did nothing but talk
Theosophy the whole time. I wished very much you could have been
with us for I am sure you would have enjoyed it all immensely.

We stayed at a house called “The Cottage”, a real old

fashioned place, delightfully clean and quiet, but possessing modern
conveniences as far as baths and good cooking are concerned. We
were visited more than once by the Masters, also by D.K. and H.P.B,
and while we were there Mrs. Besant learnt to use astral vision,
which is not only a never-ceasing delight to her, but a great help to
me, as I have now another person to help check my recollection of
things. She plunged into it all with the greatest ardour, and we made
some very interesting investigations together, the results of which
will no doubt materialize themselves presently in the form of papers
or articles.

We got some unexpected new lights upon Devachan, shewing

(sic) possibilities which to me at least had been quite unexpected
before. The subject was fairly fully worked out, and a series of
examples were shown to us, but the whole explanation is far too long
to write here, and the conclusions without the explanation are
startling.

Very shortly and roughly put, it comes to this that as a man

evolves in goodness and intelligence, he generally develops his
consciousness on that plane; the images of him which enter into the
Devachan of his various departed friends are no longer mere
reflections (which are really illusions) but become a part of his
extended consciousness, so that the dead man is not deceiving
himself when he thinks that he meets and talks with a friend still on
earth; and the higher a man rises the more truly he is present in his
friend’s Devachan.

Of course this crude statement requires considerable

modification, but I am giving the merest outline, and I must say it
was a great relief to me to find that it was so. Another interesting
point was the extent to which the contemplation in Devachan of a
noble idea to which one looks up with love and gratitude may perfect
and spiritualize one’s character during that period; the example
given being that of a sempstress [another name for seamstress,
Compiler] who had been a kind of ministering angel in the slum in
which she was. The feelings that her ministrations aroused among
these unfortunates was the only thing, in some cases, that gave them
any Devachan at all, so that her earthly help was as nothing beside
the impulse she gave them on a higher plane, though of this she was
naturally entirely unconscious.

We also made further investigations into the different orders

of atoms and molecules, the arrival of the first class pitris from the
Moon, and the manners, customs, religion and history of some
Lemurian and early Atlantean races, to say nothing of a few casual
incarnation hints. During the latter we witnessed the first birth of
Mahatma Morya on this earth, on arrival from the spiritual state
following the Lunar Chain, and found him again about a million
years ago as one of the great dynasty of the Divine Rulers of the
Golden Gate in Atlantis.

So you see we did not altogether waste our time though we

were taking a holiday. A little rest and change did Mrs. Besant a
great deal of good. She is down at Harrogate lecturing today and will
return tomorrow. She delivered a very fine address here last
Thursday evening, sweeping away all the absurd and almost
blasphemous exaggerations with which the Path of spiritual
advancement has been often described as a “Path of woe”, of ever
increasing agony from age to age, and insisting on the sane aspect –
the joyous confidence, the serenity and bliss which can be given only
by the widening knowledge of the disciple.
C.W. LEADBEATER
 Further investigations were made after the return to London;
they were incorporated in the Theosophical Manual, No VI, The
Devachanic Plane. This incident of the sempstress is described at
length on pp.40, 41 – C.J.’

The English Lodges which seceded on account of the Judge

decision were: Dublin, Bow, Brixton, Croydon, Southport, H. P.B.,
Earl’s Court, Charleroi and Yarm. Mrs Besant had planned to visit
India at the time of the Indian Section Convention in October 1895,
held on the occasion of the Durga Puja, which was to be the first
Convention on the newly acquired premises for its Headquarters at
Benares, but delayed doing so, though at very great inconvenience
and serious pecuniary loss. She says:

H. P. B., Col. Olcott and myself are now the persons assailed…
It is best that I remain at hand to deal with any specific accusations
that may be made. The plan adopted by the enemies of the Society
of gathering together accusations against prominent members,
keeping careful silence while the members are at hand, and launch-
ing the accusations publicly when they are on the other side of the
world, or are on the eve of departure, is not a very chivalrous or
honorable one; but we must take people as we find them . . . So I
have unpacked my boxes and settled down again to work here. I
am grieved to think of the disappointment that will be caused in
India by the cancelling of the arrangements. However, it is all one
work, whether in India or in England; and the duty of the faithful
servant is to be where the greatest stress happens to be at the mo-
ment …
For myself, I may say – as I see in many papers that I am going
to leave or have left the Theosophical Society – that since I joined
the Society in 1889, I have never had a moment’s regret for having
entered it; nay, that each year of membership has brought an ever-
deepening thankfulness and ever-increasing joy. I do not expect to
 find perfection either in the outer Founders of the Theosophical
Society, or in its members, any more than they find it in myself,
and I can bear with their errors as I hope they can bear with mine.
But I can also feel gratitude to Col. Olcott for his twenty years of
brave and loyal service, and to H.P.B., for the giant’s work she did
against materialism, to say nothing of the personal debt to her that
I can never repay. Acceptance of the gift she poured out so freely
binds to her in changeless love and thankfulness all loyal souls she
served; and the gratitude I owe her grows as I know more and more
the value of the knowledge and the opportunities to which she
opened the way. Regret indeed there is for those who turn aside,
terrified by shadows, and so lose in this life the happiness they
might have had; but for them also shall the light dawn in the future,
and to them also shall other opportunities come.

A six penny Gita translated by her was published in England.

She lectured at Exeter, Plymouth and Tavistock. Centres were
formed at the last two places.
At the end of the Preface to her translation of the Bhagavad
Gita, Mrs Besant expresses ‘grateful acknowledgements’ to the fol-
lowing scholars, friends of hers at Benares (Varanasi): Babu-s
Pramada Das Mitra, Ganganath Jha, Kali Charan Mitra and Upen-
dranath Basu. Thanks to the assistance of Srimathi Manju Sundaram,
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Performing Arts, Benares Hindu Uni-
versity, and a resident of the Headquarters of the Indian Section of
the Theosophical Society in Varanasi, we are able to present some
biographical information about those eminent scholars:
Babu Pramada das Mitra was a great scholar of Sanskrit. He
was held in very high esteem by his contemporaries, other luminaries
and pandits of Kashi (Varanasi) in the latter half of the 19th century.
Pramada das Mitra played a vital role in promoting Sanskrit lan-
guage among students and awakening interest in them to learn this
beautiful language – Deva-vani – the language of the Gods. He had
equal command over both the languages – Sanskrit as well as Eng-
lish. The Anglo Department was established in the well-known
Sanskrit College, Banaras, and at that time Pramada das Mitra was
appointed as teacher of English for the Sanskrit learning students.
He passed away in 1901, in Kashi.
Babu Kali Charan Mitra was the son of Pramada das Mitra
and he too was a renowned scholar of Sanskrit. After his father’s
demise, Kali Charan Mitra took up the responsibility of completing
the publication work of some rare and important manuscripts which
his father had started working on.
Dr Sir Ganganath Jha (25.12.1872 – 9.11.1941) was in the
line of the great multi-disciplinary scholars of this country [India],
who were luminaries, masters in different fields and branches of
knowledge. Known as Mahamahopadhyaya Sir Ganganath Jha, he
was a great scholar of Sanskrit, English, Indian Philosophy and Bud-
dhist Philosophy. He was also a Pandit of the Nyāya systems of
Philosophy. He had great command of both the languages – Sanskrit
as well as English. One of his greatest contribution has been the
translations of some of the abstruse, profound scriptures and tradi-
tional texts of Sanskrit into English.
He was the author of many books in Sanskrit, English and
Maithili. Ganganath Jha was Professor of Sanskrit in the Myor Cen-
tral College, Allahabad, from 1902 to 1918. He was later appointed
as Principal, Government Sanskrit College, Banaras, after Dr Ven-
ice’s retirement. He was the first Indian Scholar to have taken charge
of that College as Principal.
Dr Jha was nominated as member of the Council of State
(Rajya Sabha) by the then Central Government. Dr Ganganath Jha
graced the high office of the Vice Chancellor, University of Allaha-
bad in the year 1923. During the last few years of the 19th century
(around 1892 or so) and due to his close association with Shri Go-
vind das (elder brother of babu Bhagawan Das and a theosophist) he
got the opportunity to meet Col. Olcott and Dr Besant and was
greatly impressed and influenced by them both.
Upendranath Bāsu was born in Kolnagar in Bengal, circa
1864. He graduated with degrees in Arts and Law from Calcutta
University. After graduating he practiced law at Benares (now
Varanasi). Bāsu joined the TS in 1884 and his name is mentioned in
the first report of the Kāshī Tattva Sabhā Lodge in Banaras where he
was one of the founders with Bhagavan Das as Librarian. Bāsu was
one of the seven Founders of the Central Hindu College and held
from its commencement the offices of Vice-President of the Board
of Trustees and Vice-Chairman of the Managing Committee.
At the suggestion of Mr A.P. Sinnett, Mrs Besant and Mr
Leadbeater started looking at chemical elements with their clairvoy-
ant sight and the results of their observation appeared for the first
time in Lucifer, November 1895. Later these investigations were
made in much more detail and published as Occult Chemistry. The
investigations proceeded fast for the next decade or a little more and
then slowly until 1933, mainly by Mr Leadbeater. Mr C. Jinara-
jadasa, who acted as scribe, brought out the third edition of Occult
Chemistry in 1951. This work continues to attract the attention of
scientists and also of historians of science.
In his introduction to the third edition of Occult Chemistry:
Investigations by Clairvoyant Magnification into the Structure of the
Atoms of the Periodic Table and Some Compounds, by Annie Besant
and C. W. Leadbeater, originally published in 1908, C. Jinarajadasa
writes:

This work contains a record of clairvoyant investigations into

the structure of matter. The observations were carried out at
intervals over a period of nearly forty years, the first in August
1895 and the last in October 1933. The two investigators, Annie
Besant (1847-1933) and C. W. Leadbeater (1847-1934) were
 trained clairvoyants and well equipped to check and supplement
each other’s work.

There were a number of studies on Besant and Leadbeater’s

book, including Extra-sensory Perception of Quarks by Dr Stephen
Phillips (1982), and Occult Chemistry Re-evaluated by E. Lester
Smith, FRS (1984). There were also studies by those who were (are)
skeptical of Besant and Leadbeater’s original work.
The journal Physics World, in its September 2003 issue, car-
ried an article by Jeff Hughes, from the Center for the History of
Science, Technology and Medicine, Maths Tower, University of
Manchester, UK, entitled “Occultism and the atom: the curious story
of isotopes”. In his article Hughes highlights the influence of Occult
Chemistry on the scientific work of Francis Aston, Nobel Prize for
Chemistry (1922). The article is reproduced by kind permission in
www.cwlworld.info.]
In December 1895 she left for the Annual Convention at
Adyar. The crowds that flocked to hear her daily morning lectures
did not seem to be in the least diminished by the rain. The lectures
were published under the title The Path of Discipleship. Conversa-
tions were held every afternoon, and every evening there was a
gathering for questions, restricted to members. Mrs. Besant went to
Poona, where meetings for members were held, besides a great pub-
lic meeting in the Congress pandal, to which 3,000 to 4,000 people
came. From there she went direct to Benares. When in Calcutta she
lectured for the Anti-Vivisection Society.
At the beginning of 1896 the first installment of Man and His
Bodies appeared in Lucifer. She lectured on ‘The Law of Sacrifice’
and ‘Man’s Place in Evolution’. In April she began in the small
Queen’s Hall a series of thirteen lectures, intended to give a general
scheme of Theosophy. These were published under the title The An-
cient Wisdom, the first chapter of which was published in Lucifer,
July and August, 1896, under the name of ‘The Unity Underlying
All Religions’. In the June ‘Watch-Tower’ of Lucifer there is a ref-
erence to the establishment of a Central Hindu College at Benares,
to be affiliated to the Allahabad University. 1896 saw several books
and pamphlets by Mrs Besant, the most famous being Man and his
Bodies, Four Great Religions and The Path of Discipleship. The
Sixth Convention of the European Section, presided over by Col. Ol-
cott on 4, 5 July, was a very harmonious one. He attended several of
the lectures delivered by Mrs Besant in the Queen’s Hall during
May, June and July. Mrs. Besant lecture on ‘Reincarnation’ was
heartily applauded. In June Mrs Besant was ill, possibly due to a
broken jaw, but in August continued her lecturing at several places
in England. She spoke at Amsterdam on 7 and 8 September and left
for Bombay the 13th. Fresh fields and pastures new were trodden
during this visit. After a crowded lecture and many interviews at
Bombay, she went straight to Benares for the Convention of the In-
dian Section. The week before Convention, she writes:

Durga Pujā is a family religious festival something like

Christmas, only Hindus fast instead of feast at their religious cer-
emonies. A good deal of money is usually spent over it but Babu
Upendranath and his family this year set the example of using the
money for the relief of the suffering caused by the high prices of
food brought about by the coming famine. They bought many wag-
onloads of wheat, and opened a shop in their courtyard, where it
was sold considerably below market price, thus aiding the indus-
trious who are on the verge of starvation from the raised prices …
The Convention went very well, and much useful work was done,
one thing being the utilising of the organization of the Theosophi-
cal Society to aid in the relief of the starving. The rains have failed
over the whole of India, and the harvest is lost. Such a famine has
never been before, the food supply cannot last over the winter, and
how three hundred millions of people can be fed by imported sup-
plies is the problem to be faced. A catastrophe on a huge scale is
 feared.

At this Indian Convention Mrs. Besant gave the following

lectures: ‘The Path of Action’, ‘The Path of Wisdom’, ‘The Path of
Devotion’. From Benares Mrs. Besant and Upendranath Basu started
in November on a lecture tour in the Punjab and Sindh, visiting
Lucknow, Delhi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, the latter
having had only one preceding Theosophical visitor, Colonel Olcott
sixteen years before. From Multan, she writes:

I explained to the people how Theosophy gave them the key

to their own teachings, showing them how it illuminated many pas-
sages and symbols of whose meaning they knew nothing . . .
Tomorrow we go to Sindh, quite unbroken ground.

From Hyderabad, Sindh, she writes:

This letter is penned under difficulties, a crowd of women

are gazing through the windows and flowing over the threshold, a
number of aged men are seated round the room, a pundit is eagerly
arguing in Sindhi with a priest of Guru Nanak, and I have refused
to answer questions on Paramātman and Ātman on the ground that
I have closed my reception and must do my English mail. This is
a curious place, the people good-hearted and gentle-natured, very
ignorant and very eager to learn, quite untrained in thought, not
even conversant with the teachings of their own religion. . . . We
left for Hyderabad, travelling all day through the arid tract that lies
beyond the fertilising influence of the Indus. There is no famine
here, for the country is supplied by its great river and has no rains.
In consequence of this mud is largely used for the good houses, as
plaster might be in England, and they have a curious, clean-cut,
flat, massive appearance, with very thick walls and flat roofs.
Houses and forts are all of this smooth mud, and last for hundreds
of years uninjured . . . The first day’s lecture at Hyderabad was
attended by a crowd that swept away all the arrangements made to
receive about one-fiftieth of their number. I had to stand on a table
and address a densely packed standing audience, that remained
quiet as mice, but must have been very uncomfortable. On the
three following days we had a big awning spread and I spoke from
a verandah. Every morning’s conversazione has been crowded and
the people very earnest, but oh I so ignorant. I got some of the more
hopeful together and formed them into a centre for study, but ad-
vised them not to join the T.S. till they knew a little more. They
have bought quantities of books, clearing out our whole stock. I
have had one large meeting of women also, they being as eager as
the men.

From Karachi, she turned southward, and at Banga-

lore in Mysore lectured on ‘Theosophy, the Science of the
Soul’, which so impressed the Prime Minister of the Inde-
pendent State, who presided at the meeting, that he requested
an abstract be printed and circulated by the Government, the
lecture dealing mainly with education. At the palace of the
Maharani, Annie Besant lectured to the leading ministers and
court officials, her visit producing some important results.
She proceeded to Adyar for the Annual Convention
of the T.S. This Convention of 1896 equalled, if it did not
surpass, either of its predecessors in point of harmony and
enthusiasm. There was an unusually large attendance of
members. Mrs. Besant’s morning lectures on Hinduism, Zo-
roastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity were confessedly
the ablest, most scholarly and eclectic she has ever given. An
Indian sovereign Prince and the Mysore Dewan attended the
lectures.
Her long and stormy journey of nearly five weeks
from India to America via England was completed on March
18th, when she arrived at New York. Of course many report-
ers called on her at Jefferson Hotel. She told them:

I have come to plant the seeds of esoteric truth

among the people, not to wage war with anyone ... I do not
come to antagonise Mrs. Tingley [President of the seceded
Lodges of America] or to proselytise among her adherents.
We are preaching the same truths to the world at large. I
will try to draw converts from the outside public and aid
as much as I can those Branches of the Theosophical So-
ciety that remain loyal to the parent Society.

New Lodges were formed at New York and Wash-

ington; then Annie Besant together with Countess
Wachtmeister and Miss A. J. Willson, proceeded westward
to St. Louis. Miss Willson, writes:

In New York we had heard of floods along the val-

ley of Mississippi, and as we advanced towards St. Louis,
which is built at the junction of the Mississippi and the
Missouri, more and more flooded ground and traces of re-
cent heavy rains could be observed from the railway. The
papers had been full of the panic caused by the rising of
the river, and from this and other causes, we had received
a telegram that no lecture could be given at St. Louis; so
we passed on to Kansas City. Here, too, a new Lodge was
formed. At Topeka we were told that we were the first
members of the Theosophical Society who had visited this
pleasant little place with a Lodge of a dozen members. The
Library Hall was filled with a superior audience. At Den-
ver the crowd of enquirers increased, until they
overflowed the hall; and quite a strong Lodge was formed
of thirty-two members, one of whom volunteered to find a
room for use as a Theosophical Reading Room and centre
for enquiry. At Colorado Springs all, at first, seemed cold
in regard to Theosophy, but before we left a group of
eleven had formed themselves into a Lodge. Once more
we boarded the train and climbed across the Rocky Moun-
tains, with their grand and vivid scenery; and descended
through the desert on to the well-watered, snow-mountain
encircled plain on which stands Salt Lake City. From
many causes this centre of the Mormon religion
seemed unlikely for Theosophical ideas to take root
and the audiences were small, but once more we
found people sufficiently interested to form a Lodge
for study. So too at Ogden. Thus far we leave behind
an unbroken chain of Lodges in all the towns visited.
Then round the head of Great Salt Lake, across the
desert and over the Sierra Nevada, down the full length of
California to San Diego, beautifully situated on its land-
locked bay, not far from the frontiers of Mexico. In the
evening the drawing-room of the hotel was filled two and
three times in succession by the crowds who flocked to see
Mrs. Besant. Amongst them were a few old members, and
it was pleasant to see them expand into a wider under-
standing of the aims and objects of the Theosophical
Society as they listened. They had an opportunity of ask-
ing some of the questions which had puzzled them, and
they finally united with the new members to form a Lodge.
At Los Angeles a reception was given to Mrs. Besant and
the Countess by Harmony Lodge, which 200 or 300 peo-
ple attended. After six days’ work, the little party left for
San Francisco, where lectures, classes, conversations, a re-
ception at which 300 people were presented to Mrs.
Besant, and a celebration of White Lotus Day, were inter-
spersed with Lodge meetings and talks to members. Here
we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Marques, whose ob-
servations on the human aura have lately been brought to
the notice of the public. On one day five meetings were
addressed by Mrs. Besant; for by some misapprehension a
public announcement had been made of a lecture which
she had refused for want of time, and she would not dis-
appoint those who might come. Visits were made also to
Alameda, Oakland and Stanford University, San Fran-
cisco; then on to San Jose, Santa Cruz, Sacramento; on to
Portland, Oregon, to Tacoma on Puget Sound, with its fir
and cedar-clad hills guarded by isolated snow-capped
peaks. At Olympia the Governor of the State attended the
lecture.
In beautifully situated and pure-aired Seattle we
found a strong Branch and much hopeful work progress-
ing. This is one of the many Branches which owe their
origin to tireless energy of the Countess. It was only
started last summer, but already has its lecture room and
library, and over fifty members. One of the ideas mooted
by Mrs. Besant at Seattle was that of a federation of all the
Lodges in the State of Washington, on the plan of the
Northern Federation in England, for the purpose of inter-
change of Theosophic thought and help in the work. This
would mean a meeting every six months in one or other of
the towns, and would tend to foster outside interest and to
promote a closer tie amongst the members by personal in-
terest.
Spokane distinguished itself by flocking in such
crowds to the first lecture that some hundreds had to be
turned away. Butte, Montana, came next, a desert of hills
honeycombed by mines of copper, silver, iron and gold.
Anaconda and Helena, two other mining towns, were vis-
ited. At the latter place the Unitarian minister gave up his
lecture in the midst of a series and advertised Mrs. Bes-
ant’s instead. On June 15th we found ourselves in
Sheridan, Wyoming, near the house of Buffalo Bill and
some of his Wild-West riders. Here we encountered a dif-
ferent type of men from the miners of Montana, cowboys.
It was cheering that the young Branch had already thirty
members. A few new members joined, and we hope that
some of the scattered ranchers carried back to their homes
ideas to work into their daily lives. At Lincoln, Nebraska,
the Universalist Church was packed both on Sunday and
Monday; and a study class was formed. At Omaha a prom-
inent Woman’s Club held a reception in Mrs. Besant’s
honor, and lectures in the Opera House commanded audi-
ences, somewhat thinned by the heat which drove all who
could to leave the town for the country.
At the Chicago Convention many delegates were
gathered, and other Sections were represented by dele-
gates, letters or telegrams of greeting. Mrs. Besant, after a
sketch of the work in India and Europe, spoke of the mew
literature, which is of such value to the usefulness of the
Theosophical Society and laid stress on the duty of mem-
bers to perfect themselves in a knowledge of the
fundamental teachings of Theosophy that they may be
ready to give help to those who enquire. ‘No movement
that is ignorant can live’, she said, ‘and no movement that
is ignorant ought to live. The Masters are the Masters of
Compassion, but they are the Masters of Wisdom as well.’
From Chicago Mrs. Besant worked eastward. A
cloudburst near Menomine had swept away three bridges
the day before, and we had to wait patiently till they were
patched up sufficiently to permit our train to crawl slowly
over them. She left a trail of new Lodges behind her in
Michigan: Kalamazoo, Charlotte, Jackson, Ann Arbor,
Detroit. In Ohio, Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland received a
visit. Mrs. Besant has recently placed in the hands of the
Central States Committee a number of library boxes, con-
taining full sets of books for elementary and advanced
study, to be circulated among the various Branches. On
our way from Cleveland to Buffalo, N.Y., we passed not
far from one of the famous “camps” of the Spiritual-
ists, and such a pressing invitation was sent us that it was
decided to go to Lilydale to lecture for them. Missing a
train connection necessitated a long drive in the dark
through country roads. They were waiting at the ‘camp’,
and the Countess and Mrs. Besant were immediately con-
ducted to the canvas-sided ‘auditorium’. Her lecture on
‘Life after Death’ was listened to with deep interest, and
the next morning many enquirers came; for the more edu-
cated and thoughtful Spiritualists are tired of the mere
round of phenomena and are eagerly seeking a philosophy
which can explain what they know and lead them on to
know more. Mrs. Besant lectured again, and a Branch was
formed.
After Buffalo and Niagara Falls, we crossed over
Lake Ontario to Toronto, Canada. A dozen new members
joined the Branch there, and a Lodge was formed at Ham-
ilton. Returning over the blue waters of the lake, at
Rochester, N.Y., Miss Susan B. Anthony took the chair at
Mrs. Besant’s lectures and a Branch was formed. All the
interest in Theosophy which had been growing on our way
seemed now to culminate, and in Boston a Branch of
nearly fifty members was quickly formed; some old mem-
bers who had dropped away coming gladly into touch
again. At Lynn a small united Branch rejoined the parent
Society, after being separated for a time in the confusion
caused by the late troubles. Her farewell lecture in New
 York was on ‘Theosophy: its Past, its Present, and its Fu-
ture’, a vivid sketch of the origin of the Theosophical
Society, its past troubles, its present position firmly
grounded on knowledge gained by those who had fol-
lowed the course laid down by its Founders, and its grand
future as the spiritual helper and moral educator of races
yet to come. This was a fitting conclusion to her six
months of continual travel, joyful work and ungrudging
aid to all who chose to ask it.

After a rest of but ten days, she resumed her work of

lecturing in England, and in December visited France, lectur-
ing in English and in French.
She went to Sweden and Norway in 1898, lecturing
on “Theosophy and Christianity,” “States of Consciousness,”
and kindred subjects in Goteborg, Christiania, Stockholm,
Upsala, Lund, Copenhagen. She writes of Norwegian Chris-
tiania:

Darkness covered the land in a way quite novel to

us; there were only about five hours of daylight, and that
was not light. The weather varied from clear blackness to
foggy blackness; there was snow and ice, but no sun; and
one felt that Nature here is really an unkind stepmother to
her children. The grim tales of Norse mythology seem nat-
ural and proper, and the terrible wolf Ferris is felt as an
appropriate inhabitant. But in spite of the grimness, Chris-
tiania gave us large and very intelligent audiences, and
Stockholm gave us a warm welcome. In Upsala, the old
University town, the hall of the University was filled with
attentive hearers. To our astonishment, Copenhagen pre-
sented us with an audience of a thousand people, a
remarkable assemblage for the Danish capital, proving
 how deep was the interest aroused by Theosophy. Amster-
dam seemed homelike, after the dark North, with the
familiar faces of dutiful Dutch workers. The Dutch press
was more friendly than it had ever been before, and by its
help Theosophical teachings have reached thousands of
homes. The work finished at the Hague. It is good to see
how in that land there are eager brains and hearts ready to
welcome message of Theosophy, as bringing a ray of light
into the darkness of the world. Men are hungering for re-
ligion, but fear to be given stones instead of bread; they
are weary of formulae and empty promises, but listen
gladly when truth is offered in a way that appeals to sound
reason and sane emotion.

A lecture tour to Scotland followed, and on March

14th, 1898, Mrs. Besant left for India, going via Rome, where
she met the members of the Rome Lodge in the afternoon of
her arrival. The next day the hall of the Society of the Press
in the Piazza Colonna was crowded to excess to hear her lec-
ture entitled ‘La Theosophie dans le Passé et dans l’Avenir’
[Theosophy in the Past and in the Future], in which the work
of the teachers of the same great truths in the past in Rome
was traced, and the Romans of today were urged to welcome
the help that had been rejected in the past.
Arriving in Benares on April 3rd, Mrs. Besant busied
herself starting the Central Hindu College. She returned to
London early in July, and aroused great interest by her lec-
tures on ‘The Reality of the Unseen World’, ‘Theosophy and
Modern Thought’, ‘Esoteric Christianity’, ‘The Hidden Side
of Religions’, ‘The Trinity’, ‘Divine Incarnations’, ‘Atone-
ment and the Law of Sacrifice’, ‘Natural and Spiritual
Bodies’, ‘Difficulties of the Inner Life’, ‘Resurrection and
Ascension’, ‘The Mystic Christ’, ‘Theosophy and Social
Problems’, ‘The Good and Evil of Competition’, etc.
She attended the Convention of the Indian Section
held at Benares in October of the same year. She writes:

In the evening of the second day, the delegates and

some invited guests witnessed the famous fire ceremony,
in which certain people walk, and make it possible for oth-
ers to walk over red-hot wood ashes. This ceremony some
time ago was performed every year in the garden of a cer-
tain wealthy lady; but since her death it has been
discontinued; so one of our members arranged with the
people who are able to perform the feat for its celebration
during Convention. A trench about sixteen feet long and
eight feet wide was dug and filled with wood, this was set
on fire and kept burning during the day with fresh wood,
until a thick bed of red-hot ashes was formed, filling the
bottom of the trench. A slope was made at each end to the
level of the ground above. When all was ready, we took
our seats, nine or ten feet away from the trench, and very
uncomfortable was the heat from the glowing bed. I tried
walking along the path between the trench and our seats,
but was driven away by the intensity of the heat. The cer-
emony began with some chanting, and then the two chief
performers who were to go first were obsessed with much
violence; their yells and contortions were painful to wit-
ness, as is usual in such cases. Many coconuts were broken
in front of them, and the crashing of these and the shouts
of the obsessed, the imperious chant of the celebrant, the
whirl of the torches by their dancing bearers, and the rattle
of the drums made a weird and tumultuous scene. Pres-
ently partial quiet was obtained, and an image of Agni, the
Fire-God, was carried round the fire in a palki which
 contained also two drawn swords crossed in front of im-
age; a couple of marked swords were carried by two of the
processionists; and the obsessed persons, now only strug-
gling slightly, were led in the ranks. The procession went
twice round the fire and then the palki was set down, a
naked sword was given to one of the obsessed and he was
led to the edge of the slope leading to the bed of hot ashes,
brandishing his sword and dancing and yelling. At the
other end he ran round on the path, and then again across
the ashes. He cut with his sword at a turban on the path,
knocking it into the fire where it blazed up gaily, not shar-
ing his immunity. His obsessed comrade followed him,
and when they had run over the ashes several times they
were caught by the assistants and held, still struggling to
get at the fire. It was strange to see one of them, a small,
slight man, swaying half a dozen sturdy fellows hither and
thither as he struggled to get free; but this extraordinary
strength is one of the characteristic marks of obsession.
After this, any man or boy was allowed to walk through
the fire, and a number of people availed themselves of the
permission. Most of them ran, but one stopped and took
up a handful of the glowing cinders; one gentleman, a
friend of ours, walked twice over the red-hot bed at a de-
liberate pace. He states that it felt like warm sand only, and
when Dr. Pascal examined the soles of his feet he found
them quite uninjured, and the skin of the feet as soft and
thin as his own. Such is a simple statement of the facts we
witnessed, and I offer it without comment.

The Convention Hall at Adyar presented a brilliant

appearance at 8 a.m. on the 27th December, when Colonel
Olcott conducted Mrs. Besant to the platform to deliver the
first of four morning lectures of her course on ‘The Evolution
of Life and Form’. The nave and transept, together with the
outside galleries, were packed to overflowing; and the be-
loved speaker was greeted in the most enthusiastic fashion.
His Excellency, Sir Arthur Havelock, Governor of Madras,
was present, and was most cordially received. Mrs. Besant’s
subject was ‘Ancient and Modern Science’, and the theme
was treated in a strain of fervid eloquence that it seemed she
had never previously reached. She also gave an eloquent and
impassioned address at the close of the Convention on ‘The-
osophy and the Future of India’. The following extract will
be of interest:

India in the past was given by the Supreme the one

great duty among the nations of the world, to be the mother
of religion, to be the cradle of faith, to send out to all other
peoples the truths of the spiritual life. That was the pri-
mary duty of India, and all good things were hers as long
as she fulfilled her dharma. As gradually she fell away
from the position of the mighty imperial mother of the
world’s faith, she lost all else that had made her glorious
in the past. Her wealth diminished, her independence was
gradually undermined; lower and lower she sank, until her
people well-nigh lost their place among the nations. Other
nations have trodden that path before. There were mighty
civilisations in the older world, and nothing but their ruins
remain today to mark where once they ruled, fought and
lived . . . While nation after nation died and was buried,
India—India older than the oldest of these—is not yet
dead. Her dust is not yet on the funeral pyre. India still
lives, breathing faint and low. India, the ancient mother,
most ancient of all, still stands as Durga stands. Eternity
lies behind the goddess, but she remains ever young; for
spirit knows no age, no birth, no dying. And where a
 nation stands emblem of spirituality, she must live; though
her sons deny her and her lovers stand afar off. The
mother, looking over the land and asking for someone to
serve her, raised her eyes to the mighty Gods and said:
‘Lo, I will take some of my children’s souls … and send
them forth to other nations; they shall be born among other
peoples . . . Their love shall remain when the love of the
children in my land has grown cold. Then I will bring them
back to my household from the far-off nations of the earth,
and I will plant them here to tell my children what they
should do to recall amongst them the memory of their an-
cient faith, the possibility of revival that lies in the spiritual
nature.’ And they, from many lands, have heard the
mother’s call, and have come across many oceans to her
summoning voice; and they ask her own children, for very
shame, to do her bidding, lest the children of her past re-
turning in the garb of the stranger, should be truer to India
than those born on Indian soil . . . I tell you that the future
that lies before you shall he greater than your past has
been, mightier in spiritual knowledge, grander in spiritual
achievement, more potent in spiritual life ; that the very
Rishis Themselves who are without, standing waiting,
shall again find Their home on Indian soil . . . When the
greatest in the nation live the life that is simple, frugal,
holy, in the discharge of duty; then only when the leaders
are spiritual, all else shall they obtain.

Mrs. Besant and Colonel Olcott left Madras for Ran-

goon on the 5th of January, 1899, the Prince-Priest of Siam,
Rev. Jinawaraswansa, accompanying the President on a Bud-
dhist religious mission which they had jointly undertaken. In
Rangoon she gave lectures on ‘Man, the Master of His Des-
tiny’, ‘Theosophy and Its Aims’, ‘Theosophy, Its Place in
Thought and Action’, ‘Materialism Overthrown by Science’,
‘Can a Man of the World Lead a Spiritual Life?’. Returning
to Calcutta, Mrs. Besant launched upon a lecture tour in
northern India, arriving in England on May 6th, after an ab-
sence of eight months.
On White Lotus Day a statue of H.P.B. was unveiled
at Adyar by the President-Founder. Mrs. Besant says:

How different is May 8th, 1899, from May 8th, 1891.

Then sad hearts gathered round the cast-off body, wonder-
ing what would happen . . . Now her statue is unveiled in
a world echoing with Theosophic thoughts; and some of
her teachings are being justified by science and scholar-
ship. The Society which she and Henry Steel Olcott
founded is strong and well organised, at peace within and
winning respect without; its literature is spreading and the
teachings committed to its care are permeating modern
thought.

Resuming her lecture work in England, Mrs. Besant

spoke on ‘The Ascent of Man’, on ‘The Mahabhārata’, etc.
She visited France, some eight hundred people listening to
her lectures on ‘The Ancient Wisdom’ at the Hotel des So-
cietes Savantes. Again in England, she lectured on ‘The
Christ’ and ‘The Place of the Emotions in Human Evolution’,
in the latter adopting Bhagawan Das’ classification of the
emotions as forms either of love or hate manifested towards
superiors, equals or inferiors, virtues and vices thus being
permanent moods or modes of either love or hate. During
August Mrs. Besant attended the Wagner festival at Bay-
reuth, where she addressed a select audience of Wagnerites
who had gone to attend the festival, on ‘The Legend of Par-
sifal’. She writes of his music:
 Truly some of his phrases and cadences belong to
the Deva kingdom rather than to earth. They are echoes of
the music of the Passion Devas.

After a short visit to Amsterdam and Brussels, she

returned to London, giving a most successful series of lec-
tures at the Banqueting Hall, St. James, on ‘Dreams’ and
‘Eastern and Western Science’.
She left London for India on September 22nd, was
present at the First Anniversary of the Central Hindu College
at Benares on October 27th, and delivered the closing speech.
She gave the four lectures on ‘Avataras’ at the Indian Con-
vention at Benares.
Mrs. Besant at the time was ailing, and remained at
Benares, with the exception of one visit to Calcutta. On Sun-
day afternoons, she lectured to the Benares Lodge on ‘Light
on the Path’, in spite of ill-health. She left India early in
April, 1900, arriving in Italy on the 22nd, where she spoke in
Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, and reaching England
on May 10th with G. N. Chakravarti and B. Keightley. Un-
fortunately, the cold east wind prevailing at the time proved
very trying to her and she lost her voice and was obliged to
relinquish her engagement to preside at the quarterly meeting
of the Northern Federation in Harrogate, and to lecture in that
town. Recovering her voice, she gave a Course of three lec-
tures on ‘The Emotions, their Place, Evolution, Culture and
Use’. She attended the Congress at Paris with Mrs. Isabel C.
Oakley, G. E. Chakravarti and Mr. Mohini Chatterji. During
July was held the first Convention in the new rooms at Albe-
marle Street, London. The proceedings began with the
reception of delegates by Colonel Olcott and Mrs. Besant.
There was a large influx of French and Dutch members; Ger-
many, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium were also
represented. The Section lecture room overflowed during
Mrs. Besant’s lectures on ‘Thought Power’. In August she
presided at the Northern Federation, addressing the Federa-
tion on ‘The Relativity of Morality’, ‘Spiritual Evolution’,
‘Whence Come Religions?’, ‘Ancient and Modern Science’.
She continued lecturing in England until September, when
she left for India.
Until the Annual Theosophical Convention met in
Benares, Mrs. Besant worked in North India. At the Conven-
tion she gave four important lectures which were afterwards
published under the title of Ancient Ideals in Modern Life. In
the ‘Afterword’ she has summed up the chief reforms pro-
posed:

1. A resolve for parents not to marry their sons be-

fore eighteen, not to allow the marriage to be
consummated before twenty; the first marriage (betrothal)
of their daughters to be thrown as late as possible, from
eleven to fourteen, and the second (consummation) from
fourteen to sixteen.
2. To promote the maintenance of caste relations
with those who have travelled abroad, provided they con-
form to Hindu ways of living.
3. To promote inter-marriage and inter-dining be-
tween the subdivisions of the four castes.
4. Not to employ in any ceremony (where choice is
possible) an illiterate or immoral Brāhmana.
5. To educate their daughters, and to promote the ed-
ucation of the women of their families.
6. Not to demand any money consideration for the
marriage of their children.
 If pious men in all parts of the country carried out
these reforms individually, a vast change would be made
without disturbance or excitement; but they would need to
be men of clear heads and strong hearts, to meet and con-
quer the inevitable opposition from the ignorant and
bigoted. The worst customs that prevail are comparatively
modern, but they are regarded as marks of orthodoxy and
so are difficult to be put aside.

Esoteric Christianity was published during 1901 and

widely reviewed; also Thought Power. Mrs. Besant appears
again at the Adyar Convention, Colonel Olcott writes:

Our dear Mrs. Besant reached Adyar on December

24th from Benares in a state of prostration, after a violent
attack of fever, which was sad to see. No one outside the
number of us who recognise the fact of the watchful guid-
ance of our Teachers would have dared to anticipate that
on the second subsequent day she would be able to mount
the platform and lecture. She faced a packed audience of
1,500 and discoursed for an hour and a quarter on ‘Islam’
without a falter in her voice from beginning to end; and
yet it had taken her almost five minutes to descend from
her bedroom to the hall on the floor below. This lecture
was the first of a series which have been published as The
Religious Problem in India.

After Convention Mrs. Besant made an extended tour

of India. Of her return to England in 1902, Miss Edith Ward
says:

Although she was much fatigued by the tiresome

and delayed journey from Brindisi, she soon looked more
 like her old self and speedily took up a heavy burden of
work with her usual cheerfulness. We all rejoice that the
fever from which she suffered in India seems to have
passed entirely away; and although it has left her far from
strong, and more easily fatigued than in former days, we
trust she will gradually regain her former powers of endur-
ance. The work she has undertaken is very heavy, and we
are now in the midst of three courses of lectures, besides
special meetings and odd lectures here and there. Over 300
members assembled to hear her more advanced series, and
people are turned away from the public lectures for lack
of room. Speaking on ‘Theosophy and Imperialism’, she
showed what was the duty of an imperial race, and what
should be its glory and function in the history of the world;
she was heard to the farthest corner of the hall.
This year she visited Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Hol-
land, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy;
and in November left for India. She was present at the
twenty-seventh Annual Convention, and lectured on ‘The
Larger Consciousness’, ‘The Law of Duty’, ‘The Law of
Sacrifice’, ‘Liberation’. Being appointed by the Italian
Section to represent it at the Benares Convention of the
Theosophical Society, she made a report of the progress
of the Society in Italy, basing her remarks upon her own
observations when visiting the Branches a few weeks pre-
viously. She left Benares to tour Bengal, Rajputana and
Kathiawar.

At the Annual Convention of this year, 1903, the

President, Colonel Olcott, finding himself in a dilemma on
account of the number of people present, Mrs. Besant offered
to give a popular lecture on the 27th December in the open
air, before commencing her usual course of the four lectures
at Convention. Her subject was ‘The Value of Theosophy in
the Raising of India’. On one of the lawns an area was en-
closed with a fence, and seats and carpets were placed; but
by early dawn such a crowd had gathered that they swept
away the fence, and took possession of all the ground, the
benches and chairs being passed over their heads to the out-
side, and the crowd squatted on the carpet spread around the
platform. By the time Mrs. Besant appeared, the audience
numbered 5,000 persons. Her voice rang out clear and strong,
in spite of the fact that she was suffering from a severe cold;
and her lecture was listened to in profound silence with oc-
casional outburst of applause. The tax on her throat was too
much, however, and the subsequent lectures had to be given
in the Convention Hall. At the first lecture the crush was very
great, and so importunate were the outsiders that they actu-
ally smashed the heavy wood and iron western gate of the
Hall and came in with a rush. In his address, the President
says:

The Central Hindu College has greatly prospered

during the year . . . The colossal achievements of Mrs.
Besant in promoting the Hindu religious revival will never
be thoroughly appreciated until her biographer takes up
the story of her activities . . . To the reflective Hindu of the
future, the fact of its all being accomplished by an English
lady will enhance the wonder of the result of her labors.
She has already received gifts in money and real estate for
the College to the extent of four and a half lakhs of rupees.
[Rs. 450,000]

Early this year (1904) a Northern Federation of the

Indian Section of the Theosophical Society was formed. Del-
egates from almost all the Branches in the Punjab, Kashmir
and Jammu, the North-west Provinces, Sindh, Rajputana and
the Sikh States met on March 24th at the Lodge of the Lahore
Branch. Bhagawan Das was voted in the chair, and Mrs. Bes-
ant laid the foundation stone of the building for the Lahore
Branch. Very soon after the publication of her pamphlet, The
Education of Indian Girls, a school for girls was opened at
Benares, with Miss Arundale as principal.
The following letter from Mrs. Besant written from
Benares on February 17th will prove of interest:

MY DEAR FRIENDS,
I am told, on what ought to be good authority, that
there is a growing tendency in the Theosophical Society
in London to consider me as a sacrosanct personality, be-
yond and above criticism. Frankly, I cannot believe that
any claim so wild and preposterous is set up, or that many
know me so little as to imagine that, if it were set up, I
would meet it with anything but the uttermost condemna-
tion. Even a few people holding and acting on such a
theory would be a danger to the Society if any considera-
ble number held and acted on it, the Society would perish.
Liberty of opinion is the life-breath of the Society; the full-
est freedom in expressing opinions, the fullest freedom in
criticising opinions, are necessary for the preservation of
the growth and evolution of the Society. A ‘commanding
personality’ – to use the cant of the day – may in many
ways be of service to a movement, but in the Theosophical
Society the work of such a personality would be too dearly
purchased if it were bought by the surrender of individual
freedom of thought; and the Society would be safer if it
did not number such a personality among its members.
Over and over again I have emphasized this fact,
and have urged free criticism of all opinions, my own
among them. Like everybody else, I often make mistakes;
and it is a poor service to me to confirm me in those mis-
takes by abstaining from criticism. I would sooner never
write another word than have my words made into a gag
for other people’s thoughts. All my life I have followed
the practice of reading the harshest criticisms with a view
to utilise them, and I do not mean as I grow old to help the
growth of crystallization by evading the most rigorous
criticism. Moreover, anything that has been done through
me, not by me, for Theosophy would be outbalanced im-
measurably by making my crude knowledge a measure for
the thinking in the movement, and by turning me into an
obstacle of future progress. So I pray you, if you come
across any such absurd ideas, that you will resist them in
your own person and repudiate them on my behalf. No
greater disservice could be done to the Society or to me
than by allowing them to spread.
It is further alleged that a policy of ostracism is en-
forced against those who do not hold this view of me. I
cannot insult any member of the Society by believing that
he would initiate or endorse such a policy. It is obvious
that this would be an intolerable tyranny, to which no self-
respecting man would submit. I may say, in passing, that
in all selections for office in the movement, the sole con-
sideration should be the power of the candidate to serve
the Society, and not his opinion of any person: Colonel
Olcott, Mr. Sinnett, Mr. Mead or myself. We do not want
faction fights for party leaders, but a free choice of the best
man. Pardon me for troubling you with a formal repudia-
tion of a view that seems too absurd to merit denial; but,
as it is gravely put to me as a fact, I cannot ignore it. For
the Society, to me, is the object of my deepest love and
service; my life is given to it; it embodies my ideal of a
 physical plane movement. And I would rather make my-
self ridiculous by tilting at a windmill such as I believe
this idea to be than run the smallest chance of leaving to
grow within the Society a form of personal idolatry which
would be fatal to its usefulness in the world. In the T. S.
there is no orthodoxy, there are no popes. It is a band of
students eager to learn the truth, and its well-being rests
on the maintenance of this ideal.

Mrs. Besant returned to England to continue her lec-

ture work. In the small Queen’s Hall, where she gave a series
on ‘Theosophy and the New Pyschology’, hundreds were
turned away each night. In June, 1904, she opened the eighth
annual Dutch Convention, and was the chief figure of the In-
ternational Congress which met in the same month. Some of
the subjects treated this year were: ‘Is Theosophy Anti-Chris-
tian?’, ‘The New Psychology’, ‘The Message of Theosophy
to Mankind’. She visited also Sweden, Norway and Ger-
many.
The first edition of the Indian Convention Lectures
for 1903, The Pedigree of Man, published in September, was
completely sold out in six weeks. On her return to India, she
gave a week to Italy, inaugurating the new headquarters at
Rome. A Study in Consciousness was published in the au-
tumn, making a worthy third to The Ancient Wisdom and
Esoteric Christianity. At the Indian Convention her four pub-
lic lectures were entitled ‘Theosophy and Life’, ‘Theosophy
and Sociology’, ‘Theosophy and Politics’, ‘Theosophy and
Science’.
Speaking in Bombay in 1905 on ‘The Unification of
India’, Mrs. Besant pointed out that:
 One of the greatest difficulties that struck at the root
of unification was that there had never been a united India
in the past. Temporary unions there had been from time to
time; but never was there one unified nation extending
from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, from Bengal to Ka-
thiawar. . . The task before Indians, therefore, is to make a
self- sustaining and self-conscious nationality . . . Another
difficult factor is religion, more so than the part played by
religion in the West . . . Forgetfulness of sectarianism and
the showing of public spirit could be instanced by the
small Parsi community, which being only a few thousands
yet, owing to its education and worth, had not failed to
contribute its share in the making of Indian nationality . .
. For attaining unification, Mussalmans must respect and
love Hindus, and Hindus do the same to Mussalmans.

Mrs. Besant also lectured on ‘Education for Women’,

and expressed herself as in favor of teaching girls English,
otherwise part of their husband’s mind would be alien to the
wife. She also advocated the teaching of sanitation, simple
medicine, the scientific qualities and values of food, some
form of art, as music and embroidery. She said: ‘Nothing was
so hopeless, as to build a nation out of only men.’
 3

Sanātana Dharma:
Education through Timeless Values
1913 January 1st, transformed the Theosophist Office into Theo-
sophical Publishing House at Adyar; Entered Indian politics with the
clearly stated object of claiming Dominion Status for India within the Brit-
ish Commonwealth; Handed over Central Hindu College to become
nucleus of the Benares Hindu University; Started the Theosophical Edu-
cational Trust; September formed a small band, which later developed into
the Order of the Brothers of Service; Reorganized the German Section.
1914 January 2nd, started The Commonweal, a weekly journal of
national reform;
July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical Society; July
14th, started New India (daily newspaper) which lasted fifteen years and
revolutionized Indian journalism;
Started the Y.M.I.A. (Young Men’s Indian Association) and do-
nated Gokhale Hall (Madras) to be a centre of free speech.
1915 Wrote her famous summary of ‘What Does India Want?’;
Formed the Madras Parliament for parliamentary training and political
propaganda: Dec. 16th, inaugurated Adyar Arts League.
1916 Started the Home Rule League, which soon reoriented the
National Congress to a new vigour; Externed from the Bombay Presi-
dency; Started the Girls’ College, Benares.
1917 April 7th, founded the Order of the Brothers of Service;
May 8th, Women’s Indian Association organized in Adyar
under her Presidentship, from which grew the All-Indian Women’s Con-
ference at Poona in 1927, and the All-Asian Women’s Conference at
Lahore in 1931;
June — September, interned by the Government of Madras;
August, elected President of the Indian National Congress;
 Dec. 26th, delivered her presidential address to the Congress,
later published as The Case for India; Started S.P.N.E. [Society for Pro-
motion of National Education] with a National University at Adyar under
the chancellorship of Rabindranath Tagore
1918 Organized the Indian Boy Scouts, which amalgamated with
the Baden-Powell Scouts in 1921.
1920 At the session of the Indian National Congress stood against
Mr Gandhi’s plan of non-co-operation — stood alone (with five others
supporting her) against shouting thousands, three brief years after being
a national hero and acclaimed by vast crowds.

In her notes published in ‘On the Watch-Tower’, Lucifer,

June 1896, Mrs Besant addresses both her concern for the system of
education in India and announces the formation of the Central Hindu
College. She says:

The problem of religious education is troubling India as it

troubles England, for the Indians – a profoundly religious people
– are beginning to see that their young men lose touch of their sev-
eral ancestral faiths and drift into a quasi-scientific materialism, as
they pass through their college training, developing their faculties
on western lines and leaving entirely on one side all religious
study. The English Government is necessarily neutral in religious
matters, ruling as it does a population holding various faiths; it can
only lay down a curriculum of secular learning and recognize de-
grees obtained solely by such pursuit. Under these circumstances
the different religious communities are finding it necessary to be-
stir themselves, each on behalf of its own youth, and some colleges
have been founded in which students are prepared for the univer-
sity examinations, but are at the same time trained in religious
knowledge and in the practice of religious duties.
Up to the present time the Hindus have confined their ef-
forts to the establishment of schools for boys, and here and there
for girls, at which they receive elementary education, fitting them
to pass ordinary school examinations, and in which the children
are also given religious and moral instruction. Even these are few
and far between, and are wholly inadequate to the needs of the
population. The Theosophical Society has tried to partly fill the
gap by starting the Hindu Boys’ Associations, in which pandits
give some religious and moral teaching from the Hindu Scriptures
and instruct the boys in their religious duties. But these are again
lamentably few compared with the teeming youthful population.
At last, however, a definite scheme has been set on foot to provide
a school and college education hand-in-hand with religious and
moral training.

*
* *

A prospectus has been issued for the establishment of a

Central Hindu College at Benares, and after explaining the need
that exists for the much wider spread of college education, it goes
on:
All who are acquainted with the present system of educa-
tion know well that the most desirable kind of intellectual and
moral training is not imparted in the existing institutions, and that
the influence they exert upon their students is not of the right kind.
The proposed college will be affiliated to the Allahabad University
and will conform to the curriculum laid down by it, and will ulti-
mately be a seat of universal learning—a place of true “Liberal
Education,” where students will be made to breathe the clear and
pure atmosphere of thought. But in addition to this it will supply –
what is most urgently needed, a definitely religious and moral
training, and it will be an institution where particular attention will
be paid to the formation of character, where the ancient Aryan vir-
tues of reverence, self-reliance, freedom, moderation. calmness,
equitableness. justice and courtesy will be instilled into the hearts
of the students.
While the college will seek as its professors tried and expe-
rienced men with high University honours, it will also look for
men who have at heart the religious and moral character of the
students, and will treat them as sons to be watched over and
guided, not as strangers who attend a course of lectures as a matter
of business. Moreover an attempt will be made to wed the occi-
dental sciences and learning to the oriental. The education given
up to date has signally failed to produce the sort of men required
by the country, to do the work and to fulfil the aims expected of it
by the state. That the country which, in ancient times, produced the
most learned men and the greatest thinkers the world has ever
known has not been able to produce even one such man with half
a century’s modern education, shows that there must be something
wrong either in the matter or manner of the present system of ed-
ucation. These defects the Hindu College will try to remove…
Already a gentleman in Bombay has consulted one of the
promoters of this scheme, stating his wish to give a lakh of rupees
towards the foundation of a Hindu College and school in his own
town; he is willing, and indeed desirous, that Benares shall lead
the way, feeling, as we feel, that Benares, as a most ancient of
Hindu learning, is the fitting leader of an enterprise destined to
give to India a system of education which shall be permeated by
the ideals of her sublime religion, shall preserve her sons from ma-
terialism while giving them the education demanded by the times,
and shall train them into pious Aryan gentlemen while enabling
them to hold their own with western culture. It will be regrettable
if a movement destined to such lofty achievement should start in a
commercial centre instead of in a city known the world over as the
centre of religious learning, and the Committee mentions the
above fact because the generous donour cannot be expected to
stand back for long in order to give the precedence to Benares that
his Hindu heart desires.
The appeal is signed by some of the leading citizens of
Benares, and our readers will be glad to know that several of these
are members of the Theosophical Society, and that the Bombay
gentleman mentioned is one of our oldest members. Before leaving
Benares, I called on the Maharaja of Benares – to ask his help for
the College, and he promised some land for its site. It is hoped that
many wealthy men will come forward to contribute the large sum
necessary for the building and endowment of such a college and
that all over India similar institutions will spring up, to aid in the
revival of Indian spirituality and Indian wisdom.

* * *
The necessity for such a movement is seen to be all the
greater when we cast our eyes over the world at the present time.
India is the one country that adds to the occult treasures hidden in
its Scriptures a continuous and unbroken tradition from archaic
times to the present, supporting the reality of occult truths. The
Sages who made her past so glorious and gave her the priceless
gift of her Shastras never left her wholly unguided; ever some dis-
ciples were among her children, and outside these there were the
exoteric beliefs and practices, by which a considerable number in
every generation re-verified the more easily proved of the state-
ments as to the unseen world. Now that all the world over
psychism is spreading, in America, Australasia and Europe, and
that statements of the most conflicting kind are being made by psy-
chics, each on his or her own independent authority, we are likely
to find the value of a long recorded experience endorsing the an-
cient statements of the giants of old. But in order that India may
play her part in spiritual evolution she must be able to meet the
West on equal terms as regards the knowledge of the physical
plane, and the education of her sons in nineteenth century lore
 becomes important as increasing her influence as spiritual teacher.
We are threatened with a swirl of pseudo-occultism, of medieval
Rosicrucianism mixed up with misunderstood Hermeticism, and
such churned-in fragments of Fourth Race magic as their posses-
sors think too worthless to preserve the secrecy of their hidden
lodges, guarded by sterner initiations than frames debilitated by
luxurious western living are fit to face. In such times the teachings
of India now being popularized in the West may come as a healthy
wind blowing away miasmic fog, an may render clear the ancient
narrow way which Theosophy was sent by Indian Masters to re-
proclaim.

In the July 1933 issue of The Theosophist, C. Jinarajadasa

published two texts by Annie Besant in which she presents the ideas
which moved her to start her educational work in India. The first is
from 7 July 1898, when the Central Hindu College was opened. The
second was part of a tribute to Dr Bhagavan Das. In his explanatory
note Jinarajadasa says:

The aim of emphasizing religious teaching as an integral

part of education was the primary object of the Theosophical Ed-
ucation Trust when it was organized by Dr Besant in 1913, after
the Central Hindu College had been handed over to Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya and others to become the nucleus of the Benares
Hindu University. The Trust had for its object: ‘To establish
Schools and Colleges which shall open to students of every faith
and in which religious instruction shall be an integral part of edu-
cation.’ Even as late as 1923, the National High School, which was
located near Adyar, state in its prospectus: ‘General religious train-
ing in the student’s faith, and, as regards Hinduism, on the lines
laid down in the Sanatana Dharma Catechism and The Elementary
Text Book of Religion and Morals, will be compulsory throughout
the School.
 Below are the two above mentioned statements by Annie Bes-
ant:

Educational Work in India

(An Appeal in 1898)

Since the introduction of English Education into India, In-

dian parents have been under a great difficulty. Without English
Education service and the learned professions were closed to their
boys; moreover, they saw in this Education a means of culture and
of national gain, and desired it earnestly for their sons. But the Edu-
cation given in Government Colleges and Schools was purely
secular, the Government being unable to give religious neutrality to
which it was pledged. The only alternative to the Government Insti-
tutions were those established by missionaries, and in these the
Christian religion was taught. The Indian parent could thus only ob-
tain for his sons the necessary English Education at the peril of their
religion; he was obliged either to see them receive an education with-
out religion, or one with an alien religion – a painful alternative. The
result on Indian youth was that, for the most part, they grew up ma-
terialists; the omission in the Government Institutions made them
regard religion with indifference; that in the Missionary Institutions
sapped their belief in their own faith and left them unreceptive to any
other. Religion threatened to disappear from Indian educated life,
and the moral character of Indians in public life showed signs of de-
terioration. Many appeals were made to the religious communities
to take up the duty of religious and moral education by Viceroys,
Lieutenant-Governors, and other officials. At last a small circle of
Hindus and myself took the question, believing that in the union of
western culture with eastern religion lay the redemption of India, the
raising up of a generation of Indians worthy to be citizens of the Em-
pire. We founded the Central Hindu College at Benares, and
formulated a scheme of religious, moral, intellectual and physical
culture, which we laid before the princes and people of India. A
Board of Trustees was formed, consisting of leading Hindus, to hold
all property; the Maharajah of Benares gave land and a building
worth upwards of £3,000; the Maharaja of Kashmir gives a monthly
subscription of over £50; and other Princes have made generous do-
nations. We have already raised over £30,000, and have built
classrooms which are filled with 450 boys and young men, and a
large boarding house, which is now being doubled in size. We are
building fine chemical and physics laboratories, as we are teaching
science practically, and are endeavouring to turn the attention of par-
ents and boys to the revival of the industries and arts of India, instead
of to the learned professions and Government service, already much
over-crowded. And we lay great stress on physical education, en-
couraging games of all sorts while we set our faces against boy-
marriage. Similarly, schools are being started in other parts of India,
affiliated with the Central Hindu College, and educating on the same
lines.
I venture to appeal for some financial aid on this great work
from English lovers of India. We need a library to house our rapidly
increasing store of books, now lining passages for want of proper
housing; we want a museum for the specimens of Indian industries
we are gathering; we want workshops – we already have some good
carpentering apparatus – for technical education. These buildings
will cost about £8,000 altogether. And we have gradually to build up
a permanent endowment to secure the carrying on of the College in
perpetuity. No gift to India can be more useful than aid in this patri-
otic effort to give her sons the best western education wedded to her
own ancestral religion. And no English gifts would meet with more
gratitude.
The other part of the work is in its infancy – a similar move-
ment for the education of Hindu girls. This education is planned to
meet the needs of Indian women and is not on English lines. It
includes religion, morality, literary teaching in a vernacular, San-
skrit, and, where possible, English; arithmetic, history and
geography; household science and sanitation, first aid in accidents;
music, drawing and painting, needle work. For this, help is much
needed, as education for girls is not as yet as popular as education
for boys, and yet without the education of its women, India can never
take her rightful place among nations. A Central Hindu Girls’ School
being is now being built at Benares; one on the above plan is working
in Lahore; others are being begun. For this movement also, I ear-
nestly ask for help.
Donations may be sent to me at Mrs. Jacob Bright’s, 31 St
James’ Place, London, S. W.
ANNIE BESANT

One part of our joint work, with other optimists, was the
starting of four classes in the city of Benares, in one of the houses
belonging to his family, two school classes and two college classes,
in which the effort was made to make the Hindu religion an integral
part of the education of Hindu boys. A tiny seed was sown, but it
grew to the Central College and School, and that into the Hindu Uni-
versity; for the Trustees – of whom we were two, gave over their
land, buildings and funds as a nucleus for that greater work. For
many years Mr Bhagavan Das was Secretary of the Managing Com-
mittee, and the success of the work was largely due to him.
The bond between us, growing out of a comradeship of many
years, will, I am sure, last through the change called death and will
bring us together in a future life.
ANNIE BESANT

In the January 1899 issue of Lucifer, the full prospectus for the
Central Hindu Colleges in Benares was published. The patron was
H. H. The Maharaja of Benares. The members of the Board of Trus-
tees were:
 Justice Subramania Aier, Upendranath Basu, Mahamaho-
padhyaya Pandit Adityaram Bhattacharya, Annie Besant, Gyanendra
N. Chakravarti, Pandit Suraj Kaul, Bertram Keightley, Rai Baroda
K. Lahiri, Pandit Cheda Lal, Rai Pyari Lal, Rai Pramada Das Mitra
Bahadur, Kumar Narendranath Mitra, Colonel H. S. Olcott, Rai Ba-
hadur Kumar Parmanand, Raol Shri Harisinghji Rupasinghji, Kumar
Bharat Singh, with Govinda Das as Honorary Secretary.
The Managing Committee was composed of Upendranath
Basu, Jnaendranath Basu, Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Adityaram
Bhattacharya, Annie Besant, Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, Bhagavan
Das, Govinda Das, Bertram Keightley, Pandit Cheda Lal, Kalicharan
Mitra.
Below is the preamble of the prospectus:

In ancient times in India the education given to the young

aimed at the harmonious development of all sides of the character.
Religious, moral, intellectual, emotional and physical capacities
were all educed and trained. The study of the Shastras went hand
in hand with that of philosophy and science, while many of the
youth became also proficient in athletic exercises and manly
games. Religion was not a thing apart from the life, but was inter-
woven with the occupations of the teacher, the legislator, the
warrior, the merchant, and the servant. It did not unfit a youth for
active work in the world, but taught him how to discharge his du-
ties in a way that was beneficial to his country and profitable to
himself. The priests of India were as saintly, her sages as philo-
sophic, as her warriors were irresistible in battle, and gallant in
tournament, her merchants wealthy, her people loyal, dutiful and
prosperous. Ignorance of religion and negligence of morals were
looked on as the mark of a base and savage nature, unfitting a man
for any post of responsibility, honour and profit. A man was ex-
pected to know the duties of his order and to perform them,
otherwise there was no place for him in the social system. A serv-
ant who did not serve, a merchant who did not grow wealthy, was
regarded as contemptuously as a warrior who turned his back on
an enemy, or as a Brahmana who was ignorant of the Vedas.
The decay of the religion which was the root of Indian pros-
perity, national and individual, brought about the decline of the
nation. Prosperity deserted India as India lost, one by one, the jew-
els of her religious heritage. Nevertheless, a precious deposit of
belief and knowledge remained, and Indian youth were still trained
in religion and in morals even when foreigners swept over the land
as conquerors, and when in many of her provinces her own princes
no longer ruled. Her sovereignty was wrested from her but her re-
ligion remained as consoler and as guide, teaching her to reap
patiently the sad harvest of her sins and to sow hopefully the seeds
of glory.
During the present century a slow but sweeping change has
passed over the land, and the heart of India, that had resisted the
sword of conquest, was wounded by the keen stiletto of an educa-
tion which slew her faith and insidiously pierced her ethics.
Inspired by the most sincere philanthropy, and wishful to bring to
the Indian people the type of education which was proving suc-
cessful among themselves, the rulers of India founded and fostered
a system of education which was designed to bring to India the
treasures of Western thought, to fit her sons to cope successfully
with the new civilization spreading among them, and to hold their
own in many departments of public life with the sons of the con-
quering nation. It would be unjust and unworthy to refuse to
recognize the sincerity of the efforts made to place within the reach
of Indian youth an education similar to that which was enjoyed by
the youth of England. But in England this education was perme-
ated through and through with a religious and moral atmosphere;
at Harrow, Eton, Winchester and Rugby, at Oxford and Cam-
bridge, divine worship, teachings from the Christian scriptures,
and lessons of moral obligation, formed an integral part of the ed-
ucation curriculum. No boy could pass through a public school and
a University without being subjected daily – during the most im-
pressionable years of life – to influences designed to train him into
a Christian gentleman. When the English system was transplanted
to India, the whole of this religious and moral training was left out,
and only the secular part of the system was rooted here. For this,
no blame attaches to those who began and continued the present
educational arrangements. The educators and the educated had no
common religion; to teach Christianity would have been to empty
the schools, while to teach Hinduism was neither possible nor de-
sirable. For a religion can only be taught by those who believe in
it, and where teachers and taught are of different faiths, only secu-
lar education can be imparted and received.
It was the duty of Hindu parents and of family priests to see
that the sons, handed over to secular schools and colleges, were
instructed duly and fully in faith and morals. But this duty was
neglected, and all the energies of the pupils, stimulated by rewards
in college and by the prize of public success in later life, were
turned into secular channels. Several generations grew up unpuri-
fied by religion, untrained in ethics, ignorant of the treasures of
Indian philosophy and science, of the stupendous literature which
was their national heritage. Contemptuous of the wisdom of the
ages they ignored, avid for new thought and western manners, they
lost all patriotism, national self-respect and pride, and became
mere copyists of western fashions, densely materialistic, arro-
gantly unspiritual. Young India was digging the grave of ancient
India and sterilizing the germs of future India, when Mme. H. P.
Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott heroically flung themselves across
the downward rush of the blinded Indian youth, aroused them to a
sense of their danger, stirred them into a realization of their fall.
The Indian heart in them, asleep not dead, awoke at that clarion
call, and the revival of Hinduism from north to south, from east to
 west, dates from the beginnings of the whole work wrought by the
founders of the Theosophical Society.
It is largely due to this change in public feeling that the Cen-
tral Hindu College of Benares is now a fact. Some members of the
Society – deeply feeling the need of the meeting the conditions of
the time by grafting religious and moral teaching upon Hindu lines
on the spreading tree of school and college western education –
initiated two years ago a scheme for founding in the sacred city of
Kashi a model school and college where the best western educa-
tion should be given and where religious and moral teaching
should also be imparted.

The Institution consisted of the School, the College, the

Boarding House and the Gymnasium. The School course, extended
to about five years, included English: Language, Literature and
Composition; a Classical Language: Sanskrit; a Vernacular: Hindi,
Bengali or Marathi; Mathematics: Geometry, Arithmetic, Algebra
and Mensuration; History: of India and of England; Geography:
General and Physical; Political Economy; Book-keeping; Drawing;
Agriculture; Shorthand writing; Elementary Chemistry and Physics;
Morals instructions based upon the Hindu religion.
The College taught up to the M.A., LL.B. and D.Sc. Exami-
nations of the University of Allahabad. The course of study
comprised the following subjects: English – Language, Literature
and Composition; Sanskrit: Language, Composition, Literature and
Philosophy; Western Philosophy; Mathematics: Pure and Mixed;
Logic; Political Economy; History: Ancient and Modern; Mental and
Moral Science; Physical Science; Law; Moral instructions based
upon the Hindu religion.
The prospectus also included an item on ‘the relation be-
tween teachers and pupils and the creation of a public spirit’ which
stated:
 It is desired to bring about between teachers and pupils a
feeling of perfect trust and confidence, of firm but gentle fatherli-
ness on the one side, of cheerful and frank reliance and obedience
on the other. The nexus is not money but love. Professors who de-
liver lectures and feel no further interest in the students will find
no welcome in the school or college. Those who love to impart
knowledge and who feel the sacred responsibility of the teacher’s
office will alone remain permanently on the staff. They must love
the institution, feel pride in it, labour for its success, subordinate
themselves to its interests. And they must be for the students an
example of noble manhood; sincere, straight, gentle, strong men.
These are what is needed. They must foster a public spirit among
the students that will be their own best ally in the maintenance of
discipline and diligence. All that is mean, underhand, tricky,
shabby, cowardly, vicious, must be felt as disgraceful, discounte-
nanced by students as much as by teachers. Things unworthy of an
Aryan gentleman must be stamped with disapproval by the youths
themselves. They must be encouraged to set a high standard and
live it, until a man shall be proud to say in the face of the world, “I
was a student at the Hindu College, Benares.”

Central Hindu College

The first annual report of the Central Hindu College (1898-

1903) mentions a declaration by Dr Richardson and Bhagawan Das:

‘Let us then state our principles. First, our work is educa-

tional not political, and we refuse to take sides for or against any
political party – work for harmony, solidarity and progress.
‘Our hope in making good men is based on religion and
therefore our second principle is that the education we give must
be religious.
 ‘Thirdly, the education must be western as well as eastern
.... the secular education that we give is western, while the reli-
gious is eastern ....This training is designed to restore to the Indian
character many valuable qualities it has lost in the decadence of
the Kali Yuga.
‘Fourthly, we aim at making education cheap and flexible.
‘We are not seeking Government aid or Government funds
.... as such an experiment can succeed as a private venture.’

Mrs Besant, in her concluding observations, said:

‘ .... the field that we seek to occupy has been empty up to

the present .... The Government itself have told us that they
would not do right in entering upon the field of religious education
.... the work we do is not of rivalry but rather that of supplementing
the work of other institutions. We are here then to teach religion –
Hinduism to the Hindus. That is our speciality .... The next point
is that the secular education should be of the best type. We propose
in this college to wed the best secular education of the western type
to the best religious teaching of the eastern type. If this is to be
done effectively, then it is necessary that in the college staff East
and West must meet and join hands as friends and co-labourers, as
sympathisers and lovers of each other.

In the second annual report, besides ideals of education, etc.,

Mrs Besant spoke of the need for national dress to be worn first by
the boarders: ‘cultivation of memory destroys the intellect – we want
to get rid of the cramming system. Feelings that prevailed in the
olden days between teacher and pupil need to be restored. We lay
more stress on reasoning than on memory.’
The CHC Magazine was started on 1 January 1901. In the
seventh annual report a mention is made of the first batch of five
students who graduated. A free boarding house for Sanskrit reading
was opened, called Vidyarthis.

‘We hold character as more precious than intellect, and ser-

vice nobler than success. Love of country.’

Educational Work

It was during her tour of Punjab and North-Western Prov-

ince, after the Indian Section Convention held at Benares in October
1896, that the idea of education bringing out the ancient ideals of
India began to take concrete shape in Mrs Besant’s mind. In that tour
she visited several out of the way places, from Hyderabad (Sindh)
going up to Peshawar. She noted: ‘the people in that region are very
ignorant and very eager to learn ... quite untrained in thought, and
not even conversant with the teachings of their own religion.’ On
account of their lack of education and knowledge about the deeper
aspects of life, and under her inspiration the idea of a Hindu College
in that area started. In fact, at Rawalpindi the public planned to start
an ‘Annie Besant Sanskrit Library’ (See Arthur H. Nethercot’s The
Last Four Lives of Annie Besant, Rupert Hart-Davis, Soho Square,
London, 1963, vol II, p. 62.)
As facilities for imparting the kind of education Mrs Besant
had in mind were very difficult in that area the choice fell on Bena-
res. The important reason for choosing Benares is revealed in her
lecture on ‘The Purpose of the TS’, delivered at the American Sec-
tion Convention on 31 August 1929, in which she stated: ‘The
Master told me, “Make a Spiritual Centre in Benares.”’ So she went
in search from place to place, and when she found the present place,
He said: ‘This is the place.’ That explains the reason for making Be-
nares her home.
Although the name of the College was ‘Hindu’ College, it
was by no means sectarian. At the Indian Section Convention in
October 1898, four months after the College was opened, Mrs Besant
explained that there were educational institutions managed by the
missionaries for the Christians. The Theosophists had already started
schools for the Buddhists. So there was urgent need to have educa-
tional institutions to reinstate the ancient Indian ideals which,
generally speaking were termed ‘Hindu’. (The word ‘Hindu’ was not
used in a narrow form.)
In his presidential speech at the 1898 Convention, referring
to the Central Hindu College, Col. Olcott said: ‘It seems to me right
that our Indian members should lead the way in this matter of high
national importance since they can best realize what a public bless-
ing it would be if the Indian people can be led back into the path
which was traced out for national evolution by the Mighty Rishis of
Aryavarta. ...wherever opens out fresh fields for philanthropic public
work, we, Theosophists, should be the pioneers to enter it.’
The CHC annual report for 1898 mentions that in the original
appeal for founding of the College it is stated: ‘...every effort will be
made to instil into the minds of the students from early youth, those
lofty and holy sentiments of religion and morality which can be
drawn from the ancient Sanskrit literature ...so as to prevent them
from becoming irreligious, to encourage them in keeping up their
nationality, and to inspire them with reverence for their ancient reli-
gion and the great Rishis.’
It is true, says the first annual report of the CHC, that ‘every
student is required to study Sanskrit whether he takes it as his second
language or not’. Mrs Besant’s plan was very broad based and not
on narrow ‘Hinduism’ as is found in India in this century. This state-
ment is supported by the fact that arrangement for the study of
Persian after the College hours had been made with twenty-six stu-
dents at the end of the first year itself offering Persian.
Study of the Shastras went hand in hand with that of philos-
ophy and science. The lessons were made interesting with the help
of stories from the Puranas, and also were practical in a way that
would tempt the students to apply them in daily life. In his speech at
the1898 Indian Convention Dr Richardson said: ‘The students were
given a sound education calculated to make them practical, trustwor-
thy and noble men so that they may prove to be worthy sons of
India.’
As mentioned in the CHC Reports (1898-1903), Mrs Besant
founded the CHC in such a manner that ‘...it will be a place for a
liberal education where pupils will be able to breathe the pure and
clear atmosphere of thought... in addition will supply the urgent need
of ... a definitely religious and moral training... particular attention
will be paid to the formation of character where ancient Aryan vir-
tues of reverence, self-reliance, freedom, moderation, calmness,
equitableness, justice and courtesy will be instilled in the hearts of
the students.’
Besides these it was made clear that the work is educational
and not political and refused to take sides for or against any political
party. The work was for harmony, solidarity and progress. How suc-
cessful was this is evidenced by the fact that while most of the
educational institutions were disturbed or closed during the political
upheavals, especially of Bengal, the studies in the CHC were never
disrupted or disturbed.
The CHC first annual report stated that the College did not
accept any Government grant. This enabled it to carry forward its
ideals freely and fearlessly. Theosophists from all over the world
gave financial help. One of the aims was to make education within
the reach of the common man and to keep it flexible.
The CHC was in a way adopted or supported by Theoso-
phists. Even then it was not called a Theosophical College because,
as Mrs Besant made clear, Theosophy is not a sect. Theosophists
eminent in the educational field and having very lucrative and prom-
ising future gave up their carriers in various countries and joined the
staff. Some of the luminaries who joined in the formative years were
Arthur Richardson, the first Principal, from England; Dr Harry
Banbery was the first Headmaster; Miss Sarah E. Palmer, who had
sixteen years teaching experience in U.S.A.; Miss Lilian Edgar, Mr
Bertram Keightley, Dr W. A. English, Mrs Marie Museaus Higgins,
Miss Rodda. Later several others joined of whom Mr G. S. Arundale,
who later became Headmaster and Principal, is best known.
On her return from Europe Mrs Besant went straight to Be-
nares. An important meeting was held on 5 April 1896 at which most
of the principal workers in the north were present. It was called ‘to
consider ways and means in connection with the scheme for a Cen-
tral Hindu College at Benares’. It was decided to start the College in
the following July and an Executive Committee was formed to work
out details and implement them. Soon Mrs Besant began to draw
prominent people in the country, both members of the TS as well as
non-members.

A momentous meeting was held on the 10th ‘to con-

sider ways and means in connection with the scheme for
Central Hindu College at Benares’. The meeting included
some of the Society’s most brilliant workers in the north.
It was decided to start the College in the following July,
and an Executive Committee was formed. A monthly sub-
scription, guaranteed for six years, was opened and on the
list of subscribers was the Indian Section itself. The most
important resolution was to the effect ‘that at least half-
an-hour be given every day in the classes to the study of
the true spirit of the ancient Hindu Religion and of the
Sanskrit language wherein it is mainly embodied’. To un-
derstand the full importance of this action would
necessitate an outline of the condition of affairs in India.
As that is not possible, it can only be said that there was a
prevailing apathy among the Indians themselves as to In-
dia’s future, an almost fatal tendency to take it for granted
that India was decaying, and that only the West had the
 key to success in worldly affairs, and must be imitated in
every department of life. Only India’s inner spiritual life
remained intact, but inoperative in outward affairs. To re-
call that spirit to be an efficacious factor in India’s daily
life was the goal which Mrs. Besant put before herself, at
the Master’s direction, with what success we shall see as
time goes on. She began at once to draw together into
Committees the prominent men of the country, both mem-
bers of the Society and non-members.
(Josephine Ransom, A Short History of the
Theosophical Society, p. 327)

In the book History of the Banaras Hindu University by

Shivanandan Lal Dar (Banaras Hindu University Press, Varanasi,
1966, p. 88), we read that the principal objects for which the Central
Hindu College was started – as given in the Memorandum of Asso-
ciation – were:

(1) To establish educational institutions, including boarding

houses, which shall combine moral and religious training in ac-
cordance with the Hindu Shastras with secular education.
(2) To promote the imparting of similar religious and moral
training in educational institutions.
(3) To found scholarships and fellowships for the encourage-
ment of learning and research.
The institution was opened on 7 July 1898, with Vedic rites in
a small rented house near the Town Hall. Dr Arthur Richardson
offered his invaluable services as Honorary Principal. To start
with, there were fifteen teachers mostly honorary, and 177 stu-
dents.

Mrs Besant left in early June for a lecture tour of England

and returned to Benares on 18 September and stayed there, except
for short visits to cities in the North, looking after the work of
College and the Indian Section Headquarters. Three classes, First
year and X and IX classes, were started. The College was affiliated
to the Allahabad University and the courses prescribed by it were
followed.
The accommodation proved insufficient and the College
moved to a larger building in the heart of the city on 3 September.
As the public recognized the value of the education imparted this
accommodation also proved insufficient. The Maharaja of Benares,
Sir Pratap Narayan Singh, a life-long benefactor and appreciator of
the reforms introduced by Mrs Besant, donated a magnificent build-
ing with surrounding 13 bighas [almost three hectares] of land in
Kamachha into which the institution moved during Shiva Rathri hol-
idays of 7 to 12 March 1899. There it functioned and flourished for
over two decades and the Boys’ School is still located there. Across
the road are the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society which is
a gift of Mrs Besant along with her personal residence, the famous
Shanti Kunj.
Dr Arthur Richardson, Principal of CHC, in his report to the
Indian Section Convention for the work done from July to October
1898, said:

Half an hour daily is devoted to instruction in principles of

the Hindu Religion, a portion of the Gita is first read in Sanskrit...
then follow selections from the sacred books... the moral precepts
emphasized with the help of Puranic stories. The lesson is then
concluded with a few words from the Principal...What is aimed at
is to make the lesson interesting as well as instructive and to pre-
sent the practical aspect of the Hindu religion in a way that will
tempt the students to apply it in daily life... The students are given
sound education calculated to make them into practical, trustwor-
thy, and noble men...so that they may prove to be worthy sons of
India.
 In addition, special lectures were given every Sunday morn-
ing, generally by Mrs Besant when she was in station, which the
students may attend voluntarily.
In the same Report above mentioned, presented to the Indian
Section Convention of 1898, by Dr Richardson says:

In ancient times in India, the education given to the young

aimed at the harmonious development of all sides of the character.
Religious, moral, intellectual, emotional and physical capacities
were all educed and trained.... Study of the Shastras went hand in
hand with that of philosophy and science.

In her speech at the above-mentioned Convention Dr Besant

traces education in great institutions like Harrow, Eaton, etc. She
then addresses decline in the duty in India and the awakening caused
by the Founders of the Theosophical Society, H. P. Blavatsky and
H.S. Olcott:

It is largely due to this change in public feeling that the CHC

is now a fact. Some members of the TS, deeply feeling the need of
meeting the conditions of the time by grafting religious and moral
teachings upon Hindu lines... initiated two years ago a scheme of
founding a school in Kashi.
...It will be a place for liberal education where pupils will
be able to breathe the pure and clear atmosphere of thought... in
addition it will supply the urgent need – a definitely religious and
moral training ... particular attention will be paid to the formation
of character, where the ancient Aryan virtues of reverence, self-
reliance, freedom, moderation, calmness, equitableness, justice
and courtesy will be instilled in the hearts of the students.

The original appeal for founding of the College said:

 ...every effort will be made to instill into the minds of the
students from early youth those lofty and holy sentiments of reli-
gion and morality which can be drawn from the ancient Sanskrit
literature, such as Manu, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, etc., so
as to prevent them from becoming irreligious, to encourage them
in keeping up their nationality and to inspire them with reverence
for their ancient religion and their great Rishis.

In this scheme, the most important features are: (1) The

Boarding House; (2) the religious and moral teachings; (3) The rela-
tions between teachers and pupils and the creation of a public spirit,
and (4) The place given to Sanskrit.
In the concluding paragraph of the said Report Mrs Besant
writes: ‘The Hindu College will send out youth trained in western
knowledge but purified and ennobled by religious teaching, able to
influence the work-a-day world but moved by the lofty ideals. …
The movement of which the CHC is a nucleus is therefore in no sense
designed to oppose the present system but rather to supplement it.’
In order to help the studious but poor fees were fixed very
low. The Viceroy invited suggestions for the CHC Board of Trustees
on the questions pending regarding Education in India. The follow-
ing information is based on the Annual Reports of the Central Hindu
College for the period 1898 to 1903.
The College’s First Anniversary was held on Friday, the 27
October 1899.The report, which was presented by Dr Richardson
and Bhagawan Das, the Secretaries of CHC, says:

The largest and most enthusiastic meeting seen in Benares

for many years celebrated the 1st Anniversary of the CHC on Oc-
tober 27th, 1899. The beautiful hall in the building, given by H. H.
The Maharaja of Benares, has been newly decorated, and now
makes an admirable setting for functions of this kind.
 ...within the one short year of its existence, this institution
has actually combined good western education with sound and or-
thodox Hindu religious instruction, and effective training in morals
as well as in the country, respect and gently noble manners which
used to be such prominent characteristics of a well-bred Hindu, but
whose rapid, disappearance of late years has been deplored... a be-
ginning has been made in gradually substituting for mere memory
cramming, that real training and development of the mental pow-
ers, which is only true education, we cannot but feel success
assured… But both moral and mental training are largely condi-
tioned in their successful application by the physical organism of
those who are subjected to such discipline ....it is not merely a local
institution, but aims at benefitting the whole India, no less care is
being devoted to the establishment of a Boarding House...where
they can have the best of home influences, every care and comfort
with wise and fatherly protection.

The secular instruction covers the causes prescribed by the

University. For the purposes of religious instruction, every student
is required to study Sanskrit, whether he takes it as his second lan-
guage or not. Mrs Besant delivered a series of nine lectures on the
Mahabharata.
During his Indian tours, Col. Olcott formed in many places
Hindu Boys’ Societies and also raised subscriptions for them. This
vindicates allegations made by some against him that he identified
himself exclusively with the work for the Buddhists. Seeing his suc-
cess Countess Wachtmeister founded, in January 1895, a journal for
the Hindu youth. It was called Arya Bala Bodhini. This served ad-
mirably as the magazine for the Central Hindu College. It had wide
circulation throughout India. Later, from January 1901, it was named
as Central Hindu College Magazine.
In its 1899 Convention, the Indian Section voted for adopting
the CHC, so it became part of the work of that Section of the TS.
 In his Presidential Address to the Convention of 1903, Col.
Olcott while appreciating the work of the CHC said: ‘The colossal
achievements of Mrs Besant in promoting the Hindu religious re-
vival will never be thoroughly appreciated unless her biographer
takes up the story of her activities. To the reflective Hindu of the
future, the fact of its all being accomplished by an English lady will
enhance the wonder of the result of her labours. She has already re-
ceived gifts in money and real estate for the College to the extent of
4.5 lakhs of rupees.’
Mrs Besant spent the entire year of 1903 in India, mostly
staying at Benares attending to the work of the CHC, and as a result
of this the College developed. New laboratory, library and the upper
storey of the Boarding House were built. During her lecture tours she
combined the exposition of Theosophy, with ever increasing breadth
and beauty, with a resistless drive on behalf of education.
In the CHC’s 10th Annual Report Mrs Besant states: ‘Our
work is training of thousands of India’s sons into noble manhood,
into worthiness to become free citizens of a free land… Another part
of our work is to draw India and England nearer to each other.’
Below are some of her statements as contained in the CHC’s
th
11 Annual Report:

...education is no education when religion and morality do

not form an integral part of it... patriotism and love of country and
duty to the Empire which is growing mightier generation after gen-
eration.
Small seed we planted, but it grew, just as a seed germi-
nates when the sun shines upon it and the waters of heaven descend
upon it, and the little seed grows into a mighty tree in the future.
Now the institution that is around you is known throughout the
civilized world.
All important is it that you should not leave the future fa-
thers and mothers of India uneducated or ill-educated.’ Referring
 to the disturbed conditions in India: ‘There have been troubles in
many Colleges, insurrections and strikes, students have been ex-
pelled, but no serious trouble in CHC... If any of them go wrong,
the elders are to be blamed. Young boys do not understand the full
meaning of the words they use... I plead for the boys that they shall
not be judged harshly... Let us forget the evil and remember the
good… India requires men, brave, resolute and strong men who
know their duty and are not afraid to do it.

In her President’s Speech, as recorded in the CHC’s 12th Annual

Report (1909), Mrs Besant says:

The growing gulf noticeable in India between teacher and

student has been bridged here by instituting a tutorial system… We
try to meet the students with sympathy (advise regarding politics),
study and discuss, but not act until you are out of pupilage.
We are trying to re-instate some of the old ideals, not
blindly, not fanatically but adopting them to the needs of the pre-
sent. It is not that everything that was good for the men of the past
which would be good for men of the future.

Viceroy visits Central Hindu College

C. W. Leadbeater reported in the Central Hindu College

Magazine (reprinted in The Theosophical Messenger, January
1911):
The work of the President of the Theosophical Society, Mrs.
Besant, has been so manifold that only posterity will be able to
value it in all its phases. Her work in India specially will be seen
in its fruition in later generations of the Hindu peoples. Apart from
the impetus she has given to the revival of all that is best in Hindu
philosophy and ethics, her work for education will always be ap-
preciated with gratitude by the spiritually-minded Hindus because
she has been successful in combining with secular education a love
of religion and ideals of service for the motherland. On November
10th last, the Viceroy of India, the Earl of Minto, visited the Cen-
tral Hindu College, founded by Mrs. Besant, and, after receiving
an address from Mrs. Besant and her Hindu colleagues working
for education, spoke of her work in the following terms:
‘I have often told you, Mrs. Besant, that I looked forward
someday to visiting the Central Hindu College. I am afraid I have
told you so often that you may have begun to doubt the reliability
of my intentions. I have, however, appeared at last, and I can as-
sure you I am very glad to be here and see for myself the great
work which owes so much to your energy and genius.
‘The College was founded only twelve years ago, and, like
many other great undertakings, it originated from small begin-
nings, and, if I may say so, I believe that its youthful energy and
the very spirit of its existence has been nourished by the fact of its
inauguration having been, as you say in your address, an example
of self-help, the successful effort of a small knot of Indians and
Englishmen to meet without Government assistance what they be-
lieve to be a pressing want of the youth of this country. During the
last twelve years the College has grown into the great institution
of today, and naturally its increasing popularity demands an addi-
tion to its funds, I hope that will be forthcoming. I am convinced
that the spontaneous effort to which it owes its origin will continue
to strengthen the value of the maxims its founder originally laid
down.
What those maxims are were clearly set forth in Mrs. Bes-
ant’s address at the commencement of this year. I understand them
to be that religious and moral training should go hand and hand
with ordinary secular education; that good citizenship depends
upon the formation of character in early youth; and that patriotism
and love of country should be the foundation of good citizenship,
culminating in a devoted loyalty to the King-Emperor. It is upon
 lines such as these, and they are very notable lines, that Mrs. Bes-
ant maintains that the youth of the country should be educated, and
she claims, too, that the observance of those lines has already pre-
served peace amongst the students of this College, which has been
markedly absent at some other centres of learning. No one believes
more than I do in the inestimable value of the tenets to which I
have referred. I hope that the Hindu College with strict regard for
them may successfully continue to mould the youths of India. It is
strength of character, based upon religious and moral training that
produces men fit for the battle of life.
‘I can only tell you again, Mrs. Besant and gentlemen, how
glad I am to have been here today. Lady Minto and I, when we
have exchanged the suns of India for the hills of our Scottish home,
will often think of our visit to the Central Hindu College and will
never forget the very kind words we have listened to from you.’

We reproduce below the text of a public lecture by N. Sri

Ram organized by the Adyar Lodge of the TS at the Gokhale Hall,
Madras, 10 July 1947, and originally published in The Theosophist,
October 1947. In it Mr Sri Ram points out how the formation of the
Central Hindu College was the beginning of Mrs Besant’s magnifi-
cent work for education in India.

DR. ANNIE BESANT’S WORK FOR EDUCATION IN INDIA

N. Sri Ram

It is very rarely that it is given to a person to play many roles

in one, displaying a diversity of gifts in different fields of life. Dr
Besant was an educationist with high aims and ideals, but she was at
the same time a politician of worldwide repute and eminence, and a
great spiritual teacher, venerated as such not merely by thousands,
but without exaggeration, tens of thousands of all races and faiths.
She combined in herself to a remarkable degree the gifts of exposi-
tion, writing and organization. One does not readily find a person of
thought, who is capable of giving ideas of value, equally well trans-
lating those ideas into action, and helping bands of people attracted
by them to become leaders in their turn. She had also the rare com-
bination of an unflagging youthfulness of spirit with the balance and
maturity of age and a wide outlook upon the problems and affairs of
her age and the people.
When she came to India in 1893, she seemed to have before
her mind’s eye a broad plan of India’s renaissance. She first plunged
into the task of the religious revival of India, because she found that
those who had modern education on western lines were beginning to
be materialistic and look down on their ancient faith with contempt
or indifference. They were being carried away by the glamour of
western civilization, and apologetic about their own national culture
and ways. So everywhere she awakened the people of India to the
glory of their heritage, to the splendour of their own ancient civili-
zation and faith. After she had succeeded in making thoughtful
Indians once again turn their minds to the truths of their philosophy,
the truths embedded in their religious system, which she did with
electrifying effect by lecturing over the length and breadth of India,
she began the work of education with the starting of the Central
Hindu College at Benares. After several years of this work for Indian
youth, she gave those lectures in Madras entitled “Wake up, India!”
dealing with the problems of social reform. She did not plunge very
deeply into this aspect of Indian life, for she considered it was the
duty of the Indians themselves to tackle their social evils. Lastly,
crowning all her previous work, she started the campaign for India’s
freedom.
It is remarkable that in each one of these phases it was a deeply
religious attitude which constituted the core of her outlook. Educa-
tion was to her a matter of life and therefore of religion. It was based
upon religious principles and the religious outlook of the people.
Social reform in those days was especially divorced in its orientation
from Hindu religion and philosophy. The social reform she advo-
cated was aimed at removing outworn customs and accretions which
had encrusted the faith of the people. When she took to politics she
took to it with a fervour of idealism that cannot be described as oth-
erwise than religious. As Gandhiji himself has said, she made Home
Rule a mantram in every village. She was not merely an agitator,
though she had to agitate for her ideals – and none could do it better
– but she was above all a nation-builder. One of her biographers has
described her as ‘a passionate pilgrim’; whatever the path she took,
she trod it as a pilgrim, with all the fervour of a dedicated spirit press-
ing ever onward to its goal.
Her Education had two distinct aspects; one was that it had a
religious foundation, and the other was patriotism or love of the
Motherland. To her religion was not a narrow creed. She took the
leading part in producing those textbooks of Hindu religion and eth-
ics which were called the Sanatana Dharma Series. Anyone who
reads them will see that she has put together there the essentials of
the Hindu faith, leaving out whatever may be of the nature of an ex-
crescence or superstition. Her religion included an appreciation of
the truths of other religions; similarly, her patriotism was not a pat-
riotism of hate, or of narrow-minded pride, but a patriotism of love
which expressed itself in every constructive endeavour and was
based on the greatness of the past as an inspiration to the future.
She gave a number of talks to the students in the Central Hindu
College, which have since been published, giving the stories of Sri
Rāmachandra and the Mahābhārata war. We see there how she pro-
ceeded to awaken the enthusiasm of students, and – I may add – of
grown-up men too, for the ideals and truths enshrined in our ancient
epics. Her ideas on Education, her principles, were exemplified in
that College, which soon became famous all over the land. It at-
tracted boys from almost every corner of India. Being situated in
Benares, the holy city of India, it had students from places as far
distant as the Punjab and Eastern Bengal, and Tuticorin in the south.
A Central Hindu College boy had a stamp which was distinguishable
from boys of other colleges.
She carried on her work there with the help of Dr Arundale
and a band of other devoted assistants. She stressed certain ideas that
might be familiar now but were not considered at all at that time,
such as the importance of building up the adolescent body with
proper diet, hygiene and the playing of games. The Central Hindu
College was noted for the skill, the expertness and the capacity of its
students in every game that was played in those times – cricket,
hockey, football and others. She was later to become the pioneer In-
dian Scouting, a movement which she started in order to build-up
character and the attitude of ready service in young men who badly
lacked such an outlet for their energies. She formed a cadet corps in
the Central Hindu College, which drew much attention wherever it
went; the cadets we dressed in an Indian uniform, drilled in military
style taught to act as a team loyal to one another and to leaders. She
tried also something that was then new to Indian schools, namely,
the prefect system. All the time, in her institutions, the stress was on
character and service, and there was the distinctive feature of a com-
plete absence of punishment. Dr Besant’s ideal was to train the
young men into men of courage, upright and able to face the diffi-
culties and responsibilities of their lives. She made it a cardinal rule
in every institution under her control that discipline should be based
on love and respect and free from fear.
Dr Besant did not believe in political action by students and
that point was brought out very strongly during the both of the anti-
partition movement in Bengal and the Non-Cooperation of 1920-21.
She regarded the student years a period of precious preparation for
citizenship; she did not countenance the throwing of them as raw
recruits into the battleline to become ready casualties, as in her view
battles were not won by such tactics. But she advised her young peo-
ple to study politics, and every other problem of general interest; to
take part in school and college parliaments, in order to learn to pre-
sent their points of view in debate, to appreciate opposed views, and
to cultivate the graces of courtesy and parliamentary manners amidst
sharp differences of opinion. She edited for a number of years a mag-
azine, The Young Citizen, in which she held up high ideals for
inspiration of young people.
When the Central Hindu College flowered into the Hindu Uni-
versity, that University recognized her unique labours in the
educational field by conferring upon her the degree of Doctor of Let-
ters – an honour which she very much appreciated.
Freed from the responsibility of guiding that college, she
formed the Theosophical Educational Trust, and soon a number of
schools and colleges in different parts of India came under the con-
trol of that body. In these institutions, the principles which were
followed were those advocated by Dr Besant. Education was re-
garded as an aid to natural growth, and was to be education not only
for livelihood but also for life and leadership. She attached very spe-
cial importance to the education of girls, because she realized that it
is the women of the land who are the best custodians of its culture.
She stressed the importance of preserving distinctive ideals of Indian
womanhood, not turning them into copies of western women – how-
ever splendid these might be – but making them embodiments of
their own culture and ideals.
She was in the Central Hindu College, and in all the institu-
tions with which she was associated, a constant inspiration both to
the teachers and students. To every student she was a loving and ac-
cessible mother. She had the remarkable gift of attracting around her
helpers who were eager to give their all for the cause which they
considered it their privilege to serve under her guidance.
In addition to all this, she lectured in all parts of India on na-
tional education, and she visited even small towns and villages
which one could not reach by convenient means of transport, be-
cause she felt that it was necessary that the principles of right
education should be understood by the people, so that the education
of India may be controlled by Indians, that it may be national educa-
tion in the true sense of the term, purged of all the faults which were
so glaring in any system that had been devised for other ends and
purposes than the building up of India into a strong nation capable
of holding her own.
In the year 1918, after the goal of Home Rule had been ac-
cepted by the British Government, she launched National Education
movement with the help of Dr Arundale, because she felt that with-
out education on national lines there could be no true national
freedom and that in India democracy should not grow into govern-
ment by multi-headed ignorance. In the Commonwealth of India Bill
for the freedom of India, which she drafted in 1925, she wrote the
right of citizens to free elementary education, embodying her view
that every child born in the land should be able to enjoy that right;
he should not only have the necessary physical care, but also the ed-
ucation needed to launch into the stormy waters of life; the Bill
contemplated one or more schools in every village managed by the
village authorities.
Dr Besant was always full of encouragement to young people.
This particular Association in the premises of which we are meeting
today – the Young Men’s Indian Association – was part of her gifts
to the young men of Madras. When the Pachaiappa’s College was
suffering for want of a hostel in which to house its boys, she gave a
handsome donation which enabled them to build a hostel, so that the
young people who needed to reside in the City of Madras for study
might have a place in which they might be properly housed and
looked after. She paid the fees of ever so young boys who came to
her for help, sometimes for urgent assistance. I know that they all
addressed her as ‘Mother’, whether they knew her personally or not,
and she accepted that description. She used however to say she was
a mother to so many that it was not possible for her to meet all re-
quirements.
 Dr Besant was one of the first to stress the importance of giv-
ing education in the mother-tongue of the boy. She fully recognized
the value of English as a second language and as a means of com-
munication with people of other lands and its value for other
purposes too, but the use of English not merely for learning as a lan-
guage but as the medium for learning other subjects constituted a
crushing burden to the young brain. She encouraged also in every
way possible the learning of Sanskrit and Arabic, as the classical
languages of India.
In all these respects and ways she was an educational pioneer.
Her education did not aim at the mere manufacture of graduates by
the hundred. She taught that every child had his own unique individ-
uality, which the true educator must respect; the system should adapt
itself to the child, not the child to the system. These ideas of hers
have yet to find their true and proper fulfilment. Her educational
ideas were characterized by the wisdom with which she planned all
work with which she was concerned. In the field of politics she was
a constructive statesman of the highest calibre; she was equally a
statesman in every other field of life.
Dr Besant, although she passed away in 1933, has not yet be-
come dim in our eyes. We would do well in this Centenary year to
keep her memory green with our gratitude, by recalling all her splen-
did work for this country and the ideals which she so constantly
placed before us for our inspiration and guidance. Our entry as a free
nation into the circle of nations is a culmination of Dr Besant’s work
for India in the political field. Her work in the educational field will
no doubt bear its equally important fruit in course of time, as a free
India undistracted by the pressing problem of her politics turns her
attention to the constructive tasks that await her consideration.

Formation of the Benares Hindu University

The following notes are based on the book History of the Banaras
Hindu University by Shivanandan Lal Dar (Banaras Hindu
University Press, Varanasi, 1966, pp. 90-105). Remarks by Dr Bes-
ant are referred to as indicated.
With success of the Central Hindu College (CHC), the idea
of establishing a National University was gradually flowering in the
mind of Mrs Besant. In 1907, she put forward the idea of establishing
an all denominational university to be named ‘The University of In-
dia’ at Benares. The Governing Body to be composed of the Trustees
of the CHC and representatives of all important creeds. The univer-
sity was to be an examining body in the beginning like Government
universities in India at that time, take up teaching later on and should
affiliate colleges of all denominations each of which would teach its
own religion to its students. The well-established Central Hindu Col-
lege, Benares, has given permission to the proposed university to use
its building for the examination and office purposes.
In the petition for the Royal Master (addressed to H.M. The
King), the need for a new university ‘having a field of activity of a
distinctive character from the existing universities, and possessing
special features of its own’ was emphasized. This was in accordance
with the declared policy of the Government ‘that higher education
should more and more devo1ve on private and voluntary endeav-
ours’. The attempt would be on ‘unifying and rendering effective
Indian initiative in educational matters’.
The petition stated that ‘the most marked speciality of the
proposed university will be in the fact that it will affiliate no college
in which religion and morality do not form an integral part of the
education given. It will make no distinctions between religions, ac-
cepting equally Hindu, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian, Muhammadan,
but it will not affiliate any purely secular institution... will draw to-
gether all the elements which regard the training of youth in honour
and virtue as the most essential part of education.’
‘The second important speciality will be the placing in the
first rank of Indian philosophy, history and literature and seeking in
these and in the classical languages of India, the chief means of
culture. While western thought will be amply studied, eastern will
take the lead.’
‘The third important speciality will be the paying of special
attention to manual and technical training, to science applied to ag-
riculture... so as to revive the now decaying industries of India.’
The signatories included besides Mrs Besant prominent citi-
zens from all over India, among others Sir S. Subrahmania Aiyar, Sir
Narayana Chandravarkar, Dr Ashutosh, Sir P. C. Chatterji, Khan Ba-
hadur N. D. Khandalavala, Syed Husein Iman, Hirendranath Datta,
Mazharul Haque, Ganga Prasad and Rai Bahadur Shyam Sundar Lal.
‘The petition was sent up to the Secretary of State for India
by H.E. the Viceroy in September 1910, and subsequently, it was
referred back by him to the Government of India for opinion on var-
ious points.’
During this period, between Mrs Besant’s formulation of the
specific scheme 1907 and the Viceroy sending the petition to the
Secretary of State in September 1910 and his referring back to the
Government of India, several developments took place in the coun-
try which jeopardized her scheme.
‘The idea of sectarian educational instruction was being de-
liberately fostered not only by the leaders of the Muslim Community
but was also receiving the inspiring blessings of the British officials
in high quarters.’ Lord Curzon, when be paid a visit to the Aligarh
College, told the Muslims that they should ‘not be left behind while
their rivals were pressing forward in the face’. In 1904, large sub-
scriptions were raised for the Aligarh College. ‘In the beginning of
1911, the Muslims, under the leadership of H.H. the Aga Khan, sub-
mitted a demand for a University Charter for the establishment of a
Muslim University at Aligarh.’ As a result, ‘a number of Muslims
who had given their names to Mrs Besant’s scheme withdrew from
it, leaving only a very few leaders of that community on it.’
‘The Hindu Community was also raised to exert itself at this
juncture by the sight of the success of the Muslims’. Workers of the
Central Hindu College (CHC) were invited at several places and re-
ceived donations but the Hindu population wished to have a
university of their own jut as the Muslims planned. At this point in
time, Pandit M. M. Malaviya revised his old scheme and in the 1910
session of the Congress decided to resume the work of the university,
which had been put off year after year. It may he added Mrs Besant
had put forward the idea of The University of India in 1907. In the
meantime, while Bharat Mahamandala of Kashi, under the Presi-
dentship of Maharaja of Darbangha was working for a Sanatana
Dharma University at Benares. He also joined hands with Dr Besant
and Malaviyaji.
So there were three schemes before the Government. The
University of India, a Hindu University and a Muslim University. It
was clear that a charter would not be granted to all the three. As the
larger university of India would embrace both Hindus and Muslims,
‘the Muslim community had deliberately and finally cut themselves
off’ from this larger, broader scheme. Mrs Besant’s scheme had the
advantage that it had a well-established CHC as its base and she her-
self had wide experience in the organizational work, but the
disadvantage came in because the Muslims as a community had
withdrawn, leaving a very few broadminded Muslims with her.
In this background ‘Mrs Besant and Pandit M. M. Malaviya
met in Calcutta in March 1911, talked over the situation and decided
to join hands’... ‘they and a few other 1eading Hindus met at Allah-
abad on 8 April 1911, and it was agreed that the petition for a Royal
Charter already submitted by Mrs Besant to the Government should
be the basis of work with certain modifications. These proposed
changes were printed in a circular letter dated 11 April 1911, issued
by Mrs Besant, which was also published in various dailies and
weekly. Mrs Besant left for England from Bombay on 22 April for
six months, thinking that while she would look after the interests of
the scheme for granting of the Charter during her stay in England
and Malaviyaji would look after enlisting support and collection of
funds in India. She also hoped that her circular letter of 11 April 1911
would make it easier for her team of workers to work in cooperation
with Malaviyaji.
This public announcement and Mrs Besant leaving immedi-
ately for Bombay to go to Europe with Mr G. S. Arundale,
Krishnamurti and Nityananda, on 22 April 1911, gave an oppor-
tunity to her opponents to raise a big public controversy against her.
In the April 1911 issue of The Theosophist she wrote: ‘It may
well be that these (i.e. two scheme of Muslim University of Aga
Khan and Hindu University of Malaviyaji) will be preferred to my
scheme in which all religions in India were treated equally and an
attempt was made to unite instead of to divide.’
Mrs Besant was far ahead of her time. The deeply rooted
communal feelings prevailing gave wide public support to separate
‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ universities and not to Mrs Besant’s attempt
to have a University of India in which all the religions were to be
treated equally. Her attempt to unite was obstructed by the disruptive
communal forces whose ill effects in India caused the partition of
the country and which continues to show its face in an increasing
manner even today.
The letters, mostly anonymous, started finding faults, while
she was out of the country, with everything that she did and with
Theosophy. They did not spare Malaviyaji on account of his Hindu
orthodoxy. Some newspapers took leading part in publishing such
letters. There was much disunity among Hindus themselves.
‘Briefly, the bulk of their criticism was only destructive....
Irritation appeared to have centred round two points. Firstly, that too
much of Theosophy had been introduced in the CHC and secondly
that in the new University Mrs Besant would automatically force
Theosophy on all; the position was actually not so.’
The root cause seems to be narrow-mindedness of most of
the people, who could not rise above their sectarian viewpoint deeply
hidden within them and made them not to cooperate with Mrs Besant
who was for an educational system ‘in which all religions of India
were treated equally’. Drawing attention to the original teachings
without later incrustations and to the essential unity and purpose of
all religions was considered and denounced as introducing too much
of Theosophy. Most people consider their religion to be superior to
all other religions. This emphasis on equality was interpreted as im-
posing Theosophy. It must not be forgotten that after all the CHC
was founded and financed by theosophists and that eminent theoso-
phist-teachers, leaving their promising career in the world, came to
build the CHC with the assistance of local people, most of whom
were members of the TS, at least during its early years.
The over-orthodox Hindus alleged that Mrs Besant was op-
portunistically using the CHC for converting people to Christianity,
whereas orthodox Christianity thought just the opposite. The aggres-
sive nationalists thought that she was an agent of the Crown whereas
over-nervous bureaucrats who did not understand the spirit of up-
rightness and self-dependence considered her sowing sends of
sedition. Thus there were too many misconceptions of the whole
movement on the part of those who had not had the advantage of
closely watching the lives of the two leaders, Mrs Besant and
Malaviyaji.
There also seems to be another contributing factor. Mr. G. S.
Arundale was a very enthusiastic person who kept high ideals before
him and tried to inspire youngsters towards idealism and the spiritual
life. He joined the staff of CHC in his twenties. When he was about
thirty years old, bubbling with enthusiasm and energy, came the an-
nouncement by Mrs Besant and Mr Leadbeater that the world
condition was ripe for a great Teacher to come again. Teachers have
come to lead the world throughout the eons. At that time, they did
not know who and how he would come but thought that he might use
some pure and suitable person through whom the message would be
given.
 Josephine Ransom, in A Short History of the Theosophical
Society, pp. 390-91, says that as part of preparation of this coming,
‘in 1910 Mr Arundale had started among the boys of the CHC a pri-
vate order called ‘The Order of the Rising Sun of India’. It was
intended to draw together those of his scholars who believed in the
near coming of a great Teacher, and he did not expect it to spread
beyond the limits of the College.’
Against the expectations of the founders, the youthful mem-
bers of this exclusive order went around with a sense of superiority
over others. This is a common human failing. The members had to
take some secret and sacred promises of working for the cause and,
as the common practice in spiritual organizations, to keep certain
matters private and also to follow the leader, in the present case Mrs
Besant. This activity became a centre for attack by those who were
not in it. It was a private organization and not a secret one.
Ransom continues: ‘The Trustees did not approve of this ac-
tivity. On 11 January 1911 the Order was made public because Mrs
Besant found that many people “were ready for just such a society”.’
(p. 391)
Prominent among those who started attacking Mrs Besant on
her work in general and educational work in particular was Dr Bha-
gavan Das. As General Secretary of the Indian Section of the
Theosophical Society, he used the columns of its journal, The Theo-
sophical Review, to attack her. He wrote to newspapers and wrote of
a twenty-five-page letter to the Editor of the Christian Common-
wealth, London, which had all along been against Mrs Besant, on
account of leaving Christianity in young years and her broad based,
wider activities. This opened the field for similar attacks on Mrs Bes-
ant and the TS. In his pamphlet ‘The C.H.C. and Mrs Besant’, Dr
Bhagavan Das wrote of her wish to ‘save mankind’ and secondly ‘to
be regarded as a saviour of the same....’ The former wish prevailed
on the whole over the latter from 1894 to 1907, with the help of the
good advice and influence she did a magnificent work.
 It is a historical fact that during 1904 and 1907 Benares was
Mrs Besant’s house and Dr Bhagavan Das was closely associated
with her. On becoming the International President, her headquarters
shifted to Adyar. So the good advice and influence spoken of by Dr
Bhagavan Das is obviously that of his own.
In a very derogatory manner Bhagavan Das attacked Mrs
Besant. The correspondence preserved in the Archives of the TS at
Adyar as well as public statements of Mrs Besant at that time reveal
her magnanimity. She did not counterattack Dr Bhagavan Das and
patiently and calmly took the brunt on her and answered in a most
dignified manner.
Dr I. N. Gurtu, who succeeded Dr Bhagavan Das as General
Secretary of the Indian Section of the TS, in a letter of 5 June 1913,
replied to the allegations in detail. Later after transferring the CHC
to form a nucleus of the BHU, Mrs Besant formed a new Theosoph-
ical Education Trust whose Trustees were from the E.S. Dr.
Bhagavan Das attacked this rule. Dr Gurtu says that it had to be so
after Mrs Besant’s experience of the Trustees of the CHC. To apply
restrictions to the membership of Trusts is common practice in the
world today, probably because Trusts are formed for specific pur-
poses and trustees must be committed to fulfil those purposes.
However, in September 1933, in his talk on ‘Annie Besant
and the Changing World’, delivered at the Town Hall, Benares, after
immersing the ashes of Dr Besant in the Ganges, Dr Bhagavan Das’
attitude had changed. He said:

‘To herself, she was a humble servant and missionary of the

Spiritual Hierarchy ... which guides the evolution of humanity; I
regarded her as my spiritual mother from the moment I first beheld
her … even I had the deplorable misfortune, once, of being en-
gaged in a public controversy with her, in 1912-13, over the affairs
and policies of the CHC and the TS ...When the controversy had
blown over, I humbly begged her forgiveness, not for any differing
 views, but for any harshness that might have crept into my lan-
guage….because of my coarse and unregenerate nature…’

He summarized the difference in views between him and Dr

Besant: ‘that we should all pray ... that a Helper of Mankind may
come, but no particular person should be accepted or proclaimed or
treated as an Avatar or initiate ....’
According to History of the Banaras Hindu University
(pp.104-05), Mrs Besant and Malaviyaji talked over at Calcutta in
March 1911 and again on 8 April 1911 at Allahabad, when a few
leading Hindus were also present. Mrs Besant agreed to modify the
University of India scheme in favour of the University of Benares.
She made the changes public by her letter of 11 April 1911 and she
left India on 22 April. In the midst of many controversial letters and
notes published in the newspapers, the editorial column of The
Leader, Allahabad, l8 May 1911, put the case excellently from the
standpoint of thoughtful and judicial minded public worker. The Ed-
itorial appreciated the work of Mrs Besant and exhorted ‘that
prejudice and prepossession will not be allowed to sway delibera-
tions on this matter of supreme importance to the fruition of the
scheme, that impartiality and liberality of thought will govern the
decision of those responsible, and whatever may once be resolved
will be adhered to inflexibly for nothing is more fatal to ultimate
success than continued indecision.’ In this connection, what Mrs
Besant wrote in The Theosophist, April 1911, before leaving for Eu-
rope is worth taking into account.

‘It may well be that these (i.e. the schemes of the Mus-
lim University of Agakhan and Hindu University of
Malaviyaji) will be preferred to my scheme in which all reli-
gions of India were treated equally, and attempt was made to
unite instead of divide.’
 In The Theosophist, May 1911, she alludes to an outside in-
fluence on the process: ‘The attacks made on myself by the party
which strove to wreck the T.S. on the passing of the President-
Founder wrought much harm to the College … from its inception the
College has been the child of the T.S.’
History of the Banaras Hindu University (p. 107) mentions
that Pandit Iqbal Narain Gurtu, who was then the Headmaster of the
CHC, visited a number of places enlisting support and collecting
funds for the amalgamation of the two schemes. Successful public
meetings were held with a good public response.
‘While Pandit I. N. Guru was organising these meetings, en-
listing the sympathy of the public in favour of the amalgamated
scheme, the controversy was still going on in the Press. At last, in
The Leader of 1st June 1911, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya stated
his position in the following words:
“The question of amalgamation of Mrs Besant’s scheme of a
University of India and of a University of Benares is still under con-
sideration.” (op. cit., p.108)
‘The public did not like that the matter should be kept hang-
ing, and meetings were held at several places and resolutions passed
in favour of amalgamating the two original schemes and the CHC to
be the nucleus of the University.’ (op. cit., p.108)
‘On the10th July 1911, Pandit Malaviya came to Benares and
had an informal meeting with some members of the CHC Commit-
tee. He pointed out certain difficulties.... and proposed certain
alterations, which to those present seemed important.... He was ad-
vised by the CHC Committee to write to Mrs Besant’ who was in
Europe. Malaviyaji issued a statement on the same day which was
interpreted by different persons differently. (op. cit., pp. 107-08)
‘On 6 August 1911, at the usual half yearly meeting of the
Board of Trustees of the Central Hindu College, Malaviyaji was also
present and Mrs Besant’s letter of 11 April 1911 and modifications
due to certain difficulties raised by Malaviyaji were considered. The
Trustees expressed inability to accept the modifications proposed by
Malaviyaji without knowing the views of Besant. The Board passed
a tentative resolution mentioning its inability to take ‘any action in
regard to funds and properties of the institution but... was willing to
join hands with Mrs Besant end Malaviyaji... in promoting the es-
tablishment of the Hindu University at Benares of which the CHC
will be an integral part.’ (op. cit., p. 109)
‘Subsequently, Mrs Besant wrote to the Editor of the Luck-
now Advocate (date not given): “…after waiting since last April for
the amalgamation agreed upon between Malaviyaji and myself, I am
proceeding with the scheme as agreed to. I cannot throw aside the
scheme worked for several years, approved by the late Viceroy.”’
(op. cit., p.110)
Then Mrs Besant speaks of efforts made in England and dis-
cussions held with the highest officials to ‘change the name from the
University of India to the University of Benares necessitated by the
demand for a Muslim University .... I do not agree to drop my nearly
completed work, as the Hon. Pandit seems to expect.’ (op. cit., p.
110)
Mrs Besant returned to Benares from her European tour on
21 October 1911. On the same day, a meeting took place between
her and Malaviyaji. ‘All differences sank in the common aim which
promised so much for an awakened India.’ That evening she went to
the CHC along with Malaviyaji and those members of the Board of
Trustees of the CHC who could be present. There she announced
‘that the amalgamation of the three schemes for a university – those
of the Hon. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Hon. Maharaja Sir
Rameshwar Singh Bahadur of Darbhanga and her own – was an ac-
complished fact. Every heart rejoiced and the good news quickly
flew by wire all over the country.’ (op. cit., p. 193)
The next day, 22 October 1911, Mrs Besant, Malaviyaji, Ma-
haraja of Dharbhanga and four others met and signed a short
memorandum for a Hindu University with a governing body
consisting of representatives of the Hindu community, Mrs Besant
and representative trustees of the CHC. It also declared that the pe-
tition of Charter filed by Mrs Besant which was before the Secretary
of State for India will be withdrawn.
The 13th Annual Report of the CHC, published in December
1911, mentions that the Board of Trustees of the CHC met on 25 and
26 December 1911 at which meetings Mrs Besant formally informed
the members of the development that had taken place. She proposed
a resolution, which was passed. Mrs Besant, as President of the
CHC, said:

‘We are standing today with happiness and pride but with a
slight tincture of sorrow.... This college is OURS – is going largely
out of our hands, is passing into a wider life, and will yield loyalty
to other persons. The sorrow is that of a mother, glad that the son
is going out to do his work in the world.
‘Whether this be our last anniversary, whether we shall
gather here... I cannot say... It may be truly said that the CHC is
the foundation of that mighty university, which shall save for the
world the priceless Hindu Culture and shall use western thought.’

In her Presidential Address to the International Convention

of the TS in 1911 she said: ‘The CHC is blossoming into a university
and will soon no longer need the fostering care of the T.S. which has
watched over it during the days of its infancy. It will reach majority
as soon as the university is established, and its mother will send it
out joyfully into the world to play a man’s role therein.’
She also wrote On the Watch-Tower, The Theosophist, No-
vember 1912: ‘Meanwhile it is the duty of Theosophists to work for
the Hindu University as they have worked for its nucleus, the Central
Hindu College, which makes it possible.... It will be good for India,
as for any other nation, to have a College which will welcome all the
rivals with equal respect and so foreshadow the future amity, and
build for a United India.’
We read in A Short History of the Theosophical Society, p.
402, for the year 1913:

Though the CHC, ‘the fruits of all the years of labour and
self-sacrifice’, had been willingly surrendered to the Hindu Uni-
versity and was essential to its success, some of the university
authorities now entertained fears about the association of the uni-
versity with Mrs Besant. This was the climax to the antagonism
led by Dr Bhagavan Das... he went far along the same lines as did
Dr Steiner, when he suggested that members of the E.S. should be
excluded from all the offices of the T.S.... So bitter grew the oppo-
sition that Mrs Besant offered to resign as President of the Board
of Trustees.... The antagonism generated by Mr Arundale 's attach-
ment to J. Krishnamurti and his efforts to build up a group of young
men to help him when the time comes… he resigned his principal-
ship… many on the staff also resigned. Miss Arundale resigned
from the Girls School… Mrs Besant took steps to form a Theo-
sophical Educational Trust....

This is what Mrs Besant wrote in ‘On the Watch-Tower’, The

Theosophist, March 1913:

‘…from the very beginning of the CHC we have all tried to

inspire the students with great ideals embodied in persons. The
heart of the young one cannot he touched in any other way. Now
an attempt is being made by a few influential members of the gov-
erning bodies to destroy this spirit and to substitute for it any
metaphysical ideas and the cult of the impersonal, which may suit
sages, but not boys. The situation is imperiling the stability of this
much loved institution and my own difficult position (owing to the
 lawsuit in Madras) makes it impossible for me to be in Benares;
were I there, none of these difficulties would arise.

She continues to follow the developments in Benares when

she wrote in ‘On the Watch-Tower’, The Theosophist, June 1913:

The news from Benares will sadden the many well-wishers

of the CHC. The handing over of the college to the Hindu Univer-
sity and the placing of members of the university committee on the
College Board in order to facilitate the transfer, have proved dis-
astrous, for the new members had done nothing for the college and
cared nothing for its liberal traditions. Hence the persecution of the
theosophical honorary workers, culminating in the attempt to drive
my friends and myself away. Illiberal orthodoxy has made an un-
holy marriage with unbelief in order to injure theosophy... These
papers (The Leader and The Hindu) sedulously reprint each other’s
articles and string them each their hands.’

She asks friends not to accept reports as accurate, appearing

in The Hindu.

All through the year 1912, Babu Bhagavan Das wrote ve-
hemently against me, using the Indian Section magazine as a
weapon; then he poured accusations against me.... (When she went
to Benares) a great crowd of professors, masters and students came
to me, that Babu Bhagavan Das was circulating among them the
statement that I was mad, and begging me to take action.

She offered her resignation from the Board of Trustees but

the majority turned it down.

Fifteen years of labour have been destroyed, out of hatred

based on theological and political reasons.
 I may add that the last outrages, which brought about the
resignation of the members of the staff (Dr Arundale and twenty-
three of the staff resigned in protest against the publication of the
letter in The Leader). It was the publication in that newspaper of a
very private letter addressed by Mr Arundale to a group of a few
intimate friends. It was obtained in a very surreptitious way, and
sent with an anonymous letter to The Leader.... The group which
is attacked was one founded in 1909, with the idea of helping me
in my work, and of leading a live of self-sacrifice...
...The work lives, and will soon embody itself in another
form. We are driven from the outworn body, so we take a new one,
for the Eternal Spirit of Love and Service, expelled from one body,
clothes itself in another.
Five of our band of workers opened a Theosophical School
in Benares on July 7th (1913) and keep alive our ideals there. Two
more go to Madanapalle to work. Mr Wodehouse takes in charge
a large group, to enter English Universities and they, with Miss
Arundale, left India on May 15th.

Below are some of the responses in the Indian press at that

time regarding the unfolding crisis in the Central Hindu College:
‘CHC and the proposed Hindu University’, Madras Standard
(22 July 1914): ‘A most serious crisis has arisen in the 1ife of the
CHC… The whole future of this national institution trembles in the
balance.’ After discussing the ideals for which the CHC was
founded, Mrs Besant goes on to say that ‘while it was necessary to
accept the educational curriculum of the Government and to conform
to the general rules as regard the educational arrangements, the CHC
preserved independence’ and accepted no Government grants.
The Hindu University, The Madras Standard (22 July 1914):
‘In the belief that this policy (i.e. of the CHC) of piety and independ-
ence would be followed in the Hindu University (and knowing this
to be the views of her colleagues in the committee)... she agreed that
the college should be the nucleus of the University and won over
several of the Trustees, who feared to resign their control. Feeling
that the Government terms, if accepted...will place her in the position
of betrayer of a public trust’...she has written articles of protest.
National Education, The Madras Standard (23 July 1914):
She discusses in detail the ideals on which the CHC was founded,
names great rulers of India whose ideals students should follow and
not of Nelson and Wellington, etc. ‘But we cannot sacrifice Indian
nationality on the altar of our gratitude to our English rulers.’ Eng-
land and India will be most closely bound together, if they work hand
in hand, and heart with heart – ‘we do not ask Government what type
education shall be abolished. We ask that a national education may
be allowed to develop side by side.
‘If the Government will not charter a national University, we
bow to the decision; but we will not accept a bondage “glided with”
a liberal grant-in aid’… Let the Hindu University committee keep
the funds and apply them to the cause for which they were collected.’
In a letter to the editor of The Christian Commonwealth,
London, Dr Bhagavan Das accused Mrs Besant of having ‘two na-
tures, a higher and a lower’, that is altruism, the wish to ‘save
mankind’, and egoism, the wish to be regarded as a savior of the
same humanity. He says that the former prevailed from 1847 to
1907, and that her second nature was dominating her more and more
since the passing of H.S. Olcott. He also accused her of encouraging
a culture of personal worship when 100 or so members of the staff
threatened to resign en masse if Dr Bhagavan Das was not con-
demned publicly. Later on he also criticized her decision to form the
Theosophical Education Trust as all the members would be TS mem-
bers. He also accused Mrs Besant suffering from mental delusions.
On 15th April 1913 Mrs Besant sent her resignation from the
office of President of the Board of Trustees of the CHC. ‘I should
have liked to have continued as President of the Board of Trustees
for the short time which remains before the CHC is merged with the
Hindu University… But I appear to have lost for some reason the
confidence and goodwill of some of my old friends… I therefore
place my resignation …’ The Board of Trustees requested her to re-
main as President.

The Central Hindu College – Girls’ School

On 29 March 1904, this School was taken over by the Trus-

tees of the Central Hindu College. The following Notes from
Appendix B of 1906 report of the CHC throw light on the coming
into being of the Girls’ School.
‘Although ever since her arrival in India in 1893, Mrs Besant
had been profoundly convinced that in the right education of women
lay the real power which would hasten by centuries the task of In-
dia’s uprising, she felt that any effort made in this direction for
Hindus would be worse than useless. Initial years of labour had
proved that she was working for the uprising of Hinduism and not
for its subversion.’
In fact, one of the first things done by Countess Wachtmeis-
ter and Mrs Besant on arrival in India in 1893 was concern with girls’
education but they were advised to wait on account of suspicion.
Now, ten years had elapsed and Mrs Besant’s intentions and sincer-
ity were well established.
‘The first effort was made at Lahore, but teachers were lack-
ing’... until Miss Arundale arrived in 1903... for seven months from
19 August 1903 Miss Arundale had been teaching in her own home
girls of the neighbouring compounds, beginning with two in the first
day and gradually increasing to ten attending more or less regu-
larly.... Her rooms could hold no more. There was the need for large
rooms ‘and the purdah necessary for the older girls maintained’.
Then Mrs Besant and Miss Arundale called a meeting in Gyan Geha
on 29 March 1904 ‘to consider a scheme for a Girls’ School in Be-
nares’.
 Mrs Besant said: ‘The ordinary English, or Missionary, edu-
cation given to girls is destructive of all Hindu ideals and the sanctity
of the Hindu home. The Theosophist could handle the situation’, so
the CHC Girls’ School was founded.
Mrs Besant said: ‘The national movement for girls’ educa-
tion must be on national lines; it must accept the general Hindu
conception of women’s place in the national life, not the dwarfed
modern view but the ancient ideal. It must see in the women the
mother and the wife, or, as in some cases, the learned and pious as-
cetic, the Brahmavadini of olden days.’
After discussing such ideals, the essentials are given as fol-
lows – only titles are given here. She outlined the essentia1 features
as:

1. Religious and Moral education

2. Literary Education
3. Scientific Education
4. Artistic Education
5. Physica1 Education

‘There will always be some exceptional girls who need, for

the due evolution of their faculties, a more profound and a wider
education and these must he helped to what they need as individuals,
each in her own line.’
The initial difficulty of bringing the children to the school
was overcome by getting ‘our omnibus and a pair of horses...’
The Central Hindu Girls School started on 19 August in 1903
in the house of Miss Francesca Arundale, was taken over by the CHC
Trust on 29 March 1904 and later became the Central Hindu Girls’
School. On 30 October 1905 there were seventy-two children on its
rolls.
The CHC Annual Report for 1908 says that the CHC Girls’
School ‘is doing splendidly well under the care of Miss Arundale
and Miss Palmer. A new block of four rooms was added and a piece
of land purchased for a new Boarding House’.
Religious instruction which is the chief feature of the College
has made a distinct progress. In the College, the stress on girls com-
ing in Indian dress was laid. The first Principal was Miss Francesca
Arundale with Miss Sarah E. Palmer as Vice-Principal and Miss
Lilian Edger assisting.
Two years after being formed, the Benares Hindu University
bestowed on Annie Besant a great honour: ‘On 14 December 1921,
the BHU conferred upon Mrs Besant its Honour Degree of Doctor
of Letters, in “grateful recognition” of her ‘invaluable co-operation
in establishing the university”. She was “very happy to have this link
with the loved Central Hindu College, now the Hindu University”.
She and other Trustees of the College were elected as life members
of the University Court and Council.’ (A Short History of the Theo-
sophical Society, p. 446)

Educational Institutions Founded or Inspired by Annie

Besant and other Theosophists

• National Women’s College, Benares – founded 1916 by Theo-

sophical Investment Trust
• National College at Hyderabad, Sindh - founded October 1, 1917
by Theosophical Investment Trust
• Wood National College, Madanapalle, Chittoor District, Madras
– founded in 1915 by Theosophical Investment Trust
• College of Agriculture or National Agricultural College, located
in Damodar Gardens, Adyar – founded July 15, 1918 by the So-
ciety for Promotion of National Education (SPNE)
• National College of Commerce, Kilpauk, Madras – founded
July, 1918 by SPNE
• Training College at Madras, Kilpauk Madras – founded in Sep-
tember, 1918 by SNPE
• Besant National College, Bombay – scheduled to be recognized
by SPNE in 1919
• National College. Ahmedabad – scheduled to be recognized by
SPNE in 1919
• National Women’s University, Poona - considering cooperation
with SPNE
Primary and secondary schools included:

• Sanmarga Free Samskrit School, Bellary, Bellary District,

Madras - founded in 1889 by R. Jaganathia, FTS
• National Girls’ School, Benares City, United Provinces -
founded in July, 1913 by Annie Besant
• National Boys’ School, Benares City, United Provinces -
founded in July 7, 1913 by Annie Besant
• National Collegiate School, Cawnpore, United Provinces – for-
merly of Allahabad University
• National Girls’ School, Coimbatore, Madras - founded May 24,
1906 by Rai Saheb Marana Gounder
• Indraprastha Girls’ School, Delhi, Punjab
• National High School, Hyderabad, Sindh – founded October 1,
1917 by Theosophical Investment Trust
• Gomukhi National School, Kallakurchi, South Arcot District,
Madras – founded January, 1918 by N. T. Vasudeva Rao
• Gokhale Free Primary School, Kankoduthivanitham, Tanjore
District, Madras – founded May 9, 1917 by R. Ranchapagesan
• Pathashala, Karachi – founded by a local committee of Theoso-
phists August 7, 1917
• Sarasvati Pathasala for Girls, Kumbakonam, Tanjore District,
Madras – “taken up, after being relinquished by the Municipality
in 1908, by a Local Committee”
• Hindu Girls’ School, Lalgudi, Trichinopoly District, Madras –
founded January, 1898 by T. Nataraja Pillai
• National High School, Madanapalle, Chittoor District, Madras –
founded March 13, 1888 by O. L. Sarma – James H Cousins,
Principal, and Margaret Cousins, music instructor
• National Elementary School, Madanapalle, Chittoor District,
Madras – founded about 1898 by P. Siddapah
• Free Elementary Panchama School, Madanapalle, Chittoor Dis-
trict, Madras – founded October 1, 1915 by a Local Committee
– James H. Cousins, Principal
• Vanantha Night School, Madras – founded March 5, 1917 by R.
Giri Rao – staffed by students of the Wood National College as
an experiment
• Raja Night School – Chippili, Madanapalle, Chittoor District,
Madras – staffed by students of the Wood National College as
an experiment
• Krishna Night School, Pippireddipalle, Madanapalle, Chittoor
District, Madras – founded November 14, 1916 by V. A. Raja-
ratnam – staffed by students of the Wood National College as an
experiment
• National Elementary School, Kilpauk, Madras City, Madras –
founded July 1918 by M. K. Rajaragopalachariar – associated
with College of Commerce, Fritz Kunz serving as correspondent
• National Hindu Girls’ School, Mylapore, Madras City, Madras
– taken over by SPNE in July 1918 – Francesca Arundale, Head-
mistress and Bhagirathi Sri Ram also involved
• National High School, Teynampet, Madras City, Madras –
founded July 9, 1918 by SPNE following AB’s Principles of Ed-
ucation – N. Sri Ram was Asst. headmaster
• Sri Minakshi Vidyasala, Madura, Madras – founded Oct 3, 1904
by Madura Theosophical Society
• National Girls’ School, Mangalore, South Canara District,
Madras – founded June 17, 1918 by the Mangalore public
• Andhra Jatheeya Kalasala, Masulipatam, Kistna District,
Madras – founded December, 1907, opened February, 1910 by
the public of the Andhra Districts
• Dr. English’s Panchama Free School, Nellore, Nellore District,
Madras – founded by Dr. W. E. English
• Dandapani National School, Palni, Madura District, Madras –
founded July 14, 1914 by the Theosophical Educational Trust
• Rajahmudry National School, Rajamundry, Godaveri District,
Madras – founded January 1, 1908 by public of Rajamundry
• Victoria Higher Elementary School, Tindivanam, South Arcot,
Madras – founded January 1, 1902
• P. V. C. Lower Secondary School, Vayalpad, Chittoor District,
Madras – founded February 17, 1895 by O. L. Sarma, R. Giri
Row, R. Seshagiri Row
• N. P. R. National Girls’ School, Vayalpad, Chittoor District,
Madras – founded February 17, 1895 by O. L. Sarma, R. Giri
Row, R. Seshagiri Row

Source: Adyar Archives of the Theosophical Society

 4
President of the Theosophical Society:
‘Theosophy is for All’
1906 Engaged in the Leadbeater case
1907 July 6th, elected President of the Theosophical Society;
August, pursued researches into occult chemistry;
1907-1911 Increased the Adyar Estate from 27 to 253 acres
1908 Founded the T.S. Order of Service (renamed, in 1921, the Theo
sophical Order of Service);
Formed the Sons of India, and the Daughters of India;
Started the Vasanta Press at Adyar
Order of the Round Table started, with her as Protector;
Dec. 31st, made the first public announcement of the coming of a
World Teacher
1909 Adopted J. Krishnamurti and his brother;
Travelled 45,000 miles during the year
Continued occult chemistry researches
1910 With C. W. Leadbeater engaged in clairvoyant research for the
book, Man: Whence, How and Whither
1911 January 1st, first delivered the Star Invocation;
June, started the Order of the Star in the East;
Dec. 28, was present at memorable meeting of the Order;
June 15, lectured at the Sorbonne, Paris, on the ‘Message of
Giordano Bruno to the Modern World’
1912 Founded the Temple of the Rosy Cross;
Founded the Order of Theosophical Sannyasis;
Heard the oration of Pythagoras at Taormina
1912-14 Engaged in a lawsuit with J. Naraniah
1913 January 1st, transformed the Theosophist Office into Theosophical
Publishing House at Adyar.
 Some have complained that our literature is at once too abstruse,
too technical, and too expensive for the ordinary reader, and it is
our hope that the present series may succeed in supplying what is
a very real want. Theosophy is not only for the learned; it is for all.

Seven Principles of Man by Annie Besant

(Theosophical Publishing Society,1892)

The Theosophical event of the year in England, in 1905, was the

International Congress6. Representatives of thirteen nationalities
spoke, each in his own tongue. About 600 delegates were present,
200 of whom were non-British. Without a shadow of doubt it was
due to Mrs. Besant that so much life, so much enthusiasm, could find
such harmonious expression at every meeting. She, indeed, put most
of the members to shame by the completeness of her devotion to the
Congress, its work and its members, during the long busy days. No
wonder a vote of thanks to her evoked a thunder of applause.
Thought-Forms, the joint work of Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater,
was published this year. At the Indian Convention in December she
gave the usual course of four lectures on the Bhagavad-Gitā; then
went Northward.
Her lecture work still stressed Hinduism and the need of a
Hindu revival. In a letter to Babu Hirendra Nath Datta she writes:

The needs of India are, among others, the development of a

national spirit, and an education formed on Indian ideals and en-
riched, not dominated, by the thought and culture of the West.

6
Sources for this chapter include ‘Twenty Years of Work’, a compilation
by Basil Hodgson-Smith from the ‘Watch-Tower’ notes and ‘Supplement’ in
The Theosophist, from Lucifer and The Path, for the period between 1891 and 1911;
as well as others mentioned in the text.
 The present King George, then Prince of Wales, visited, with
the Princess of Wales, the Central Hindu College at Benares in Jan-
uary or February. On the following morning the Princess sent for
Mrs. Besant to write in her private autograph book; Mrs. Besant re-
quested that a photo of the King be placed in the College Hall. Mrs.
Besant and others were honored with invitations to the royal recep-
tion. ‘Lotus’ writes in The Theosophical Review:

Nothing in India can be compared with Benares. Benares is,

in truth, the heart of India. What prodigious vitality! No centre
could have been more propitious for the renaissance of the great
religious movement which Annie Besant is leading with all her
moral power. Her aim is to restore the principles upon which was
built the great Aryan civilization. Such work demands extreme
tact.

In May, Mr. Leadbeater resigned from the Theosophical So-

ciety, after a so called trial presided over by Colonel Olcott which
considered charges against him in connection with his advice to boys
regarding self-abuse (masturbation); he left Harrogate for Brittany
on June 1st. Feelings ran very high at first; and on June 7th Mrs.
Besant received an account of the acceptance by Mr. Leadheater be-
fore the Advisory Committee of the facts alleged in the evidence.
Mrs. Besant was much upset and thought and said that she had been
the victim of glamour when she had spoken of having been with him
in the Highest Presence on earth. Later she apologized to Mr. Lead-
beater, retracted her words, and said: ‘Never a shadow of cloud can
come between us again.’
A comprehensive study of the Leadbeater case was published
in the book CWL Speaks – C. W. Leadbeater’s Correspondence con-
cerning the 1906 Crisis in the Theosophical Society, compiled by
Pedro Oliveira with a Foreword by Robert Ellwood (Olive Tree
Publishing, Woy Woy, Australia, 2018). The book is now online at
www.cwlworld.info.
Colonel Olcott conducted the Chicago and London Conven-
tion and the Paris Congress in 1906, and then returned to India.
The Colonel died on 17 February, 1907, at 7.27 a.m. During
his last illness, there were appearances of the Masters and instruc-
tions to appoint Annie Besant as his successor. Mrs. Besant also had
similar instructions from her Master. In a letter to the Branches of
the Theosophical Society, dated 6 February, she writes:

When friends had mooted the question of my becoming

President previously, I had said that only my Master's command,
addressed to me personally, would induce me to accept it. I told
Colonel Olcott this when he wished to nominate me before They
had spoken. [She had, in fact, urged the nomination of Mr. Sin-
nett.] When I was sitting with the President the evening before the
visible appearance of the Blessed Masters to their dying servant,
to bid him name me as his successor, and we were asking Them to
express Their will in the matter, the two Masters appeared astrally,
and tried to impress his mind. To me my own Master said: ‘You
must take up this burden and carry it.’ The Colonel said: ‘I have
my message; have you anything?’ ‘Yes’, I said. ‘What is it?’ ‘I will
tell you when you have announced yours.’ Then he said he would
wait till morning and see if he received anything further. I then
wrote down what had been said to me, sealed it, and locked it
away. In the morning the Colonel was clear that he was ordered to
nominate me, but he was confused about subsidiary details. I ad-
vised him to wait till all was clear, as some of the details seemed
to me impracticable. On the evening of that day he asked me to sit
with him again, and ask Them to speak. I refused, as I had had my
answer and I could not properly ask again, and I went downstairs.
Then took place that manifestation, borne witness to by the Colo-
nel and his two friends, as already related by him in The
 Theosophist of February,1907. He sent for me and told me what
had occurred while his friends were writing it down in another
room. I then informed him of what I myself had been told. The
written account exactly corroborated his spoken account, and the
Master Himself confirmed it to me the same night, as I sat in med-
itation. It hurts me to bring Their names into what has been made
a controversy, but if I remain silent and allow the Theosophical
Society to be swung on to a wrong line, I should be false to my
duty.

In the account referred to above, the Colonel says:

Probably on account of the possibility of my life closing at

any time, the two Mahatmas who are known to be behind the The-
osophical Movement, and the personal instructors of H.P.B. and
myself, have visited me several times lately (in the presence of
witnesses, being plainly visible, audible and tangible to all), with
the object of giving me some final instructions about things that
They wished me to do while still in my physical body.

Again, he wrote:

They told me to appoint Annie Besant as my successor; and

I cannot but feel glad that their decision confirms the view that I
had myself already taken.

The chief reason for the opposition to Mrs. Besant’s election

was her assertion that she believed in the purity of Mr. Leadbeater’s
life, while she totally dissented from the advice he had given. There
was a tendency, especially in England where there had been an ex-
pectation that Mr. Sinnett would succeed to the office of President,
being then Vice-President, to question these visits of the Masters to
the Colonel; but as Mr. J. Midgley wrote in The Theosophist, for
May, 1907:

It is intellectual suicide to begin to deny psychic phenomena

after thirty-one years of investigation into the psychic and other
powers latent in man, in accordance with our declared Third Ob-
ject; after thirty-one years of combat for psychism and psychic
phenomena as against materialism. And further, it would not only
be intellectual, but also moral, suicide to begin to deny the exist-
ence of Masters and Their power and right to appear to Their
disciples to instruct and counsel; and especially is this the case
when we remember that, but for the existence and appearance of
these Masters to such disciples, this Society would never have had
an existence. It is Their offspring, with that other great psychic
phenomenon, H. P. B., as its mother. In infancy it lived and became
famed on account of the psychic powers manifested by or through
her. The wonderful information which has been given to the world
during the last thirty-one years concerning all departments of na-
ture: physical, psychical, intellectual and moral, has come mainly
from one source; namely, these Masters, who are now somewhat
contemptuously styled ‘apparitions’ and whose ‘psychic pro-
nouncements’, we are told, spell ‘Theosophic slavery’.
Furthermore, there was a quibble over the words ‘appoint’ and
‘nominate’ as applied by the Colonel to his successor; the former
in a preliminary letter of information sent out in January 7th, the
latter in the official notice of January 21st. This seems of little con-
sequence considering the fact that the candidate must be ‘elected’
by the vote of the whole Society.

Mrs. Besant was elected by an overwhelming majority of

9,580 votes. Her Presidential Address of 29 June 1907, is of vital
interest, and furnishes a criterion by which to judge the Society’s
work since then:
 The Society asserts itself as a nucleus of Universal Broth-
erhood . . . Its function is to proclaim and spread abroad
Theosophy, the Divine Wisdom, the Brahmavidyā, the Gnosis, the
Hermetic Science—the one supreme fact that man may know God,
because he is himself of that Nature which he seeks to know . . .
The condition of the continuing life of the Society is its perfect
toleration of all differences, of all shades of opinion . . . We must
welcome differences of thought . . . This is not only sound princi-
ple, but it is also sound policy; for thus only can new avenues to
knowledge constantly open before us . . . As its President, I say to
all men of peace and goodwill: ‘Come, and let us labour together
for the establishment of the kingdom of religious Truth, religious
Peace, and religious Freedom upon earth – the true Kingdom of
Heaven’ . . . So much for our principles. What of our practice? . .
. Our Lodges should not be content with a programme of lectures,
private and public, and with classes. The members should be
known as good workers in all branches of benevolent activity. The
Lodge should be the centre, not the circumference, of our work.
To the Lodge for inspiration and knowledge; to the world for ser-
vice and teaching. The members should take part in local clubs,
societies and debating associations . . . They should, when mem-
bers of religious bodies, hold classes outside the Society for
members of their faith, in which the spiritual instead of the literal
meaning of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other doctrines should
be explained, and the lives of the great mystics of all religions
taught. They should see that children receive religious education,
according to their respective faiths. They should in every way hand
on the light which they have received. People belonging to kindred
movements should be invited to the Lodge, and visits should be
paid to them in turn . . . It would be useful also if in every Lodge
a small group of members were formed, harmonious in thought
and feeling, who should meet once a week for a quiet hour, for
 combined silent thought for a given purpose and for united medi-
tation on some inspiring idea; the members of this group might
also agree on a time at which daily they should unite in a selected
thought-effort to aid the Lodge. Another group should study under
the Second Object, and this group should supply lecturers on The-
osophy to the outer world. A third group might take up the Third
Object and work practically at research, carrying on their work if
possible under the direction of a member who has already some
experience on these lines, thus increasing our store of knowledge
. . . Let me close with a final word, to all who have aided and to all
who have worked against me in the election now over. We are all
lovers of the same Ideal and eager servants of Theosophy. Let us
all work then in amity. Let not those who have worked for me ex-
pect me to be always right, nor those who have worked against me
expect me to be always wrong. Where you agree with me, follow
and work with me; where you disagree, criticise and work against
me, but without bitterness and rancour.

Mrs. Besant had asked Mr. Sinnett to continue in the post of

Vice-President; but on his issuing a pamphlet on ‘The Vicissitudes
of Theosophy’, containing among other statements this, ‘that people
had been led to believe that a certain Russian lady of very wonderful
gifts and characteristics was chosen by the adept Masters as Their
representative in the world of ordinary life and sent out to inaugurate
the Theosophical movement . . . Beliefs of this kind belong to the
mythology of the Theosophical movement’, she asked him to resign
the Vice-Presidency and appointed Sir S. Subramania Aiyar, of
Madras.
She continued lecturing in London, and presided over the
Northern Federation in June. She was accompanied by Miss Arun-
dale, George Arundale and Mrs. Sharpe. Her subjects at the
Federation were: ‘Communication between the Planes’, ‘The
Relation of the Masters to the Theosophical Society’, ‘Psychism and
Spirituality’, ‘The Idea and Work of the Masters in Religion’.

The Convention of July, 1907, in London, was very tense.

Mr. Thomas denounced the Masters and Mrs. Besant, while she was
in the chair, could not reply. Annie Besant and G. R. S. Mead spoke
in Essex Hall in the evening. She writes in The Theosophist for Oc-
tober:

I write in Germany, in the midst of the woods of Saxony

where I have taken refuge in order to do some necessary writing,
after coming out of the whirl in England and before plunging into
the whirl in America. It is truly said that change of work is as good
as a holiday; and the change is great from the roar of London, with
its rattle of cabs, its thunder of motor omnibuses and motor cars,
its rumbling of heavy drays, its shrieks of newspaper boys, to the
sough of the wind in the branchlets of firs and pines, the murmur
of happy insects, the occasional cry of a bird, the rippling whisper
of the leaves as they laugh to each other in their joy in the sunshine
and the caresses of the breeze. How different is the air inbreathed
by the lungs! In London it is charged with the smoke of a myriad
chimneys, with the petrol fumes of countless motors, with the
breaths of millions of human beings, with emanations of unclean-
ness of every kind. Here it is sweet with flower-laden breezes and
vital with the rosy globules of Prāna, tossed off from the exuberant
life of the pine trees, catching more than they can use of the solar
rays. It is good to be on the broad bosom of Nature, the Mother,
and to feel the surging pulses of her nutrient life. Blessed is she,
the Spouse of God, the Shakti of the Great Lord, and life- bringing,
peace-giving, is the breath of her lips.

The Twenty-first Annual Convention of the American Sec-

tion assembled at Chicago on September 1st. Mrs. Besant occupied
the chair. Returning to Europe, she visited Holland and Sweden in
fulfilment of outstanding promises. King Oscar granted her an inter-
view, at which she presented him with Esoteric Christianity in
English and The Ancient Wisdom in Swedish. She writes:

. . . he being a man deeply read in philosophical and reli-

gious questions, and he showed much interest in the points
discussed. Few European sovereigns would care or would be able
to talk over such questions. His gracious and warmly expressed
good wishes will always remain a pleasant memory. From North-
ern Scandinavia I fled swiftly Southward to fair Italy, where Mrs.
Cooper-Oakley awaited me at Milan. The lecture was in the Uni-
versita Populaire, one of the institutions springing up all over Italy,
wherein the results of university culture are placed at the service
of students of all classes. I paid a visit to Ars Regia, a promising
activity. It is a Theosophical Publishing business, started with a
capital small in money but large in devotion. Mrs. Kirby, an Italian
lady, is the chief translator. May it prove as successful as similar
ventures in London and Benares. At Turin a lecture on ‘Theosophy
and Modern Science’ attracted many professors, among them Pro-
fessor Lombroso. At Florence equally interested audiences, and at
the handsome villa of Lady Paget in the afternoon, the audience
was chiefly English and American, so I was allowed to relapse into
my mother-tongue —a relief after the French in which all the lec-
tures and addresses were given. At Rome we arrived in the early
morning. Never was such a place for interviews; they were inces-
sant.
From Genoa, the last town visited, Mrs. Besant sailed for Co-
lombo, where, she says:

My thoughts fled back to 1893 when the Colonel welcomed

the Countess Wachtmeister and myself at that same spot. Then, as
now, we went first to the Headquarters of the Buddhist
Theosophical Society, where loving welcome was given. Then to
the Musaeus School for Girls, where Mrs. Musaeus-Higgins with
unflagging zeal and devotion has built up a successful boarding-
school for girls. She has had to overcome suspicion, opposition,
slander; but now, aided throughout by the never-wavering support
of Mr. Peter de Abrew, she has secured success for her school and
respect for herself. The Government has just recognized her school
for teachers, the first for Buddhists in Ceylon. The prize-giving in
the afternoon was a most successful function, and I was glad to
distribute prizes for cooking, nursing and sanitation, among those
for more literary accomplishments. The next day was full of en-
gagements, including a visit to the aged High Priest, Sumangala,
who was very friendly, and a lecture at Ananda College on ‘The
Noble Eightfold Path’. Ananda College is in a most flourishing
condition, thanks to the Principal, Mr. Jayatilaka, and the Buddhist
Theosophical Society. It was founded by Mr. Leadheater, who
gathered round him a class of twenty-five boys, and out of this
little nucleus grew the now flourishing College. I visited also the
High Priest Dharmarama, a learned man of middle age, who de-
votes himself much to the education of young laymen and monks,
and is highly respected. We went to Galle to visit our College
there, where Mr. Woodward is devoting himself, heart and soul, to
the good work. An address to the boys, and two lectures—one in
the Temple where Colonel Olcott took pansil, finished the day.
Back to Colombo, and a lecture to the Social Reform Society, of
which I have been a honorary member from its early days, and then
to Kandy through the splendid scenery that makes one of the no-
blest panoramas of outward beauty in the world. Back to Colombo,
to the steamer to Tuticorin, the quay crowded with singing children
and affectionate elders, and so farewell to the beautiful isle.
At home in India on the 30th November, and what a journey
it was! Addresses, flowers, fruits, at station after station until the
carriage was a garden. I never realized before how many Branches
 we had along the railway line. At Madras triumphant arches from
Egmore to Adyar, and within the Adyar grounds also arches gay
with flags and well-chosen mottos.

The Convention of 1907 met at Benares. The President gave

the address, over 400 delegates were gathered, and many visitors at-
tended from countries outside India. Not the slightest cloud marred
the sunshine of love and peace which illuminated the great gathering.
Mrs. Besant’s lectures, the subject of which this year was ‘Yoga’
were given in the College Hall.
In The Theosophist for January, 1908, appeared the first in-
stallment of Occult Chemistry. All the work upon which these
articles are based had been done by herself and Mr. Leadbeater, but
Mrs. Besant was responsible for the wording. She also founded the
T.S. Order of Service, inspired thereto by the words of a Master of
Wisdom which H. P.B. had printed in an early number of Lucifer
and which Mrs. Besant reprinted in The Theosophist of March, the
gist of which lies in the words:

Theosophy must be made practical . . . Let every Theoso-

phist only do his duty, that which he can and ought to do, and very
soon the sum of human misery, within and around the areas of
every branch of our Society, will be found visibly diminished. For-
get self in working for others.

After presiding at the Behar (sic) Federation, Mrs. Besant

embarked from Colombo for Australia. She writes:

It was monsoony weather, and to say that is to say enough.

[Our President has always been peculiarly liable to sea-sickness.]
On May 26th, to the promised moment, we drew up beside the
wharf at Fremantle. An early reporter somehow had got on board,
and had his interview ere the ship was made fast. Then came the
members in a troop, with warm and loving greetings, headed by
Mrs. John, the capable and kindly wife of the General Secretary,
who has most generously been deputed to be my companion
throughout the tour. So I shall be well taken care of. Another
steamer, a small one this time, took us up the Swan River, so called
from the many black swans who possessed it before its annexation
by man, to Perth, the pretty capital of Western Australia. And here
I am, not a stranger in a strange land, but a friend among friends,
as is the Theosophist all the world over. Thus begins another tour
in the same noble cause of enlightenment, and every omen prom-
ises success. The evening of the day of my arrival was devoted to
a members’ reception in the Society’s room, which is part of the
art studio of Miss Florence Fuller, generously placed at the dis-
posal of the Perth Lodge for its meetings. A very admirable portrait
of the President-Founder, painted by Miss Fuller, is at one end of
the room, accompanied by two other productions of her clever
brush, portraits of H. P. B. and myself. We spent a pleasant even-
ing in making acquaintance with each other. An exceptionally able
and thoughtful reporter had an interview very well reproduced in
the West Australian of the following day. Perth turned out in force
to hear the first public lecture about Reincarnation. Very pleasant
memories remain of Perth and Fremantle; the audiences were very
large, very receptive and quick to understand. The Australians
seem to be alert and progressive people, keenly alive and eager to
know; and a young people in a new country are naturally less
bound by conventional habits of thought than the people of older
lands. They are very kindly and hospitable, and made us quite at
home with a hearty welcome. Thus are ties formed that re-assert
themselves in future lives.
It is best to draw a veil over the next four days, rolling
and pitching on a grey sea dashed with white foam, stretching
away to a grey horizon. It all seemed very appropriate to King
Yama’s kingdom, the inauspicious Southern pole. At intervals I
played patience with cards, and for all the time with mind. But all
passes, and as we drew slowly up to the new wharf at Adelaide, a
line of smiling faces told that the warm circle of Theosophic Broth-
erhood had opened again to enring us. A flight of the younger ones
to the waiting special secured us a carriage; and as they sprang out
we climbed in, and away we went for the city, carrying with us the
roses and violets that a South-Australian mid-winter yet permits.
A Scotch home opened its doors to me and a French one welcomed
Mrs. John; for we are poly-national over here, and the Lodge con-
tains not only Scotch, English and Irish, but men from France,
Germany, Poland and maybe from other lands. A good German
looked familiar, and lo! he was an old co-worker from the Patriotic
Club, Clerkenwell Green.
The Adelaide campaign opened on June 9th with an E.S.
meeting, many interviews and a public lecture at the Town Hall,
to a large but somewhat impassive audience. However, they lis-
tened intently, and warmed up towards the end. Here, as in Perth,
the press shows itself very friendly, giving good reports and un-
distorted interviews, a great contrast to the American reporters
with their reckless disregard of truth. On the 10th I addressed a
very crowded meeting of the Labour Party in the Trades Hall, with
the President of the Trades Council in the chair, on ‘What Theos-
ophy has to say to the Workers’. The audience was a great contrast
to that of the night before, all alive and palpitating with interest,
breaking into volleys of cheers for what it approved, and of inter-
jections on what puzzled it, as I expounded Brotherhood,
Reincarnation and Karma as the triple basis of a stable Society.
The audience took with remarkable good temper my strictures on
treating the wise and the ignorant, the elder and younger brothers
in the State Family, as on a level, and on allowing the ignorant to
rule the State. One sees here the result of power passing into the
hands of the ignorant: the hasty snatching at a momentary ad-
vantage without thought of the remoter consequences; the thinking
only of Australia and not of the Empire; the hatred of colored
races. One looks forward, and sees the Australians themselves be-
coming yellow under the play of climatic influences, and wonders
how they will then keep a ‘White Australia’; many of whom are
already much yellower than the Northern Indians whom they ex-
clude. And one thinks secondly, if Jesus Christ should come this
way, he would be prevented from landing by the Australian law.
One doubts if a white Australian should consistently worship a col-
ored Saviour!
The Adelaide Branch is a very peaceful and harmonious
one, its happy condition being very largely due to the long leader-
ship of Mr. Knox, who passed away early this year. He was good
enough to leave me £l00, and this will go to diminish the debt on
me for the purchase of Blavatsky Gardens at Adyar, a purpose that,
I am sure, he would heartily approve. The Lotus Circle of some
forty children, nursery of the T. S. of the next generation, presented
me with an Australian flag to represent the Commonwealth at
Adyar. The Adelaide visit closed with a lecture in the Town Hall.
The place was packed and a large crowd in the street when I ar-
rived. ‘No admission, ma’am’, said a courteous sergeant of police,
as I reached the closed gates. ‘I don’t mind’, said I, ‘but then there
can be no lecture.’ ‘Oh!’ said he, laughing, and the big iron gates
were opened. It was a fine sight, the great hall packed in every
corner, people standing along the walls, sitting on the steps to the
platform; and the lecture was most attentively listened to. This
morning’s paper has much Theosophy in it, for the Adelaide clergy
are behind the time and preached nineteenth century sermons
against it, with a plentiful lack of knowledge.
South-Australia has universal suffrage, every man and
woman of twenty-one having a vote. The women have no diffi-
culty in voting, as the polling-booths have been moved from the
public houses to public buildings since woman suffrage was
granted. An election was going on, on the 14th of June, and there
 was no crowding, no disorder, men and women, often together,
going quietly up to vote. But there is one bad sign: the cultivated
men and women are indifferent to their duty and leave the power
in the hands of the ignorant. Adelaide is a pretty city with wide
streets, and the City Fathers wisely secured in its early days a broad
belt of woodland encircling the town; so that, however large it may
become, the ‘Park Lands’ as they are called, will remain open, and
with their green grass, their olive and eucalyptus trees, their graz-
ing cows—clothed as in Holland— will be a joy to the inhabitants.
The city may spread beyond them, but not over them.

Mrs. Besant’s next letter is from Melbourne, June 24th,

1908. She writes:

Melbourne is at present the Federal Capital of Australia, a

fine, wide-streeted city, some sixty-four years old. Its Press is com-
mercial, political and sporting, showing apparently little interest in
matters of deeper import, not unfriendly but indifferent. It reflects
the tone of the people, young and caring most for superficial inter-
ests and the play of the moment. With this goes a curious strain of
formal religiosity—no post, no newspaper, dislocated tram and
train services on Sunday. The audiences at the lectures, however,
have been large, showing that there is a section of the people who
are alive to the deeper interests and are realizing the problems of
human life. Melbourne has no less than four Lodges, and they have
been acting together in organizing the work of my visit of thirteen
days.
We cannot but wonder how Australia will shape socially.
Here, in Melbourne, house servants demand and receive £1 a
week, with board and lodging, and are often incompetent and un-
ruly, leaving without notice, and careless of their employers’
interests. French, German, Swiss, Chinese, Japanese servants
would be a blessing to innumerable households, but the law does
not allow the householder to engage a servant abroad and bring
him or her over. Even a firm, bringing over some skilled English
artisans on contract, found its men were refused permission to
land. An unskilled man is not allowed to sweep garden paths and
mow grass at less than ten shillings a day. The general result is
great temporary prosperity for manual laborers, high prices for
food, high rents, and the reduction of the professional men to a low
standard of living, small value of brains, and large value of mus-
cles. Well-educated people, instead of helping the State by
contributing literature, art and culture to its life, are forced to
sweep their houses, dig their gardens and cook their food. The im-
mediate results are seen in the narrow intellectual and artistic life,
a very high drink bill, an extraordinary amount of racing and bet-
ting, and a serious lack of discipline among the young, which
bodes ill for the future. What the results will be remains to be
proved. It is certainly a huge experiment, and whether it will issue
in a world-example or a world object-lesson, the future will show.
Will it end in a dictatorship, resorted to in despair over the incom-
petency of the ignorant, or in the discovery of a method whereby
the wisest shall be placed in the seats of power?
In Melbourne an elementary class for study is to be formed
for non-members attracted by the lectures. Perth writes of the for-
mation of three groups for different lines of study. The real value
of these lecturing tours lies far more in the local activities stimu-
lated and in the impetus given, than in the lectures and meetings
themselves. The lecture on ‘The Guardians of Humanity’ drew Mr.
Deakin, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, as an interested
hearer. Mr. Deakin was a member of the Theosophical Society in
his younger days, but has slipped out of active work in the over-
whelming labor entailed by his responsible office. He seems to
have kept up his interest in Theosophy, and he stands out as a man
of high ideals, which he seeks to embody in his public life. He is a
statesman among a crowd of politicians, head and shoulders above
his fellows, and in touch with the life of the world and not only
with that of Australia. The Melbourne Branches, the members of
which have shown me unstinted kindness, made me a very useful
present, a gold wristlet to carry a watch, a great improvement on
the leather band which I have hitherto worn and which does not
suit the heat of India.

In her next letter, dated from Sydney, July 7th, she says:

We left Melbourne by the afternoon express of June 29th

for the capital of New South Wales, reaching Sydney the next day
at 11 a.m. It was bitterly cold in the early morning, thick hoar frost
covering the landscape, and the water chilly as ice, depriving the
fingers of feeling. The Sydney friends, headed by Mr. John, the
well-loved General Secretary, gave us a warm greeting on the plat-
form.
A company has been formed to give the Section a perma-
nent abiding-place, and a piece of land has been bought, the houses
on it are adapted for T.S. purposes, and a good hall is to be built.
The Section is growing strong, the Sydney Lodge forms its strong-
est Branch, so that it is well that they should have their own
dwelling, independent of landlord’s whims. In fact, there has been
some difficulty in making arrangements for all the activities con-
nected with my visit, and we have had to use rooms in different
buildings for the various meetings. It is pleasant to see in all the
Lodge rooms that I have so far visited in Australia, how loyally the
Australian members cling to the prominent workers in the T. S.
The President-Founder and his great colleague, H. P. Blavatsky,
form the dominant pair of portraits; near them C. W. Leadbeater
and myself appear; and this quartet is everywhere. Miss Edger is
also generally seen, and Mr. Staples, the first General Secretary, is
not forgotten. As the years go on, this portrait gallery will be better
and better filled; and later generations will look with interest on
their forerunners.
It was a very keen and interested crowd that attended the
public lecture, and it taxed the seating-room of the large Centenary
Hall. The subject ‘Reincarnation’ seems to attract people in Aus-
tralia more than any other. We are having many members’
meetings for the subjects which interest our own people, as well as
the usual conversations, E. S. meetings, and interviews. We had a
curious experience over the first Sunday lecture. Australia keeps
alive the disreputable old statute of George III against Sunday
meetings, and only the clergy are allowed a free hand. They may
charge pew-rents, but no charge may be made for lectures or con-
certs. No charge was to be made, therefore, for my Sunday lecture,
for which free tickets were issued, so as to avoid a crush. But as
we had arranged to allow people who had bought tickets for the
course of six lectures to use these tickets for the Sunday meetings,
instead of giving them additional free tickets, we received on Sat-
urday notice from the police that this brought us under the law! We
accordingly admitted anyone who came and asked for no tickets.
It is odd in a country like this to see the ancient rags of bigotry,
which have been thrown on the dust-heap in England, flaunted in
the face of the public, and the police appealed to, to annoy decent
and harmless folk. Were I a denizen of Australia, I should certainly
try to get rid of this objectionable statute but a mere visitor is
bound to submit to the law of any State he visits. On Sunday morn-
ing I lectured in the church of Rev. George Walters, a gentleman
who had had the courage in the seventies, when prejudice ran high,
to take the chair for me in Lancashire. He was then a bold and
progressive thinker, and is one still. In the evening was the lec-
ture—attended by a vigilant policeman and an informer, watching
that we did not break the law—on “Theosophy and Christianity,”
and the crowded audience showed profound interest in the subject.
 The last week has run its swift course, with nothing remark-
able to relate, save the fact of the astonishingly large audiences.
“Brotherhood, Real and Unreal” evoked much interest and some
curious comments; as for instance, the remark that the idea of a
physical, moral and mental brotherhood from which escape was
impossible was a ‘really terrifying idea’. Yet, as it is true, the more
widely it is known, the better. The lecture on India, with its lantern
illustrations, was evidently much enjoyed; and one may hope that
it corrected some of the wild ideas current here about Indians.
Many a pleasant memory remains of this visit to Sydney; all the
arrangements have been so well made and the friends so cordial
and affectionate that it would have been impossible to suggest or
wish for any improvement. Australia stands for loyal co-operation
and for earnest work for the cause, without constant bickering over
the faults or supposed faults of individuals; and I feel I may rely
upon the Section for support in guarding the Society’s liberty and
in maintaining it on the broad basis that some are so anxious to
narrow.

From Brisbane, Mrs. Besant writes:

Mrs. John and I steamed out of Sydney station on July 13th,

amid the loving farewells of a crowd of members assembled to bid
us God-speed. The railway carriage was fragrant with a great heap
of roses and violets; for roses and violets are in flower together in
Australia, so that we bore northward with us the kindly thoughts
of the Lodge, materialized into exquisite flowers. Through the
evening and the night we fled onwards, and the morning found us
on the northern highlands of New South Wales, with hoar frost
whitening the trees and the sun gleaming down redly through mist-
laden air. At 11 on the morning of the 14th we changed at the
boundary line of the adjacent States and went on by the narrower
gauge of Queensland. Presently we were whirling down the curves
cut along the mountain sides of the Toowoomba range, reminding
one of the line across the Ghats to Bombay; and on through the
darkening twilight till night fell again; and then at 9 p.m. into the
brilliance of the Brisbane station, and into a crowd of new faces
but loving hearts that gave welcome as warm as had been the fare-
wells of the Sydney brethren.
A pleasant feature of these Australian gatherings is the
meeting with friends of the past that one knew in England in earlier
days, and now and again with someone who knew and loved our
H.P.B. One old gentleman told me how, in London long ago, he
had looked round the Society and wondered how it would go on
when H.P.B. passed away; and how he had rejoiced when, from
the outer world, I had entered the Theosophical circle, and H.P.B.
had welcomed me to the work. Yet such anxiety need never be;
for, as Upendranath Basu wisely and rightly said last Christmas,
so long as the T.S. is under the guidance of the Masters, there will
always be someone who will command the confidence of the large
majority of the Society.
The first public lecture was delivered on the evening of the
15th to a large audience, but one that by no means filled the great
Exhibition Hall which the Lodge had been obliged to take. The
attention was keen and well sustained, and the audience showed
warm appreciation of the Theosophic message. The “large” be-
came “larger” with the succeeding lectures; and the Queensland
work made a good conclusion to the Australian tour.
The democracy here has done nothing in the way of pre-
venting strikes apparently; for, despite the high wages paid for
manual labor, strikes seem to be more frequent than in the old
country. A strike of bakers greeted our arrival at Sydney; a strike
of milkmen a little before had cut off the milk supply; and so on.
The reproof of a boy for bad work made all his comrades strike,
and a whole iron-works was laid idle by the insubordinate lad. The
car-drivers at Melbourne threaten to strike during the visit of the
 American fleet unless they are given screens. None of these folk
seem to care that they hurt tens of thousands of innocent people,
so long as they get what they want, and, they take swift advantage
of any public need to wring from the employers anything they de-
sire. It is the karma of the past harshness in rejecting the fair
demands of labor, but every effort should now be made to train the
young in the sense of public duty and responsibility, so as to pre-
vent the social debacle which will otherwise ensue. Another
difficulty is the ignoring of natural facts. Labor Unions do not al-
low milkmen to deliver milk twice on Sundays. As the cows are
not yet trained to give double supplies of milk on Saturday and
none on Sunday, the milk arrives but may not be distributed; the
milkmen do not like to lose it, and mix it sterilized with Monday’s
milk; and in the hot weather numbers of babies die from the un-
wholesome milk thus provided. The enforcement of Union rules
which bring difficulty and suffering into every household is em-
bittering social life, and adding to the difficulties of the problems
that Australia has to solve.

From New Zealand, whither Mrs. Besant proceeded from

Australia, she writes:

It is cold, but the country is emerald green after two months

of rain. Today the sun is shining brightly; and white fleecy clouds
flung across the sky remind one of an English day in spring. On
the 22nd of July we steamed out of the magnificent Sydney harbor,
large enough, one would think, to shelter the navies of the world.
It is one of the world’s sights, that splendid harbor, with its rolling
hills and little bays and inlets, with the narrow road out, between
high cliffs. Out we went, and peace was at an end. We came into a
mass of great rollers; and the vessel, lying low in the water, became
their prey. They charged the deck, and the passengers rolled over
into the scuppers, a confused heap, and then fled drenched, to take
 refuge within. They shivered into pieces the door of a deck-cabin,
covering the unfortunate occupant with water and broken wood,
and leaving desolation behind. Then they had their way, and the
deck was left free to them as playground. The ship was very
crowded, and four of us Theosophists were packed into one small
cabin, with washing apparatus for one and one campstool. There
was no place to sit, as the saloon was turned into berths, and the
only place was the dining-room, redolent of roast and fried meats,
porter and other drinks ; and used also as a sleeping- room for men
for whom no cabins could be found. One felt that it was hardly fair
to be charged first-class tare for the fourth part of a cabin, the quar-
ter of a basin and of a camp- stool, and no place to rest our sick
bodies outside. Our stewardess, with over forty sick women to at-
tend to, was beyond praise in her kindness; but she had a cruelly
hard time. However, the four days came to an end, and we landed
at Auckland.

Next Wellington was visited, where Mrs. Besant says:

I should think that Theosophy is, at present, but little

known; it does not seem to be in the air.

Christchurch and Dunedin followed; and of the journey by

land in New Zealand, the comment is:

One could but wish that the train was more comfortable, and
that more than one small foot-warmer might be granted to three
shivering people. The train service is very antiquated, and the roll-
ing stock the worst I have encountered in my journeys over the
world. Among all the reform movements of N.Z., a corner might
surely be found for a reform in railway accommodation.
After a fortnight’s strenuous work, there was a less stormy
voyage to Tasmania, where Hobart and Launceston Lodges
received visits, with Lodge meetings, public lectures and inter-
views. Then back to Melbourne, and on across the southern coast
to Fremantle.

She writes:

Since I left Fremantle, a bright, pleasant room on the city’s

main street has been secured. It is open every afternoon for use as
a reading-room, and the Branch has a nice little library.

Mrs. Besant writes of the Australasian tour:

Much gratitude remains in my heart for all the overflowing

love and kindness which have been poured out on me so richly
during the tour. Not to me, as a person was it given, I joy to know,
but to the President of the Theosophical Society, the messenger of
the Blessed Masters, the witness-bearer to Their watchful care and
to the outpouring of Their power. Australia and New Zealand ring
true and loyal right through, from the General Secretaries to the
youngest newcomer into our ranks. They are loyal to the chosen of
the Masters and the elected of the Society, because they know that
without such loyalty little can be done, and that liberty can only be
joined with effectiveness where the chosen and elected officer is
followed and strengthened, not continually harassed and thwarted.
Apart from public thanks, my private gratitude must be given for
the personal kindness which has surrounded me and made light the
burden of work; and most of all to Mrs. John, who travelled with
me throughout, bidding me farewell only on board the steamer
which is bearing me homewards. I cannot speak in words my lov-
ing thanks to her for her sisterly kindness which took all the
physical burdens, looked after every detail, thought always of my
comfort, never of her own; had ever a gay word for disagreeables,
a smile for fatigue, and rarest and most valuable of gifts—silence
 for quiet hours. That the heavy Australian tour has left me strong
and bright is largely due to Mrs. John. If I do not name others for
special thanks, it is because all I have met have been loving and
kind. The tour has taken me over 17,630 miles of land and sea,
during 44 nights and days of travel; 62 days have been given to
work, and the work has comprised 44 public lectures and 90 meet-
ings, at most of which an hour’s address has been given, followed
by the answering of questions; and a very large number of private
interviews. It does not seem a bad record for a woman of over sixty
who, a year ago, was declared by some who wished to discard her
as being in a state of ‘senile decay’, and therefore incapable of fill-
ing the office of President of the Theosophical Society.

Mrs Besant arrived at Benares on 25 September 1905 (after

the Australian tour) and received as ever a hearty welcome from all.
Her birthday, 1 October, was made the occasion of festive greetings
and rejoicings. In the Supplement of The Theosophist, she makes an
appeal to the Parsis for the building of a Central Parsi College, but
this suggestion has never been carried out. Her Sunday lectures were
mainly devoted to subjects connected specially with the Indian na-
tion and the unrestful state of public feeling, pointing out the duties
and responsibilities of Theosophists in the matter. On 11 October she
took for her address The Sons of India, giving an outline of the newly
formed Order of that name, for the purpose of helping and training
the boys of India to understand and face the problems, political and
social, which confront them, as they begin to turn their thoughts to
the condition of their country.
17 November, the Foundation Day of the Theosophical So-
ciety, was celebrated at Adyar by the handing over to the Treasurer
of the Society the title-deeds of Blavatsky Gardens, and of the nam-
ing of these and the adjoining estate. At 4.15 members gathered in
Headquarters Hall, and proceeded thence by the new road to the
house in Blavatsky Gardens. In the large drawing-room Mrs. Besant
made a brief speech, voicing the gratitude of the Theosophical Soci-
ety to its Founders, to the Teacher who had brought the Ancient
Wisdom, to the Ruler who had built the vehicle. She then handed
one of the deeds to Mr. Schwarz, who said a few appropriate words
in reply.
At the Convention she was present. There were 650 dele-
gates, and all was joy and harmony. Never before had such meetings
gathered at Adyar. Her open-air lecture on the ‘Work and Hopes of
the Theosophical Society’ and her closing one on ‘The Opening Cy-
cle’ were attended by huge audiences.
On 9 January 1909, she left for a fortnight’s lecture tour. She
writes:

At Bangalore we were welcomed by members of the two

Lodges, one in the Cantonment and one in the City. The bungalow
in which we are staying stands on the side of a lake, on which now
and again alights a flight of white-winged birds, and in which
knee-deep a worshipper may be seen reciting his daily prayers. We
drove to the scene of our labors, the laying of the foundation-stone,
of the building to be erected by the City Lodge on a site just
granted by the Government (an Independent State). The drive took
us through the City, in which on all sides new buildings are rising,
in consequence of the ravages of the plague, which have compelled
the destruction of the more congested parts. The public buildings
are remarkably handsome, and the whole place is well-ordered and
beautiful, bearing witness to the good administration of the young
Mahārāja and his ministers. There was a large gathering on the site
of the ceremony, where we were welcomed by the Dewan, who
presided. An address was read and presented to me in a beautiful
sandalwood casket, and we then went to the place where the stone
was waiting, poised in air. A priest had consecrated it, and spread
a little mortar for its reception, on which it was duly lowered, and
three taps of a silver trowel declared it to be well and truly laid for
the service of God and humanity. Then followed a brief address,
on the work of a Theosophical Lodge, and with some chanting of
benedictory shlokas, the usual garlanding, and some words from
the Dewan, the meeting broke up.
The Dewan took us to the pretty new building for the Rama
Krishna Mission, and to the Sanskrit University. A very handsome
and spacious building is being raised for this latter by the present
Shri Shankaracharya of Sringeri. The whole place when completed
will be an enduring testimony to the wise activity of the present
Head of the Math, and should become a centre of Sanskrit learning.
The present occupant of the high office of successor to the great
Shri Shankaracharya is a learned and liberal man. He has encour-
aged Brahmanas of the sub-castes to intermarry and interdine,
reminding them that they are members of one caste; and he has
ruled that a student returning from abroad should be received back
into caste, if he guides his life by the Shastras.
Mysore State is a living monument of the efficiency of In-
dians in administration. It was ruled by the Maharani as Regent
during the minority of the present Prince, and had as its Dewan the
great Sir K. Seshadri Iyer, who stands high in the ranks of Indian
statesmen. He spent an immense sum on the supply of pure water
to Bangalore, bringing it from sixteen miles away; and the town
now rejoices in the electric plant which he set up. He used electric-
ity also for the working of the Kolar Goldfields, now bringing in a
large revenue to the State. The Prince, on his majority, came into
a well-ruled and well-administered kingdom, and has proved wor-
thy of his splendid heritage. He has just introduced religious and
moral education into all State Schools and in all ways shows him-
self a wise and good ruler. The Central Hindu College is proud to
name him among its patrons.
Besides the Lodge activities, there was a visit to the
Boys’ Association, the members of which attend a religious class
and put the teachings into practice by personal work feeding the
poor, clothing the naked, and serving in other ways. Also a Ladies’
Meeting, gathered at the home of Mrs. Madhava Rao, the present
Dewan’s wife. The Bangalore ladies have an association of their
own in connection with the Shrinivasa Mandiram of that city. It
was opened in 1907, and during the year no less than 5,560 ladies
have used its reading-room and attended its meetings, of which
there have been 35 during the year. A large number of ladies had
assembled, and I made a brief address, translated by the late Acting
Principal of the Maharani’s College, Shrimati Rukmaniamma, a
Hindu lady B.A., a proof in her own person that a university degree
need not spoil the gracious modesty of a true Hindu woman.
We reached Mysore City on the 12th, and found a number
of brethren waiting to welcome us and to escort us to H. H.'s Guest
House. 8.30 saw a large gathering of students and others assem-
bled, and I addressed them on the ‘Sons of India’. Then a visit to
a very admirably conducted Girls’ School, with scholars ranging
from four to eleven. They sing most charmingly, and are taught
needlework and domestic details as well as the usual subjects. Next
came a visit to a Widows’ Home, founded in 1907, which has
twelve resident widows who are being trained as doctors and in
useful walks in life. It teaches up to the standard necessary for en-
tering the Maharani’s College, and is doing a much needed and
most philanthropic work. It is to well educated widows that we
must look for teachers in our Girls’ Schools. Both here and at Ban-
galore we shall have Branches of the Daughters of India.
Back to Bangalore at noon, and soon after H. H. the Maha-
raja was kind enough to receive me and to talk over the scheme for
the University of India. I am glad to say that it met with his warm
approval, and he is prepared to join a few of the leading Princes of
India in stating formally that approval, in a letter recommending
the granting of a charter by H. M. the Emperor. He was also
pleased to express his approval of the Order of the Sons of India,
and to consent to act as one of its guardians. He also permits his
Dewan to take office in the Supreme Council, so that he may be in
direct touch with the movement.
At Calicut on the 16th, a crowded lecture opened the work.
We drove to a place where a good Sannyasi, Shri Narayana Gu-
ruswami, a true servant of the Masters of Wisdom, is working for
the improvement of the outcaste community. They are building a
temple and a school, are purifying their lives, and making them-
selves worthy of social respect. I am happy to know that the local
Lodge of the T.S. has been active in helping the good work. These
people, hard worked as they are, had beaten out a road to the tem-
porary temple and roofed it with green branches, and a great crowd
of them had gathered to give welcome to the messenger who
brought words of encouragement and cheer. The effort to raise
themselves, under the leadership of the holy man who is giving his
life to them, is most praiseworthy, and is another sign of the life
that is pouring through India today.
One o’clock saw us in the train for Mangalore. It carried us
up the West Coast through the hours of the afternoon, past
glimpses of the sea, blue ’neath the sunlit sky, through groves of
palm trees, over plains and through cuttings red with the brilliant
soil. At every station were curious crowds, thronging to see the
woman whose name has become well-known throughout India;
and there was many a friendly welcome of smiling lips and folded
hands. Here bright faces of students crowded the hall, and seemed-
to fill the atmosphere with vivid attention. Then off in a jutka – a
two-wheeled, rather jolty sort of vehicle—to the scene of the la-
bors of the Depressed Classes Mission, carried on by Mr. Ranga
Rao. The Mission has a neat little building, half of which is utilized
for six looms, the second half was our meeting-place. There was a
Canarese song, which was an appeal, so touching as it came from
the lips of the children and lads, that it nearly made speech impos-
sible. The pathos of the concluding cry and the knowledge of the
little power to help in the one to whom it was addressed, filled the
 eyes with tears and choked the breath; but I made a brief appeal to
the higher castes present to help in the redemption of these poor
and degraded children of the national household.

In Madras on 26 February 1909, she lectured on ‘The Dan-

gers of Alcohol’, to a large and enthusiastic audience. She writes:

It is sad that a white-skinned person should be needed to

lecture against the inroads made in a once sober country by ‘the
white man’s curse’.
The last Sunday in Madras was a busy One: the usual E. S.
and T. S. meetings began the day, the latter followed by some ini-
tiations in the T. S. In the afternoon there was a meeting of the
Sons of India, Madras Council, presided over by Mrs. Besant, with
Sir Subramania Iyer, K.C.I.E., as member for Madras of the Su-
preme Council, supported by Mr. Wodehouse and others. Then
came the closing lecture of the series of five on consecutive Sun-
days, at which His Excellency the Governor was pleased to be
present; and this was followed by his friendly inspection of the
library and grounds.
Then off by train to Bombay and Baroda. At the latter, she
had a long interview with His Highness the Gaekwar, and another
with Her Highness the Maharani. His Highness promised to sup-
port the petition to His Majesty the King Emperor for a charter for
the
University of India, agreed to be the Guardian of the Sons of
India in Baroda, and consented to the appointment of his Dewan
on the Supreme Council. On Mrs. Besant’s return to Bombay, at a
lunch at Government House, His Excellency the Governor ex-
pressed his warm interest in, and approval of, the Sons of India.
The Director of Education also warmly approved the new Order.

To finish the Bombay work, she records:

 A gathering at the railway station to wish me God-speed in
the mail-train for Benares. Two nights more and well-loved Kāshī
was reached, and loving greetings welcomed me to my northern
home.

April saw her once more in Bombay, where she held a meet-
ing of ‘The Daughters of India’. The President writes:

It was called by Lady Muir Mackenzie, who strongly sym-

pathizes with our work. The meeting was a large gathering
composed entirely of ladies: Hindu, Parsi, Mussalman and a few
English. I spoke to them on the ideal of womanhood that we should
seek to bring to life again in India. They seemed to be deeply in-
terested, and after the meeting we had a little general talk. Bombay
women are as a rule well educated, and are quite ready to work for
the motherland.

On 24 April 1909, she sailed from Bombay. What a different

voyage from that in the Southern Seas!

The ‘Morea’ is away on a summer sea. Not a wave, scarcely

a ripple, ruffled the broad expanse of water stretching between
Bombay and Aden. Turning into the Red Sea, it was as placid as
the larger ocean. At Port Said, the passengers for Brindisi trans-
ferred to the ‘Isis’. In Europe again, the chilly air. Here changes
the spirit of my tale, and memory does not joyfully recall the hours
on the Mediterranean till Brindisi welcomed us on May 5th. Very
gladly did I, at least, find myself on terra firma and rattling along
the well-known Italian coast, amid sprouting vines and gray,
twisted olives, and presently some snowy summits outlined against
the sky. An old friend and co-worker, Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, one of
the pupils of H. P. B. who has remained faithful, joined me at
 Piacenza, and we journeyed together to Turin. Onward through the
great tunnel of Mount Cenis, and through the delightful scenery of
the French Alps, to Calais. A very horrid little steamer received us
with the mails; and there I remembered my sins in much perturba-
tion of body, if not of mind. After much tossing we reached Dover,
where the loving greeting of our British General Secretary met me,
and I handed myself over gladly to her care. Away through Kentish
fields and Surrey woods until we thundered into London, and
rushed into the midst of a crowd gathered at Charing Cross to bid
me welcome. And so to 31 St. James Place, my London home.

Mrs Besant writes:

On White Lotus Day, 1909, there was a crowded gathering

at the charming new Headquarters of the T.S. at 106 New Bond
Street. The flat is delightfully bright and pretty; and, being high
up, is quiet and airy. A lift takes one up to the door; through a small
hall the visitor passes into a pleasant reading-room with large win-
dows, and then into the library. There is a well-lighted Secretary’s
office, with the office of the Assistant Secretary adjoining, and a
convenient room fitted with a small store for the supply of tea to
members. On this festive evening the members had crowded in,
and a very pleasant hour was spent in recalling the past and fore-
casting the future. Many old and well-tried members were present,
both from town and country. One wondered how the delusion had
been floated that most of the old members were hostile to the Pres-
ident and the General Council. A few familiar faces had certainly
vanished, but plenty remained and these more friendly than ever,
as though by the warmth of their love and joy to hide the few gaps.
On the following morning there was a large gathering of the E.S.
in the Co-Masonic Temple.
The next few months will be very busy ones: a series of
Sunday lectures in London, and a series of four for T.S. members
under the auspices of Blavatsky Lodge and H. P. B. Lodge. In ad-
dition to these I speak in London at the World Congress. Public
lectures and Lodge meetings have been arranged at Blackpool (to
open a new Lodge), Manchester, Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds,
Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Letchworth (to open a new Lodge),
Bournemouth, Southampton, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham,
Nottingham, Dublin, Bradford, Harrogate and Oxford. Then
abroad there will be lectures in Belgium, Holland, Hungary,
France and Italy, and the two months’ tour in the United States. If
health and strength hold, a good record of work for the T.S. will
have been put in ere Indian soil is again trodden by its President.
May the blessing of the Masters prosper the work done in Their
sacred cause and in Their name.
The series of Sunday lectures was held in the new St. James
Hall, which accommodates 1,100 people. It was crowded, and very
many were turned away, much to our surprise, as we had not
counted on so full a gathering, thinking that the unscrupulous def-
amation of the T.S., as well as myself, indulged in by some who
have deserted our ranks might possibly have slightly diminished
the popular interest, alike in the subject and the speaker. The re-
verse appears to have been the case; for I have never had an
audience more sympathetic, more quick to understand, more ready
to respond. It proved the absurdity of the idea that Theosophy had
in any way suffered from the attempts to discredit it in the popular
mind, and showed the folly of those who had left the Society from
fear that it would become unpopular. The Theosophical Society
evidently stands higher than ever in public respect, and is entering
on an even wider career of public usefulness. Quite a new depar-
ture is the publication week by week in a widely circulated London
newspaper, The Christian Commonwealth, of a verbatim report of
each lecture, so that it reaches a very large circle.
The 23rd of May had its usual two meetings, and brought
also a pleasant visit from one of H. P. B.’s well-loved pupils, Senor
Don Xifre, the head and heart of the work in Spain. The work in
that ancient and stately land is hard and unthankful, but a noble
band of Fellows has laboured steadfastly and loyally there since
the days of H. P. B. These faithful Theosophists have issued a large
number of translations, including The Secret Doctrine, and main-
tain a monthly magazine. It was pleasant to meet once more, on
the following day, my old friend, Mr. Stead, and to find him as
keenly interested as ever in all questions touching the deeper side
of life. He is intensely in earnest in verifying communications from
those who have passed over, and is endeavouring to establish a
reliable means of communication between the two worlds. A large
Co-Masonic gathering at the Masonic Temple, 12 Bloomfield
Road, was another item of this busy day.
May 27th, 1909, saw the General Secretary, Miss Bright,
some other members and myself in the train for Budapest. At Vi-
enna we picked up the French General Secretary and his sisters,
Mrs. Russak and others; and arrived at Budapest for the Interna-
tional Federation of European Societies of the T.S. The hospitable
home of Professor Zipernowsky and charming wife opened its
doors widely to the polyglot invasion; and German, French, Eng-
lish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Czech,
Bulgarian, and Finnish were heard along the winding paths of the
exquisite garden. The remaining delegates, some 250, were scat-
tered over the city. The ten European Societies were all
represented, eight of them by their General Secretaries—a notable
gathering. I, as President, took the chair. The ceremony began with
the noble Ragoczi Hymn, sung by a chorus of men’s voices, fol-
lowed by another melody; and as the music died away, there came
a brief presidential address, followed by a speech from each Gen-
eral Secretary in his own tongue. There is always something
moving and dramatic in the opening of an International Congress,
as language after language, all tuned to the note of Brotherhood,
falls on the listening ear. Then came a speech from the Bulgarian
 leader, and a lecture by the President on ‘The Present Cycle and
the Place of the T.S. therein’, closed the morning’s work. In the
evening Dr. Peipers of Munich gave an interesting illustrated ad-
dress on ‘Occulte Medicin und Occulte Anatomia’. The invitation
of Italy for the Congress of 1911 was accepted. The next morning
ere calling on Dr. Steiner for his lecture ‘Von Buddha zum
Christus’, I said a few words of gratitude for his founding the T.S.
in Bohemia, and announced that the Subba Rao medal had been
presented to him for the best literary work of the year. He then
delivered a very fine lecture.

Lectures, discussions and debates occupied the rest of the

time of the Federation, Mrs. Besant contributing ‘The Larger Con-
sciousness’ and ‘The Christ: Who is He?’ After the close of the
Congress, in the evening, the whole party drove up to the mountain
which dominates Budapest, and supped together, while the strains of
gipsy music filled the air, and the full moon shone down on the
gleaming Danube and the wide dim plain.
Mrs. Besant again writes:

The Art Exhibition was interesting, and it is evident that the

New School which is emerging is characterized by the effort to
represent the realities which underlie the phenomena of life, and
by colour schemes which express and arouse emotion. I was struck
by the curiously luminous quality of the blues and greens of one
of the Hungarian painters whose pictures were hanging in the Ex-
hibition. This artist, Gyongyoshalaszi Takach Bela, presented me
with one of his paintings, which will hang henceforth in the library
of the London Headquarters. The Fifth International Congress had
for its dominant notes harmony and joyousness.

Of the Scottish tour, she says:

 Liberal thought is spreading in the citadels of Calvinism,
and narrowness will soon be a thing of the past. It is pleasant to
visit the Lodges and to witness the life and energy pulsing in them,
and pleasant also to greet old friends and make new ones. Some
new centres are forming in Scotland, and Theosophy is finding its
way into Scotch pulpits.

The Nineteenth Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society

in Great Britain and Ireland, Mrs. Besant describes thus:

I delivered a lecture in the large Queen’s Hall on ‘The Place

of Theosophy in the Coming Civilization’; and the great audience
showed itself to be extraordinarily responsive to the ideas pre-
sented. It is always a thrilling moment as one stands silently before
the crowd in that big hall, and lifts one’s eyes from area to balcony,
from balcony to gallery, and beholds the sea of expectant faces,
alert and eager. And then the faces change like the sea, as wave
after wave of thought, of emotion, sweeps over them, and the
power of the Holy Ones is made manifest, and the atmosphere
changes, and life grows full and strong. The Convention was a very
happy one, and many were the joyful remarks on the new life so
strongly felt in the Theosophical Society, now purged from the el-
ements of hatred and persecution which had clogged it for so long
. . . July 19th found me at the Earl of Plymouth’s London House,
where I gave my last London lecture to a group of guests invited
for the occasion. It was a pleasant ending to the strenuous and suc-
cessful work done during the summer in England, and promises
much for the future.

On July 24, Mrs. Besant left for a tour in America, about

which she writes:
 July 24th, 1909; dawned grayly – Surya Deva has not
smiled much on England this year – many friends gathered at Wa-
terloo to bid farewell. At Southampton by Miss Green’s good
offices, the friendly word of the American Consul, and the kind-
ness of the American Line, I found myself transferred from my
modest stateroom to a large and comfortable one, wherein I spent
nearly all the time of the crossing. The Atlantic was not kind – it
rarely is – but the complete rest was pleasant after all the crowded
work, and I read George Sand and found time to furbish up the
printer’s copy of the London Lectures, thus getting them off my
hands. The weather remained cold and cheerless until we were
within thirty hours of New York, and then the sun peeped out. The
sunshine was brilliant as the Philadelphia drew slowly alongside
the dock on July 31st, and a crowd of friends with kind faces and
outstretched hands greeted me, to say nothing of four or five cam-
eras avid for photographs for the press. Mr. Warrington and Mrs.
Kochersperger took me to the Park Avenue Hotel, which is both
charming and quiet, with a central court filled with trees and flow-
ers and a gallery running round it, in which meals are served. We
eat our simple meals of vegetables and fruits in these pleasant sur-
roundings.
There was the usual gathering of reporters an hour after my
arrival, and the interviews reported in the Sunday papers were less
inaccurate than many I have seen on other visits. Knowing that the
New York reporter must have something out of which to make fun
and construct big headlines, and wishing to avoid subjecting seri-
ous and sacred matters to airy ridicule, I meekly offered up a
respectable and harmless ghost to the wolves of the press. As I
hoped, they all fell upon him, tossed him about, worried him,
jeered at him; and, satisfied with this to lighten up their work, they
recounted more soberly the matters I wished treated with respect.
On Sunday afternoon we held a Masonic meeting for the
initiation of two men and a woman, the Deputy of the Supreme
Council in the United States having fraternally granted me the
power to act within his jurisdiction. An interesting and wholly un-
expected item of the ceremony of my formal reception as a high
Official of the Order was the singing of a hymn written by myself
in days long gone by. A photograph was taken after the closing of
the Lodge, to add to the lengthening series of pictures gathered
from many parts of the world as the movement spreads.
On Sunday evening I had a long and very interesting in-
terview With the Rev. Joseph Strong, President of the American
Institute of Social Service. The object of the Institute is to gather
information on all economic and social questions in all civilized
countries, to tabulate it, and to place it at the disposal of any who
need it, in order that experience may be made common property,
and mistakes made in one land may be avoided in another. The
conception is a noble one, and it appears to be carried out with
much self-sacrifice and great ability. Dr. Strong hopes to visit In-
dia ere long, and desires to help in the prevention of evils which
have so far accompanied the introduction of the Western industrial
system wherever it has gone. He wishes to place at the disposal of
the public the information which would enable India to utilize any
advantage that modern methods may bring her, and to avoid the
mistakes into which Western countries have fallen. Dr. Strong
thought that our T.S. Order of Service and the Order of the Sons
and Daughters of India might find useful much of the work of the
Institute, and might be willing to co-operate in its extension to In-
dia; also they might be able to send him much valuable
information. His useful work certainly deserves our sympathy and
help.
There was a meeting of all the New York Lodges on Mon-
day in the Carnegie Lyceum, and the members mustered in force,
though many are out of town at this time of the year. I spoke to
them of the new sub-race and the coming of the Great Teacher;
and it was good to see the intent interest and to feel hearts thrilling
 in answer to the thoughts expressed. But I felt a little sad at the
absence of a few faces, faces of those who have fallen away from
the promise of their earlier years in the Society, and who have re-
jected the great opportunity offered in this happy time.
Walking along Madison Avenue to look at the old home of
the Section, I thought to myself, ‘How fond Judge was of New
York’. ‘And am still’, said a quiet voice; and there he was, walking
beside me, as he and I had so often walked in the nineties. He will
help much in the work of this tour; for he loves the American peo-
ple, and is ever eager to labour for their benefit. A lecture was
decided on at the last moment for Newark, and we crossed the
river. To my surprise about 500 people gathered in spite of summer
weather and the short notice, to listen to a lecture on ‘The Power
of Thought’. On the following day, the New York Lodges, greatly
daring, had taken the large Masonic Hall for a lecture on reincar-
nation. I had not intended to lecture in New York, as August is not
a lecturing month. However the Hall had been taken, and I could
not refuse. A furious rainstorm set in, worthy of India, and the
streets ran with water. But despite August, and the absence of ‘eve-
ryone’, and the drenching downpour, the Hall was well filled, and
the wetness did not exert any depressing effect on the interest of
the audience. It was all eagerness, life, intentness; and I felt that
the tour had begun under the benediction which has been on the
work since it started this year in London.

Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo held Lodge meetings and

public lectures. At the latter place an untoward incident occurred,
which Mrs. Besant thus describes:

The local representatives of the Scottish Rite had let their

hall for the lecture with a written agreement, and had received pay-
ment. The day before the advertised meeting; they decided to close
the hall and gave no notice of their intention. The Lodge heard of
it late that day, unofficially, and were compelled hastily to hire
another hall, and on the following evening to post members at the
doors of the Masonic Hall and send the public to the other. Masons
are supposed to be just and upright; but that is evidently not the
rule of the Buffalo Scottish Rite members of the fraternity, who
have dishonored by their breach of faith the knightly degrees they
nominally work. They cannot even have learned the most elemen-
tary meaning of the square and compasses, taught to the rawest
apprentice. Perhaps they resented the coming of a woman Mason
and wished to show how ill masculine Masons can behave. But I
was not going to lecture on Masonry. May they someday learn
what Masonic honour means, and not show their fellow townsmen
so bad an example! However, they did not prevent our having a
very good meeting, as they did not succeed in keeping their secret
and in leaving us to find the doors locked when we arrived. We
ought to have a Co-Masonic Lodge in Buffalo, if only to set a bet-
ter example.
En route to Buffalo, we had the delight of seeing for a few
minutes the tumbling glory of Niagara. Hideous buildings are ris-
ing round the Falls and spoiling nature’s wondrous handiwork; and
for the sake of gaining a source of power one of the wonders of the
world is being marred. For thousands of years it was safe in the
care of ‘savages’; only ‘civilized’ man recklessly spoils the beau-
ties nature has taken ages to build. We ran through the fertile plains
of Canada, after crossing the stream from the Falls, only returning
to the States at Detroit. Quite a crowd of Canadian members met
us on the Canadian side and crossed with us. The lecture at Detroit
was given at ‘The Church of our Father’, a fine building; the at-
tendance was very large. As I went on the platform the whole
audience rose, as though we were in India, a sign of courtesy very
rare in the West. Another half-day’s travel carried us from Detroit
to Grand Rapids, through the rich orchard lands of Michigan.
Grand Rapids had one pretty peculiarity I had not seen elsewhere:
most American towns are very brilliantly lighted, and shops and
places of public entertainment have dazzling signs in electric
lamps, as though it were a monarch’s birthday; but Grand Rapids
had rows of lights across its main street, like a festival of lanterns,
and the effect was very good.
On August 11th, we reached Chicago, and had the pleasure
of greeting warmly the worthy General Secretary, Dr. Weller Van
Hook. We had a very full meeting of members that evening, and
an E.S. gathering on the morning of the 12th. There was the usual
rush of reporters, The Tribune, as on my last visit, being peculiarly
untruthful. Its reporter described me as seated at luncheon before
a lobster, claws and all! This was stated as seen through a crack in
the door. To describe a dish of peas and two baked potatoes in this
way seems to argue some imagination; but, as a non-corpse eater
of twenty years standing, I should prefer not being charged with
this particular vice. The public lecture in Chicago drew a large au-
dience, intent from the opening to the closing words. We had to go
straight from the hall to the railway station, to start for Duluth, at
the head of Lake Superior; on we went through the night and until
noon next day. We are in the lumber country, where great logs are
rolled down the banks into the river and, chained together, closely
packed, are drifted by the current to the point of shipping. Duluth
has a splendid natural harbor, and from it is shipped the ore which
at Pittsburgh is changed into steel, and to it is shipped the coal from
Pennsylvania; into it pours the grain from the fertile Western
States, to be loaded into vessels that carry it to a hungry world.
From here to Buffalo there is a clear waterway through Lakes Su-
perior, Huron, Erie, till the passage to Lake Ontario is barred by
the Falls of Niagara.
Lecturers have not found warm welcome at Duluth, which
is more interested in lumber and shipping than in philosophy; nev-
ertheless a body of Theosophists have gathered there, and there are
two Lodges, one on each side of the dividing river which separates
Duluth from Superior. Mr. Jinarajadasa has been here lately, and
attracted audiences of 200 people – twice as large as one which
gave scant welcome to a well-known Arctic explorer, who re-
marked that he had gone nigh to the North Pole, but had found
nothing so frigid as Duluth. Mr. Jinarajadasa has become very pop-
ular in the States for his lucid and attractive exposition of
Theosophical ideas, while his gentle courtesy and quiet reserve
win him admiration and respect. However, Duluth, despite its rep-
utation, treated us exceedingly well, the hall seating 500 was
crowded, and the audience was interested and sympathetic, the
very reverse of frigid. Doubtless Mr. Jinarajadasa’s work had pre-
pared the way for me.
Dr. James, Dean of the College of Education in the Univer-
sity of Minnesota, met us at Duluth and shepherded us to
Minneapolis, where we found a pleasant resting-place in the lovely
home of Dr. Lee, one of the professors of the University. The
house is on one of the high banks of the Mississippi which curves
round below; and for a moment I thought of my beloved Gangā,
only the bank opposite was tree-covered, instead of being faced
with ghats and crowned with temples. Love sometimes sees resem-
blances which are faint, and it may have been the heart more than
the eyes that fancied Gangā where Mississippi rolled. We drove to
St. Paul’s, the twin-city in the evening, and I lectured on ‘The
Power of Thought’. On Sunday some 2,000 gathered to listen to
‘Brotherhood Applied to Social Conditions’. Another good audi-
ence to hear of ‘The Coming Race and the Coming Christ’; and
then a train journey across 1,128 miles of prairies into the Rocky
Mountains to Butte, Montana, the richest hill in the world.
There is something fascinating to the imagination in the thin
line of rails flung across prairies, and the wires that span the Rock-
ies and knit together men in distant centres. As the train rushes
onwards, it masters distance and unites what Nature has disjoined.
A cloudburst had happened and there was a wash-out, and one of
the pairs of rails hung disconsolately downwards, unsupported.
We went, cautiously by, feeling our way, lest our rails should fol-
low suit; but stalwart men were at work, repairing the damage
wrought by the rebellious element, with the cool skill of the Amer-
icans, handling the puzzles offered by nature with the calm born
of knowledge and the deftness born of habit. Butte was reached
some three hours late, and we met with a warm welcome in that
copper-smelting city. On the next morning to Helena, the capital
of Montana, a city of scattered houses and green trees, nestling in
a cup in the mountains. The interest shown by the audience was a
marked feature, here as elsewhere. The minister of the Unitarian
Church in which the lecture was given introduced me in friendly
fashion.
Again the train claimed us, and we slept ourselves into Spo-
kane, over 381 miles, through scenery hidden by the veil of
darkness. The sun rose on a very beautiful landscape of mountain,
forest and lake. The Spokane Lodge is a very active one, but works
against a hitherto unfriendly press. Let US hope it may be made
less hostile by the present visit; at any rate, I wrote a brief article
on Theosophy, Its Meaning and Value, for a good weekly journal
named Opportunity. There was a large evening gathering to which
the subject, Reincarnation, was evidently quite a new idea. The
listeners became interested; and it may be that a few will begin to
think and study. We left for Seattle, and after twenty-two hours in
the train I had to rush to a hotel, wash, dress, and straight off to
lecture at 8 p.m. But the journey was a pleasant one, as the train
ran through fine scenery, crossing the Cascade Mountains. It was
interesting to see the line of rails zigzagging backwards and for-
wards as we climbed higher and higher, and to pass through an
area which a great forest-fire had swept. Tall and black stretched
the trunks, here and there high in air, while others lay prone on the
earth, where Agni, Archangel of Fire, had laid waste the forest;
and over the blackened waste Mother Nature had followed hard on
 the heels of the fire, fair flowers had sprung up in her footsteps,
green grass waved, and young fir-trees were rising; for Nature will
not long endure aught that is ugly, and kisses into beauty new life
that adorns what her forces destroyed. When will man learn from
nature that beauty is the divine law of manifestation, and that noth-
ing which is not beautiful can or should endure?

Mrs. Besant continues describing her American tour in the

summer and autumn of 1909:

Seattle gave us a large audience, keenly interested in The-

osophy, on the Sunday evening of our arrival, an arrival brightened
by the presence of Mr. Jinarajadasa, who is doing such admirable
work in the lecture field. He was to deliver a course of lectures
after my departure. The work finished we betook ourselves to a
steamer instead of a train, in order to wind our way past islands
and forests to Vancouver, British Columbia. At 8 a.m. August
24th, we landed within the huge circle of Britain’s Empire. God
save the King! Vancouver had only one day, but it made the best
of it. Vancouver has not had much chance so far of Theosophical
teaching, except during a visit of Mr. Leadbeater; and so large an
audience was rather a surprise. We spent the night again on the
boat, reaching Seattle at 7 a.m. next day, and going straight from
the steamer to the railway station to take train to Tacoma. For the
first time since New York we were rained upon, and Tacoma was
somewhat shrouded by mist. The audience was gathered in a pretty
hall holding about 500 people; and the listeners were eager and
followed each stage of the lecture with unwavering interest.
The night found us in the train once more, running south for
Portland, Oregon. Portland Lodge had been inactive for some time,
but some of those who were its best members are prepared to step
forward for its rebuilding, and Mr. Prime, who joined our little
party at Seattle, has agreed to stay here for a short time, to help in
the reorganization. With all the flood of new life in the Society, it
would be sad to have any old Branch left stranded on the banks.
We had a pleasant afternoon gathering of old members and sym-
pathizers; and at night came a meeting in the Masonic Hall for a
lecture on ‘Reincarnation’. It was crowded with a splendid audi-
ence of thoughtful people who caught every point and enjoyed the
presentment of the great truth. Then came the train and the contin-
ued journey southward.
We awoke to find ourselves running through the beautiful
ravines of southern Oregon. Through the day we journeyed on-
wards through ever-changing but ever-beautiful scenery, and
evening found us in the lovely Siskiyou Gorge, and presently
Mount Shasta glimmered white with everlasting snow beneath the
glooming sky. Another night through northern California, and as
noon approached, we reached Fort Costa, whither some of the San
Francisco friends had come to give us welcome. At Oakland we
betook ourselves to the ferry boat to cross the bay to San Francisco,
the queenly city that, three years ago, was rent by earthquake and
blasted by fire, and where dynamite was used to save, making a
barrier of ruins across the awful torrent of flame which threatened
to devour the whole. Marvellous have been the cheerful courage
and strength of heart which have rebuilt the city; and though as yet
she is not so fair as of yore, and many ruins still bear witness to
the terrible days of 1906, San Francisco has arisen, calm and
strong, prosperous once more and facing the future with front un-
bowed. Very interesting it was to hear from some of our members
details of the great catastrophe, and of their experiences within it.
One of our Lodges lost everything, including its fine library; but it
is flourishing even more than before. The activity and brightness
of the members was good to see in all three Lodges in the city. We
had a joint meeting on the 28th, and many came in from the sur-
rounding towns and swelled the happy gathering.
 On the following morning the oldest San Francisco Lodge,
the Golden Gate, welcomed our party. In the evening at the large
Garrick’s Theatre an immense and sympathetic audience had gath-
ered. Mr. Russell, our host, had provided us with an automobile
during our stay; and the way in which that car tore up hills that one
would have thought inaccessible was a thing to remember. On one
of our journeys, when we were a little late, it whirled down these
declivities in the most astonishing way, like the swoop of a bird;
and San Francisco will ever stand in my mind as a city in which
automobiling has been carried to a point where difficulties have
ceased to exist. In one thing San Francisco was disappointing; it
was bitterly cold, with a piercing wind and at intervals chilling
fogs. A thick winter dress barely sufficed to keep one warm.
At Sacramento we have no Lodge, but Dr. Plumb of San
Francisco arranged a lecture, and hopes to nurse the young Theo-
sophical plant into strength. We had a meeting in the afternoon for
a few already interested, and a class for study will be formed. The
lecture on ‘Theosophy, Its Meaning and Value’ was delivered in
the Congregational Church to the smallest and most wooden audi-
ence that I have addressed since I became a member of the T.S.!
One marvels more and more at the American Press. One meets the
reporters with courtesy and treats them as gentlemen and gentle-
women, and they go away and twist and distort everything that has
been said, and often invent. As an instance, pressed for my view
of woman suffrage, I said that I was not taking part in politics, but
thought that sex should not enter into the question; that the unedu-
cated should have votes for local affairs only, and those of both
sexes who were highly educated in economics and history should
vote in national affairs. This was given as: that women should vote
locally and men nationally! Mrs. Tingley having taken the absurd
title of ‘The Purple Mother’, I am baptized willy nilly ‘The White
Mother’, and telegraphed about to England under that ludicrous
appellation. And so on and so on, in a stream of repellent vulgarity.
And one cannot escape from it.
Considering Mrs. Tingley’s tireless malignity against the
T.S., her endeavours to prevent Col. Olcott and Mr. Leadbeater
from lecturing in San Diego and her ceaseless vituperation of my-
self through her lieutenant, I speculate sometimes on her use in the
movement. Such abnormal hatred so long continued implies con-
siderable force of character, and force of character is always
interesting. She is a fine woman of business, with a remarkable
capacity for gaining and holding money – a quality rare in Theo-
sophical ranks – and that seems to be the quality for which she is
being used. She owns a splendid property at Point Loma, has bro-
ken into pieces the great organization which Mr. Judge built up by
years of patient toil, and has driven away the strong band which
supported him, so there is nothing to succeed her. I will venture a
prophecy: she is being used to make a centre which will pass into
the hands of the Society she hates, and will form an important
South Californian focus for its world work. The Rome which slew
Christians became a centre of Christian power a few centuries
later. It is indeed a far cry from Imperial Rome to Point Loma, but
the world issues are greater; for the one had to do with a sub-race
and the other has to do with a root-race.
To return to the tour. We left Sacramento on the morning of
August 31st, and reached Oakland soon after 11 a.m. A crowded
gathering assembled at the Congregational Church to hear the lec-
ture on ‘Reincarnation’, and, as elsewhere, the interest roused in
the subject was intense. America seems ripe for this teaching, and
it is above all others the one that revolutionizes man’s attitude to-
ward life. Of course there are interviewers and reporters
everywhere, but these may be taken for granted. On September
2nd we left for Los Angeles, from whence we went by trolley to
Pasadena, about twelve miles off. Here I gave a lecture in the
Shakespeare Club, and answered questions; and then took a short
motor drive through this prettiest of towns. One very pleasant thing
was the reverence shown for living things. No birds may be killed
in the town, and our little winged brothers are fearless and tame.
As we drove, we passed in the middle of the road a wide-spreading
ancient tree; so unusual a sight drew a question, and the answer
was that the authorities would not cut down an old tree. I noticed
other trees similarly in possession of the middle of the road. Kind-
ness to living creatures is taught in the Pasadena school, as well as
practised by elders, and the town is a centre of good influence.
After the drive we returned to Los Angeles for a public lecture,
and on the following morning put ourselves on the train for San
Diego. The visit to our southernmost point was brief but pleasant.
The lecture was in the afternoon and was given to a large audience,
the most friendly and enthusiastic I have met with during the pre-
sent tour. In the evening there was a pleasant gathering of the
Lodge, and then into the train once more for Salt Lake City, Utah.
It was a long run of 900 miles, first through Southern Cali-
fornia, then across a corner of Nevada into Utah, and onwards to
the great city planned and shaped by the genius of Brigham Young.
Here we again greeted Mr. Jinarajadasa, who had arranged to give
four lectures after mine. The audience was not a very large one,
but as usual showed keen interest; and the five consecutive lectures
should sow some seed for the future. Next morning, September
8th, we again entered the train for another long run – 741 miles to
Denver the capital of beautiful Colorado. It was an interesting jour-
ney, but across many hastily repaired washouts which delayed us.
Up to Leadville, more than 10,000 feet above the level of the sea,
we climbed. For some distance our train of twelve coaches had
three engines pulling in front and one pushing behind, for we rose
1,500 feet in six miles, a grade of exceeding steepness. In the early
morning of the 9th we saw the gleam of snow on the mountain tops
and thick frost on the grass, and then ran easily downwards. But
we were more than four hours late in arriving, so saw little of our
Denver friends and their beautiful city, and the warmth of the
greeting intensified our regret at the brief stay. A lecture to a mod-
erate but friendly audience was given, and the same night we again
had to take train to travel another 572 miles to Omaha, where there
was a gathering of members and a public lecture. The night was
spent in bed for a wonder, with no wheels running underneath; and
the following day came the comparatively short journey to Kansas
City. As usual a posse of reporters, and in the evening a large mem-
bers’ meeting. Kansas City seems to be short of halls, and the
Lodge had to take a huge place seating 15,000 people. Two public
lectures were arranged for Sunday and one for Monday, with about
1,500 people at each. The strain of speaking in so large a hall twice
in one day was more than should be put on any lecturer. The papers
treated us well, being less sensational than they usually are.
We arrived at St. Louis on the 14th. As St. Louis has no
Lodge, we had a very quiet day, only broken by newspaper report-
ers. The hall for the lecture was a pleasant one, belonging to the
local Y.M.C.A, and many of the young men were among the audi-
ence, listening earnestly to the description of the after-death life.
At 10 p.m. we were in the train once more, en route for Louisville.
The general atmosphere of Louisville was an immense improve-
ment on that of St. Louis and Kansas City; the latter are poisoned
by having become huge centres of slaughter, and pay the penalty
of their ghastly trade. The following morning, September 16th, we
were in the train for Chicago. It was sorrow to learn that Dr. Van
Hook had been suddenly taken ill and had to submit to an opera-
tion, and would thus be debarred from attending the Convention.
The business meeting of the Convention began on Sunday morn-
ing. Dr. Van Hook was elected General Secretary. The American
membership has now reached 2,816, the highest point ever
touched.
The Convention was beautifully harmonious, not a harsh
word being said by anyone, and the spirit of those present was
evidently that of peace and goodwill. A wave of strong affection
surged over the whole meeting on the proclamation of the election
of the General Secretary, and it was evident that he had found his
way to the hearts of the members. Happy indeed is the American
Section in having secured the services of one so strong and capa-
ble, whose one thought is the service of the Masters. The audience
on the evening of the 19th September was much larger than on the
17th, and it had again grown larger on the 20th; but still the Chi-
cago lectures cannot be called a success. The work concluded on
the 21st with a Masonic meeting in the evening; and we drew out
of the city at 10.30, for Cleveland, Ohio.
There was an E.S. meeting in the afternoon, and in the even-
ing I lectured at a pleasant ‘summer theatre’ packed to the doors
with an audience of 1,200 persons. Cleveland is a pretty town with
splendid parks, through which a friend kindly took us in his auto-
mobile. America is waking up to the demands of beauty, and on
all sides one sees evidences that beauty is being recognized as nec-
essary daily bread rather than a luxury than can be dispensed with.
With such immense natural resources in this direction, with plenty
of room and a scattered population, the great Republic of the West
should be able in a few centuries to overtop on the ascending spiral
of evolution the beauty which Greece gave to the elder world. On
the afternoon of the 23rd we had a pleasant meeting of the Cleve-
land Lodges in the pretty rooms of the larger one. The rooms are
simply and effectively coloured, and were tastefully decorated
with flowers. Six o’clock found us at the station, bound for Wash-
ington; and we slept our way to the capital city.
Washington has built for itself a splendid new station, wor-
thy of the chief city of the Republic, the finest station in the way
of architecture that I remember having seen, though not the largest.
Washington Lodges are active, and have prepared admirable
courses of lectures for the autumn and winter. The press is not un-
friendly, and is more sober and dignified than that of New York
and Chicago, so that an effective propaganda might be made
through it, appealing to the thoughtful and the cultured. The sec-
ond lecture was given on Sunday to a much larger audience, and
then we started for Boston, hallowed by memories of Emerson and
his friends—‘the Hub’, short for ‘hub of the universe’, as its lovers
call it. Boston had prepared a very heavy programme of work. We
arrived on September 27th before 8 a.m. and reporters soon ap-
peared on the scene; at 10 began a two hours’ meeting of the E.S.;
3 p.m. found us in the rooms of the Metaphysical Club, packed to
suffocation for a lecture on ‘The Use of the Imagination’. The sec-
ond day repeated the first, the T.S. Lodges taking the place of the
E.S. in the morning, and the afternoon being occupied by a very
pleasant invitation meeting in the house of Mrs. Kehen, where I
expounded Theosophy to a very cultured audience. The house was
interesting as having been built by Edwin Booth, and the spacious
salon I spoke in seemed to have been planned for such use. The
ideas presented were very warmly welcomed, and Theosophy has
evidently a future in the more exclusive circles of ‘The Hub’. A
public lecture closed the work in the evening, and we spent the
night in travelling to New York.
New York was in the midst of a tumultuous celebration, the
Hudson-Fulton festival; and the papers were crammed with ac-
counts of pageants, aeroplane flights, marches, naval displays. It
naturally played havoc with the lectures, and the audiences were
small—a new experience in New York. On October 1st there was
a reception in the afternoon, at which a birthday gift was made to
me by the New York Lodges, a gift which I have placed to the
credit of the Blavatsky Gardens’ purchase fund. A member return-
ing from Chile brought me a very prettily drawn address of
greeting signed by members at Valparaiso, and a handsome silver
triangle bearing the seal of the T.S. It will go into the memento
case at Headquarters, to bear silent witness to the love which pours
thither from all parts of the world.
 October 2nd saw a group of loving and faithful members
gathered round their President on the deck of the Cedric, which
was to bear her back to the Old World. Two of them, Mr. Warring-
ton and Mrs. Kochersperger, had travelled with me all the time
over the 10,629 miles which measured the trip since I landed in
New York on July 31st. My grateful thanks go to both for the un-
varying and unwearied kindness which guarded me throughout the
journey, shielding me from all discomfort and doing all that could
be done to lighten the heavy work. We visited 33 towns, two of
them twice; I gave 48 lectures to the public, and held 54 other
meetings, at all but four of which lectures were also given. The
work was arduous but very pleasant, save for the ceaseless malig-
nity of Point Loma which followed me everywhere, but failed to
injure seriously, despite the expenditure of time and money which
might have been put to so much nobler uses. I rejoice to have been
allowed to bear so much mud-throwing intended to injure the T.S.;
for there is no privilege greater than to be allowed to shield a great
cause with one’s own body. The persecutors used to torture and
murder, now they vilify and slander; the spirit is the same and the
end is the same, defeat for them and triumph for the cause they
assail. Well said Bruno: ‘To know how to die in one century is to
live for all centuries to come’. The messengers of the White Lodge
are ever bespattered and assailed; it is the sign of their apostleship.
Little need they reck of the storm whose feet are on the Rock of
Ages, but alas for the craft that dash themselves to pieces on that
rock.
The White Star Line may well be proud of the extraordinary
steadiness of their ships, if they are all like the Cedric. I have never
been in a vessel so steady and so quiet. The throb of the engines is
scarcely perceptible; and it is difficult to know that we are moving,
unless one looks over the side and sees the water rapidly slipping
past. The first two days were smooth; then on Tuesday we had a
fog, and the unmusical voice of the ship blared out minute by
 minute, to warn the fishing-craft of the monster steaming through
their track; after fog followed wind and heavy seas, until the
steamer lay off Queenstown and tumbled some of us off into the
tender, which puffed away with us to the Emerald Isle. There Mrs.
Sharpe met me, and the morning saw us in the train, a leisurely
concern which lounged through the 177 miles which lie between
the port and the capital.

Mrs. Besant on her return from U.S.A. visited Ireland, Octo-

ber 1909, and writes:

We had a pleasant gathering of the folk in Dublin in the

evening, and on Monday I lectured to an audience of some 300
persons who had come by invitation from Belfast, Limerick, Wex-
ford and other towns, as well as from Dublin. It was pleasant to
see and feel the quick response and the growing enthusiasm of the
listeners, and at the end Professor Barrett, F.R.S., President of the
Royal College of Science in Ireland, spoke a few kind words of
sympathy and thanks. The Land of Saints has not so far taken her
rightful place in Theosophy, for she is to Europe what India is to
the world, a witness for the spiritual life. The time has come when
the light should burn up upon her altars, and Dublin has breathed
upon the smouldering embers. The outcome of the visit to Dublin
is the formation of two Lodges – a very satisfactory beginning for
the T.S. in Ireland. Each will start with about 20 members. May
their work prosper under the blessing on which all our work de-
pends!
Counting these two and the Anglo-Belge, which has rebuilt
itself and rejoined, 12 new Lodges have been formed since I came
to England, and 240 new members have joined. The total number
of members lost by resignation from the Section throughout the
troubles of the last 16 months is 537. Some of these have formed
independent Societies outside the T.S. – the Eleusinian, the Quest,
the Hermetic – and there is one Lodge of members who have re-
signed from the Section and attached themselves to Adyar.
On the 19th (October, 1909), many friends gathered, first in
the Masonic Temple and then in the Headquarters of the T.S., to
greet with kindliest welcome one of our best workers in the North,
Hilda Hodgson Smith, as the bride of Lieut. Powell, R.E. The mar-
riage had taken place at Harrogate on the preceding day, and a
considerable number of the bridal party came southwards with the
bride and bridegroom to the little Theosophical festival held in
their honour. Music, silent thought and an address by myself
formed the graver part of the meeting, and then we went to Head-
quarters for the reception, at which the bride cut the wedding-cake
with her husband’s sword.
On the 20th October many friends gathered at Oxford for
the lecture at the Town Hall. The building was filled with an inter-
ested audience, and Professor L. P. Jacks, the Editor of the Hibbert
Journal, took the chair. One of the Colleges provided the stewards
for the meeting, and a very large number of undergraduates at-
tended. The last English lecture was given on the 21st to the
Spiritualists’ Alliance, and the Suffolk Street British Artists’ Hall
was crowded to listen to a talk on our relations with the three
worlds. It is desirable that Theosophists and Spiritualists should
co-operate where they agree, and discuss with friendly feeling
where they differ; for both aim at knowledge and oppose materi-
alism. The world is wide and temperaments are various, and the
full recognition of liberty of thought and the showing of mutual
respect will conduce to the general recognition of the reality of the
unseen world. A crowd of kindly faces was the last impression of
London, as the train steamed out of Liverpool St. Station, carrying
Mrs. Sharpe and myself to Harwich, the first stage towards Am-
sterdam.
The sea was the reverse of kindly, for there had been high
winds for days, and we arrived at the Hook of Holland more or less
ragged in feeling. It was dark and cold, but we were well wrapped
up, and rumbled off contentedly across the Holland flats; and pres-
ently dawn broke, and we looked out of the window at the grazing
cows, and thought how chilly their quaint shirts must feel on such
a morning. Soon we arrived in Amsterdam, to be greeted by the
General Secretary and Mrs. Windust and other friends, and ere
long found ourselves in the familiar and hospitable Headquarters
in Amsteldijk. How many memories cluster round that building,
memories of the days when faithful Piet Meuleman and Esther
Windust and W. B. Fricke first raised the banner of Theosophy in
Holland! The only outward change is the acquiring of a piece of
additional land at the back, whereon a good temporary building
has been raised for the E.S. and Co-Masonry; and therein we held
a meeting on the evening of our arrival, the 22nd. The next day we
went to Haarlem and had first a Lodge meeting and then a public
meeting. Members gathered from all parts of the country in sur-
prisingly large numbers. On the 25th we started for the Hague,
where there were interviews and a members’ meeting. Returning
to Amsterdam, in the evening there was a public lecture, held in
the big Concert Hall; and, despite the rain, the audience numbered
over 1,000 persons. That was the closing scene of the Dutch visit,
for the next morning we took train for Brussels.
Followed the inevitable interviews, the usual E. S. meeting,
members’ meeting, more interviews; and at noon we left by the
Paris train, which carried us across the green country beneath drip-
ping skies, and landed us in the midst of a crowd of friends
assembled on the Paris platform. Paris was great on interviews;
eight mortal hours of them in three days! Members had come in
from the provinces in such numbers that it was necessary to hire
the Salle de la Societe de Geographie for the lectures to members,
instead of meeting at Headquarters. The public lecture was held in
the large Salle des Agricultures de France. The hall was packed ere
the hour of meeting and many remained outside, to ours great
surprise, as no such rush had been anticipated. The lecture went
well and aroused great enthusiasm; and I could not help being
astonished that the Parisian public, always regarded as critical,
cynical and materialistic, responded with eagerness and warmth to
the ideas of the immanence of God, the mystical interpretation of
Christian dogmas, the declaration that health could only be secured
by right-thinking, right-desiring and right-living, and that the great
social change must come by the self-sacrifice of the higher and not
by the insurrection of the lower. The wave of spiritual life is indeed
spreading when, in the intellectual capital of Europe, rent by the
combats of clericals and anti-clericals and with a fiercely anti-cler-
ical government, such views can find enthusiastic welcome.
After the lecture came a reception at the ever-hospitable
home of the Blechs, where gathered members from Tunis, Algiers
and very many provincial towns, old friends and new. In the even-
ing the General Secretaries of France and Great Britain, Mme.
Blech and myself quitted Paris for Geneva, leaving a crowd of
friendly faces on the Paris platform, and being greeted by another
crowd equally friendly on the Geneva platform on the morning of
November 1st. In the evening I spoke on the same subject as in
Paris, but felt weighed down by the atmosphere of heavy Calvin-
ism, a line of thought not friendly to me. Geneva is an intellectual
city, but one longs for the warm, soft breath of Theosophy ruffling
its atmosphere and awakening its children to spirituality. Clouds
hid Geneva’s ring of mountains, and the prospect ended in grey
curtains of mist; but autumn’s tints glowed on the nearer hills, and
her wand touched with soft radiance of browns and reds and yel-
lows the trees which lined the roads and clothed the hillsides. The
evening was given to a gathering of the four Lodges in their new
locale, occupied for the first time on this occasion. The rooms oc-
cupy the whole of a large first floor in a house close to the
Cathedral; three good rooms open into each other, with some
smaller ones adjoining, so that the Society is well lodged, with
plenty of room for work and growth. The three rooms were
crowded last night, not only the Geneva members being present,
but others having come from Zurich, Lausanne and other towns.
We left Geneva for Lyons on the 3rd, and arrived in the
great commercial city late in the afternoon. Lyons is intensely or-
thodox and Catholic; and as is ever the case under these conditions,
there is a small minority fighting for its right to exist, and conse-
quently very intransigent. The conditions being thus difficult, and
members of the opposing parties forming the audience, I was
doubtful of the reception which would be given to the lecture; but
once more Theosophy triumphed by virtue of its inherent reason-
ableness and its pacific spirit. On the 4th we started for Marseilles,
with many sweet flowers to make fragrant the carriage and many
friendly smiles to speed us on our way. Among others waiting to
receive us there were some members from Barcelona, Spain. At
Marseilles I had the pleasure of contributing to the foundation of a
new Lodge of Universal Co-Masonry.
Sunday found us in Toulon, where three meetings were
held. The representatives of the southern Lodges met to form a
Federation, on the model of those which have proved so useful in
England and India. The public lecture was held in the large hall of
the hotel. The hall was filled, but the audience was cold, though
attentive. One feels in speaking in these provincial towns that one
needs a fuller understanding of the people. Paris is cosmopolitan,
but the provincial cities are not in touch with cosmopolitan
thought, and people outside the T. S. are drawn by curiosity rather
than sympathy. It is the breaking of new ground, and the people
would be approached more effectively by one who knew the local
currents of thought than by a stranger. At Nice, the audience was
once more of the cosmopolitan type, and was warmly interested
and finally enthusiastic. The Nice season in just opening, so the
time was opportune. The leading journal gave us a column of re-
port and interview; and we may hope that this, with the lecture,
 will attract the outer public to the winter meetings held by the two
Lodges.
Thus finished the tour in France. I leave that noble coun-
try—now in the grip of a persecuting materialism—with the hope
that Theosophy may yet bring her back to idealism and to a liberal
and national religion, and may thus preserve her in her place
among the nations. I must not say Good-Bye to France without
placing on record the good work being done by the General Sec-
retary, M. Charles Blech. It was a difficult task to be placed before
anyone, that of filling the place of the well-beloved Dr. Pascal; but
M. Blech has done admirably well. His business ability, his firm-
ness combined with courtesy, and above all his whole-hearted
devotion to the Masters and Their work, have made him fully wor-
thy of the place he holds.
At Genoa many gathered to bid us welcome; at Milan, Pro-
fessor Penzig, the able General Secretary for Italy, shepherded us
throughout our stay in his territory. The Ars Regia is doing excel-
lent propaganda work in Italy. A lecture to members and an E.S.
meeting at Turin finished the European work, and we sailed from
Brindisi on the 14th November, for India.

Arriving at Bombay at the end of November, 1909, the Pres-

ident and party took train eastward. She says:

All went well as far as Dudhni, when – we were running

very fast – the engine or mail-vans struck the points, and in a mo-
ment we were derailed. It was a curious sensation to see the sides
of the carriage rise up suddenly then fall as the other side rose up;
and for a moment overturning seemed inevitable. Then the car-
riage steadied itself, and the train stopped. The poor guard was
stunned, having probably, been flung out, as he was found lying
on the permanent way. The rails were broken, and fragments of
wood and iron strewed our passage; but we found ourselves safe
and whole, with deep gratitude for a wonderful escape. A passen-
ger train was in the station siding, waiting for us to pass; and we
were transferred with the mails to some of its carriages, and went
on our way after a delay of about three hours. Our adventures were
not over, for a pipe in our new engine burst; but again conveniently
at a station, and another three hours was spent waiting for another
engine. The same helpful passenger train came up in due course,
and we again annexed its engine, which drew us safely to Madras,
where we arrived six hours late.
A large crowd of members gave us royal welcome on the
platform, and at Adyar the household circle offered greeting in a
prettily chanted song; and thus the journey ended, 37,176 miles of
land and sea having been traversed between the parting in April
and the welcome in November. May the work done, offered at the
feet of the Holy Ones, serve Their good purposes for the world.
The Convention at Benares opened on the 27th December
but on the 26th a very large crowd gathered in the Hall of the Cen-
tral Hindu College, to hear the President’s lecture on ‘Mysticism
and Occultism’. The Convention lectures were given by Bhagavan
Das upon ‘The Laws of Manu in the Light of Theosophy’.
The 11th January, 1910, was passed quietly, with much
thought and solemn meditation. The cycle of the future has opened
with the great planetary conjunction on the arms of the Zodiacal
cross, a conjunction that comes in its present form but once in ten
thousand years. A great peace brooded over the earth, and a deep
solemn joy pervaded Adyar and Benares. For all was well.
On January 14th a pleasant ceremony was performed at
Buddha-Gaya (where is the famous bo-tree under which the Lord
attained illumination). The local Lodge has bought a piece of land
well situated in the centre of the town; and the foundations of the
proposed building are already dug. We gathered at 8 a.m. to lay
the foundation stone. The members chanted some Sanskrit shlo-
kas, and the sonorous Arabic of Al Qurān rang out from the lips of
 Mr. Khaja Muhammad Noor; the beautiful chapter on Charity
from I Corinthians was read by Mr. Leo; and a solemn chant in
Sanskrit ended the singing. Then coins, a plan of the buildings and
the alphabets now in use in these provinces were placed in a cavity
awaiting them, the mortar was spread, and the stone lowered. A
few words from myself, and the mystic taps consecrated the build-
ing to the service of God and man, and the ceremony was over. A
lecture on ‘The Opening Cycle’ was given to a packed audience,
in the evening.

Proceeding on her tour, Mrs. Besant addressed a crowded

meeting in Bankipur, with Mr. Syed Hasan Imam in the chair; then
the opening of a new Lodge at Bhagalpur, with lectures, and talks to
Hindu and Musalman students who wanted to join the Order of the
Sons of India, and a visit to two girls’ schools, one for wealthy and
one for poor girls. She writes:

The last work of the day was a Lodge meeting in the new
Hall; and I was happy to congratulate the members on the services
they are rendering to the town. In addition to the two institutions
noted above, religious examinations are held annually for Hindu
boys, on the initiative of our members.
The morning of the 25th found us in Calcutta in the Garden
House of our ever-hospitable brother, Hirendranath Datta. Two
lectures were given to immense audiences and other work was
done, ere the train of the 27th carried us away to Madras. Here I
went to visit the Rama Krishna Students’ Home at Mylapore, on
March 9th, and found it to be a very useful and well conducted
institution. I also attended the Annual Meeting of the Madras So-
ciety for the Protection of Children, held at Government House,
His Excellency the Governor was in the chair. The Society is in its
infancy, but has begun its work on useful and well-chosen lines. It
has opened a Home for destitute children. I was invited to join the
Committee, but felt that I could not give the time which alone
would justify the acceptance of so responsible an offer; so I con-
tented myself with becoming a member.
There is a terrible evil existing in southern India – it may
exist elsewhere, but I have met it only here – the dedicating of little
girls to certain temples, a euphemism for saying that they are given
to a life of prostitution. This abomination can be dealt with best by
Hindus, as its mingling with religious rites makes it difficult to at-
tack without rousing religious antagonism. I know that the retort
to this condemnation may be, ‘At least we do not throw our pros-
titutes on the public streets and leave them to starve, as you English
do’. That is true. But ill-behavior in England does not excuse ill-
behavior here, although it should make us modest in our disap-
proval of our neighbor.
We have been having a remarkably successful series of six
popular lectures at Headquarters, the audiences growing with each
lecture, till the large Hall was crowded. The series was issued af-
terwards under the title Popular Lectures on Theosophy.

From Calcutta, Mrs. Besant wrote:

An unexpected pleasure fell to my lot on March 19th, while

passing through Calcutta, I had occasion, to visit Government
House, and was told by Col. Pinley, the Private Secretary to His
Excellency, that he had to attend the Durbar, at which the recently
discovered relics of the Lord Buddha were to be handed over by
His Excellency to the representatives of Burma, who will guard
them with reverent and fitting care. Colonel Pinley was good
enough to take me with him to this historic ceremony; and after a
courteous greeting from Her Excellency, Lady Minto, a place was
assigned to me. The proceedings were brief but stately. After the
Burmese envoys had been presented, the fortunate discoverer, Mr.
Marshall, the Head of the Archaeological Department, read a
statement as to the history of the precious relic. The Viceroy made
a short speech, saying that he felt this relic should not go outside
the Empire, and that Mandalay, the capital of Burma, a Buddhist
country, seemed to be a fitting place for its guardianship. He then
stepped down and, lifting a large golden platter which bore a
golden casket, he presented it to the Burmese envoys. To the ordi-
nary eye, it was merely a brilliant gathering—high officials of
State, the Representative of earth’s mightiest Empire, the Envoys
of an ancient land, the committal of a relic of the Founder of a great
Religion to his modern followers, a number of gaily dressed ladies
and gold-laced officers. But to the inner eye, it was the vision of a
perfect life, a humanity flowering into the splendor of a ‘Divine
Man’, the tenderness of an all-embracing compassion, of an utter
renunciation. Wave after wave of wondrous magnetism swept
through the room, and all faded before the deathless radiance of a
Life that once wore this dead fragment, which still rayed out the
exquisite hues of its Owner’s aura. A scene never to be forgotten,
a fragment of heaven flung down into earth. And the actors therein
all-unconscious of the Presences in their midst! It was over; one
tumbled back to earth, to friendly greetings from one and another.
I was glad to meet Sir Lawrence Jenkins, the Lord Chief
Justice of the High Court of Calcutta, whose name is so often men-
tioned with love and gratitude by Indians, as a man whose flawless
impartiality and utter absence of race-prejudice is one of the assets
of the British Empire in India. I had the honor of a short talk with
His Excellency the Viceroy, urbane and gracious as ever; as cool
and far judging a brain and as warm and strong a heart as Provi-
dence gives for the rulers in great Empires, when their sway is to
be secure. Why does not England take advantage of such a son,
and leave him here to finish the work so splendidly begun?

In May, Mrs. Besant writes:

 I have been visiting a few towns accompanied by Babu
Bhagavan Das, with a view to strengthening the educational move-
ment fostered by the T.S. in India. At Allahabad, Pandit Moti Lal
Nehru, a well-known Kashmiri gentleman, generously assumed
the responsibility of raising a necessary additional Rs. 2,400 for
the current year, and is forming a committee of Kashmiris in the
United Provinces to raise further funds for the Shri Pratap Hindu
College in Srinagar, Kashmir. At Gwalior, H. H. the Mahārāja
Scindhia, a very capable and energetic ruler, became a patron of
the Central Hindu College, as did his mother, the Dowager
Mahāranā. He also gave a definite promise of financial aid; and as
H. H. has just given Rs. 100,000 to Aligarh College and another
Rs. 100,000 to Sir John Hewitt for Allahabad University, we may
reasonably hope that he will do no less for his co-religionists in the
Central Hindu College. H.H. the Mahārāja of Bikanir has also be-
come a patron of the College, and has given me a cordial invitation
to visit his state. From Gwalior, after four Theosophical lectures,
we went on to Alwar, where the young Mahārāja is devoting him-
self to the duties of his high office with great diligence and
capacity. He is arranging a scheme for primary education in his
State, and H. H. of Gwalior is also devoting much time and thought
to the elaboration of a scheme which shall leave no child in his
State uneducated. This spreading interest in education among In-
dian Chiefs is of fairest augury for the future.

Besides ‘The Watch-Tower’ Mrs. Besant wrote for The The-

osophist articles on ‘The Protection of Animals and Education in the
Light of Theosophy’, ‘Liberation or Salvation’, together with short
chapters on ‘Elementary Theosophy’ which were afterward pub-
lished under the title The Riddle of Life.
Mrs. Besant writes:
 On September 25th, 1910, five of us—Mrs. Van Hook and
her son, my two Indian wards and myself—left dear Adyar behind
us, and steamed out of Madras by the mail for Calcutta. Kind
friends brought us milk and fruit on the way, and we travelled
pleasantly through the rain-drenched districts. At Calcutta, the
ever-hospitable Hirendranath Datta took us in charge; and we paid
a visit to the Zoological Gardens and started again for Benares in
the Bombay train that same evening. The Buddha Gaya brethren
brought milk and fruits for our early ‘little breakfast’; and at Mo-
ghul Serai the Cadet Corps and a wave of boys and young men
broke over us and submerged us. Our heads came above water at
Benares Cantonment, but we sank in deep water on the platform,
while other hundreds crowded, scattering flowers like devas and
hurrahing like Englishmen; and we were borne along to our car-
riages, and slowly drove to Shanti Kunja escorted by apparently
the whole College and the School.
Very prettily decorated by loving hands was my dear old
home, and by some miracle of ingenuity wrought by Miss Arun-
dale, we were all packed into it. A great festivity was planned for
October 1st, and began the evening before with the clever staging
and acting by the students of a Bengāli play. On the 1st, we began
with a meeting in Shanti Kunja itself, where a little shrine ream
was dedicated in the Names of Those we serve, and very gracious
was the influence which filled it in swift response. Then to the Sar-
aswatī Temple in the College Quadrangle, where members of the
seven great faiths were gathered; and Sanskrit, Arabic, Pāli, Ti-
betan, Chinese, Japanese, English, Prākrit and Gurumukhi rang out
in solemn sequence from the representatives of the religions, as-
sembled in brotherly love. Very impressive are these meetings of
professors of the world faiths whom Theosophy has united into
one body.
The School Hall was the next meeting place, where the Or-
der of the Sons and Daughters of India had gathered in loving
homage to its chief, and it was good to hear the warm acclaim of
the tie between England and India bursting out spontaneously from
these young hearts. A golden badge of the Order and a purse of
nearly Rs. 600 were presented, and I spoke of duty to the Mother-
land and the Empire. In the College Hall we gathered in the
afternoon, and many loving words were spoken by professors,
masters, boys and girls and nearly Rs. 1,000 were presented in a
handsomely embroidered Indian purse from College, School and
Girls’ School. Here I spoke on making Truth, Courage, and Rev-
erence our ideal of life. A pleasant Theosophical Meeting in the
Hall of the Indian Section closed the day, finishing it, as it had
begun, with the benediction of the Presence of the Holy Ones. The
purses contents have gone as follows: Rs. 500 to the Buddhist
Schools, Rs. 200 to the Panchama Schools, Rs. 200 to the Almora
Hill School, founded by the C. H. C. and carried on by local devo-
tion, and Rs. 100 to the Building Fund of a Girls’ School at
Bombay. Then I promise myself the pleasure of giving some long
desired musical instruments to the College for our Cadet Corps,
Guard of Honor and Scouts, and the balance, if any, will go to
Headquarters. As the water drawn up by the sun is useless save as
it gathers into clouds and returns to earth as rain, so would gifts
drawn forth by love profit little unless from the receiver’s hands
they fall where help is needed.
After a fortnight’s stay in Benares, Saharanpur, Jullundhar,
Lahore, Delhi, Agra and Cawnpore are to be visited, and then fol-
lows another fortnight at Benares. His Excellency the Viceroy and
Lady Minto visit the College on the 10th November, and after the
14th we return to Adyar.

Of this tour, she writes:

At Cawnpore the audience numbered 4,000. Many more

English people are now attending Theosophical lectures, a good
sign, as Theosophy draws the races together. The large meeting at
Lahore was a surprise, because the defection of some of the oldest
and most important members in 1907-1908 had almost killed the
Lodge. We had a pleasant but short visit to Jammu, where we
found H. H. the Mahārāja as friendly and gracious as ever.

The Thirty-fifth Anniversary of the T.S. held at Adyar from

December 26th, 1910 to January 1, 1911, has been in every way a
record one. The extension in days was necessary to find room for
the various activities of the movement, without intolerable hurry.
The extension in numbers, the attendance of members having risen
to 1,200, was comfortably met by the extension of area in the
Adyar compound, and a number of rooms in the ground and sec-
ond floors of Leadbeater Chambers were in use, and were much
praised by their fortunate occupants. The work of Convention be-
gan on December, 26th, with my lecture on ‘The Opening of the
New Cycle’, delivered to an audience of over 2,000, packed into
our Hall and another 1,000 left outside. A Masonic meeting closed
the day, the evenings being divided between the E. S. and Ma-
sonry. On the 27th the Convention sat for the Presidential address,
Reports from National Secretaries and from various subsidiary ac-
tivities.
In the afternoon Mr. Leadbeater answered questions and
Mr. Arundale gave the first of the four Convention lectures on
‘The Growth of National Consciousness in the Light of Theoso-
phy’. Mr Arundale acquitted himself well, speaking eloquently
and with intense conviction, carrying his hearers with him, and
closing amid much enthusiasm. The Reports showed progress eve-
rywhere, and harmony and good feeling prevailed throughout. A
vote of thanks to Brother Leadbeater for his splendid work during
the year was proposed by Brother James Scott seconded by a num-
ber of members, and carried by acclamation. Questions multiplied
and made a formidable pile, and after the President had laboured
 at it on the 28th, Brother Leadbeater generously sacrificed himself
to the eager querents on the 29th and 30th. A born teacher he is,
luminous, patient, and overflowing with knowledge.
In August and September Mr. Leadbeater and myself made
a series of clairvoyant investigations on the past of our earth, the
moon, and of the two preceding Chains. These will be published
next year in book-form, under the title Man: Whence, How and
Whither? We hope that the volume will prove useful to students,
and will perhaps throw light on some of the questions arising out
of the study of The Secret Doctrine. The first part of the Universal
Textbook of Religion and Morals is now on sale. The Convention
concluded on January 1st with an E. S. meeting, 46 initiations into
the T. S., and a lecture from myself on ‘The White Lodge and its
Messengers’. Owing to the impossibility of accommodating the
crowd in the Hall, the lecture was delivered under the Banyan
Tree; and the benediction which fell on those whose hearts were
tuned to a subject so inspiring, ended the memorable Convention
of 1910.

The President, with Mr. Leadbeater and others, left for

Burma on January 12th, 1911, and put in substantial work there.
About a dozen public lectures and as many members’ meetings were
held, and Sons of India and Masonic Lodges had their share also.
From Moulmein she wrote:

Our visit here was of only two days, but two lectures were
given to very interested audiences, and a number of Burmans at-
tended the second lecture on ‘The Noble Eightfold Path’, and
seemed to enjoy it. It was pleasant to see their kindly faces break
into smiles when some point was made that strongly impressed
them. We left Moulmein for Rangoon, where the lectures on ‘Zo-
roastrianism’ and ‘Islam’ were well attended. On the 30th we had
a Lodge meeting and an address on ‘Temperance’. Alas, that such
 an address should be needed in Buddhist Burma! We also visited
a school for Buddhist girls, maintained for the last sixteen years by
Ma Hla Sung, a wealthy Buddhist lady. She is not, unfortunately,
supported in her good work by her co-religionists, and deserves
the more credit in that she stands alone. She also maintains a
school for Buddhist boys.

Having returned from Burma, the narrative goes on:

Miss Wilson, my two Indian wards and myself left beautiful

Adyar on March 22nd, in the motorcar so generously given to me
by Mr. and Mrs. Leo. For the last time for many months to come I
drove the car which has proved so faithful a servant, never misbe-
having, and with absolutely no injury to its account to man, animal
or object, since it arrived in 1909.
After lecturing to exceptionally large audiences in Calcutta,
one of which was attended by Lady Hardinge, they reached Bena-
res and settled down for a brief stay of three weeks. On April 21st,
1911, the President, with J. Krishnamurti, Nityananda and Mr.
Arundale, embarked at Bombay.

In the Watch-Tower written just before leaving, Mrs. Besant

wonders:

What will fill the months between the limiting dates of

March 22nd and the 7th October (date of the return)? The chief
objection felt to Theosophy by the very orthodox of every faith
seems to arise from the fact that we believe, as living facts in the
present, in the powers and the Beings in whom they traditionally
also believe, relegating them to the safe seclusion of the past. The
orthodox Hindu believes in Avatāras and Rshis in the past, but
grows furiously angry with the Theosophist who believes in such
Beings as active Agents in the world-process now; the Pārsī
believes in a Prophet safely away in inaccessibility, but violently
abuses the Theosophist who believes that a great Prophet may arise
today; the Christian believes in Christ ‘ascended into heaven’,
‘with flesh’; but is much annoyed with the Theosophist who be-
lieves in a visible return of that Christ on earth. Why? Why may
we not agree to differ, and follow our respective tastes? Because
of the fact that the beliefs of the various religions had become po-
lite anachronisms, with only a bowing acquaintance with reality
and life. Theosophy was sent to revivify religions, to breathe life
into ‘the valley of dry bones’. And there is much rattling among
the skeletons naturally, as in Ezekiel’s vision; but presently they
shall be clothed anew with flesh, and shall stand again on their feet
as living men. A new Hinduism is arising, a new Buddhism, a new
Zoroastrianism, a new Christianity; but they are really the old ones
as they were in their vigorous youth, awake and alive, not sleeping,
comatose, dying. They arouse enthusiasm, they attract the young,
they possess the future in fief. They arouse opposition—naturally;
that is the inevitable reaction following upon action. We must
choose between action plus reaction, and inertia. Moreover, a cer-
tain amount of inertia is useful. One particularly unpleasant part of
the reaction is the unclean mud thrown by the baser sort; but that
also has its part in the scheme of things, for it returns cyclically.
The early Christians were accused of eating babies at their secret
feasts, and the reflections of Jews on the birth of Jesus were of the
most unpleasant character.
Christianity is none the worse for those whom St. Jude stig-
matizes as ‘filthy dreamers’, and Theosophy cannot expect to
escape the attention of their successors.

From London, she writes on May 12th:

Bombay gave us a noble farewell, and we passed through

the entrance to the pier amid a chorus of good-byes from a crowd
of friends, through the medical inspection to the launch, from the
launch to the ship Mantua, where we quickly settled down for the
voyage. The P. & O. Co. is an old friend, and its stewards effi-
ciently catered for our vegetarian party, attracting thereby some
Indian travellers who asked to be allowed to join us. The passen-
gers requested a lecture between Bombay and Aden, and I spoke
on ‘Reincarnation’, and so gave rise to many questions during the
voyage. My Indian charges proved quite good sailors; and for my-
self, it is the first voyage in my life during which I have not once
been ill. On May 5th we arrived in England. Alcyone and Mizar
are with me at Mrs. Bright’s; Mr. Arundale sleeps at my son’s, but
is with us all day; Shri Prakasha is staying for a while in the hos-
pitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Leo. All are well, and adapting
themselves to the new conditions. A generous friend has put a mo-
torcar at my service for three months, an immense boon in this city
of huge distances.
Shri Prakasha and I visited the house lately opened for In-
dian students and societies in Cromwell Road, and had an
interesting talk with Mr. Arnold, the Educational Adviser. Mr. Ar-
nold is eminently fitted for his work by his keen sympathy and
wide heart, and he is laboring against many difficulties. The rush
of Indian students some years ago, who came over without proper
guardianship and control, has led to much trouble. Some left the
University with debts unpaid, and some injured their country’s
good name by loose behavior. Oxford practically closed itself
against them; and Mr. Arnold, after prolonged efforts, has only
lately succeeded in persuading one college after another to open
its doors to them. Now only four remain obdurate. It remains for a
better class of students to win respect for their country, and affec-
tion for themselves.
The first country work began with a visit to Oxford. Two
public lectures were given in the Town Hall to good audiences;
and a garden party at which Mr. Arundale and myself spoke on the
‘Order of the Star in the East’ occupied one afternoon. An E.S.
meeting completed the work. On the 23rd we went to Manchester,
where the League of Liberal Christian Thought was holding a four
days’ Conference. It was surely significant that the President of the
Theosophical Society was asked to deliver the closing address on
the ‘Emergence of a World Religion’. The Rev. Mr. Campbell pre-
sided at a great meeting in the Free Trade Hall, which was roused
to much enthusiasm.
On May 24th we motored from Hale to Bidston through a
beautiful undulating and well-wooded country, in all the charm of
the fresh green of spring. The rolling sweep of emerald meadows,
the dropping yellow rain of the laburnum, the mauve of the lilac,
the white and rosy snow of the hawthorn, the golden glory of the
gorse, the brilliant plume of the broom, the white spike of the
chestnut, brooded over by the calm serenity of the English country-
side, made a scene as fair and peaceful as the eye could wish to
rest upon. England cannot boast of snowy peaks or rushing tor-
rents, but for rich and gracious beauty her landscape cannot be
excelled. And it has a certain intimate and home-like aspect, with
its butter-cup-flecked fields and its many-hued hedgerows, that
distinguishes it from other lands.
Bidston Priory, a delightful house surrounded by beautiful
grounds, is the residence of Mr. Joseph Bibby, a Theosophist of
many years standing. It is near Birkenhead, Liverpool’s twin city,
the Mersey rolling between the two towns. Mr. and Mrs. Bibby
had invited the Theosophists of the neighborhood to a garden
party, and there was a large gathering, which was first fed intellec-
tually by myself and then physically with tea and innumerable
cakes. A little later we betook ourselves to Liverpool for a lecture
presided over by Sir Benjamin Johnson and listened to by a large
audience. I spoke on ‘The Masters and the Way to Them’, and it
was interesting to note how the audience gradually changed from
cool attention to warm enthusiasm, warmer than a Liverpool audi-
ence is wont to show.
The next day we were in London once more, but not for
long, as we leave on the 29th for Scotland. The large Memorial
Hall, Farringdon St,, was well filled on May 26th for the meeting
of the Fabian Society, which I addressed on the subject, ‘England
and India’. Mrs. Sidney Webb presided. The opening of the Psy-
chical Research Club on May 29th was a very successful function,
and the rooms were crowded to excess. In a five minutes speech, I
declared the Club open, and then conversation became general.
Among those present were Mr. A. P. Sinnett, Mr. W. T. Stead,
Lady Churchill, Lady Emily Lutyens, Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Ames,
Mrs. Talbot Clifton, Miss Bright and many well-known Theoso-
phists and Spiritualists and Psychical Researchers of all types. The
Club has already 400 members. Later in the evening came the
Women Writers’ dinner, where gathered a great crowd of distin-
guished women, most of them very fashionably dressed and not at
all recalling the ‘bluestocking’ of one’s girlhood, though many
were of the most cerulean hue in reality. It was interesting to meet
again Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, and the wife of noble William
Sharpe, and to see in the flesh many who were only names before.
But a dinner, as a dinner, is a wearisome function; though in this
case it was brightened for me by the interesting reminiscences of
the veteran Mrs. Belloc on one side, and a pleasant discussion on
reincarnation and clairvoyance with Mrs. Walter Fowler on the
other. The two gatherings were not an altogether desirable prelude
to the all-night journey to Scotland, but the train rocked me to sleep
quite comfortably.
Right on to Aberdeen we travelled and arrived promptly to
time at the granite town of the grey north. If the houses were of
grey granite, the hearts that welcomed us were of rosy hue; and we
had first a members’ meeting and then a public one which grew
into warm enthusiasm. The chair was taken by the Rev. A. Stuart
Martin, B.D., who made a very interesting speech, showing the
value of Christianity of the Gnostic element, now represented by
Theosophy. From Aberdeen we went to Dundee. Mr. Graham
Pole, the General Secretary, who had flown up to Aberdeen for the
afternoon, flown back to Edinburgh for business, and once more
back to Dundee, presided; and we had a very full meeting. On June
1st we went to Leven, where there was a garden party at the beau-
tiful home of our host, Mr. Christie, at Dune. In the evening came
a lecture in a crowded schoolhouse in Leven. On the following af-
ternoon we motored to Perth, thirty miles away, after a game of
croquet, in which I revived memories of more than forty years ago.
It was a delightful drive through a country less rich but more pic-
turesque than that through which we drove from Hale to Bidston.
The distant hills lent dignity to the horizon; and the varied tints of
fir and pine and larch, clothing the nearer slopes, reminded us that
we were in a northern clime. We passed through a thickly wooded
ravine with a tumbling brook, a Kashmir gorge in miniature, and
along a winding undulating road full of charm.
At Perth we held the usual two meetings, and then home
again through the slowly deepening dusk. Even at ten o’clock the
daylight had not quite faded. On June 3rd we regretfully bade
good-bye to our kindly hosts, and started for Edinburgh, arriving
before noon. There we scattered, Mrs. Hay kindly taking charge of
Alcyone, Mizar, Mr. Arundale and myself; Mrs. Stead, who had
accompanied us throughout, bearing off Miss Bright; Miss Arun-
dale, who had joined us at Edinburgh mothered Shri Prakasha; and
Miss Sharpe, who came up for the first Annual Convention of the
Society in Scotland, found her home in the Theosophical family of
the Pagans. Saturday afternoon was busy. At 2 p.m. I had the pleas-
ure of opening the new Headquarters, a very fine and spacious
house in Great King Street, secured at an extraordinarily low price
by the rapid action of the able General Secretary, who picked it up
with Adyar-like activity when it was offered for sale. The
Convention followed the opening, and the business went through
without a ruffle, the officers being unanimously re-elected with
much enthusiasm, which their good work had fully earned. The
inevitable photograph succeeded Convention, and then we were
comforted with tea. The day closed with a lecture to a crowded
audience.
Today we are on our way to Forfar, where a good Scotch
clergyman has been bitterly attacking Theosophy and has thus
awakened much interest in it, responded to by the National Society
by sending lecturers to his parish . . . At Forfar we were the guests
of the hospitable Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan, and the Lodge meeting
was held in their pleasant garden. Later in the evening there was a
good-sized gathering which listened with intense interest to the
‘Value of Theosophy to Christianity’. On the following day we
took train to Glasgow, and I addressed a large members’ meeting
in the Lodge room, and at 8 p.m. there was an immense crowd to
listen to a lecture on ‘A World Religion’. The Rev. Canon Erskine
Hill took the chair, and made a very charming speech of introduc-
tion. No speaker could wish for a more enthusiastic and intelligent
audience than Glasgow gave me that evening. It was a splendid
close to a successful tour, and the whole time spent in Scotland
was a very happy one. Everyone was so kind and friendly, the ar-
rangements made by the General Secretary were so thoughtfully
planned and so comfortable, and he himself was the pleasantest
and most helpful of companions.
Some interesting events lie ahead: a meeting with the
Bishop of London; a drawing-room address at Mrs. Kerr’s, whom
our Adyar residents will remember; a drawing-room meeting at
Lady Emily Lutyen’s to meet Mr. Arthur Balfour, where I am to
give an address; a lecture at the Literary Lyceum Club and one to
the Islamic Society; a garden party and address at Mrs. Russell’s,
Haslemere; and a drawing-room address at Dover Castle on the
invitation of the Constable's wife. We had a wonderful meeting at
 Queen’s Hall on June 11th, the first of a course of lectures to be
delivered there. The great Hall was packed from floor to ceiling, it
was a most inspiring sight, and a most inspiring audience. Some
hundreds were turned away, unable to find room; so that our fears
that the Hall would prove too large were entirely dissipated.
We left London by the 9 a.m. train for Paris on June 12th,
1911, and had a smooth passage from Dover to Calais. The Gen-
eral Secretary met us at Amiens, and a large crowd of members
had gathered at the Paris terminus to give us welcome. The work
began with an E.S. meeting that evening, and two lectures, to
members only, followed on the 13th and 14th. Some 600 members
had gathered in Paris for the meetings, and it was therefore impos-
sible to hold them as usual in the Headquarters of the Society. So
the hall in which I had given a Public lecture in 1909 was hired for
the members, and we had two very pleasant meetings. We were all
astounded by the wonderful success of the Sorbonne lecture. The
vast amphitheatre was packed in every corner, and standing
crowds filled the passages, some 4,000 in all. We came through
hundreds who, it seems, could not succeed in gaining admission.
It was a wonderful sight, for the hall is magnificent. It is semi-
circular, the roof a single immense arch; so that the auditors are
packed, tier after tier, and present one sea of faces to the speaker.
Two large galleries carry the crowd up to the very roof. The lec-
ture, ‘The Message of Giordano Bruno to the Modern World’
roused the enthusiasm of the audience.

In A Short History of the Theosophical Society (pp. 390-91),

we read: ‘In 1910, Mr Arundale has started among the boys of the
Central Hindu College a private Order called, “the Order of the Ris-
ing Sun of India.” It was intended to draw together those of his
scholars who believed in the near coming of a great Teacher, and he
did not not expect it to spread beyond the limits of the College. The
Trustees did not approve of this activity. On 11 January 1911, the
Order was made public, because Mrs. Besant found that many people
“were ready for such a society.” In July she changed the name to
“Order of the Star in the East,” and asked Krishnamurti to be its
Head. Combined with this activity was a group of people devoted to
Mrs. Besant and prepared to assist her in every way. By 1912 the
Order was re-grouped with Krishnamurti, Mrs. Besant and Mr. Lead-
beater and others as the inner group, using purple insignia, then a
second group wearing golden yellow shalws, and third, the general
bulk of the members. The Order declared as its main Principles: 1.
Expectation of the Coming of a Great Teacher; 2. Special individual
preparation and service done “in His Name.” 3. The Order started a
magazine called the Herald of the Star, edited by Krishnamurti. As
mentioned in Krishnamurti; the Years of Awakening, ‘the establish-
ment of the Order of the Star in the East resulted in a more serious
schism, Rudolph Steiner in Germany being one of the important
members to break away, taking most of the German Lodges with him
to form his own Anthroposophical Society.’
In 1912, Mrs Besant founded the Temple of the Rosy Cross,
a ceremony which was performed at the Krotona Centre in Holly-
wood, California. In that same year she founded the Order of
Theosophical Sannyasis. She reported hearing (clairaudiently) the
oration of Pythagoras while at Taormina, in Italy.

There were problems in Germany. Dr Rudolph Steiner, Gen-

eral Secretary of the German Section, was denying membership of
the TS to those who were members of the Order of the Star in the
East, in contravention of the TS Constitution. Below are the proceed-
ings of the General Council of the TS regarding on the matter of Dr
Steiner’s policies. (From the Annual Report of the Theosophical So-
ciety for 1912.)

Admission to a National Society must not be refused to any

applicant of good character who accepts the Objects, and is willing
to be bound by the Rules, of the T. S. The words “of good charac-
ter” were objected to by several members of the Council in letter
and speech, as implying distrust of the candidate’s sponsors, on
whom the responsibility of his fitness should rest, and they were
withdrawn: the votes then were: Yes – 26. No – 1. No vote – 6.
iii. What is to be done to carry out Rule 32, as in Switzerland?
iv. What is your opinion as to the issue of a charter to German
Switzerland, not including the Lodges of Neuchatel and Lugano?
v. Can you suggest any way of preserving liberty of opinion
in Germany, and of softening Dr. Steiner’s hostility to the P. T. S.
[Parent Theosophical Society] and Adyar, and of removing the
false impressions current in Germany?
Opinions were various, and it was decided to let the question
stand over till the whole question as to Germany had been consid-
ered.
4. Khan Bahadur N. D. Khandalavala read a reply that he pro-
posed to write to Dr. Steiner in answer to his letter to the members
of the General Council, printed as Appendix B. Most of the points
mentioned therein were thought to be very well taken, but it was
considered preferable that the Council should not enter into a con-
troversy with one of its members, but should decide on the
materials before it, while Judge Khandalavala might send his letter
to Dr. Steiner in his individual capacity as a member of the General
Council.
5. The Recording Secretary read the following telegrams re-
ceived from Berlin, signed by the German Executive, except the
General Secretary, and unsigned ones from Lodges sent from Bale,
Milan and Vienna:
Berlin, 11th December, 1912.
“To the Recording Secretary Mr. J. R. Aria for the General Coun-
cil, T. S., Adyar, Madras.
“The Executive Committee of the German Section T. S. as-
sembled in extraordinary Meeting in Berlin on December 8, 1912,
recognises in the proceedings of the P. T. S. a continual objective
distortion and misrepresentation of facts contradicting the highest
principle of the T. S., the demand of truthfulness. Basing upon the
recognition that the President has continually and even systemati-
cally violated this highest principle of the T. S. ‘No religion higher
than truth,’ and has abused the Presidential power in arbitrary way,
thus hindering positive work, the Executive Committee here as-
sembled, after minutest examination of documents, can only see in
the resignation of the President the possibility of further existence
of the Society. The detailed documentary proof will be sent shortly
by the Executive Committee of the German Section to the Lodges.
We beg to submit this telegram to the thirty-seventh Conven-
tion T. S. The Executive Committee of the German Section here
present unanimously: Scholl, Unger, Bauer, Arenson, Waudrey,
Grosheintz, Noll, Kiem, Wagner, Kolbe, Noss, Smits, Kalckreuth,
Sievers, Peipers, Müche, Rainer, Monte, Tessmar, Wolfram,
Seiler, Stinde, Bredow, Lerchenfeld, Hubo, Völker, Damnitz.
Bale, 19th December, 1912.
To Recording Secretary, Mr. J. R. Aria, for the General Council,
T. S., Adyar, Madras.
“Assembled branches Lugano, Sangallan, Berne, Bale, Zur-
ich, Neuchatel, blame President Besant’s dissolving proceedings
and protest with indignation against her unjustified accusations
and misstatements regarding Dr. Steiner’s activity in Switzerland.
Milan, 21st December, 1912.
To Recording Secretary, Mr. J. R. Aria, for the General Council,
T. S., Adyar, Madras.
“Groups Lombardia, Leonardo, Milano, Etruria, Firenze, ear-
nestly protest against Mrs. Besant continuing President, T. S., her
violating truth encouraging misrepresentations of Dr. Steiner’s
teachings.”
Wien, 24th December, 1912.
To the Recording Secretary, Mr. J. R. Aria, for the General Coun-
cil, T. S., Adyar, Madras.
“The Lodges of Vienna, Linzt, Klagenfurt, Graz, voice all
round with the protest of German Executive Committee against
President.”
The President remarked that as these telegrams were not
signed by the General Secretaries of the respective National Soci-
eties, who were the recognised mediums of communication with
the General Council, they were unconstitutional. But she advised
that they should be considered.
The President also informed the Council that she had received
a cable that members of the O. S. E. [Order of the Star in the East]
who were Fellows of the German Section, had been expelled. She
had cabled for further information. She also laid before the Council
the refusals of Dr. Steiner in his own handwriting to charter
Lodges, the members of which did not work in the method ap-
proved by the German Section. The Council strongly disapproved
of that behaviour of the German General Secretary, and the follow-
ing was proposed by Mr. Hunt, Representative of Australia,
seconded by Mrs. Sharpe, Representative of England and Wales,
and supported by the General Secretary for Burma:
That having before it the fact of the expulsion of a number of
members of the T. S. from the German Section on the ground of
opinion; the refusal of admission to others on similar grounds; the
refusal to issue a Lodge Charter to Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden and other
members of the Section in good standing; the hostility expressed
to the President; and the insulting telegrams sent by the German
Executive Committee and its adherents in other lands:
Resolved: That this General Council, seeing no other way of
meeting the difficulty raised, advises the President to cancel under
Rule 36 the Charter issued to the German Section.
Carried unanimously, Bohemia not voting.
 Annie Besant mentioned the matter in her Presidential Ad-
dress to the Convention held in 1912:

In last year’s Address I referred to the difficulties which had

arisen in India, and had caused some retardation in the progress of our
movement in this sacred land, the Motherland of the true Founders of
the Society. Those difficulties have been accentuated during the past
year, and as some members of the Society have taken part in the accen-
tuation, we cannot expect here the joyous report of progress which
comes from other lands. There has been a certain discouragement felt,
which has been shown by the falling into dormancy of an exceptionally
large number of members. Nor must we readily blame these weaker
brethren. It is hard to stand firmly and quietly against continued defa-
mation, especially when libels printed here are reprinted in America,
and circulated in many languages over the whole of the civilised world.
The tireless malignity which has its centre at Point Loma has been ex-
ceptionally active, and has deluged every country with articles so
unclean and so mendacious that one stands amazed at the spectacle. As
you know, I have uttered no word against Mrs. Tingley, the head of
Point Loma, during the seven years of her ceaseless attacks. Although
the filthy literature written by her secretary, and circulated from her
centre, was sent to every city in which I lectured in America, and was
placed in the Reading Room of every hotel I stayed at, and though I was
urged by the Press to answer, I never spoke a single word against her.
European Consuls, Government officials, clergymen, teachers, in every
part of Europe, have been circularised by her agents in many languages.
Indian officials from the highest to the lowest have received her pam-
phlets. From European countries, from Java, Hongkong, Shanghai,
from the cities of Australasia and New Zealand, reprints of foully
worded articles without printers’ names and with mendacious headings
have been sent to me, all from the same source. Gross misrepresenta-
tions of my teaching, made by printing a part of a sentence and
suppressing the context, have been circulated. Mrs. Tingley has been
asked to finance a suit against me in England, so that the present oppor-
tunity may be seized to ruin me. Through all this I have kept silence,
hoping that patience and forgiveness would conquer this most cruel and
wicked persecution. My hope has not been realised. In her own country,
her misrepresentations have over-reached themselves, and no one now
pays any attention to her. But where she is less well known, the false-
hoods gain credence. Why she is animated by this malignant hatred, I
have often wondered; lately I have found that she is only a tool.
Since her emissary—a well-known supporter of the anarchistic
movement connected with India House in New York, whence Free Hin-
dustan was issued—came to Madras, the special Indian campaign has
been started. This also I met with silence, the silence that I have lately
been compelled to break. On what is passing in the law-courts my lips
are at present sealed. I notice that at least three Indians desire that I
should be left to fight out this battle unassisted and alone, as a personal
matter. I have naught to say against that policy, if it be the will of the
Theosophical Society. I have never found in the past, when I won credit
and wrought successfully in public work, that the T. S. was anxious to
dissociate itself from that credit and success, and to proclaim that these
were personal matters; and there is perhaps something a little less than
generous in the wish to leave me alone when danger threatens. But I am
the first to desire that any crown I win may be given to the Society, and
that any stones flung at me may strike myself alone. So I thank the three
Indian members who take this line. Moreover, I agree with them that
Mr. Naraniah’s suit against myself is a personal matter, although his
counsel gave as a reason for the transfer of the suit from Chingleput to
Madras High Court, that “the tenets of the T. S.” would come into the
suit. The T. S. has no tenets, and I shall take care that its absolute neu-
trality in all matters of opinion shall be scrupulously guarded. I am,
however, most grateful for the love and sympathy expressed by officials
of the T. S., by Lodges and Fellows, in this connection, for these are
indeed, a real help, and a time of trial shows one’s true friends. The T.
S., with very few individual exceptions, shows itself to be such a friend.
 While Mr. Naraniah’s suit is a personal matter, the action taken
by me in defence of the Headquarters and the T. S. concerns the Soci-
ety itself. And wherever its honour and good name are attacked, I shall
in future, as President, defend that honour and good name in the Press
and in the law-courts, wherever the assailant is worth noticing; I will
no longer silently permit mud to be thrown on the Society, but will use
such honourable means of defence as are available, for to the level of
the traducers I cannot stoop.
I have hitherto followed, as President, the practice I followed as
teacher, bearing silently all slander and insult. This I shall continue to
do where these are directed only against myself personally. But I think
it has been a mistake to show this forbearance in the office of President,
and where the T. S., which is placed in my charge, is concerned, I shall
henceforth play the part of the warrior who protects. If the T. S. disap-
proves of this policy, it can very easily show its disapproval by
instructing its General Council during the coming year not to propose
my name for re-election as President in 1914.
In one Section, out of twenty-two, there is trouble – the German.
I say in one Section only, because the trouble in India is not from the
Section, but from a handful only of individuals. The German General
Secretary, educated by the Jesuits, has not been able to shake himself
sufficiently clear of that fatal influence to allow liberty of opinion
within his Section. His repeated refusals to authorise admissions of in-
dividuals and of Lodges, on the definitely stated ground that they did
not work in the method of the German Section, have been laid by me
before the General Council. A telegram, demanding my resignation and
couched in insulting language for the benefit of the public—as people
of a certain type write insults on post cards—has been sent here by his
Executive Council ; three unsigned ones, purporting to be from six Ger-
man Lodges in Switzerland, from some German Lodges in Austria, and
from some Italian groups—whose action has been repudiated indig-
nantly by the Italian Executive—have also come, but none of these can
be regarded as official communications, since they were not sent
 through the General Secretary, the only channel recognised by the Con-
stitution. They are merely negligible personal insults. The latest
unconstitutional action of the German Executive is to expel from the
National Society all members of the Order of the Star in the East. The
expulsion is, of course, invalid, as no member can be expelled from a
Section for his opinions, but the action shows that liberty of thought is
not permitted in the German Section. There are, in Germany, 540 mem-
bers of the Order, but I do not know how many of these are also
members of the T. S. Whether they be many or few, they have the same
right to their membership in the German Section as any Lutheran or
Roman Catholic. The only thing left for me to do, as President, in face
of this unprecedented outrage on liberty of opinion within the T. S., is
to cancel the Charter of the National Society in Germany, and then to
revive it in favour of the seventeen Lodges willing to work within the
Constitution of the T. S.
We must not think of this tyrannical and unconstitutional action
of Dr. Steiner’s followers as German, for it is totally alien from the free
German spirit, and has raised revolt in Germany. Germany has been,
and is a leader in independence of thought, and can never deny herself.
May the new National Society follow the old German path.

From 1912 to 1914 Mrs Besant was engaged in a lawsuit

brought upon her by J. Naraniah, Krishnamurti’s father, who wanted
back the custody of his sons (Krishna and Nityananda) which he had
given her a few years earlier. The reason for the lawsuit was his
claim that C. W. Leadbeater had performed an ‘unnatural act’ on his
older son, Krishna. The evidence from the London Advisory Board
of 1906, which examined the charges against CWL regarding his ad-
vice to boys, was presented in court. The presiding Judge dismissed
the charges against him but declared, in a separate comment, that
CWL’s views on his advice to boys were ‘immoral’. There was a
great deal of negative press reports against both Mrs Besant and
CWL and also against the TS. Some of these came from a leading
newspaper, The Hindu, which was fed material by people associated
with Katherine Tingley who had been running a ubiquitous publicity
and defamatory campaign against Besant and Leadbeater.
Mrs Besant wrote in On the Watch Tower notes in The The-
osophist, October 1913 issue:

From January to October 1912, the most cruel slanders

against my elder ward [Krishnamurti] were circulated broadcast
over the whole world; in October 1912, the suit was begun which
has temporarily torn my dear lads from my protection, and forced
them to fly for refuge to others… The struggle has been useful, for
Alcyone’s name has been cleared, the T.S. has been acknowledged
blameless, and all the vituperation has now, fortunately, been
turned on to me. The young life I have protected goes forward un-
stinted, the Society uninjured, and the mud showered on me it
matters not…

In the November 1913 issue of the same magazine she wrote:

The Appeal has gone against me, and the judgements –

probably because the Judges did not see the witnesses – are dis-
tinctly more harsh than that of the lower Court. All that was
favourable to me in Mr. Justice Bakewell’s judgement has been
reversed except the one fact that the crime alleged did not occur.
All that was unfavourable was confirmed. My grounds of appeal
to the Privy Council are, roughly, that the Court has no jurisdic-
tion, that the mandatory injunction is in the teeth of §55 of the
Specific Relief Act, and that the judgement is against the evidence.
…
But for the boys’ sake, I have offered to give up my right of
appeal if the legal guardian will consent to allow the education of
the young men to be completed in England, and to permit a
 settlement to be made upon them that will amply suffice to cover
all expenses.

On January 1st, 1913, Mrs Besant transformed the Theoso-

phist Office into the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar which
became the main vehicle for the dissemination of Theosophy for sev-
eral decades to come. In that same year, she established a
Theosophical Educational Trust. It was “to establish Schools and
Colleges open to students of every faith, ‘without distinction of race
or creed’, and in which religious instruction should be an integral
part of education”. (A Short History of the Theosophical Society, p.
402). ‘Another important development which took place under Dr
Besant’s stewardship was the establishment of three strong spiritual
centres consecrated to the great ideals of Theosophy and their prac-
tical realization: Krotona (first in Hollywood, then in Ojai), The
Manor in Sydney, and St Michael’s in Holland, now known as the
International Theosophical Centre in Naarden. She viewed these
three centres as linked to Adyar by threads of sympathy and common
aspiration, and as channels for the great Powers of Goodness and
Wisdom in their compassionate work for suffering humanity.’ (‘The
Living Tradition: Historical Review of the TS since 1907’ by Pedro
Oliveira, full text available in the link below: https://theosophicalsoci-
ety.org.au/articles/the-living-tradition-historical-review-of-the-ts-since-
1907)
In October [1913], under “direction,” Mrs. Besant, though be-
set on every side, re-entered the political field. To the criticisms of
friends, she replied she had left this field, “because H. P. Blavatsky
wished it. She thought, and thought rightly, that under the new con-
ditions into which I entered when I became her pupil in the Divine
Wisdom, it was necessary for me to devote myself to the mastering
of the Theosophical standpoint, to the adjustment of the focus of the
mental and emotional eyes to the new Light. Socialist as she declared
herself to be—of the Socialism of Love and not of hate—she would
not have me teach Socialism, until I had seen how, in the age-long
 evolution of mankind, the Socialism of child-peoples, under an au-
tocracy of Wisdom and Love, had necessarily passed away—
exquisitely beautiful and happiness-giving as it was—to make way
for the struggles, the antagonisms, the wars, in which adolescent Na-
tions hewed their ways to Individualism and Self-reliance. In the old
Pythagorean way, she imposed on me silence on the subjects I cared
for most, to which my public life had been devoted. She did well. For
my old crude views were thrown into the fire of silence, and nothing
was lost of the gold they contained: that remained.”
Mrs. Besant expressed the joy with which she now took the
opportunity “to let my longue speak freely that which had been burn-
ing in my heart, and to which all led up—the Freedom of the
Motherland, and the dignity of an Eastern Nation self-ruled.” In pur-
suance of this task Mrs. Besant decided to start a weekly paper. (A
Short History of the Theosophical Society, pp. 405-06.)

Josephine Ransom, in her book above mentioned (pp. 409-

10), mentions an important development in Mrs Besant’s work for
India: the starting of the newspaper New India:

On 14 July Mrs. Besant bought the Madras Standard and reg-

istered herself as the proprietor, and on 1 August changed its name to
New India. By the end of the year the circulation had risen from one
to over ten thousand. Its popularity was due to the fact that in its pages
she fearlessly gave expression to her own and to her contributors’
opinions, and freely criticised the British Government with an open-
ness to which it was not accustomed. Having organised the
newspaper, she visited towns both in the South and the North, speak-
ing often of the Coming of a World Teacher. But the supervision and
editing of the newspapers kept her very much in Madras.
Mrs. Besant decided to exclude her social and political views
from the pages of The Theosophist, lest they hurt the susceptibilities
of some readers; others protested against being thus deprived of her
leading in these matters. For these subjects she used The Common-
weal and New India.
 On 7 April 1917, Mrs Besant founded the Order of Brothers
of Service, a religious and charitable organization, in which the
members are united by certain vows of service and obedience. The
Young Man’s Indian Association was inaugurated by her on 15
March 1914. She also started the Women’s Indian Association on 8
May 1917 (White Lotus Day) with 21 members. By 1918 the
membership increased to 1,400. The President was Mrs. Besant and
the Secretary was Mrs Dorothy Jinarajadasa. It campaigned, among
other things, for women’s suffrage.
On the Watch Tower notes for the June 1918 issue of The
Theosophist, p. 211, we read:

Mr. Gordon Pearce, Vice Principal in Collegiate School,

Galle, one of Col. Olcott’s foundations, started a troop of
Singhalese Boy Scouts and one after another schools took up in
Ceylon. Then he sent a well-trained scout to Madanapalle, and so
started the movement in India. … Now Mr. G. Pearce has come to
Adyar to serve as Chief Commissioner for India.

In the On the Watch-Tower notes in The Theosophist, April

1921, Annie Besant reported about an educational initiative:

A very admirable Educational Conference was also held

for a day and a half. On the second day the walls of the Hall [at
Adyar] were covered with most interesting charts, one of which
fascinated me especially, for it was a chart of India, showing the
numerous Universities that were scattered over the land, when stu-
dents gathered from all parts of the known world to sit at the feet
of her learned men, to bathe in the Wisdom of the East. Perchance
those days may yet return, when India again rears her head among
the Free Nations of the world. The Theosophical Trust, and the
Theosophical Fraternity in Education met at Adyar, and the
 Society for the Promotion of National Education at the Young
Men’s Indian Association, to be adjourned hither. A very beautiful
ceremony was performed one evening by the Fellowship of Teach-
ers, studying in the National Training College. A play was also
acted by students of the National High School, Guindy, under the
Banyan Tree, a fitting stage for Rabindranath Tagore’s Autumn
Festival.

In July 1924, at the Queen’s Hall London, the Golden Jubilee

of Annie Besant’s public work was celebrated. C. Jinarajadasa
quoted from a letter he received for the occasion which said: ‘I am
amazed… this is no narrow Jubilee; it is the history of the past fifty
years.’ Many of her former colleagues in the social and political
struggle came to pay her homage, including the well-known member
of parliament, George Lansbury. Five hundred delegates
representing almost every branch of progressive work attended. Dr
Marion Phillips in her speech said:

Her presence, her work, her spirit belongs to the ages of

heroism in the world’s history. …She has made it possible for us
to believe in and to put into practice today ideas that were regarded
with horror when first put before the world.

Mr Ben Tillet, M.P., said: ‘Her work should live not in

monuments of stone but in the monumental progress she has helped
to bring.’(The Living Tradition: Historical Review of the TS since
1907’)

Indian Fellow-workers offer Tributes to Dr Annie Besant

on the Occasion of Her Fiftieth Anniversary of Public Life
(From Annie Besant – Servant of Humanity, from the New India Staff,
25 August 1924. Published in Madras.)
 I can only give here just a few of my impressions of her. The one
thing that has struck me most about her is her earnestness. She be-
lieves in what she says, and it is no easy task for anyone to dislodge
her from her belief. Not only does she believe in what she says, but
she acts on her beliefs with unconquerable perseverance and perti-
nacity. Her admirers, particularly among Theosophists, describe her
as a thinker, but she does not belong to the race of thinkers whose
thoughts are generally sterile. Between her thought and action there
is very little distance. She conceived the idea of the revival of Hindu
culture and it materialised in the shape of the Hindu College at Be-
nares. That College, today, is the rallying centre for the best
elements of Hindu thought and culture. It has expanded into a Uni-
versity. I do not wish to rob those who have worked for its
expansion of the credit that belongs to them, but let no one rob Dr.
Besant of the credit that is exclusively hers in founding and nursing
the College, which has now grown into a University.
In 1915, she conceived the idea of Home Rule for India. There
was general unrest in the country. We were talking of reforms, and
expansion of Councils, and swore by Swaraj, but our ideas were
nebulous. Her clear-thinking gave concrete shape to our undefined
and indefinite ideas, resulting in an organised movement for Home
Rule for India. It was not considered quite safe and respectable be-
fore the Movement began, to use such direct language. Even if there
was some clear thinking on our part, we so much qualified our ideas
with elegant adjectives, adverse to the main idea, that it receded into
the background. Her language was downright and her actions left
no choice to her powerful critics but to lodge her safely in a place
from which she could do no more mischief. That, at any rate, was
what they said at the time. It is now seven years ago that I, one day,
in Simla, suddenly called in company with Mr. Jinnah at the room
of the Law Member of those days to discuss the question of her re-
lease. Very interesting conversation passed between Sir George
Lowndes, Mr. Jinnah, and myself. Telephone messages were sent
to Lord Chelmsford. I refused to stand surety for her, not on any
grounds of personal safety, but because I knew that no one in the
world could stand surety for her. I also knew that the mistake had
been discovered, and, surety or no surety, she was going to be re-
leased.
Her latest mission to England adds one more to the long list
of services she has rendered to the country of her adoption. Special
Correspondents of certain newspapers have been belittling her ef-
forts and achievements in England. The Tory Press in England has
either ridiculed her efforts or ignored her. All this was expected, nor
was it expected that she would come back with the gift of Swaraj
from the Labor Government. But those who are privileged to know
something which does not appear in public print, know that she has
succeeded. At least one thing she has unsettled—the non possumus
attitude of certain people in high quarters in England. The success
of her achievement can, at the present moment, only be measured
by the amount of opposition her plans have evoked, and the length
of Special Correspondents’ letters to Indian papers. She lives and
thrives in an atmosphere of opposition, but she has nearly always
conquered opposition, and her personal history may once again be
repeated. Whatever spiritual peace she may have to present to her
followers, the fact is that in politics she has been a restless soul. She
has been a fighter. She fought in her youth, she fought in middle age
and at an age when another person might be thinking of peace. This
life or next, she is fighting with all the ardor of youth for her ideas
of Liberty, Self-Respect, Self-Government for a country, which is
not hers by birth but by adoption, and in the destiny of which she
believes so completely that none can argue her out of that belief. If
it is joy for her friends to see her fight for the principles of life and
liberty of India, it must also be an example to her hostile critics. I
believe there is still charity enough, notwithstanding our many dis-
sensions, which will move all of us, friends and foes alike, to wish
this fighter more strength to her hand and success to her campaign.
 Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, K.S.C.I., LL. D.

She parted from Charles Bradlaugh on the question of Social-

ism, she became a Fabian Socialist and worked for the right of public
processions and meetings, for fair wages, etc. She has known by per-
sonal experience the pangs of starvation—her earnings after
separation from her husband were at first so small that they were
only “enough to buy food for two” (her two children) “but not
enough to buy it for three”—yet, she has never cared for money ex-
cept as a means of liberally helping the poor—the poor students from
Brahmana to Adidravida whom she has helped, when she and her
paper New India were popular and prosperous, must be counted by
hundreds. The net cash-balance to her personal credit at the end of
each year was always practically nil. Of far more value than mere
gifts of money was the heartfelt sympathy and the wise and practical
advice which accompanied her gifts, so that the recipients were
never demoralised and the power of self-help in them was strength-
ened. The exact number of Indian students who have been helped by
her when they were in difficulties in the British Isles will never be
known. But many such students who are now in good positions have
spoken to me with gratitude for such help rendered to them by her
while they were in utter despair. In this connection, I have to notice,
however briefly, her service in the cause of the Education of the pub-
lic through the periodical press. Her incessant contributions to
numerous monthly magazines are well-known. The most important
item in this work, especially in the matter of the political education
of India is, of course, her editorship of New India during the last ten
years. She has been teaching through it, not only the ordinary public
but the editors and conductors of all other Indian newspapers, so that
the tone of many of these has been perceptibly improved by her ex-
ample, though, of course, it is, as usual, not acknowledged by those
benefited thereby.
 Coming next to her work of social reform (in its restricted
meaning) among Hindus, it must be admitted that in the beginning
of her public work in India, she looked upon Hindu social reformers
with a rather suspicious and unfriendly eye. One reason was that an
appreciable proportion of Hindu social reformers attacked even the
fundamentals of the Hindu religion, that they considered it was all a
mass of superstition and that many of them accepted the view of the
Western Orientalists and of the Christian missionaries of that time
that the Vedas and Upanishads were but the babblings of infant hu-
manity, who, in their ignorant fear looked upon natural forces as
Gods possessing human weaknesses. The morality of the Gods and
of the Avatar of Sri Krishna were considered to be lower than that of
civilised Westerners. The Asiatics as a race were also considered as
inferior to Europeans in culture and civilisation. Dr. Besant, who is
the pupil of a Hindu Rishi, could never accept such a perverted view
of the Hindu religion and of the Asiatic races. It may be that in her
impulsive enthusiasm and love, she rather idealised even the modern
degenerate Hindus and the modern degenerate caste system. When
she first touched India’s sacred soil in 1893, and saw her brown In-
dian brothers and sisters moving in their natural surroundings for the
first time, the latent love for India and for Indians awakened in her
was of that vivid intensity which one feels who has been separated
for many years from one’s native land and one’s kith and kin and
sees them again at long last. (She has never felt for England and her
white-skinned English countrymen anything like the patriotic love
for India and the close feeling of kinship with Indians which she ra-
ther brought back as a recollection than felt as a fresh experience
when she first landed in India.) Her Indian patriotism and her love
for Indians have never wavered and have, if anything, grown during
the 31 years during which she has made India her home. She was
never and is not now a mere cold intellectual thinker; she is a strong-
willed kshattriya soul and yet a tender woman of the keenest intelli-
gence, and she no doubt had some of the very amiable weaknesses
of her very outstanding virtues. Charles Bradlaugh, however, had
taught her that one should be the “harshest judge” of oneself…

Krishna Dasa

It is generally admitted that there is a paucity amongst public men

in India of workers who can be said to be steady and commanding
sustained efforts for their particular work or hobby. It is absolutely
necessary, therefore, to celebrate the Jubilee of a person, who may
have worked for India according to his or her honest opinions and
lights for a period of fifty years. In the category of such persons Dr.
Besant’s name would figure prominently, and although one may
not agree with all her views, or with all the work that she may have
done, it would be only right to pay one’s homage, at a time like the
Jubilee celebration of her work, to the great industry, perseverance
and patience, with which she has chosen to keep up her activities
in various directions for the welfare of India. Dr. Besant’s first ar-
ticle regarding India was penned 50 years back, 18 years before she
landed here, and her interest in India has steadily increased since
then.
It is easy for critics to say that Dr. Besant began as a religious
teacher of Hinduism and the other religions of the East, and then
diverted her energy to other fields such as educational and, ulti-
mately, political. It is not necessary to deny that this is
approximately correct. Against that it is only fair to point out that,
with more experience of the problems facing India, Dr. Besant can
honestly be said to have changed her field of work according to her
convictions, from time to time, as to what was most necessary in
the interests of India.
It is perhaps too early to be able to judge Dr. Besant’s work
impartially and dispassionately at present. The work and worth of
every person are best judged only when that person is no more to
carry on what he or she may have been engaged in of her own sweet
will and without anybody’s
History alone, it is generally recognised, can do justice to the
work of a public person, and it is only the generations that follow
who will be able to rise above the petty jealousies and other small
considerations, which may, perhaps, belittle the value of Dr. Bes-
ant’s work during her lifetime.
Dr. Besant, who is not an Indian by birth, has taken such in-
terest in the welfare of Indians as only an Indian might. She was the
first Lady-President of the Indian National Congress being then the
most popular leader of the people’s party in India. The applause of
the masses would appear for the moment to have deserted her, but
her solicitude for India continues to increase with her advancing age
and with the approach of critical stages which India’s problems
reach from year to year.
My acquaintance with. Dr. Besant is comparatively recent,
and the little privilege that I had of seeing her at work or of watching
the results of her great industry, have impressed me enormously re-
garding her great powers of organisation and her capacity for
sustained hard work. She has a knack of standing by her views de-
spite popular clamor against her, and she utilises every opportunity
to justify her lines of thought and action. My one impression of her
great efforts on behalf of India during recent years is regarding her
earnestness in the lines of thought and action that she adopts.
India needs, many many, sincere workers of such calibre and
strength of mind, and it is only right that at the end of fifty years of
such work Indians should express their admiration of the devotion
of Dr. Besant to the cause of India and Indians.
Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, Kt., M. L. A.

To me the most remarkable thing about the illustrious woman

of versatile genius and of many-sided activities, who is the subject
of this humble appreciation, is the completeness with which she has
identified herself for these many years with the uplift of a people
with whom she had originally nothing in common. The history of
the world records no other instance of a gifted and accomplished
woman, who could have made her mark in so many ways in her own
country and among her own people, sacrificing her prospects in life,
her ease and comfort to serve a distant and alien people. Dr. Besant,
I know, resents nothing so strongly or so deeply as being called a
foreigner. She has herself told us in words which it is impossible to
forget, how proud she felt when the late Mr. Gokhale once called
her an Indian. No words of praise, she has said, could have appealed
more strongly or been more gratifying to her heart. But this very
fact only proves the truth of my remark.
And not the least remarkable thing about this identification of
herself with the cause of Indian uplift is that she began with religion
and Theosophy, the unseen forces that govern our destiny, and
while still true to those lofty causes she has almost by a process of
natural evolution come, in the evening of her life, to identify herself
more and more with the cause of India’s political well-being, to oc-
cupy herself more and more with the human and visible forces with
which India has to make her account in her endeavor to realise her
secular destiny. The order is the reverse of natural, for, as a rule,
men and women begin with secular affairs and end by being reli-
gious. I call it a process of natural evolution because, like so many
other purely natural processes, its links have been almost impercep-
tible. Who can say where the Besant of the early days, when she had
nothing to do with Indian politics, when a few of her speeches were
actually misinterpreted as an attack upon the political endeavor of
some of India’s choicest spirits, ended, and the Besant of the later
days, the brave, dauntless and indefatigable mother of the Home
Rule Movement, began? The logical and practical connection bet-
ween the two he that runs can see. To so acute a mind as Mrs.
Besant’s it could not but become clear, as time passed, that the
spiritual salvation of the Indian people, so dear to her heart, was
essentially and inseparably linked up with their secular salvation,
and that nothing was more needful for this secular salvation than
political and civic liberty, the freedom of the Indian people to man-
age their own affairs and to grow to the full height of their manhood.
But the steps of this process of realisation are almost hidden from
the naked eye.
Be its successive links what they may, the process itself
marks a decisive step in India’s onward march, the commencement
of the final stage in the great battle for Liberty, on which India has
now entered. Many are the great men who have toiled, in Mrs. Bes-
ant’s own words, wrought for India’s Freedom. The first were the
great Ram Mohan Roy in Bengal and Swami Dayanand Saraswati
in Upper India. The next in order were the noble band who founded
the Indian National Congress and nursed it in its early days with true
filial devotion. Then came the new School of Thought, as Lord
Minto called it, of which Tilak was the high priest with Lajpat and
Arabindo (sic) and Bipin as his comrades and associates. It is no
injustice to any of these to say that, with the sole exception of Tilak,
not one of them has done more or even as much to make Indian
Home Rule the battle-cry of a united Nation as Mrs. Besant. It was
literally like a meteor she rose in India’s political sky and the splen-
dor with which she shone for a time seems to overshadow all other
workers, again with the exception of Tilak himself. Nor was hers a
service of mere intellect. She was one of those, then not too many,
who stood equally the test of sacrifice and suffering—the most cru-
cial of all tests. Her suffering was not as great as Tilak’s, but then
she was older and the very fact of her being a woman made her
sacrifice of unique value and importance.
It is not within my province in this short article to say which of
the pair did most for Indian Freedom. It is at least undeniable that
for about a year before the Calcutta Congress, over which Mrs. Bes-
ant presided, she was the foremost in the public eye, the centre from
which all Home Rule activities seemed to radiate, the personifica-
tion of India’s unquenchable desire and undying determination to
be free. Nor although the actual leadership of the Congress, which
is still India’s only National and representative assembly, has since
passed into other hands has she for a moment ceased to work on
behalf of India and for the success of the great cause she has made
her own, now for nearly a decade. The idea of the CONVENTION
originated with herself and of the Indian Deputation, which is now
on a visit in England and which, judging even from the meagre re-
ports of its work, has been unceasing in its effort to induce the
British Government and British statesmen to do that justice in India
which is long overdue. She is the heart, the head and the soul. This
arduous labor at an age when most persons even of the sterner sex
would seek repose, is the crowning triumph of a life filled with
splendid achievements and consecrated to noble purposes. That
much tangible good will come out of her latest efforts immediately,
I, for one, do not believe. But such efforts do not and cannot go in
vain. When the moment of victory comes, as it is bound to come
before long, one of the names that will be inscribed on the banner
of Free and Self-Governing India in imperishable letters is that of
the great woman whose Jubilee a grateful country is celebrating to-
day.
Kali Charan Roy, Editor, The Tribune, Lahore

It must have been a youthful philosopher of the blasé brigade who

said: “Youth’s a dream, middle age a delusion and old age a mis-
take.” There are doubtless people whose absence from the world’s
stage is not likely to be too poignantly felt, but her bitterest critic
will hardly dare to include Dr. Besant, who has just concluded fifty
strenuous years of public life, among that number. It gives me all
the greater pleasure to pay my tribute of appreciation on this occa-
sion that, in the mutations of Indian politics, the relations between
Dr. Besant and The Hindu have often been those of acute conflict.
 To have completed fifty years of incessant activity in public life
and, at an age that has overpassed the allotted span of humanity, to
continue to hold aloft with unpalsied fingers the banner of a just
fight, is a record that is unique and indicative of a vitality so tremen-
dous as to command the respect and even reverence of weaker
beings. To parallel it in any degree, one must hark back to that tre-
mendous effort that Gladstone made in his Midlothian Campaign.
But even that was spasmodic. If one can envisage a Midlothian
Campaign sustained through fifty years, one may gather some idea
of the enormous dynamic force that Dr. Besant has represented in
her public career.
But there have been others whose activities, perhaps, have been
as incessant and unflagging as Dr. Besant’s, and yet whom history
will not acclaim as having added to the sum-total of human happi-
ness. In Dr. Besant’s record, you find no years that the locusts have
eaten, for they have been years of chivalrous championship of the
underdog, years dedicated to making the world saner, purer and
happier. The cause of injustice has ever found in her a deadly and
unrelenting opponent, and one pictures her as a feminine S. George
questing out for dragons to slay. It gives one some hope for the fu-
ture of humanity that she was able to slay a good few of them.
Energy is good and a fondness for the Right is better, but the one
might be misdirected and the other might tail off into an emotional
spasm but for the courage that stands undismayed in the face of
odds. And of this quality Dr. Besant is blessed in abundant measure.
It has been her experience in India, when she directed her activities
to securing our political emancipation, in a few short years, to reach
both the zenith and the nadir of her popularity. It would be untrue
to say that she was not exalted or encouraged in the former state, for
that would attribute to her a cold, passionless superhumanity that is
belied by the passionate warmth with which she launched herself
into each fresh humanitarian adventure. But it would certainly be
true to say that she faced unpopularity with a heart, sorrow-stricken
perhaps, but undismayed. This is not the occasion for weighing po-
litical programmes, but wrong, as I believe Dr. Besant was in her
policy towards the Reforms and in the details of her campaign
against Non-Cooperation, sometimes unfair and uncharitable, I
must pay a tribute to the courage with which Dr. Besant maintained
a point of view which she believed was the right one. For courage
is a quality less often to be picked up on the waysides in Indian
Politics than one would desire.
On this occasion one is tempted to speculate as to how much
pleasanter and how much more potent politics would be, if we could
import into it some element of charity. The world may be too much
with us, but need we always succumb to its littleness, to its mean-
souled scale of values? We must be in the right, for without that
conviction all action is inhibited; but need those who do not think
with us necessarily be actuated by motives less worthy than our
own?
This is not the place nor the time to attempt an estimate of the
value of Dr. Besant’s contribution to the cause of Indian Regenera-
tion. When men acquire a truer sense of perspective, she will take
her rightful place, but meanwhile it would not be unprofitable to
take to heart the lessons of Dr. Besant’s life work. Unremitting en-
ergy, patience, infinite faith and indomitable courage are qualities
which ought to make some appeal to people who are perhaps in-
clined to be fretfully impatient for results. To the impatient, to the
faint of heart to whom the path is thorny and the journey a weariness
of spirit, Dr. Besant’s record of achievement and service will serve
as a beacon-light of hope and encouragement.

S. Rangaswami Aiyangar, B. A.
Editor, The Hindu, Madras

Dr. Annie Besant easily takes, by common consent, a very

high rank among the foreigners who, by their consecrated service
to this ancient land, have earned the gratitude, love and reverence
of Indians. On account of her long and intimate association with
us in all our National Movements, Religious, Social and Political,
we have indeed forgotten that she is a foreigner and cheerfully
assigned to her an honored place among our great National Lead-
ers. Her contributions to the National life of the people of
Bharatavarsha are many and varied. There is no sphere of Na-
tional activity which has not claimed her attention. When she first
set foot on Indian soil, the young men of this country, who came
under the influence of middle nineteenth century European cul-
ture as interpreted by two different sets of European teachers—
the secular educationist and the religious missionary—had their
faith in their National culture and traditional religion undermined.
Some of them were drawn towards free thought and secularism,
while others were attracted to Christianity. Among the causes that
contributed to stem that tide of denationalisation I am disposed to
place in the forefront the gospel of the revival of Hinduism which
Mrs. Besant preached with rare insight and marvellous power.
Not only did she expound the spiritual truths that lay embedded
in the ancient Hindu Scriptures with a clearness and lucidity
which is her own, but she also unravelled the mysteries of our
ceremonialism and ritual so as to put new life and meaning into
them. There will be always critics who estimate differently the
real spiritual and rational values of her teachings, but it cannot be
denied that many who had already lost their faith in their religion
were helped to regain it by the influence she exercised over them
by her teachings. This is a lasting achievement to her credit.
The Theosophical Educational Trust and the Society for
the Promotion of National Education organised by her, afford
clear proof of her true insight into the real educational needs of
the country. She did much more than what a single individual can
do to promote them, and the blame for not making them a suc-
cessful as she wished them to become rests on us, for whose
benefit she launched the schemes.
Dr. Besant’s contribution to the cause of political freedom of
India and the part she took and is taking in the struggle for that
freedom are too well known to require reiteration. I believe that
her first active participation in the work of the Indian National
Congress began in 1914. The circumstances which brought her
into the Congress fold and the reasons that induced her to join the
Congress furnish the real clue to her political faith. After the Surat
Split, the two wings of the Congress politicians did not come to-
gether for some years. The Moderates had possession of the
Congress and the Nationalists, under the leadership of Loka-
manya Tilak, held aloof.
Mrs. Besant then saw that the fight for India’s Freedom could
never be carried to a successful issue unless we had a united Con-
gress. She exerted all her influence to bring the “Moderates” and
“Extremists” together at Madras, in 1914. She then appeared on
the Congress platform and moved the Resolution regarding the
position of Indians in the Colonies. Let me quote one sentence
from that speech in which her political creed is summed up: “In-
dia claims the right as a Nation to Justice among the peoples of
the Empire. India asked for this before the War. India asked for it
during the War. India will ask for it after the War, but not as a
reward, but as a right does she ask for it. On that there must be no
mistake.” She believes in a Commonwealth of Self-Governing
Nations within the British Empire. National Autonomy inside a
coming Federation of the British Empire is her watch-word. She
is an Imperial Nationalist. She stands for nothing less than full
Dominion Status for India. She never questioned the birthright of
Indians to Home Rule, and she never denied the capacity of Indi-
ans to govern themselves. As in 1914, so now, she pleads for unity
among all ranks of politicians. Differences of opinion in politics
are inevitable, but all of us can surely combine in matters in which
we agree and impart to our fight for Freedom all the strength and
 inspiration which it can gain by combined action. Mrs. Besant
pleads for such combination. I cannot do better than close this
appreciation with the following words of one of her Biographers:
“A magnetic personality, a finished orator, a capable organiser,
endowed with large powers of imagination and sympathy and
with a very rare combination of the subtle wisdom of the diplomat
with the fervor of the prophet, Mrs. Besant’s influence over a very
large section of our educated countrymen has been hardly less
than that of any other leader of thought in India of the present
generation.”
V. Ramadas, B. A., B. L., F. M. U.

I consider it a privilege to be asked to write about Dr. Annie Besant

on the occasion of the celebration of her Jubilee, at the completion
of fifty years of her public life. It is by no means easy to write about
her. One feels overcome with one’s inability to do full justice to the
task. Were a layman to write about her and take a review of her
work in the course of fifty strenuous years, during which, in some
sphere or another, she has striven to serve humanity, and were he to
assume the role of the severest critic scrutinising most minutely her
contributions in different directions, I am afraid it would be difficult
even for a not very friendly critic to avoid the conclusion that she is
one of the few of our age, who, starlike, shines far above her fellow-
beings, for she has striven to serve them, to uplift them, and all that
the world may hold dear she has sacrificed at the altar of one su-
preme goal, Service to Humanity. And yet, for one who is not her
follower, it is less difficult to write and speak about her than it is for
one, like me, whose greatest privilege and joy in life is to rank
among her numerous followers, as one, humble and weak, but yield-
ing to none in his longing to be of use to her in the wonderful task
she has undertaken. In the past, it has often fallen to my lot to write
and speak about her. And yet at the end of every article or speech
that I have written or made, I have been painfully conscious of my
failure to do full justice to her. However, it is no fault of mine if I
have failed in the past, and if, as I am afraid, I may fail again. For,
to recognise greatness to its fullest extent in a leader, one must have,
latent or manifest, the germs of that greatness in oneself.
I need not apologise for prefacing my article on Dr. Besant with
these remarks, because I wish it clearly to be understood that if my
estimate falls short, it will be due to my unworthiness and unfitness
to comprehend all that is great in her. It has been my privilege to be
connected intimately with Dr. Besant. She is my Chief, my leader.
I wonder if it is possible to give my definition of the word Leader.
I am afraid, in these days of cheap notoriety, the word Leader has
come down from the sacred pedestal it occupied in Indian thought
to be regarded as a term to be exploited through lip-profession, by
vulgar politicians. As a leader, Dr. Besant means to me an ideal for
the sake of whose service everything must be sacrificed. And that
act of sacrifice, whatever earthly consequences it may bring, should
become a source of the greatest inner joy, strength and peace. Dr.
Besant is primarily my spiritual leader, my Guru. Along with me,
there are numerous men and women in India, of whom many may
be Theosophists and others not, who will be prepared to admit that
in restoring amongst Indians pride in India’s past, faith in India’s
ancient religion and culture, and the consequent yearning to strive
to make her future brighter and mightier than her past, all of which
had been almost irretrievably lost, Dr. Besant would claim the most
prominent share. I have referred above to the wonderful task she has
undertaken.
What is that task? Throughout fifty years of her public life, there
is one and only one goal which she has placed in front of her mind’s
eye—Service to Humanity. Before she became a Theosophist, when
she was not sure of the existence of God, in her Atheism, she
preached the necessity of service to our “forlorn” brethren and sis-
ters. And she practised what she preached. When Theosophy
supplied to her the key to the problems of life, she still preached and
practised the same ideal of service to humanity, no longer “forlorn,”
because she believed in the existence of Higher Powers who always
stretch out Their protecting hands to the most miserable of our kind,
but because she believed that the path of service to our fellow-be-
ings was the path whereby man may realise the Self within him,
may come in contact with someone or other of Those Great Guard-
ians of Humanity, one of Those Perfect Men Whose sole aim it is
to enable Humanity through the instrumentality of Their agents on
the physical plane to strive and attain perfection through gradual
evolution.
It is but natural that Christianity, as crudely and inaccurately in-
terpreted by the Church, should not only have failed to satisfy a keen
and acute intellect like Dr. Besant’s, but should also raise doubts
and opposition in her zealous and searching mind. Her unbelief in
religion did not prevent her from applying all her wonderful energy,
organising power, industry and other resources to the task of freeing
men and women from slavery, whether it was found at home or in
the factory, in the political, social or religious sphere. She revolted
against tyranny of every kind and preached freedom in thought and
action considering it the sine qua non of human progress and human
happiness. Whenever she came into conflict with the authorities
while carrying on her mission, she defied them, fighting them from
the legal standpoint, declaring that no authority on the surface of the
earth had a right to infringe on human freedom of thought and ac-
tion. While even today in Great Britain we do not perceive a
universal belief in the ideal of the realisation of the God within him-
self by man, for which the East, both Buddhism and Hinduism,
stands, we do discern the result of the pioneer work done by Dr.
Besant and her colleague, the chief of whom was Charles Brad-
laugh, in the acceptance of the ideal, not spiritual in its ultimate aim,
as understood in the East, but spiritual inasmuch as it is selfless from
the individual standpoint, the ideal of striving, with every effort and
sacrifice, to make all the classes materially happy.
 After becoming a Theosophist in 1889, Dr. Besant embraced Hin-
duism and to this day she is a Hindu by religion. Being religious
since her very childhood, she found in Hinduism all answers to the
numerous questions born in her questioning and searching mind—
questions which were left unanswered by the teachings of the
Church Christianity. On her arrival in India, she took no time in
grasping the fact that while India inherited a wonderful ideal, she
had temporarily gone to sleep, and while the multitude slept the
young Western-educated Indians were beginning to lose pride in
their ancestors’ past and faith in their ancient religion and culture.
The restoration of these engaged her first attention. In her speeches
and writings, she extolled the religions of the East and created a
fervor for them by declaring that, shorn of the prejudices and super-
stitions that a period of civil war, mutual misunderstandings and
consequent ignorance had helped to gather round them, they were
the best remedy not only for the problems of India but the problem
that the world would soon be called upon to face. She then founded
the Central Hindu College in which religious and moral teaching on
the broadest possible lines was the main factor. This helped to create
the new type of Indian youth not only in the Central Hindu College;
for the result of her teaching was not confined merely to the devel-
opment of that spirit in the College founded by her, but it spread far
and wide throughout India, and one reads of publicists, like Valen-
tine Chirol, foreseeing what he calls danger, in Mrs. Besant’s
revival of Nationalism by restoring respect for all that was great in
the past.
The Central Hindu College now forms the nucleus of the Hindu
University towards the creation of which Dr. Besant has contributed
no small share. The type of youth that was produced in the Central
Hindu College, along with the band of servers in the Theosophical
Society, brought a new life into Hinduism by their standing for the
realities that underlay their religion and striving to rid Hinduism of
all those evils, prejudices and superstitions which were impeding
the growth of India as a Nation. The lines along which social reform
was to be carried out are clearly indicated in the collection of lec-
tures given by Dr. Besant in 1913, called Wake up, India. It is true
she holds to the Hindu Faith – that is the result of her past inclina-
tions and her passionate love for India; but truly speaking, she is
above all religions. She has always preached that all religions come
from the same source, that the Fountainhead is one. While each em-
phasises the particular point which is necessary at a particular time
for a number of people, their teachings are fundamentally the same.
After bringing about the religious revival and establishing educa-
tional institutions, where the new type of Indian youth could be
trained, and after indicating the lines along which, internally, social
reform could he achieved, she saw clearly that if India was to be
useful to the world, she had to be politically free. Nothing of im-
portance could be accomplished until the rule of Indians themselves
was substituted for the rule of a foreign bureaucracy not responsible
to the people of the country. She started by successfully striving to
secure unity between the Right and the Left Wings of the Congress,
was largely instrumental in bringing about the settlement of the
Hindu-Muslim question and was mainly responsible for founding
Home Rule Leagues for the purpose of carrying on Constitutional
agitation and political education amongst the masses of the people.
For this she suffered at the hands of the authorities and was interned
by the Madras Government in 1917. This gave rise to a unique agi-
tation not only in India but in Great Britain and also in America,
with the result that Mr. Montagu was appointed Secretary of State
for India, the famous Declaration of August, 1917, was made by His
Majesty’s Government, and Mrs. Besant was set free.
Mrs. Besant did not and does not aim at India’s separation from
Great Britain. She looks forward to the formation of the Indo-Brit-
ish Commonwealth with India as an equal partner, managing her
own affairs internally and participating freely and equally in the
Councils of the Commonwealth. She was misunderstood by the
authorities. Many asked then how she, a Theosophist, who stood for
the principle of Universal Brotherhood, could carry on the cam-
paign in favor of one country as against another. Both the attitude
of the Government of those days and the questioners of the latter
type betrayed colossal ignorance. But the answer to this I will give
a little later. When the movement of Non-Co-Operation was started
by Mr. Gandhi as a protest against the Government’s wrongdoing,
while she condemned the Government for their wrongdoings, she
opposed Mr. Gandhi’s movement with the same vehemence with
which she had fought the Government on the question of Home
Rule for India. She was misunderstood by the people. To Dr. Bes-
ant, internment by the Government for her defence of India’s right
was as welcome as the misunderstanding by the people whom she
loved, for whom she had striven so hard. The words which she ut-
tered in the Subjects Committee of the Special Session of the
Congress in 1920 are still ringing in my ears: “I would rather be
chased out by the people whom I love most and whose love I con-
sider the greatest joy of my life than support a movement which I
know is going to bring disaster to this country and impede its pro-
gress.” Only three years before that Dr. Besant was the idol of the
people. She was howled down, hooted and hissed at meetings. Did
she give up striving for India’s Freedom? Even now, at 76, here or
abroad, wherever she may be, she works for this country more than
does any other person.
The other day, speaking at a send-off meeting, tired of the misun-
derstanding of her by some people, I said that “considering the
influence that Dr. Besant wielded in England, considering the fact
that the greatest men and women in England thought it a privilege
to have an interview with her, it seems to me that it is a condescen-
sion on her part to do what she is doing for India, in spite of
misrepresentation, opposition and calumny”. After the meeting we
were hardly seated in the car, when Dr. Besant said: “Why did you
say that, my dear boy? You should not say that again. You know
that to serve India, my Master’s Motherland, is the greatest privilege
and joy of my life.” Needless to say, I felt ashamed of myself; for
other peoples’ ignorance was no justification for me to indulge in
remarks which I knew would be resented by her. She loves India
with a devotion which it is hard to comprehend, and yet she did not
hesitate to risk her popularity and incur the displeasure of the people
she loves most for the sake of her principles. And the answer to the
Government, who misunderstood her in 1917, to those who doubted
her advocacy of Universal Brotherhood and those who misunder-
stood her opposition to the Non-Co-Operation movement is this: Dr.
Besant’s plan is the formation of the Indo-British Commonwealth,
with India as a free and equal partner thereof. She does not believe
in an exclusive India, separated from other Nations. She believes
that the connection between Great Britain and India is not only nec-
essary for both these countries but essential for the future progress
of the world. She believes in the building up of a world civilisation,
to which every Nation will contribute its quota. India’s contribution
is to be the greatest, that of the soul of that civilisation, her concep-
tion of spirituality; that the blending of all that is sound and
wholesome in the Western civilisation and the ideal of the East will
produce a wonderful world civilisation. It is remarkable that in her
own person, she gives us an example of what this blending is likely
to accomplish. With the industry, energy, organising power, capac-
ity for continuous work and application, for which the West stands,
is blended the knowledge of the God within and the consequent
strength, power, joy and peace that passeth understanding, for
which the East, represented by India, stands. The result is marvel-
lous. It has given to the world Annie Besant, a personality unique
in the present generation. A great internationalist, a great champion
of Brotherhood, of Freedom, she strives for India’s Freedom, be-
cause she believes that unless India grows to her fullest stature by
means of Freedom, she will not be able to give her quota of spiritu-
ality to the world civilisation. The denial of freedom to India would
be a loss not so much to India as to the world.
In the short space of an article it is difficult to allude to all the
different aspects of Dr. Besant. As a spiritual leader, as a political
leader, she is a remarkable Chief to work under, who respects even
the humblest of her followers. She is a Mother to many of us and
practically so; many of us have dedicated our lives to her service,
for in that bondage, we feel we have secured the greatest freedom.
She takes burdens, which the people of the world like to avoid, and
while many of us who work under her may desire to lighten a little
of her burden, we know that in the very acceptance of our services
and our dedication, she imposes on her own devoted shoulders new
burdens, arising from our weakness and our shortcomings. A great
leader, a great inspirer, a great world server, a great Seer, a great
thinker, a loyal friend, and a brave fighter, Annie Besant is what she
is, because she is the follower of the great ideal of Truth.

Jamnadas Dwarkadas, B. A., F. T. S.

… Mrs. Besant left England for India in 1893. Her first visit to
Madras was about December of that year. Since then I have had
unique opportunities of studying Dr. Besant’s activities and her
work for the uplift of India – opportunities which, I am proud to say,
not many even among the multitude of her Theosophic followers
can claim to have had. My work as a journalist brought me into con-
tact with Dr. Besant’s many-sided activities at many points and in a
great many centres. Life in India in all fields has begun to pulsate
with new aspirations and ideals, with the advent of Dr. Besant as
one of the most dominating personalities, even if she is not to be
reckoned as the main spring in all Indian activities. Armed with the
master-key to all esoteric and exoteric knowledge relating to Indian
thought and life, everywhere she found the treasures of Indian Wis-
dom open to her as the pages of a printed book to read and to
expound the basic principles underlying them all. She staggered
Indian leaders with the profundity and depth of her knowledge and
grasp of their religious beliefs and philosophical tenets. Proud as
Indians are, brought up in the traditions of their enlightened ortho-
doxy, which in matters of philosophy and religion gave them liberty
of thought almost amounting to liberty of free thought, they flocked
to listen to Mrs. Besant’s exposition of their philosophy and reli-
gion. It is unthinkable that she could have virtually walked into the
Wisdom-Treasures of the East as she has done, without her equip-
ment, which can only be explained by the doctrines of Karma and
Reincarnation.
Within a year of her arrival in India she came to be acknowl-
edged as the one soul possessing the necessary previous
preparation, equipment and the all-absorbing passion to lead India
back to her days of pristine purity in religion, philosophy and social
practices. Her admiration for the past of this land, her love for its
Ancient Wisdom and historical traditions, and social and religious
ideals, are born of an unerring insight and grasp of the fundamental
and universal principles on which they are based. India has found
no one critic more loving to her best points and more fearless in the
exposure of centuries of evils which have gathered around her pris-
tine foundations than Dr. Besant. Twenty years of unceasing
activities to rid the religious beliefs and social practices of Hindu
India of encrustations and impurities of centuries had endeared her
to the heart of the millions of the grateful people of this
land, when she felt the urgent call and turned her attention
of political work, which has come to be looked upon as the prin-
cipal road to India’s goal of emancipation in all spheres of her
existence. During her career as a social and religious reformer she
had traversed the length and breadth of India scores of times return-
ing every year to England, the fountainhead of all her energy. In
these tours and travels, she acquired an intimate knowledge of
Hindu Society of all grades and made her way into the heart of real
India, where her loving services and sacrifices will have an enduring
place for centuries. This is by no means the language of exaggera-
tion. As in the cause of Hindu religion so in the cause of Indian
politics, she has rendered incalculable service to the people of this
land and to the solidarity and permanence of British rule which she
has, through good repute and ill repute, striven to convert into a Na-
tional Government. Her unbounded love for India and her absorbing
passion to link her future for ever and ever with the British Empire,
had led to her motives being misunderstood and misrepresented by
narrow-minded Imperialists and Extremists, both in this country
and in England. But she has never allowed herself to be deflected
from what she considered to be the sure and safe path to the goal of
India’s Self-Government or Dominion Status, as an integral part of
the British Empire, a part which gives the only claim to Great Brit-
ain’s Imperial status. Whatever the judgment of ill-informed and
prejudiced critics, those that have followed Dr. Besant’s Indian ca-
reer for the best part of over a third of a century have no doubt as
to the large place which she has already won for herself in the heart
of the masses of India, by reason of her disinterested and genuine
constructive work for her uplift in the religious, political, social and
economic spheres.
When the history of India for the British Period comes to be writ-
ten, even if the historian happens to be unfriendly, he cannot but
recognise the large part which Mrs. Besant has played in shap-
ing India’s destinies at a critical period in the history of the British
Empire and in binding her to the British Commonwealth with the
silken ties of love of Freedom and Constitutional agitation for the
achievement to her goal of Self-Government as an important Mem-
ber of that Commonwealth. In no part of the world can the Jubilee
of Mrs. Besant’s fifty years of the most fruitful and the most selfless
work be celebrated today with greater thankfulness and appreciation
than in India, which she has made her Motherland, and the Hindu
religion her life’s inspiration. If love and service are passports to the
heart of the people, no one can say with greater justification than
Mrs. Besant, adapting the words of The Upanishads: “I am she (In-
dia), and she is myself.”
So thorough has been the identity and so complete the merging.
The prayers and the sincerest blessings of a grateful people will go
forth today to the Ordainer of all gifts that Dr. Besant may be spared
for many a long year to continue her devoted and disinterested work
for this land, which is her Motherland as much as it is for every loyal
Hindu.

Dewan Bahadur C. V. Muniswami Aiyar

Chief Reporter, The Madras Mail (Retired)

To anyone who surveys her life, from her childhood onwards up

to today, her life, as a secularist and atheist, as a Socialist and a
Theosophist, as worker for Education, Social Reform, or in the po-
litical field, the one thing that strikes him is the utter seriousness of
her attitude towards life and its purpose, her constant awareness of
the why and wherefore of human life, and her unflinching devotion
in achieving that purpose. A mere glance at her face will convince
anyone, how it is a faithful index of this inner attitude of hers. Social
obloquy, persecution, questionings of her motives and good faith,
defection of friends and co-workers have never been able to scare
her away from her self-chosen path. In her ceaseless effort to
achieve the highest purpose of life, she has transcended the regions
both of body and mind; her vision has been illumined, and her life
ever partakes of the “peace that passeth understanding”.

The next striking feature of her life is her wonderful energy. She
has gone round the civilised world, not once but thrice within my
living memory, travelling from continent to continent and from
country to country, writing and speaking with matchless eloquence
and consummate wisdom, illuminating and inspiring wherever she
went. Everywhere she has fired people with her own zeal and
enthusiasm, ever tireless and energetic, proclaiming her divine mis-
sion and bringing men and women ever nearer to realities of life. In
1909, when she was touring in the United States of America, con-
tinuously for two months travelling by night and working by day,
the late Mr. W. T. Stead, her staunch friend and admirer, wrote in
his Review of Reviews that “she is sleeping in railway cars and living
on public platforms”. Years have since passed away, and yet even
to this day, in 1924, we read in English papers that at this age of
seventy-seven, she is working with an energy and intensity which
even younger workers can never aspire to reach. In her presence,
when we are face to face with the shining splendor of her body and
soul-fire, we feel that fatigue, illness, old age, and death are fig-
ments created by man’s faulty imagination.
It is this intense and energetic life of hers, which she has devoted
to the cause of Indian Freedom, the Freedom of the “Motherland of
my Master,” as she often says. It is, as she says, her last piece of
work for this life, and which it is her privilege to be allowed to do.
One has only to observe the intense life that she has poured into the
field of Indian politics, since she entered it ten years ago, to be con-
vinced of the truth of what I say. How she started The Commonweal
and New India with “For God, Crown, and Country,” as their motto
in 1914 ; how fearlessly she advocated the cause of Indian Freedom
through their columns; how she rallied together all the divergent el-
ements in the Congress camp of Hindus and Muhammadans, and of
Moderates and Nationalists; how she started the Home Rule Move-
ment and made it a watch-word in every home in town and hamlet,
and set the country from one end to another throbbing and pulsating
with the one idea of Home Rule; how the reactionary Government
interned her along with her two associates; how the internment at-
tracted the gaze of the whole civilised world to the Indian affairs
and brought its influence, especially that of the United States of
America, in the British Government, because of the historical letter
of Dr. S. Subramania Iyer to President Wilson; how that led to the
famous Declaration of August 20, 1917, and to the visit of Mr. Mon-
tagu to India and to the passing of the present Government of India
Act—all this is a matter of history, within the living memory of the
present generation. All this history is a history of appreciation of her
services by the sons of the Motherland. Then a change, and an un-
pleasant change, came—days of stress and trial for the leaders and
masses of India. Reactionary forces in Indian Bureaucracy brought
this disaster. The Panjab (sic) Tragedy and the Rowlatt Act were the
manifestations of these reactionary forces. They shook the land
from one end to the other. Mr. Gandhi proclaimed Non-Cooperation
with Government. Mrs. Besant clearly saw that the time to inspire
the people was over. Now was the time to control them. But none
would heed her counsel of discretion and self-control and Constitu-
tional methods of work. The leaders and masses judged her by the
standards of her reactionary countrymen, with whom she had noth-
ing in common except the color of the skin. They forgot their long-
tried friend. They yelled at her; tried to gag her in their National
Congress and on public platforms; tried to hound her out of the field
of politics. But hers was a heart warm with Supreme Love, which
no amount of hatred, ridicule, jeering or distrust could embitter. She
saw in all that rage and gagging a demand for the payment of a debt
for her white skin, and she silently and joyfully paid it. But she did
not lower down her flag, she did not budge even an inch from her
outlined path. She did not compromise; nor did she give a period of
trial to Mr. Gandhi’s plan and methods, as was done by Swarajists,
which was supposed to be a great feat of strategic retreat and patri-
otism. She gave a bold and resistant tough fight to Mr. Gandhi’s
views and methods of work through her papers. She rallied round
her flag National Home Rulers and Progressive Liberals who were
willing to work the Reforms for what they were worth; started the
Reforms Conferences and, lastly, the National Conference move-
ment, which developed ultimately into the NATIONAL
CONVENTION, the only method of constructive politics, and is now
working might and main for her Motherland with the aid of her whi-
lom friends and companions of the Labor Party in England, and she
is bound to work on till she succeeds in delivering her Motherland
from the bondage of a dependency and raising Her to the status of
full Dominion Home Rule.
I have called her an UNIQUE WORLD FIGURE, and verily she is
so. Four are the principal spheres of man’s life’s activities, corre-
sponding to his four constituent vehicles, the body, the desire, the
mind, and the spirit. These four spheres are Politics, Social Reform,
Education and Religion; and, again, they subdivide into two in each
sphere, i.e., one of a thinker, a writer, a philosopher and another of
a propagandist. I challenge any one of your readers to point out to
me a single instance on record in any book of living or ancient his-
tory or mythology of a personage who worked in all these four
spheres of human life, both as a thinker and a propagandist in the
span of a single physical life in this world. And yet we see this
unique wonder, wrought by this Great Lady, apparently putting on
the veil of an English body in the present, but who is really a trav-
elling ancient pilgrim both of the West and the East, and who is
really the choicest tribute of Mother Earth.
At the feet of such an One I place this humble Flower of Love in
silent and utter reverence.
W. L. Chiplunkar
High Court Vakil [Lawyer or Solicitor], Akola

To write about Dr. Besant is describe world-movements. She is

unique and yet universal. As Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal said, “Dr. Bes-
ant is not a personality but an idea”. She is not only an idea, but an
ideal to thousands all the world over. Many may not follow her, but
all admire her. To me and many others who, in early life, had the
privilege of coming into contact with Dr. Besant and her work, she
has been the polestar of our training, our work and our achievement.
Public praise or blame of our work has counted for nothing, if the
work has been along the lines set down by her.
Her achievements have been a complete vindication of her meth-
ods. Well-planned, systematic, far-seeing and wise are her plans.
When she came to India in the last decade of the last century, the
goal of Swaraj was already in her vision; but realising that a Swaraj
administered by men who were ashamed of their own religion and
its mighty traditions would be but a mockery, she began her system-
atic work of the revivification of Hinduism, preaching to the Indian
people the glories of their own past, which they had forgotten or had
been made to forget under the careful tuition of foreign education-
ists. She started the Central Hindu College to keep the sacred fire of
Hinduism burning in its purity in the holy city of Kashi.
Then came the work of social purification and the removal of in-
justices, which acted and still act as a canker in the fulfilment of
Indian aspirations. She spoke and wrote vigorously against the in-
justices in Hindu Society to women, children and untouchables; she
denounced early marriage and the extravagances of a deformed
caste system. The seed was sown on a ground already prepared by
the first phase of her work; achievement and practical realisation
were merely questions of time. The ball of social reform had been
set rolling and momentum was sure to come.
The third aspect of her work was the physical emancipation of
the Indian people, the intellectual and moral emancipation having
been begun and largely achieved by the first two phases of her work.
The whirlwind agitation for Home Rule for India and the conse-
quent Reform Act is modern history and need not be dilated upon.
There has been no lack of opposition and misrepresentation, but
there has always been appreciation.
Another big and, one hopes, final effort, for the achievement of
the goal is in progress, and one feels that the Jubilee of her public
work will be crowned with the attainment of Swaraj by India. But
India must unite, and there is no reason why she should not, on the
non-party platform of the NATIONAL CONVENTION, created by
her genius and industry.
To thousands the world over, she has brought spiritual consola-
tion and light by her wonderful writings and has done more to bring
the various Nations together than several Disarmament Conferences
and Leagues of Nations. Her name is spoken with reverence and
devotion by many in every country, where a visit from her for a brief
day is looked forward to for months. We are, indeed, lucky in India
that we have the services of one who can be said to have reached
perfection in the methods and ideals of work. Such benefactors of
humanity but appear in the world at intervals of centuries. May we
be worthy of the privilege!
Y. Prasad
Secretary, The Theosophical Educational Trust

Of the greatness of Dr. Annie Besant, of her vast influence over

the life and thought of the world it is difficult to form any adequate
judgment. So various, so many-sided is her genius that it requires
the perspective of a long period of time to be able to view her work
as a unity. It is, therefore, not astonishing that superficial observers
are bewildered by the amazing rapidity with which she turns from
one activity to another, and are unable to understand the different
roles that she assumes with all the skill of a quick-change artist. This
dramatic quality in her temperament is often much misunderstood.
The fact is that the circumstances of the age have imposed upon her
a task so stupendous, so varied, that only a genius of extraordinary
versatility and power could adequately deal with it. The estimates
of her personality are as varied as the phases of her genius. Lord
Haldane describes her as the greatest living statesman. In the coun-
try of her birth, she is looked up to with reverence and gratitude by
thousands as the great champion of Liberty, as one who fought and
suffered for freedom of thought and conscience and worked nobly
for the poor and the oppressed.
Far-seeing statesmen realise that by her magnificent services in
India she has saved India for the Empire and has lifted to a higher
plane the ideal of an Indo-British Commonwealth. To many others,
to all those, whether Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi or Musal-
man, who have broken away from the narrow orthodoxies of their
own Faith, she is the great spiritual teacher who, having herself
passed from the darkness of unbelief into the clear sunlight of an
assured and serene conviction, has led thousands through the gate-
way of knowledge and opened their eyes to the Truth. To the few
who have had the privilege of intimate touch with her, she is one of
the Elder Brethren who have trodden the Way, the Ancient, Narrow
Way, guiding the human race to its appointed end. It is of her mag-
nificent work for India that I wish to write. Thirty-three years ago,
in the winter of 1891, she was invited by the General Secretary of
the Indian Section of the T. S. to come to India, because he found
the educated youth of India steeped in materialism, and there was
no intellectual basis on which a nobler idealism could be founded.
But it was only 2 years later that Dr. Besant landed on Indian soil.
For over thirty years in this incarnation she has made India her home
and adopted her as her Motherland. It is difficult to describe her love
for India. It is a sacred land to her, rendered holy forever by the
presence and benediction of Those Mighty Rishis who still guide
the destinies of Nations. As Their appointed servant, she has conse-
crated her marvellous power to the service of India. She made her
home in Kashi, the great heart-centre of India. She studied India
first-hand, her literature, her traditions, and gathered round herself
the highest and best products of Hindu culture. Speaking of some of
them, she said: “They are but few, very, very few, known within a
very small circle. Their hope is of the future and not of today. They
take part in no political controversies; they take part in none of the
competitions for place and money, they care not for Western titles,
they care not for Western privilege nor Western honors; their heart
is in the past and in the future, and they are living, for that future
today.” She dreamed great dreams for India and raised her voice
which thrilled through the length and breadth of the land, and pro-
claimed once more the immemorial Dharma, and a generation
brought up on the teachings of Spencer and Huxley and who had
followed her during her Free Thought days became eager for the
study of ancient religion and philosophy. Speaking in 1895 of the
“Means of India’s Regeneration,” we find her trying to revive the
study of Samskrit, urging Indians to translate the sacred books
themselves and protesting against leaving that work to be done by
“men who do not share your beliefs and have no sympathy whatso-
ever with your religion”. We find her also urging the study of the
vernaculars based on Samskrit, as one of the most important
measures for resisting the denationalising process. We also find her
speaking of the essentials of a National system of Education based
upon an understanding of and reverence for the past.
Among the other points in the building up of the Indian Nation
she mentions the maintenance of the traditional dress, ways of liv-
ing and so on, the promotion of Indian arts and manufactures, by
giving preference to Indian products over the foreign. It is useful to
remember that as far back as 1895 she said: “Let all encourage In-
dian manufactures and arts and use Indian7made goods in India.
Indian Art has gained a name all over the world because of its
beauty and its artistic finish, and why should men who have such
art on their own soil, why should they go and buy the shoddy pro-
ductions of Birmingham and Manchester, why should they purchase
foreign goods instead of home-made and encourage bad art instead
of good. These arts would awaken a sense of Nationality, filtering
down from the higher to the lower, regenerating the Nation, striking
its roots deep down into the physical lives of the people, uniting all
India, binding all India together closer and closer and closer till her
oneness is realised, till Indians recognise in themselves a people.
“But these physical means of regeneration cannot succeed unless
they flow down, as the lowest means of the spiritual ideal, and the
unifying of India must be founded on and permeated by a spiritual
life recognised as the supreme good, as the highest goal.
“If India could be regenerated, if India could be purified, if India
could be re-spiritualised, then the Nation as a whole, with her spir-
itual faculties, her intellectual powers, her ideally perfect social
organisation, would stand forth in the eyes of the world as the priest-
people of Humanity.”
This was her great dream for India, the revival of religion and
learning, the study of Samskrit and the Vernaculars, National Edu-
cation, the encouragement of Indian Arts and Crafts, Swadeshi—all
aiming at the realisation of India’s mighty Dharma of being the
Spiritual Teacher of Humanity.
How faithfully, how devotedly has she sought to accomplish the
plan? What do we not owe to her, we who belong to a generation
that found in her books and in her articles the answer to the chal-
lenge of materialistic science and the foul abuse, by the misguided
missionaries of Christianity, of all that was sacred and dear to us?
What do we not owe to her, we who believed India to be dead, who
felt no pride in her past, no hope in her future? She restored to us
our lost heritage, gave us life and hope. We were not a defeated
Nation, our humiliation and suffering was the humiliation and suf-
fering of the Cross; our glory and resurrection was at hand. We who
lived in an atmosphere of inferiority dared to lift up our eyes and
look the world in the face, with the calm and passionless serenity of
age-long wisdom.
In 1897, the Central Hindu College was founded, and month after
month, the youth of India thrilled to the message of hope and the
inspiration of a new life that flowed abundantly through the pages
of The C. H. C. Magazine.
The Central Hindu College has grown into a great University
with a Samskrit Department attached to it, and all over India are a
large number of Theosophical and National Schools, still largely fi-
nanced by Mrs. Besant. The Sanatana Dharma Textbooks (sic),
books like The Story of the Great War and The Children of the
Motherland are now used throughout India for the religious educa-
tion of the Indian youth. She tackled the question of social reform,
pleaded for the raising of the age of marriage for girls and boys,
prohibited the admission of married boys into the Schools under her
control, and when she found it impossible to restore the purity of
the ancient Caste System, boldly urged the abolition of the present
one which was a distinct violation of the ancient fourfold system
based upon Dharma and not upon Birth. The League of Liberal
Brahmanas is one of the most powerful influences working in the
South for the reform of the Hindu social system. Under her leader-
ship also, the Theosophical Society has continued its excellent work
for the education and elevation of the submerged classes. Latterly
the problem of Labor has been taken up by her lieutenants, and
many other schemes of social reform are now being tackled under
her leadership.
After twenty years’ work in the field of religious, educational and
social reform, she entered with dramatic suddenness the arena of
politics. The beginning of 1914 saw the publication of The Com-
monweal, and on the 1st of August The Madras Standard came out
in its new garb as New India. Her entry into the domain of politics
was a signal for a general quickening and awakening of political
consciousness among the people. Working at first in close coopera-
tion with Mr. Gokhale, she brought about the union of the two wings
of the Congress, and by ceaseless work brought the different parties
to frame a scheme of reform, the famous Congress-League Scheme.
In 1917, she was looked upon as a danger to the public peace and
was interned, without trial, by the Government of Lord Pentland,
and was released three months later. In December, 1917, she was
elected as the President of the Indian National Congress.
As the result of continuous and great sacrifices and much suffer-
ing, extending over nearly a quarter of a century, she had gained a
position in the country almost unique in the intensity of the devotion
and reverence which she evoked in the hearts of the people.
 A year later she threw away the leadership of Nation and the love
and devotion of its people in the pursuit of what she considered to
be the best interests of the country. No one will probably know what
this sacrifice has meant to her. There is something pathetic in her
love for the Indian people. She bears with extraordinary serenity the
opposition and foul abuse that has been heaped upon her, and yet
she is so sensitive to the kindness and gratitude of her people that
she is moved to her very depths by the smallest expression of it. For
she loves India and her people with deep and passionate intensity.
The very soil is sacred to her. She is Indian in everything but her
body and that she has placed upon the altar of the Motherland, so
that through her sacrifice, the East and the West may realise them-
selves as one, and English and Indian may work together as
comrades and brothers in a great and common work.
Her great work is nearing its completion. Her political life has
been a stormy one. During the last few years it has been specially
so, and yet, though she seems to be surrounded by darkness and the
tempest is raging all round her, yet her head is raised beyond the
clouds in the region of Perpetual Peace and Serene Light, and she
calmly awaits the triumphant close of her work.
We know not how to thank her for the benediction of her pres-
ence—our hearts can only bow down in prayer that she may receive
the reward of her magnificent work in the gratitude of the Mother-
land to one who through the centuries to come will be known and
remembered as Her faithful servant.

B. Sanjiva Rao, M. A., I. E. S.

Principal, Queen’s College, Benares

The rich and wonderful life of Dr. Besant is a theme which may
be treated in different aspects. The present writer is content to dwell
a little on that big subject so far as he knows it from personal
knowledge. Her marvellous capacity for work is a phenomenon
which amazes one. She sits at her desk, writing page after page with-
out break for hours together, apparently without being tired, corrects
proofs with scrupulous precision, revises manuscripts in a way
which the most conscientious of subs. does not do, works away at
correspondence which does not seem to have any end, delivers her
prescribed lecture with her marked eloquence, performs other duties
in clock-like fashion, and goes to her well-merited rest apparently
with the one regret of her life that the day is not longer than it is. You
simply cannot overtake her. This tireless energy is due to her regular
habits, simple food, the spirit of hopefulness which never deserts,
her incurable optimism and enduring faith in a better future which
inspire her work. Her equable nature and equanimity of temper ena-
ble her to withstand those fierce blasts of opposition which are the
daily lot of a fighter, and it is remarkable how she adheres to the
opinions she holds in the face of obloquy and unpopularity. She
thrives on opposition which only whets her appetite, making her
more determined than ever to achieve her purpose. Praise is wel-
come, but blame makes her put redoubled energy into her work. The
Home Rule campaign and the NATIONAL CONVENTION movement
stand as monuments in the political field to her unrivalled organising
ability, her capacity to impart enthusiasm to those around her, her
unique power of mobilising scattered forces, fixing ideas in the pop-
ular mind by advertisement and iteration. Dr. Besant is ever open to
new ideas, the mind is alert, the intellect clear, the brain ever active.
The will to conquer, combined with abundant self-confidence, drives
away diffidence, doubt and despair. Of her earnestness, sincerity,
unselfishness and love of India all the world knows, and her great
gifts of oratory, intellect and the like have ever been freely and un-
reservedly placed at the disposal of India, which has benefited
appreciably in her unequal fight for Freedom. One is surprised that,
with such a hopeful outlook on life, she scarcely laughs; an explana-
tion which has been suggested is that she has no time for it.
She loves her paper, is never weary of looking after it. Does the
affection of a parent change with the changing health of the child?
When it reached the acme of popularity it drew the same loving re-
gard from her as it does now when the line is curving down. It is not
a newspaper in the strict sense of the term; it is mainly a propagandist
organ devoted to the achievement of Indian Home Rule. It is a study
to see her at the Office. She writes with her pencil—a bundle is al-
ways ready for use—in clear, rounded letters, in a hand which is
marvellously steady. She never dictates, rarely makes any change in
what she writes. It is sometimes said that Dr. Besant is a nominal
Editor. That is a stupendous mistake. A whole time Editor with no
other work to do cannot do a fourth of what she does. Her regular
hours, her care in preparing matter for the press, her punctilious re-
gard to punctuation and language, her fairness to admit mistakes, her
close attention to the hundred details which a real editor has to attend
to, all these are striking object-lessons to an young aspirant for a high
position in the journalistic world.
V. S. Ramaswami Sastri
Assistant Editor, New India

Fifty years of public life consecrated to the service of humanity

is a rare distinction: fifty years devoted to the pursuit of one ideal,
and the greater part of that period spent in a movement for the re-
generation of India in the religious, educational, social and political
fields. What can one who is not old enough to take in one sweep the
mightiness of Dr. Besant’s work say on such an occasion? Older
men may speak with greater authority on the changes that have been
brought about in our status and outlook as the result of her efforts.
Admirers and opponents alike have paid homage to the indomitable
will, the stupendous energy, the utter honesty of purpose and the
supreme disregard of all personal considerations with which she has
fought every injustice, oppression and wrong. Noble and unselfish
work is always elevating, but the spirit which underlies her work for
India is unique. Many things of the spiritual life are true to me,
because I have seen them embodied in her. I have known her as the
idol of adoring multitudes; the object of hatred and scorn of those
who erstwhile would have followed her to death; the victim of base
ingratitude, but ever the same through all the vicissitudes of public
or private life seeking and imparting inspiration through ceaseless
work executed with a beautiful and meticulous regard for precision
and detail. I picture to myself that massive head bent over her proofs
or letters or articles at her desk in New India or in her room at Adyar:
and it is a never-failing source of happiness and a call to action. She,
more than any other, reminds me of Shelley’s lines:

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy power which seems omnipotent;
To love and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates,
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent.
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free.
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory.

Most cherished of all privileges is the personal relationship,

which she extends to her own people. Her kindness and affection
and generosity are indescribable; nor is it possible to speak of the
influence she has been in my life, except that it makes all the differ-
ence between an aimless existence and a full life. I salute her with
deep gratitude and veneration, who is both Chief and Mother to me.
B. Shiva Rao
of the Editorial Staff, New India
It is, indeed, a happy privilege to write of Dr. Annie Besant, but a
very difficult task; for not only is she a many-sided personality, but
she is so great in her qualities that to portray them adequately would
require a master-hand. She is a vast theme, and one does not know
where to begin and where to end. Yet it is but meet and fitting that
those of her admirers, friends and followers who have been inspired
by some glimpse of the exquisite ideals she embodies in herself
should lay at her feet, on this unique occasion, the homage of their
testimony, gratitude, affection, reverence or devotion, as the nature
of the tribute may be in each individual case. During the last fifty
years. she has rendered unexampled services to mankind in so many
different directions, she has been the champion of every good cause.
Yet her life has been one of many ups and downs, many struggles.
Even during the last ten years of her concentrated service to India in
the cause of her adopted Motherland’s Freedom, heights of popular-
ity have been succeeded by depths of misrepresentation, prejudice
and hostility, not to speak of lack of support from those for whose
sake she was fighting. Yet through it all our dear leader has ever been
the same, her eyes fixed on the goal she perceives to be essential for
India and for the welfare of the world, pursuing the most direct and
shortest means to reach it, her policy dictated by the clearest insight
and wisdom, and undeflected by passing popular breezes, amounting
sometimes to hurricanes, and working the whole time with magnifi-
cent energy and unfaltering courage. Dr. Besant’s youthfulness at the
age of 78 is often remarked upon, and is a marvel even to her oppo-
nents. Indeed, in her the qualities of the different seasons of human
life seem to be simultaneously present and wonderfully blended.
Along with rare, child-like simplicity and trust shown even towards
the untrustworthy, she shows the passionate ardor of youth, so often
exhibited in her eloquence, the mature judgment and capacity of
manhood, and the ripe wisdom of age. The dominant motive of all
her activities is compassion, a divine sympathy for the weak, the op-
pressed, the suffering, all who lack opportunity for growth and
happiness. From this never-ceasing fountain of sympathy and com-
passion flow the fertilising streams of her service in every direction.
She expects no return in the shape of appreciation, or any other, but
she is too tender-hearted and sympathetic not to respond with an in-
creased endeavor to help those who give her gratitude and affection.
Because compassion is the essence of her being, and true compas-
sion takes the form of service, all her joy is in work and in naught
else. Everything dear to her, even the closest of personal relations,
she sacrifices, if need be, without a moment’s hesitation, for the sake
of the work which means the good and the happiness of all. In her
personal relations she is the very soul of gentleness, adapting herself
to the needs and peculiarities of others, always full of comprehen-
sion, tenderness, and even, as it strikes me, reverence for those who
are far below her in every respect. She has eyes only for the good
points about others, except when it is necessary, either in order to
help them, or for the sake of the work, to take note of undesirable
ones. In her political campaign she has hit hard and perseveringly,
where others have shrunk from a selfish regard for personal interests
or popularity, yet always openly, impersonally, chivalrously, with-
out the slightest feeling of ill-will towards her opponents, and
without attributing to them any derogatory motives. She gladly gives
credit for whatever is best in them, and readily forgives and forgets
all injuries done to herself. Thousands in all parts of the world have
been helped by the light of the Divine Wisdom which she has spread
in right royal measure through her books, writings and speeches. The
lives of many others have been changed utterly, and re-shaped by
her example and her precept. Innumerable persons have been helped
by her suggestions, advice and guidance in the choices they have had
to make in life, and along the lines of their own special activity. The
whole world has been uplifted more than most people can realise by
her wonderful self-sacrifice. To those who have had the privilege of
knowing her intimately she is indeed like a Star shining with stead-
fast splendor and beauty, guiding and inspiring men to all kinds of
beautiful aims and activities, to be followed through the darkness
and storm as well as the calm and fair weather of this life and of lives
to come. Thinking of her, what wish or prayer will be more deeply
voiced forth by the hearts of her followers than that all blessings
from all quarters of space may ever rest upon and surround their
beloved Chief.
N. Sri Ram, B.A.
of the Editorial Staff, New India

Fifty years have brought in their train their failures and successes,
their aspirations and achievements to Dr. Besant and to the causes
which she has represented and stood for. It was my privilege to be
associated for some years with the political work of this remarkable
personality, and it is with great alacrity, therefore, that I have com-
plied with the invitation to say a few, words about her and her work
on the occasion of the Jubilee of her entrance into public life.
Five years before I was born she had commenced her work on The
National Reformer, and, in the nature of things, it is impossible for
me to speak, save by hearsay and on the basis of materials furnished
by herself in her Autobiography, of the early years of her strivings
and accomplishments. In her doubts as in her certainties, Dr. Besant
has ever been firm and strong, and her long life has been one daunt-
less search for Truth regardless of consequences. The wife of a
clergyman who gave up her creed, rather than follow the dictates of
convention and conformity, it was ever the case that, in her own
words, “in the worst crisis of blinding agony my will clung fast to
Truth”. An ultimate verity also is enshrined in the following sen-
tence, the outer significance of which many will concede but the
implications of which few dare follow out: “It is true now,” she says
in her life of herself, “that he who loves father or mother better than
Truth is not worthy of her and the flint-strewed path of honesty is
the way to light and peace.” From a survey of her many-sided life it
must not be inferred that hers was that facile temperament which ex-
changes one opinion for another and clings with obstinacy to the
latest view. She had learnt from her comrade and co-worker, Charles
Bradlaugh, not to form a final opinion on a subject until she had tried
to study the strongest things said against the view to which she was
inclined. So, in those early days of the preaching of atheism and the
flouting of self-satisfied orthodoxies in the Knowlton pamphlet, as
in the later years of Socialism and in the still later days when she
claimed to have reached peace in the religious sense, it was always
the case that she was tolerant of contradiction and, in the language
of Charles Bradlaugh, again, she was her own judge, always scruti-
nising her own speeches and criticising them, gladly reading abuse
of herself and seeing what grains of truth there were in it.
Not sharing her religious beliefs and not being acquainted, save as
an outsider, with the organisation or the tenets of Theosophy, it is
impossible for me to speak with any authority of what has been, with
one exception, the most significant part of her career. But I do know
this: That it is due to Annie Besant that the Indian began increasingly
to feel that sense of self-respect in matters of religion and culture
which, during the early years of the English contact with this coun-
try, had been much to seek. Ignorant and prejudiced criticisms of
superficial observers and a partial survey of the Indian History had
led to this astounding result that it was possible for Macaulay to as-
sert that there was more truth and consolation to be derived from a
single English book than from all the literature of the East. A more
astounding fact was that for about fifty years, educated Indians hung
down their heads as if in shame at their own culture and their own
past, and accepted superior patronising criticisms and a camel-like
superciliousness on the part of uninstructed critics as their due. If
today the Indian feels proud of his past and confident of his future,
if he realises that his country is an entity in the procession of the
Nations, these beliefs were cherished and fostered by persons like
Col. Olcott and, later, by Mrs. Besant who popularised the Indian
scriptures, and, let us admit frankly, made us acquainted with our
own heritage. That work has been elaborated and perfected by Indian
and European scholars and writers, until today there is a reaction
and, indeed, a danger of hostility to the reception of foreign ideas.
But if to one person more than another must be attributed the begin-
nings of that feeling of true patriotism, not many will hesitate before
mentioning the name of Mrs. Besant.
Side by side with her religious work was that great and secular
struggle on behalf of labor and against oppression —a struggle in
which some of the most prominent leaders of the present Labor
Movement were her co-workers like Stead, Messrs. Burrows, Ber-
nard Shaw and Webbs, and many more were her followers and
disciples. Against hard landlords, against the farmers of children, in
favor of the dockers, against the producers of cheap and sweated
goods, in defence of the Match girls, she fought, and undoubtedly
was the pioneer of the Movement which has borne on its tide Labor
ideals until today Labor governs the most conservative country in
the world. All this, as I have already said, is a matter of history.
But let me add a few words of tribute in regard to the political
movement in which Dr. Besant and myself were associated for a few
years.
It was as her opponent that I met her. I conducted against her a
very important case concerning the guardianship of two young per-
sons who had been entrusted to her by their father and whom the
father desired to take back from her. It was, in many ways, a hard
and pitiless fight; but after that fight and, curiously, by reason of it,
we became friends, and soon after the termination of the case, which
she lost in the Indian Courts and only won before the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council, she did me the honor to invite me to join
her in the big political agitation which she was contemplating. The
history of the Home Rule Movement, its many troubles and travails,
the misunderstandings to which it was exposed, the internment of
Mrs. Besant, the subsequent recognition of her real loyalty to the
Empire and its underlying ideals, the embassy of Mr. Montagu and
Lord Chelmsford, which was almost the direct result of her labors,
the formulation of the Reform Act and the inauguration of an exper-
iment which is inevitably bound, if Indians unite practical wisdom
with the pursuit of ideals, to make of India a co-equal partner in the
great Commonwealth of Nations known as the British Empire, these
are writ large in the history of later India. Ranadé was a great helper;
Mehta, a firm and dominating ruler; Gokhale, a wise counsellor,
Gandhi, in certain phases of his activities, an inspirer of multitudes;
but for patient, steady work, apparently humdrum in character but
essentially regenerative, none has outpaced Dr. Besant in the field of
Indian political activity. Failures did not daunt her, invective never
turned her aside; by writing and by speech in her newspapers and on
the public platforms, she exhorted, she rallied, and thanks to her in-
domitable constitution, the hours of her work were almost the hours
of the day and night. And so she organised associations, she went
from Panjab (sic) to Madras and from Bengal to Sindh, and she laid
the foundations of that mass movement which has afterwards grown
in demonstrativeness, but has never been really so strong and so
well-knit as in the years 1916-19, when England was convinced of
the reality of the political demand. A missionary zeal and a confident
faith in the future and patient work to realise her ideals—these were
her watchwords and are the lessons of her life.
Public memories are short and political fashions vary from hour
to hour. The idol of the multitude today is the forgotten worthy of
tomorrow. It may be that the exact line of advance chalked out by
Dr. Besant may not command popular acceptance; but among the
makers of modern India, she will maintain a secure place by reason
of her educational endeavors, her labors in connection with the Be-
nares Hindu University and the Madanapalle College, her
inauguration of the indigenous Scout Movement, her generous ben-
efactions designed to produce and encourage corporate life, her
whole-hearted assimilation of Indian ideals and her strenuous labors
in many spheres, social, educational and political, for the uplift of
the country of her adoption.
The Hon. Mr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, C. I. E.
The Law Member, Government of Madras

On her ‘On the Watch-Tower’ notes in the October 1929 is-

sue of The Theosophist (pp. 4-5), Annie Besant made the following
comment regarding the Ommen Camp of that year and the
dissolution of the Order of the Star:

The Camp at Ommen this year was remarkably harmonious

and friendly. Krishnaji was, of course, his own wonderful Self, full
of outpouring force, insistent, uncompromising, with, now and
again, an exquisite gentleness and tenderness. The latter comes out
chiefly on the unessential things; the former on the essential. It is
very instructive to study his method of dealing with the varied ques-
tions which arise, and also to note his clarity of thought and of
diction. He is simplicity itself, and any apparent obscurity arises
from the depth of the thought expressed, and also from the general
fact that as words are attempted expressions of thoughts, and as the
thoughts of most people are to a great extent vague, lacking in def-
initeness and with blurred outlines, the words selected for their
expression are not always the most apposite. Also, of course, great
spiritual truths, rays of the One Truth, cannot be fully expressed in
human language, developed on the lower planes of Being.
The most impressive thing to me at the wonderful Ommen Camp
was the huge crowd, motionless, silent, all eyes fixed on the slender
figure, erect and calm, sending out a life force that gripped the great
mass of the people, and held it intent on every word. The leaves did
not rustle, the insects ceased to hum, and the rich tones rolled out
through the evening air in waves of music, the melody of the Spirit
embodied in a man, beautiful and mighty, as the Gandharvas them-
selves poised silent over the silent throng. The closing farewell was
exquisite in its emotional power and perfect sweetness, full of com-
passion and tenderness, showing that “poise between Reason and
Love” in which Truth is seen. Happy are we who live in such a
period, if only we can open our hearts as He knocks, so that He may
enter in and dwell with us.
The Dissolution of the Order of the Star will come as a shock to
many, for in a world in which Life manifests itself in forms, the
formless is generally regarded as the unmanifested. However, it is
 only a change of form, practically, as three Trusts, a Foundation
and a Corporation are the physical embodiments of the old physical
Order, and the Life itself, the one essential, uses these for its work
on the physical plane. It is just a practical object-lesson on the es-
sential and the non-essential, and the need to upset no one. Let us
all increase our efforts to act as channels for the Life. The “Chief
Organiser, Order of the Star,” Rajagopal, has struck the right note:
“Each individual is free to express his own inner convictions and
beliefs in his own way, and where that conviction rests upon a sure
foundation, it will produce its flower in a new life.”

Dr Besant last attended a Convention of the Theosophical

Society in Benares, December 1929. Some were of the view that her
mind and her faculties had been severely affected by the dissolution
of the Order of the Star as she had put a great deal of energy into it
since its formation. However, those of attended the Convention and
those who later on had the opportunity to read the transcript of her
lecture on ‘The Future of the Theosophical Society’ soon realized
that her essential perception of the work before the TS was still vital,
inspiring and profoundly relevant, as the following excerpts show:
The great danger which threatens every such movement is
what we may call crystallization; putting it in a common phrase,
the getting into a particular rut, because it is found more easy to
run along a pathway which is already made, than to strike out path-
ways which are new. But, the vitality of any Society, as regards
intellect, must depend on the intellect being open to the entry of
new thought, new ideas, judging each entirely by its value, as it
does or does not subserve the welfare of all, ultimately of the world
at large. We must then be on our guard against becoming crystal-
lized.
Freedom of thought, then, is vital for the future of the The-
osophical Society. Encourage discussion; listen to it fairly and
patiently; be willing to test your own opinion again. You might
have grown between the time when you formed an opinion and
your present stage of consciousness. It does not follow that, be-
cause it is true under one set of circumstances, it is necessarily true
under another set of circumstances. A certain congruity is neces-
sary before we should act upon a thought.
 5
Krishnaji and the World Teacher Movement
In her book Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening (John
Murray, London, 1975, p. 12), Mary Lutyens presents the early
scenario for the expectation of the coming of the World Teacher:

As early as 1889 Madame Blavatsky had told a group of

Theosophical students that the real purpose of establishing the So-
ciety was to prepare humanity for the reception of the World
Teacher when he appeared again on earth, and this was repeated
more publicly by Mrs Besant in 1896, five years after Madame
Blavatsky’s death. Theosophists also believed that each time a
great religious teacher appeared it was to usher in a new sub-race.
This time it was to be the sixth sub-race of the fifth root-race that
was to develop in Australia. (Later the cradle of this sub-race was
changed to California.) In 1909, at a public lecture, in Chicago on
her favourite theme ‘The Coming Race and the Coming Teacher’,
Mrs Besant announced: ‘We look for Him to come in the Western
world this time—not in the East as did Christ two thousand years
ago.’

In The Key to Theosophy by H. P. Blavatsky, at its Conclu-

sion, originally published in 1889, Madame Blavatsky alludes to the
coming of ‘the new torch-bearer of Truth in the twentieth-
century. This is what she had to say:

Theo. Scarcely. But I must tell you that during the last quarter
of every hundred years an attempt is made by those “Masters,” of
whom I have spoken, to help on the spiritual progress of Humanity
in a marked and definite way. Towards the close of each century
you will invariably find that an outpouring or upheaval of
spirituality — or call it mysticism if you prefer — has taken place.
Some one or more persons have appeared in the world as their
agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge and
teaching has been given out. If you care to do so, you can trace
these movements back, century by century, as far as our detailed
historical records extend.

Enq. But how does this bear on the future of the Theosophical
Society?
Theo. If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds
better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in existence
as an organized, living and healthy body when the time comes for
the effort of the XXth century. The general condition of men’s
minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the
spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their prejudices and
dogmatic illusions will have been, to some extent at least,
removed. Not only so, but besides a large and accessible literature
ready to men’s hands, the next impulse will find a numerous
and united body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer
of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message,
a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he
brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove the
merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from his
path. Think how much one, to whom such an opportunity is given,
could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the
Theosophical Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen
years, without any of these advantages and surrounded by hosts of
hindrances which would not hamper the new leader. Consider all
this, and then tell me whether I am too sanguine when I say that if
the Theosophical Society survives and lives true to its mission, to
its original impulses through the next hundred years — tell me, I
say, if I go too far in asserting that earth will be a heaven in the
 twenty-first century in comparison with what it is now!
(https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/key/key-conc.htm)

Also in The Secret Doctrine, Introductory, p. xxxviii,

originally published in 1888 (facsimile edition, The Theosophical
University Press Online Edition), Madame Blavatsky makes another
allusion to the coming of an advanced disciple of the Masters:

In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and

far better fitted, may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give
final and irrefutable proofs that there exists a Science called
Gupta-Vidya; and that, like the once-mysterious sources of the
Nile, the source of all religions and philosophies now known to the
world has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at
last found.

Blavatskyan orthodoxy has categorically denied that the

above passages could possibly refer to Krishnamurti. But it could not
deny that Madame Blavatsky made the two statements and included
them in her books.
In her book Krishnamurti – A Biography (Harper and Row,
Publishers, San Francisco, 1986, pp. 30, 31) Pupul Jayakar, a long-
time associate of Krishnamurti and a former Vice-President of the
Krishnamurti Foundation India, wrote about Annie Besant and the
Indian sources that upheld the view of the Boddhisattva Maitreya’s
manifestation:

Speaking to learned scholars and the Brahmin pandits of Va-

ranasi more than seventy years later, I gathered that in those early years
Mrs. Besant had been in touch in Varanasi with Swami Vishudhanand
and his disciple Gopinath Kaviraj. Swami Vishudhanand was a re-
nowned tantric with many siddhis or mystical powers. He also claimed
direct links to a secret cult and doctrine of Tibet; originating in India,
this doctrine had survived in its pristine form in a heavily charged
 psychic center beyond Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. At this center
many great sages and bodhisattvas were said to gather, not in their
physical form, but perhaps as centers of energy. One of their most
guarded doctrines was an ear-to-mouth, whispered doctrine, con-
cerned with the eternal cycle of time—with yoga or kundalini
practices and with the transference of consciousness. This yoga,
fraught with immense dangers, had originated in India long before the
Buddha and his teaching. It later disappeared in India, but survived
amongst adepts in that secret center in Tibet.
It is possible that through Swami Vishudhanand, Mrs. Besant grew
aware of the doctrine of the “turning around” or transference of con-
sciousness and its close links to kundalini yoga. Pandit Jagannath
Upadhyaya of Varanasi, who had found a copy of the original text
of the Kala Chakra Tantra, and who was undertaking research into
it, told Krishnaji that Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj maintained that the
Theosophical Society drew much of its hidden teaching from this
secret doctrine. He went on to say that Swami Vishudhanand and
Gopinath Kaviraj, in the early years of the twentieth century, had spo-
ken to Mrs., Besant of the imminent coming of the Maitreya
Boddhisattva and his manifestation in a human body; according to
the swami, the body chosen was that of Krishnamurti. Krishnaji’s
response had been swift. “The Maitreya cannot manifest, it would
be like the sky manifesting. It is the teaching that manifests.” An-
other day, speaking on the same subject, as if through a rent in time
Krishnaji suddenly saw an image. He said, “Amma [A.B.] visited
the Kaviraj riding a horse.”

When Annie Besant announced to the world that the young

J. Krishnamurti would be the vehicle for the coming World Teacher
she probably knew she was courting controversy. Two eminent the-
osophists reacted quite negatively to the news: Dr Rudolph Steiner,
General Secretary of the German Section of the TS, and Dr Bhaga-
van Das, eminent educationist in India, who was her close worker on
important educational projects. She was accused of indulging in a
messianic adventure, of trying to create a religion, and of endanger-
ing the neutral spirit of the Theosophical Society.
As for C. W. Leadbeater, the criticisms were not less severe.
Some are the opinion that he ‘created’ the Krishnamurti phenome-
non to deflect attention from his ‘crimes’. In other words, the ancient
legal maxim ‘innocent until proven guilty’ applied to everyone but
not to C.W.L.
Madanapalle is a city in the district of Chittoor in Andhra
Pradesh, India. It was in that city that J. Krishnamurti was born on
11 May 1895 to Jiddu Naraniah and Sanjeevamma. Naraniah had
been a government servant and had retired as a Tahsildar, a minor
administrative officer. After his wife died the family moved to
Madras.
In Clairvoyant Investigations by C.W. Leadbeater And “the
Lives of Alcyone” (J. Krishnamurti) Some facts described, by Ernest
Wood, With notes by C. Jinarajadasa
(Privately published by C. Jinarajadasa, 1947), Ernest Wood de-
scribes the scenario that surrounded the beginning of Krishnamurti’s
training:

I was there when Krishnamurti appeared with his father at Adyar

and I knew him before Mr. Leadbeater did. He was a schoolboy.
When we first knew Krishnamurti he was a very frail little boy,
extremely weak, all his bones sticking out, and his father said more
than once that he thought probably he would die, and he was hav-
ing a bad time at school because he did not pay any attention to
what his teachers said. He was bullied and beaten to such an extent
that it seemed the boy might fade away from this life and die, and
the father came to Leadbeater and said: “What shall we do?” Mr.
Leadbeater said, “Take him from school and I will inform Mrs.
Besant.” Mrs. Besant had done much for Hindu boys. She had the
Central Indian College, in which many of the boys were entirely
 maintained by her – food, shelter, education, everything. So it was
nothing unusual for her to look after boys. Mrs. Besant was in
America at the time. She replied that she would be very pleased to
see to their welfare, so the two boys were taken from the school;
Krishnamurti’s younger brother was all right, but they didn’t want
to be separated; and some of us agreed to teach them a little each
day so that they might be prepared to go to England for their fur-
ther education. Seven or eight of us taught them a little each day.
The boys used to sit in Mr. Leadbeater’s or one of the adjacent
rooms, with their teacher. I do not know that it could be said that
Leadbeater trained him in any sort of particular way. To be any-
where near Mr. Leadbeater was a training for anybody. He made
him drink milk and eat fruits. Krishnamurti did not like this. He
[C.W.L.] attended to his health. He did not much like this eating
fruits and milk, but did it. He also arranged for swimming and ex-
ercises in the way of cycling and other things, and they played
tennis in the evening, so that very soon Krishnamurti was quite a
healthy and strong boy and began to take more interest in the
world. I think that he must have been always more or less psychic
and therefore did not pay attention to his teacher. I noticed very
soon that Krishnamurti used to collect people’s thoughts, and I
have seen him do some quite remarkable feats of conversation with
dead people while still a little boy, and that developed quite natu-
rally. I do not know of any special and deliberate training in that
way. In Mr. Leadbeater’s room and in his company, of course, he
really received the best of training in courtesy, etc.

The following is part of the correspondence between Annie

Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, from a private collection, regarding
the young Krishnamurti’s preparation for his first Initiation into the
Brotherhood of Adepts:

(January 3, 1910)
My dear Charles,
 Many thanks for yours of Dec. 30th and 31st. You will have
had mine about the rooms, and that is arranged. Mrs. Lübke moves
over on her return. I told Naraniah exactly what you now say, that
this ceremony was the last the boys would be allowed to attend,
and that this was only for the sake of the weaker brethren.
I am very happy about Krishna, and am sorry I am of so
little use, though I am doing the little I can. But I am happy that he
is in such strong and loving hands as yours. I should not be sur-
prised if the initiation followed very quietly, perhaps on the 11th.

(January 10th, 1910)

My dear Charles,
Many thanks for the photos and letter. None of the photos
do Krishna justice in the least. Nitya looks well. I hope my tele-
gram has made all right for you.
It is splendid, though not unexpected, as I knew it would be
on the 11th. At the wish of Mars [M.] I am remaining here instead
of going to Gaya, so hope to be with you much…

She finished the letter thus: “Love to His boys.”

(January 12, 1910)

“I went over – but of course you know – at five and stayed
until 6.15. So it is definitely fixed that the Lord Maitreya takes this
child’s body. It seems a very heavy responsibility to have to guard
and help it, so as to fit it for Him, as He said, and I feel rather
overwhelmed, but am consoled in the thought that we are together
in it, and that your wisdom will illuminate. I feel that we have ac-
cepted and pledged ourselves to a very solemn task. And then
Shamballa – “in the presence of the King.” How much I should
like to talk it all over with you. The dear boy looked so beautiful,
like a picture of the child Christ, with his large solemn eyes, full
of love and trust. Does he remember it all?
 It brought back to me, in a strange way, my own first initiation in
this body.”

(January 16, 1910)

My dear Charles,
Thank you so much for your letter, and for Krishna’s ex-
quisite account. It is very beautiful. And do you remember the
tenderness of the inflexion in the voice of the Lord Maitreya when
he said: “The body of the candidate is very young.” Krishna does
not mention what he said to us; I hope I did not bring that through
wrong, for it was so beautiful.

In a letter to George Arundale, dated 24 March 1911, C.W.L.

wrote: ‘If anyone asks me whether his [Krishnaji’s] body is to be
used by the coming Christ, I always say that is not my business, and
I am simply doing what I am told in trying to prepare him for an
important work in the future.’
Descriptions of Krishnamurti’s Initiation can be found in Mary
Lutyens’ book mentioned above.
The following passage of Mary Lutyens’ book Krishnamurti:
Years of Awakening contains an account by C.W.L. to Fabrizio Rus-
poli, who was at Adyar, of an event that took place on 28 December
1911 in Benares, when Krishnaji, as the Head of the Order of the
Star, was handing over certificates of membership to new members.
Approximately 400 people were present, including Mrs Besant,
C.W.L., Miss Francesca Arundale, J. Nityananda and a number of
European members, besides many others:

All at once the hall was filled with a tremendous power,

which was so evidently flowing through Krishna that the next
member fell at his feet, overwhelmed by this mighty rush of
force. I have never seen or felt anything in the like of it; it re-
minded one irresistibly of the rushing, mighty wind, and the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. The tension was
 enormous, and everyone in the room was most powerfully af-
fected. It was the kind of thing that we read about in the old
scriptures, and think exaggerated; but here it was before us in the
twentieth century. ... At a meeting [of the Esoteric Section] the
President said for the first time that, after what they had seen and
felt, it was no longer possible to make even a pretence of con-
cealing the fact that Krishna’s body had been chosen by the
Bodhisattva, and was even now being attuned by Him. (p. 55)
Krishnaji and Nitya arrived in Taormina, Sicily, in March
1912, accompanied by C. Jinarajadasa, where they were joined by
CWL and George Arundale. Taormina would be the place were
Krishnaji (and Jinarajadasa) would go through his second Initiation.
After some months there the boys were taken to London to continue
their education.
While in England, Mrs Besant was served a summon to restore
Krishnamurti and his brother to their father. This was the beginning
of a court battle in Madras, surrounded by a hostile press which re-
vived the 1906 charges against CWL regarding his sexual advice to
some fourteen-year old boys in the United States. The accusations
which were examined by an Advisory Board in London, in May
1906, presided over by Col. Henry S. Olcott, President-Founder of
the TS, led to the resignation from CWL from the TS.
A central feature of the lawsuit brought by Krishnamurti’s father,
Narianah, was that CWL had committed an “unnatural act” on his
elder son (Krishnamurti) which, if found true, would sentence both
to several years in prison. This charge was dismissed by the presid-
ing Judge but he gave the custody back to the boys’ father. Mrs
Besant appealed of the verdict and lost. However, after referring the
case to the Privy Council in London she won, as the boys had at-
tained the age in which they could decide by themselves, and they
both chose Mrs Besant as their adopted mother.
In 1914, when Krishnaji and Nitya were in London, the former
experienced a period of self-doubt and depression, feeling unsure
about his situation and his role as the vehicle of the World Teacher.
This was conveyed to Mrs Besant, probably by George Arundale,
and in a letter to Krishnaji she said: ‘Your happiness lies in the work,
and you will be restless and unhappy if you turn away from it. Noth-
ing else will last, you will find. A man called to the higher service
loses “the lower life”, and if he is brave enough to let it go, he finds
a splendid and changeless happiness.’7
While in Europe, Krishnaji and Nitya would spend time in Eng-
land, France and Italy, surrounded by TS members like Lady Emily
Lutyens, with whom he had a close friendship, and her family, and
also Madame de Manziarly. At one time Krishna lived alone in a
small flat in the South of France. During that time he became in-
creasingly critical of the TS structure and mindset, including of
ceremonies. In 1920 he was introduced by Jinarajadasa (Raja) to D.
Rajagopalacharya, who would play a role in his future life beyond
the Theosophical Society as his manager.`
Krishnaji and Nitya visited Sydney in May, 1922 , together with
a number of other well-known theosophists including C. Jinara-
jadasa, Fritz Kunz, A. P. Warrington. A violent press campaign was
being held in Australia at that time against C.W.L., Annie Besant
and the Liberal Catholic Church. Both Krishnaji and Nityananda
made statements to the Sydney Police as part of their investigation
about C.W.L.
After they returned to Ojai, California, Krishnaji would undergo
experiences that would profoundly change his perception of both his
role in life as well as of himself. Below are excerpts of Nitya’s ac-
count of Krishnamurti’s experience in Ojai, August 1922:
Now we were in a starlit darkness and Krishna sat under a
roof of delicate leaves black against the sky. He was still murmur-
ing unconsciously but presently there came a sigh of relief and he

7
Lutyens, Mary, Krishnamurti – Years of Awakening, John Murray, London,
1975, p. 86.
called out to us, ‘Oh, why didn’t you send me out here before?’
Then came a brief silence.
And now he began to chant. Nothing had passed his lips for
nearly three days and his body was utterly exhausted with the in-
tense strain, and it was a quiet weary voice we heard chanting the
mantram sung every night at Adyar in the Shrine Room. Then si-
lence.
Long ago in Taormina, as Krishna had looked with medita-
tive eyes upon a beautiful painting of our Lord Gautama in
mendicant garb, we had felt for a blissful moment the divine pres-
ence of the Great One, who had deigned to send a thought. And
again this night, as Krishna, under the young pepper tree, finished
his song of adoration, I thought of the Tathagata [the Buddha] un-
der the Bo tree, and again I felt pervading the peaceful valley a
wave of that splendour, as if again He had sent a blessing upon
Krishna.
We sat with eyes fixed upon the tree, wondering if all was
well, for now there was perfect silence, and as we looked I saw
suddenly for a moment a great Star shining above the tree, and I
knew that Krishna’s body was being prepared for the Great One. I
leaned across and told Mr Warrington of the Star.
The place seemed to be filled with a Great Presence and a
great longing came upon me to go on my knees and adore, for I
knew that the Great Lord of all our hearts had come Himself; and
though we saw Him not, yet all felt the splendour of His presence.
Then the eyes of Rosalind were opened and she saw. Her face
changed as I have seen no face change, for she was blessed enough
to see with physical eyes the glories of that night. Her face was
transfigured, as she said to us, ‘Do you see Him, do you see Him?’
for she saw the divine Bodhisattva [the Lord Maitreya] and mil-
lions wait for incarnations to catch such glimpse of our Lord, but
she had eyes of innocence and had served our Lord faithfully. And
we who could not see saw the Splendours of the night mirrored in
 her face pale with rapture in the starlight. Never shall I forget the
look on her face, for presently I who could not see but who gloried
in the presence of our Lord felt that He turned towards us and
spoke some words to Rosalind; her face shone with divine ecstasy
as she answered, ‘I will, I will,’ and she spoke the words as if they
were a promise given with splendid joy. Never shall I forget her
face when I looked at her; even I was almost blessed with vision.
Her face showed the rapture of her heart, for the innermost part of
her being was ablaze with His presence but her eyes saw. And si-
lently I prayed that He might accept me as His servant and all our
hearts were full of that prayer. In the distance we heard divine mu-
sic softly played, all of us heard though hidden from us were the
Gandharvas.8
The following is Krishna’s own account:
Ever since I left Australia I have been thinking and delib-
erating about the message which the Master K.H. gave me while
I was there. I naturally wanted to achieve those orders as soon as
I could, and I was to a certain extent uncertain as to the best
method of attaining the ideals which were put before me. I do not
think a day passed without spending some thought over it, but I
am ashamed to say all this was done most casually and rather care-
lessly. But at the back of my mind the message of the Master ever
dwelt.
Well, since August 3rd, I meditated regularly for about
thirty minutes every morning. I could, to my astonishment, con-
centrate with considerable ease, and within a few days I began to
see clearly where I had failed and where I was failing. Immediately
I set about, consciously, to annihilate the wrong accumulations of
the past years. With the same deliberation I set about to find out

8
J. Krishnamurti’ Process – Probing the Mystery by R. E. Mark Lee, Edwin
House Publishing, Ojai, California, 2020, p. 22. Reproduced by kind permission
of the author.
ways and means to achieve my aim. First I realized that I had to
harmonize all my other bodies with the Buddhic plane [the highest
plane of consciousness] and to bring about this happy combination
I had to find out what my ego wanted on the Buddhic plane. To
harmonize the various bodies I had to keep them vibrating at the
same rate as the Buddhic, and to do this I had to find out what was
the vital interest of the Buddhic. With ease which rather astonished
me I found the main interest on that high plane was to serve the
Lord Maitreya and the Masters. With that idea clear in my physical
mind I had to direct and control the other bodies to act and to think
the same as on the noble and spiritual plane. During that period of
less than three weeks, I concentrated to keep in mind the image of
the Lord Maitreya throughout the entire day, and I found no diffi-
culty in doing this. I found that I was getting calmer and more
serene. My whole outlook on life was changed.
Then, on the 17th August, I felt acute pain at the nape of my neck
and I had to cut down my meditation to fifteen minutes. The pain
instead of getting better as I had hoped grew worse. The climax
was reached on the 9th. I could not think, nor was I able to do
anything, and I was forced by friends here to retire to bed. Then I
became almost unconscious, though I was well aware of what was
happening around me. I came to myself at about noon each day.
On the first day while I was in that state and more conscious of the
things around me, I had the first most extraordinary experience.
There was a man mending the road; that man was myself; the pick-
axe he held was myself; the very stone which he was breaking up
was a part of me; the tender blade of grass was my very being, and
the tree beside the man was myself. I almost could feel and think
like the roadmender, and I could feel the wind passing through the
tree, and the little ant on the blade of grass I could feel. The birds,
the dust, and the very noise were a part of me. Just then there was
a car passing by at some distance; I was the driver, the engine, and
the tyres; as the car went further away from me, I was going away
from myself. I was in everything, or rather everything was in me,
inanimate and animate, the mountain, the worm, and all breathing
things. All day long I remained in this happy condition. I could not
eat anything, and again at about six I began to lose my physical
body, and naturally the physical elemental did what it liked; I was
semi-conscious.
The morning of the next day (the 20th) was almost the same as
the previous day, and I could not tolerate too many people in the
room. I could feel them in rather a curious way and their vibrations
got on my nerves. That evening at about the same hour of six I felt
worse than ever. I wanted nobody near me nor anybody to touch
me. I was feeling extremely tired and weak. I think I was weeping
from mere exhaustion and lack of physical control. My head was
pretty bad and the top part felt as though many needles were being
driven in. While I was in this state I felt that the bed in which I was
lying, the same one as on the previous day, was dirty and filthy
beyond imagination and I could not lie in it. Suddenly I found my-
self sitting on the floor and Nitya and Rosalind asking me to get
into bed. I asked them not to touch me and cried out that the bed
was not clean. I went on like this for some time till eventually I
wandered out on the verandah and sat a few moments exhausted
and slightly calmer. I began to come to myself and finally Mr War-
rington asked me to go under the pepper tree which is near the
house. There I sat cross-legged in the meditation posture. When I
had sat thus for some time, I felt myself going out of my body, I
saw myself sitting down with the delicate tender leaves of the tree
over me. I was facing the east. In front of me was my body and
over my head I saw the Star, bright and clear. Then I could feel the
vibrations of the Lord Buddha; I beheld Lord Maitreya and Master
K.H. I was so happy, calm and at peace. I could still see my body
and I was hovering near it. There was such profound calmness both
in the air and within myself, the calmness of the bottom of a deep
unfathomable lake. Like the lake, I felt my physical body, with its
 mind and emotions, could be ruffled on the surface but nothing,
nay nothing, could disturb the calmness of my soul. The Presence
of the mighty Beings was with me for some time and then They
were gone. I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could
ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters at the
source of the fountain of life and my thirst was appeased. Never
more could I be thirsty, never more could I be in utter darkness. I
have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all
sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. I have
stood on the mountain top and gazed at the mighty Beings. Never
can I be in utter darkness; I have seen the glorious and healing
Light. The fountain of Truth has been revealed to me and the dark-
ness has been dispersed. Love in all its glory has intoxicated my
heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain
of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated.9
In a note, Annie Besant writes about the purpose of Krish-
naji’s first tour in the United States in 1923:
He will go from New York to Chicago, accompanied by Dr.
Annie Besant, President of the Theosophical Society, Mr. L.W.
Rogers, General Secretary of the T.S. in the United States, and oth-
ers, including Mr. D. Rajagopal Acharya, the General Secretary of
the Order of the Star in the East. There will be a large gathering of
the members of the Order in Chicago, over which he will preside,
and both he and Dr. Annie Besant will address members of the
Theosophical Society and the Star at the Annual Convention of the
former. His message and his work are aimed at the reconstitution
of human society on foundations which will form a basis for
widely spread and enduring happiness, enduring because based on
intellectual and moral possessions by each citizen, possessions

9
J. Krishnamurti’ Process – Probing the Mystery by R. E. Mark Lee, Edwin
House Publishing, Ojai, California, 2020, p. 22. Reproduced by kind permission
of the author.
 which are not exhausted but increased by sharing, being gained not
by struggling against others for material wealth, which perishes in
the using, but by self-discipline, self-control, the minimising rather
than the multiplication of bodily wants, the seeking of beauty, such
as Nature flings broadcast on all to enjoy without cost or monop-
oly, but only to be enjoyed to the full by self-culture, by developing
the power of keen delight in color, form, harmony, an education of
the senses, the emotions and the mind which makes beautiful mu-
sic afford an intense pleasure which does not lead to satiety or
weariness, but refines and uplifts. He will call on the rich to aban-
don luxury and display which are essentially vulgar and
coarsening, to simplify their life, setting an example of beauty, and
using wealth for establishing centres of beauty and culture open
freely to all, encouraging artists to make the common life beautiful
in well-planned, well-decorated cities as in Egypt, in India, in
Greece, and to a less extent in medieval times. Krishnaji aims at
inspiring men and women to reconstruct their world, and to sub-
stitute grace for show in daily life. He aims at comradeship which
is made possible by wider and deeper education, by mutual con-
sideration and courtesy, by avoidance of hurry, in calmness and
charity. For manners are not idle, but the fruit of loyal and of noble
minds.
(From the Radha Burnier collection, Adyar Archives)

In August 1925, a number of statements were made during

the Order of the Star’s Ommen Camp, in The Netherlands, with ref-
erence to the supposed occult status of several Theosophical leaders
which, in hindsight, made it clear that the Society was becoming a
belief-based community. One can fully understand Krishnamurti’s
later decision to dissolve the Order of the Star in order to avoid spir-
itual authority being built around him. There is no doubt that his
action, although shocking and upsetting to many, proved to be of
fundamental significance for the Society’s life and work, because it
helped the members worldwide to realize that the TS was never
meant to be a community of believers, but a fellowship of seekers
after Truth. Although in 1928 the Society reached the peak of its
membership with over 45,000 members on its rolls, the events of
1929 provoked a drop of roughly 15,000 in a period of two years.
(https://theosophicalsociety.org.au/articles/the-living-tradition-
historical-review-of-the-ts-since-1907)

Annie Besant’s address at the Ommen Star Camp, 11th Au-

gust 1925, illustrates the situation facing the TS:

First, it was said by Sri Krishna-Christ, as he is so often called

in the outer worlds, that His life upon the earth would, like that of
His predecessors, re-tell the story, so that you who know the gos-
pel story, as I presume you all do, should know that the birth, and
the transfiguration and the crucifixion and the resurrection and the
ascension are the symbols of the journey of the human spirit
through the four great Initiations; it will be once more lived out
before our eyes as a drama on the great stage of the world. And
so you should think of those four points in that wonderful oft-
repeated story of the Saviours of man, so that your eyes maybe a
little open to the significance of those when some of them are once
more acted visibly before us by the Lord of Love Himself. His
taking possession of His chosen vehicle is typified by the birth
you read of in the Gospels, and that, as I have just said, will be
soon. Then He will choose, as before, His twelve Apostles —a
significant number, “the twelve”—and their chief, the Lord Him-
self. He has already chosen them, but I have only. the command
to mention seven who have reached the stage of Arhatship, which,
seems to be the occult status for the small circle of His immediate
disciples and messengers to the world. The first two, my brother
Charles Leadbeater and myself, passed that great Initiation at the
same time, together because of our future work together, at the
 time that I became President of the T. S. Our younger brothers
here, who were living through the stages, as it were, of disciple-
ship, at certain points have passed the four great Initiations, and
others were welcomed a little later by the King as among His Ar-
hats, and one will be a few days later. They are, first: one whom
you know, I think, well, that disciple of beautiful character and
beautiful language, C. Jinarajadasa who must be known to very
many of you, and to know him is to love him. My brother
Leadbeater and myself were of course present at this Initiation,
and also at that of Krishnaji and welcomed the new additions
to our band. Then is my brother, George Arundale, whose con-
secration as Bishop was necessary, as the last step of his
preparation for the great fourth step of Initiation; and my
brother, Oscar Kollerström, not so well known, perhaps, to
you, but beloved for his character and his wisdom by all who
know him well, as I am thankful to say I do; and then one
whom I have called my daughter Rukmini Arundale, this In-
dian girl of a glorious past, will be one in a few days, who,
hearing the call of her Master very early in life, will be the
Rishi Agastya’s messenger to the women and young ones in
India, taking up a large part of the work there I have been
carrying on for years. Young in body, yet she is old in wisdom
and in wi1l-power; “child of the indomitable will” is her wel-
come in the higher worlds.
(The Herald of the Star, September 1925)

An event of significant proportion in Krishnaji’s life –

and in the life of the TS – happened on 13 November 1925, while
he was on his way to India via Colombo: the death of his brother,
Nityananda in California. Although initially it represented a tre-
mendous blow to Krishnaji who, for some time, suffered
intensely, he came out of this ordeal with a completely new
understanding of his own role in life. It also helped him to un-
derstand the inner, deeper significance of death.
The following was published in The Theosophist, February
1926:
A NOTE FROM ADYAR

Interviewed by the Associated Press regarding the rumoured

proclamation of Mr. J. Krishnamurti as World Teacher, Dr. Annie
Besant, President, T. S., made the following statement:

Similar statements were made more than once in London

papers as to my supposed intentions while I was in London; and I
said nothing, the imaginative authors stated that I had postponed
the announcement. As a similar statement seems to be now cabled
to London, I had better state, once for all, the bare facts which must
lie at the root of these statements, which hitherto I have left unno-
ticed.
In 1909, I accepted from their father the guardianship of
young brothers, promising to be responsible for their education. I
have occasionally stated – as bidden by Madame H. P. Blavatsky,
who brought Theosophy to me in this life through her wonderful
book, The Secret Doctrine – that I was a disciple of the same In-
dian Rshi whose messenger she was. My reason for accepting the
guardianship the boys was that I was told that the elder, J. Krish-
namurti, had been selected to give his body as vehicle for the
World-Teacher on His approaching Coming, if the lad proved to
be worthy of the privilege, when he reached manhood.
In 1910, he wrote down teachings received from his
Teacher during the sleep of the body, teachings which were pub-
lished in the well-known little book, At the Feet of the Master. On
December 28th, 1911, a remarkable overshadowing of the young
boy took place in Benares, and a hall full of the members of the T.
S. prostrated themselves before him. We kept the event as quiet as
we could, but rumours got abroad, causing uncomfortable follow-
ings of him about the grounds of our house, and manifestations of
respect, leading me to return as soon as I could to Madras, as I
feared, quite unnecessarily, that they might give rise to conceit.
The brothers were educated privately in London, and more
than fulfilled the hopes cherished for them.
Last summer, in Holland, I mentioned to a large audience
(in a Camp held by members of an Order to which only those are
admitted who believe in the Coming of the World Teacher) that J.
Krishnamurti was the chosen vehicle, a fact already largely recog-
nised among them in consequence of his speeches and writings. I
suppose this was the basis of the inaccurate statements made sub-
sequently in the London papers. I have never had any idea of
“proclaiming him as Messiah”. Modern psychology recognises
some of the subtler and rarer aspects of consciousness, from the
cases of the influence of one mind over another through higher
cases of inspiration – such as those of “prophets” – to complete
temporary change of “personality”. I believe, with many of the
early Christians, that the World Teacher, named by them the
Christ, assumed, at the stage of the Gospel story called the Bap-
tism, the body of a disciple, Jesus, to carry on His earthly work at
that time. A similar event is to take place among us. Without in-
flicting the reasons for my belief on this occasion – I have given
dozens of lectures on the subject – I will merely add that which
may have given rise to this telegram.
Mr. Krishnamurti was lecturing, on December 28th, to a
very large audience under the Banyan Tree. He was concluding his
lecture, speaking of the World-Teacher, with the words: “He
comes to lead us all to that perfection where there is eternal happi-
ness: He comes to lead us and He comes to those who have not
understood, who have suffered, who are unhappy, who are unen-
lightened. He comes to those who want, who desire, who long, and
 – There was a slight start, and a Voice of penetrating sweetness
rang out through his lips:
“I come to those who want sympathy, who want happiness,
who are longing to be released, who are longing to find happiness
in all things. I come to reform, and not to tear down: not to destroy,
but to build.”
The meeting shortly after broke up in silence. Probably
some account of this filtered out. That the World-Teacher spoke
through the then speaker I believe. Since 1909, as said above, I
have known that he was chosen as the vehicle, and I expect an
ever-increasing tenancy of the selected body by Him for whom it
has been prepared. I believe that we are at the beginning of a New
Age, a new civilisation, as has occurred five times already in the
Aryan race – in Central Asia, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Palestine
– as well as before in human evolution.

The following are excerpts of Krishnaji’s speech at the Dis-

solution of the Order of the Star, 3rd August 1929, Ommen, The
Netherlands:

We are going to discuss this morning the dissolution of the

Order of the Star. Many people will be delighted, and others will
be rather sad. It is a question neither for rejoicing nor for sadness,
because it is inevitable, as I am going to explain. “You may
remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were
walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop
down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it
away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, “What did that
man pick up?” “He picked up a piece of Truth,” said the devil.
“That is a very bad business for you, then,” said his friend. “Oh,
not at all,” the devil replied, “I am going to let him organize it."
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach
it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my
 point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally.
Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path
whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be
formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you
first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to
organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you
cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead,
crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed
on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is
attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything
for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily
discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual
must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the
mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-
top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of
the dangerous precipices.
As I have said, I have only one purpose: to make man free, to
urge him towards freedom, to help him to break away from all
limitations, for that alone will give him eternal happiness, will give
him the unconditioned realization of the self.
Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside can
make you free; nor can organized worship, nor the immolation of
yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves
into an organization, nor throwing yourselves into works, make
you free. You use a typewriter to write letters, but you do not put
it on an altar and worship it. But that is what you are doing when
organizations become your chief concern.
(Full text can be seen here:
(https://jkrishnamurti.org/about-dissolution-speech)

* * *

Krishnaji was diagnosed with cancer while he was in Europe

in 1985. He chose not to have any treatment for it and died at his
home in Ojai, California, on 17th February 1986, which in the Theo-
sophical Society is remembered as Adyar Day. In his last statement,
included in Mary Lutyens book10, he says that for almost seventy
years a vast intelligence was operating through his body. Until the
very end he refused to speculate about it or to name it, but his words
seem to resonate with the vision of Annie Besant and C. W. Lead-
beater from 1909, even when their vision may have been informed
by their understanding of past experiences. Until the very end of her
life Dr Besant maintained that Krishnaji was the vehicle for the
World Teacher.
Radha Burnier once told me that while on a visit to Brock-
wood Park, the educational establishment started by Krishnaji and
his associates in England in 1975, she took part in a conversation
with him and others. Reminiscing about his younger years he said
that among the theosophists of that time the only one who was close
to inner transformation was Annie Besant. When asked why he said:
‘Because you don’t know how great her capacity for love was.’

10
Lutyens, Mary, Krishnamurti – The Open Door, London, John Murray
Publishers, 1988, pp. 148-149.
 6
Her Vision for India
The Means of India’s Regeneration
[A lecture delivered by Annie Besant in 1895 and published in her
book India – Bond or Free? – A World Problem, London & New York, G.
P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926.]

This afternoon, my Brothers, I will try to lay before you that

which many people would say is the most practical of the subjects
on which I have been speaking during the last week. “The means of
India’s regeneration” naturally suggests the idea of a proposal of
some definite kind, a proposal on certain lines which may be
adopted, which may reach the national mind, encourage national as-
pirations, and which may enable this ancient people again to hold
their place among the nations of the world. I am going to try to sug-
gest to you this afternoon certain definite lines, which are not only
completely in harmony with the ancient thought of India, but are
wholly inspired by the ideals which I have been striving to place be-
fore you during the last week. While, in fact, the existence of this
ideal in the heart of the people is necessary in order to make them
possible, they are yet, to some extent, the lines of action which may
be taken by all those who work upon the physical plane, and may
thus afford an outlet for their energies in dealing with the facts
around them. In order that reforms may be in any sense successful,
it is necessary that the ideal of which I have been speaking so much
may both be true and be accepted throughout the length and breadth
of the country; that the people should regard it as desirable. In order
that the actions of Indians may be properly guided and may be in-
spired to activity, not only does it need to be taught as an ideal from
the platform, to be taught as an ideal through the press, but also that
those who accept it should act up to it in their daily lives; that they
should make it the subject of deliberation and collective thought, for
that thought is after all the greatest force. The body is mutable, it
changes, but a man’s thoughts are potent, and his actions are
moulded by the thoughts with which they come into contact, so that
every person by thinking of that which he desires to accomplish, has
really laboured for its accomplishment even more actively than those
who are engaged in the outer work; for in every reform which is
brought about, this agency of thought is above all things most nec-
essary. By thinking definitely of what we desire to accomplish, we
touch as it were the very springs of action, and improvement must
inevitably result. Those who are neither speakers nor writers, those
who are not much able to influence their fellowmen by any personal
argument, by any personal attempt, they may still bring their
thoughts to bear on India by a sustained and deliberate effort, by
wishes for India’s regeneration, and then these thoughts joining to-
gether upon the thought-plane shall in due time come out into action
on the external plane, and every person who takes up action shall be
strengthened and inspired and made more and more likely to succeed
by those thoughts which are behind him and around him and which
thus find expression upon the outward plane of deed.
Realising, then, that the ideal which I have put before you is
a spiritual one, that above all, the spiritual greatness of India is the
first point to be considered, everything else flowing from that, let us
see by what means that may be called “practical” we can direct the
stream of Indian energy into certain definite channels every one of
which shall be directed to a single point, and in which we may set
pouring together the various streams that are to work national regen-
eration. Now those of you who look at the Indian Society of today
must see as a result of their observations that there is a continually
increasing pressure put upon two especially of the ways in which
educated men must gain their livelihood. The profession of the law
and that of the civil service are becoming more and more
overcrowded. These are the only two avenues of livelihood for
which young men are educated, where they show the higher intellec-
tual faculties. So that you will find the ablest men, the men of action,
the men of intellect, in these professions, and the most promising
boys, who are the men of intellect of the future, are being continually
passed either into the civil service under the government, or into the
profession of law,—these being the two which are the best paid of
all the professions, the professions in which intelligence and will are
most likely to bring the largest natural results. Now, it is idle to quar-
rel with the tendency of an ordinary man to seek to employ his
energies in the way that brings him what he regards as the best re-
turn; you may honour the self-sacrifice as noble, that gives itself to
an ideal which brings no reward in the form of wealth, but you still
must needs reckon with the mere man of the world who seeks the
things of the world. So that the question arises, how are these ener-
gies to be directed, especially if regard is to be had to the common
good, so that the various capacities of able men may cooperate to-
wards the general advancement, having in view the object
proposed—the helping of India—and also the due employment of
individuals in a remunerative way. If you realise that these two
means of livelihood are becoming overcrowded, then will come the
question: “Is it possible to find some other means of using the na-
tional capacity, which at one and the same time shall not only offer
an opening for those who desire to be really useful to the country,
but shall also afford support to men whose gifts are not so high, but
who are willing to devote themselves to forms of professional em-
ployment which will give them a reasonable and fair return for their
labours, and enable them to keep themselves and their families in a
respectable position in society?”
Now clearly there is one form of employment available in
India if we could really form a public opinion strongly in favour of
it; a form of employment which along one line would give work of
the most vital importance to be done by some of the most spiritually-
minded and intellectual men in the country, and which in its several
branches would offer a reasonable means of livelihood not only to
these but also to men of average intellectual capacity, and would at
the same time stimulate certain of the trades of the country as it
spreads, and so would actually benefit those different classes of the
community, and benefit them ever more as it spreads more widely
and more deeply. Now this special scheme is that which will include
every branch of activity concerned with the spreading of Sanskrit
learning, in all the many directions which are possible, not only by
helping the learned men employed as advanced teachers and writers,
but which also would help large numbers of subordinate teachers,
and would link the Indian peoples more closely into one.
Of course the first part of this scheme would necessarily be
an attempt to found, in one centre after another in the country, San-
skrit colleges where the teaching of Sanskrit would be in the hands
of learned men essentially of the Pandit type, as opposed rather for
the moment to that of the ordinary professors—I mean the men who
look upon Sanskrit as a sacred study and who bring to it real enthu-
siasm and real devotion, as well as the idea of teaching it as a
profession. Now it is true that a few such colleges do already exist
in this country, but they ought to be very largely increased in num-
ber; that increase could be easily brought about if a public opinion
could be formed, sufficiently strong, which made a knowledge of
Sanskrit a real necessity, so that no man would be regarded as an
educated man unless a knowledge of the Sanskrit tongue formed part
of his education. Those who deal at all with the question of education
will be aware that all those who regard it thoughtfully, as a training
of the powers of man—not as a mere cramming with facts—take up
certain types of study as necessary for the cultivation of the higher
intellectual faculties. It is not the question of training a young man
so that he should learn just exactly those things, and no others, that
he can turn into opportunities for wealth-gathering in after life; the
object of education is to turn out a man whose faculties shall have
been trained carefully in various directions, so that he shall have ac-
quired delicacy of thought, the power of sustained attention, the habit
of mental culture, which makes all the difference between an edu-
cated and an uneducated man, and which is absolutely necessary for
the advancement of the race if intellectual advancement is to form a
basis for future Spiritual development.
Now glance for a moment at the West, and see the changes
that are going on there. For hundreds of years in the West the culti-
vation of the classics, Greek and Latin, was regarded as absolutely
necessary for what was called the education of a gentleman, and men
who were ignorant of the classics were regarded as uneducated; I do
not mean they had to be scholars of the comparatively small class
who gave the whole of their time to literary pursuits—I am speaking
of the men who had no pretensions at all to stand before the world
as scholars, i.e. as Pandits, of the ordinary nobles and middle-class
gentry, as they were called ; the whole of these as a matter of course
were trained in the knowledge of Greek and Latin, and no man could
take any high position in the country unless he possessed these, es-
sentials of a gentleman’s education—a fair knowledge of the
classics. For such a knowledge was always expected in ordinary dis-
cussions among men, and this training of the intellect gave a certain
definite strength and refinement of thought, and what was called cul-
ture implied always a knowledge of these languages and of the great
literature found in them; and only by such cultivation men could be
trained to rigour and delicacy of thought, and refinement and polish
of expression, and therefore it was a part of every gentleman’s edu-
cation, and was not confined to the literary class alone. Now in
England, under the stress of the struggle for existence, these lan-
guages are every day more and more falling out of general education,
and you will find amongst the thoughtful people of the country the
complaint that these young men who are now being “educated” are
by no means such cultured or educated men as were always found in
past generations; that they pick up a mere smattering of knowledge,
just enough to enable them to pass their examinations, and which
they forget as soon as the examination is over. So that society be-
comes more and more frivolous and less and less thoughtful, and you
get numbers of people with only average mental capacity who have
little chance of ever improving it to the very best advantage because
of the loss of this higher mental culture.
Now the same is true of India, only with this difference, that
whereas in European countries they have used Latin and Greek as
the instruments of culture, you have your own ancient language
which lies at the root of your vernaculars, a knowledge of which
opens out to you the grandest literature the world has yet produced.
A knowledge of
that literature should be incumbent upon every man who claims
to be educated, on every man who hopes to hold intelligent converse
with his fellows; it is needed not only by Pandits, not only by teach-
ers, not only by writers, but by every man who claims to have
intelligence at all, who wishes it to be exercised for the sake of pos-
sessing intellectual knowledge, and not merely for the fact that
knowledge may be sold for so much money. For mind you, this is a
question of vital importance in the development of the race. Unless
you develop the mental faculties, you cannot rise amongst the na-
tions of the world. If your mental faculties are only directed to
subjects which enable you to keep yourselves alive, then you strike
at the very root of the development of your nation, and you must sink
lower and lower amongst the peoples of the world. For the average
intelligence is what you have to regard from the standpoint of the
nation. And in order that men may be competent to meet the needs
of this country it is requisite that they should have a knowledge of
Sanskrit in order to encourage the opening out of its literature, and
for spreading the knowledge of what was thought by the ancient men
of this country among the people at large; so that the people shall
look back to the past, and gain from that past knowledge and expe-
rience. And by the pride which grows up in the human heart in
feeling itself linked with a mighty past, all that is sympathetic in the
past shall become capable of working in a future and impress on that
future something of the spiritual greatness which that past has
shown. Now it is clear that if it should be demanded in India that
young men, taking them as a class, should be trained in this
knowledge of Sanskrit, you would immediately have a demand for
teachers far above anything which at present obtains, and you would
increase, by thousands upon thousands, the number of those who de-
sire to learn in order that they may follow teaching as a profession
and thus would increase your teaching class enormously, to meet the
demands of the multiplying numbers of pupils. And so you will train
up large numbers of men who will not only find their means of live-
lihood at once, but also their pleasure, in teaching, knowing that by
their teaching they were strengthening the national spirit, and point-
ing the way to the union between all cultured intelligences over the
whole surface of the land. For be sure that a common language is
something more than a mere convenience; it is a tie which binds
heart to heart, mind to mind. You have the choice of two languages
which might, either of them, form the common language of India.
The vernaculars are different; men of one province cannot hold con-
verse with men of another because of this difference of language
which keeps them apart, more or less as strangers to each other. What
is happening? At the present time the common language amongst the
educated classes is a foreign tongue. The common language of the
educated Bengali and the educated Madrasi is English, and this is
really becoming the common tongue of India; the men of the differ-
ent provinces converse in this language and use it for inter-
communication, all being separated by their different vernaculars.
But would it not tend far more to national feeling if you had as your
common language the mother of these vernaculars? Would it not
tend to more national feeling if intelligent men should naturally and,
readily converse in the language of the ancient books, and find them-
selves on one common ground, as it were, of a common mother
tongue? You should not undervalue the effect of the communications
which make men feel the tie of a common kindred, which make men
feel as brothers instead of men of different races.
You should use the language now common to the Pandits of all
the different Indian races—Sanskrit; you should use it as a bond to
bind the different races into one, so that nations conscious of a com-
mon descent should feel a desire for common work, for common
cooperation at the present time. Nor is that all. The Pandit at the
present time is educating his son not to follow his own profession,
but to follow that of the law or the civil service; he does not bring up
his son to his own profession, knowing that that may mean for him
starvation. But as this demand for a knowledge of Sanskrit increases,
as I have said, larger and larger will become the number of those
desiring teaching; and then Pandit after Pandit may educate his son
to acquire the deeper knowledge which is necessary for the teacher,
knowing that from it will come a reasonable source of livelihood, a
definite and certain profession by which he may live in the land.
Nor again is that all. The colleges which will be founded
should have two great characteristics. First, they should be endowed
for the support of the teachers attached to the colleges; that is, the
teachers should not have to depend for their support upon the pay-
ments made by the pupils. For it is an honourable and ancient rule of
Sanskrit teaching that the pupils should be taught without fees. Any
innovation on this ought to be resisted if you wish to keep up the
revived ancient feelings; you should not introduce the modern
method of fees, which is being protested against even in the West.
The teaching to students must be free. Instruction should not be with-
held because the boy is unable to pay a fee for being taught, and if
some pay and some do not you introduce a vulgar money distinction
between the pupils. Every son of India who desires to know the an-
cient tongue should find teaching open to him without the necessity
for payment, as it was in the ancient days; and not only so, but there
ought to be provision made for the maintenance of the students, so
that they may be able to pursue their studies without any anxiety, and
may be able to learn in order to be fitted to teach afterwards what
they have learnt. The colleges should further not only be thus en-
dowed sufficiently for the maintenance of Pandits and pupils, but
also sufficient endowment should be made for providing an income
for those who, being endowed with special ability to serve the nation
in this department, should be rendered able to employ their talents to
build up a modern Sanskrit literature, not wholly unworthy of the
literature of the past; that is, that there should be foundations which
should support learned Pandits who would thus be enabled to give
the whole of their time, of their talents, of their thoughts, not only to
comment upon the ancient books but also to write original works
which would be more and more in demand as the knowledge of San-
skrit spreads. So that you would have a class of writers, composed
of some of the most brilliant brains amongst you, men who feel
themselves able to influence their fellows with their pens, men who
would find a way open to them to revive the past glories of the moth-
erland, without being subjected to starvation, or obliged to make
sacrifices which only come from the noblest, and therefore only from
the few. So that in this way you would be building up a foundation
for teachers, a foundation for pupils, a foundation for writers, and as
the pupils grew into men, a general demand would arise for a wider
circulation of the ancient literature, and thus would also be benefited
the trades concerned with the printing, binding, and selling of books.
This demand for Sanskrit literature would grow enormously, for it
would be prized by the cultivated classes that would be evolved by
this system of education. So that not only those who will be educated
would benefit, but you will also have a vast increase of activity
which would give employment to great numbers of people in the
production of books; and in this way you would find, as in the West,
great classes of labourers and of distributors who are wanted along
these lines of activity, and who would supply the demands of the
cultivated classes which will have been brought into very active ex-
istence by the method above sketched.
But of course the question naturally arises: “How is this to
be brought about from the pecuniary point of view?” The chief ap-
peals should certainly be made to the wealthy rajahs of the country,
who have vast sums of money under their control, and who may well
be appealed to spend some of it at least in introducing and helping
on the scheme. There are some men with enormous accumulations
of wealth; there are others with wealth which they waste to a very
considerable extent, but who may be stimulated, from a sense of na-
tional duty, to give money to found such colleges, which would rise
as their permanent memorials, for the well-being of the Indian peo-
ple. Surely this would be a more glorious employment for their funds
than in mere show or in the raising of useless kinds of memorials; if
a man wants to perpetuate his name, if he has a desire that his name
should go down to posterity, how should such a man do more wisely
than by founding a great educational endowment, which shall go on
century after century as a source of help to the nation? Far more glo-
rious would be such a memorial than the empty memorial of a statue
or a monument merely left behind, without any thought of duty to
the nation in the future and without any thought of the welfare of the
Indian people. Nor is that all, if you can form a public opinion of that
kind, if you can induce some of the wealthy princes to aid in such a
national movement, I have little doubt that you would obtain support
from and the movement would be helped by the supreme Govern-
ment; and I have still less doubt that such a movement, if it were
really supported by public opinion, and had the weight of the edu-
cated Indian community behind it, would receive at least the
respectful consideration of the Government that rules the nation, so
that some help might come from that Government as a tribute to a
national movement which ought to be encouraged by the English
Government which is ruling over the land. For if you take the Gov-
ernment as a whole, it has a desire to do justice and it has a desire to
meet the wishes of the people over whom it rules; and such a move-
ment as this, a really national movement, could not and would not
be neglected. And this would also bring you the support of those
ambitious wealthy Indians who will help nothing that is not looked
on with favourable eyes by the rulers of the day.
There is just another point I wish to put to you about Sanskrit.
At the present time some of the greatest treasures of Sanskrit learn-
ing are going to England for translation, to be translated by
Englishmen, by Orientalists who take an interest in these works, but
who have no belief in their deeper meanings, who do not share in the
religious faith which inspired them, who do not share the philosophic
views which they embody, who have no sympathy with the national
traditions, and therefore who will never give the spirit of the origi-
nals, however accurately, however grammatically they may translate
them. I myself, with my limited experience, know of more than one
priceless untranslated work which has been taken over to England to
pass into the hands of English Orientalists for translation. Why? Be-
cause no one could be found here to do it. One work has been thus
taken over lately to England to be translated and issued at a cost of
£800, and this after a fruitless search of many months for a translator
here. I ask you whether it would not be better that members of the
Hindu religion should translate these Hindu religious books them-
selves; whether you think it creditable that they should be sent to the
West for translation by men who do not share your beliefs and have
no sympathy whatsoever with your religion? Is it likely that transla-
tions of this kind can be true to the spirit of the originals? Is it likely
that the delicate points, the shades of thought will ever be truly
caught? Is it likely that with the aid of a grammar and dictionary, a
mere comparison of book with book, that the meanings of deep reli-
gious books will be faithfully rendered, that there will be
understanding of the subtle distinctions in belief, only to be found in
the hearts of men who are at one with the religion itself, and are con-
tained in the true meaning of these books? Therefore you want to
build up a class in India, educated in Sanskrit and also in English,
who will be able not only to give the spirit of the original Sanskrit,
from their knowledge of the very delicate shades of thought of the
Hindu religion, but who, also possessing a sound knowledge of Eng-
lish, will be able to give the most accurate equivalents of the terms
and not simply give the dictionary English meanings which now dis-
figure the translations. So that you need to have men who shall at
once be masters of the Sanskrit and masters of the English tongue to
translate the treasures of this ancient literature, which are now being
continually sent for translation to the Western world. But mind you,
this desire to know the treasures of the Eastern thought is beginning
to grow in the West; this desire to know the philosophy of India, to
understand its subtleties, to realise something of its complexities of
thought, is a growing demand at the present time, and you have many
priceless works which need to be translated in order to elicit the
meaning of the books which are already in an English form. A book,
for instance, like the Bhagavad Gita has a very wide circulation in
its English dress. Would it not be then well to circulate some of the
commentaries, as for instance that of Sri Sankaracharya? Would it
not then be well to have an English translation of it published, so that
the thoughts of the great Hindu teacher may be made known, which
should throw some light upon its contents?
And further, in this way you raise your nation. In this way
again, in time, India will rule the world; when this is done, India will
be able to challenge the judgment of the educated world, and with
one voice it will pronounce for the supremacy of her literature, as
everyone has done who has acquainted himself with it; for there is
no dissentient voice amongst Sanskrit-knowing Western people;
they all are of one mind as regards the value of Sanskrit literature,
however much and variously they may disagree about special books;
there is but one opinion as to its profundity and grandeur; and this
opinion is spreading in the West, that all things spiritual come from
the East. Do you suppose that when this is more widely recognised,
it will not react here, that the regard and respect and admiration of
the West paid to your splendid literature will not avail to raise you
as a people in the eyes of the world, by the homage of intelligent
men gathered from every nation?
Supposing, then, that this Sanskrit revival takes place, and
there are signs of it already, then you must remember that you need
to do something for the younger boys who are entering the gates of
learning, to prepare them for this higher education. Now the great
thing to do with boys in primary schools is to inspire them with en-
thusiasm for the motherland, by choosing carefully the kind of books
which are placed in their hands for study. First of all, you ought to
encourage a study of the vernaculars that are based on the Sanskrit,
and should preserve their type; for in the case of the Northern Hin-
dus, their languages are derived entirely from the Sanskrit. But what
is happening today to these vernaculars? More and more there is a
change working; you have a vernacular, Hindi, which ought to be
Hindi, becoming full of foreign terms, to the diminution of words
taken from the Sanskrit. So that it is becoming less and less a Hindu
language, and more and more a foreign tongue, associated with
meanings and words drawn from Arabic and Persian sources. More
and more the vernacular which is based upon the Sanskrit is being
pushed aside and forgotten by the people, thus denationalising them
still further and separating them from their most cherished and an-
cient traditions.
Now, in regard to this question of books and teaching. The
teaching in every school to which Hindu boys are sent for purposes
of study ought to be based upon the Sastras, so training the boys in
the knowledge which is to guide their path in life. They should be
taught the ways of Aryan morality; they should be taught the stern
and rigid sense of duty, which should pervade all their character they
should be taught the meanings which are expressed in symbolism,
so that whenever they are challenged in the world, they may be able
to justify their own faith intellectually, by explaining it; morally, by
showing purity, uprightness and blamelessness of life; and spiritu-
ally, by living openly a life which aspires to the life hereafter, thus
becoming Hindus in the truest and fullest sense of the word.
Then with regard to secular learning. I saw the other day, in
looking over some books in a school, that they were English school-
books, and as I was turning over the pages I found that though the
books would have been suitable for boys in an English school, they
were remarkably inadequate for the boys of an Indian one. For the
information on geography, productions, natural objects, etc., which
was given about India was absolutely out of all proportion in com-
parison with the information given about European nations. Now if
you take a primary book in an English school you will find that it
deals mainly with England: its history, geography, products, indus-
tries, trades, and so on. But here the boys are taught much about
England, and very little are they taught about their own country. The
book gives a Hindu boy details of English towns—now what is the
use of that knowledge to him? And he is left without any knowledge
of the detailed history and geography and products and industries of
his own country, where the whole of his life is to be spent, and to
which his thoughts should ever be turned. The foundation of an in-
telligent knowledge of his own country should primarily be laid in
every boy’s mind, and the knowledge of other lands later, when that
about his own has been mastered. Press upon the educational depart-
ment the use of books relating more to India and the peoples of India,
which shall give their history at greater length and the history of
other nations more briefly. The history and geography of India
should be soundly taught, and the acquiring of a wider knowledge
may be left to those who have the time and inclination to pass on to
higher schools. It is but just that the poor Indian boys should learn
the history of their own land, rather than that of lands with which
they will have nothing to do in the course of their lives. I have seen
a boy give quickly the name of the capital of Switzerland, and hunt
confusedly in the South of India for Kashmir. What sort of a national
education is that? Try to change it and make a public opinion which
will call for this change as regards the work of primary education.
Thus, passing on, now rouse the boys to enthusiasm and
pride by the history of Ancient India; tell them of that. Tell them how
India was really great, cultured, full of piety; tell them all the won-
derful tales which are to be found in the ancient literature, tales
enforcing the noblest morality; so that they may grow up thinking of
India with pride and devotion, and longing to do their share in serv-
ing the nation, because the nation is worthy of all sacrifice and
service. Enthusiasm in the young is easily aroused; teach them what
will fire their hearts; for the young are touched and moved easily by
noble ideals, and if you give them anything to touch their hearts, if
you give them anything to move their enthusiasm, if you familiarise
them with the past history of their own country, if you wake their
devotion to their national faith, the time will come when they will
turn away from the West to the motherland. And these boys, grown
into men, shall be bound with every bond that can link the Indian to
his home, and from such men will come the salvation of India.
Pass from this ideal of education, which might breathe
through India the breath of a new life, to another line of work, which
is one of serious importance to a caste on the regeneration of which
depends much of the hope of India’s regeneration. It would be well
to establish throughout the country organisations such as those
which are actually at work in the Punjab, for helping and training the
sons of Brahmans in sacred learning and in the intelligent discharge
of religious rites. The organisations are called, “Brahman Sabhas”,
and the objects are stated to be: “To encourage the Brahmans to
learn Sanskrit,
‘Dasa Karma Vidhi’, ‘Sanskara Vidhi’ and to endeavour to
ameliorate the condition of the Brahmanical religion”. Every mem-
ber is bound to learn Sanskrit, to regularly perform the daily rites of
“Nitya Karma”, and the ceremony of the investiture with the sacred
thread, strictly in accordance with the Sastras at the proper age, with
the proper rites. Each Sabha should have a school attached to it for
teaching Sanskrit, the daily rites, and “Sanskara paddhati” to the
sons of Brahmans; a committee of Pandits should examine the
school annually, and grant certificates to the students who pass. Only
those Brahmans should be permitted to officiate at religious ceremo-
nies who hold these certificates, and none others. Other important
rules run:

Each Brahman shall be bound to teach Sanskrit to his

children.
The Brahmans acting as priests shall be bound to per-
form the required ceremonies
strictly according to the Sastras and with sincere devo-
tion, even if the Yajman be poor and unable to spend much
money.
If the Yajman be a Brahman, and does not desire to have
the religious ceremonies performed with a sincere faith, the
priest shall decline to officiate, and on his refusal no other
Brahman shall officiate for him.
Students from the city, or outside, who are poor and have
no means of support, shall be fed and taught by the Institu-
tion.

Such Sabhas would do very useful work by encouraging

well-instructed priests, and also by putting an end to the exactions of
disputing priests, especially at places of pilgrimage, where many
scandalous things occur from time to time from the sheer greed of
gain. Information about the Sabhas may be obtained from Rai B. K.
Laheri, Ludhiana, Punjab.
Useful also are the Sabhas for Hindu boys and students,
started by Col. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society, and
now multiplying rapidly through the country. They are designed to
give Hindu boys the strength that comes through association,
throughout the period of school and college life, a period so danger-
ous to their religious faith under present conditions. The boys bind
themselves to speak the truth, live chastely, and perform their reli-
gious duties according to the Sastras. The Sabhas are united into a
Hindu Boys’Association, founded at the end of 1894, which issues a
boys’ journal monthly. Information about this can be obtained from
the Secretary of the Theosophical Society, Benares.
Those who, like myself, desire the maintenance of the Caste
system, in its ancient fourfold order, would do well to consider the
advisability of getting rid of some of those restrictions which are in-
defensible on any ground of reason or religion, and which interpose
rigid barriers between members of the same caste, preventing inter-
marriage and so on. Sri Sankaracharya, the successor of the great
Teacher of that name and the present head of the Sringeri Matha, has
already declared himself in favour of marriages between members
of the same great caste who are separated only by the artificial walls
of subdivisions. Such a reform would greatly strengthen the Caste
system against its assailants, and it therefore deserves thoughtful
consideration.
The next point is the building up of the entire Indian nation,
by the encouragement of national feeling, by maintaining the tradi-
tional dress, ways of living, and so on, by promoting Indian arts and
manufactures, by giving preference to Indian products over foreign.
Now this is a point which really goes to the very root of Indian re-
vival. Do not undervalue the importance of sentiment, and do not try
to do away with everything which differentiates India from other
lands; rather strive to maintain the immemorial customs and follow
the immemorial traditions, instead of trying to look as little Hindus
as possible, as many of you are inclined to do. It is true, of course,
that these are outside matters, but they have a very real effect on the
generation and maintenance of national feeling. Take clothing and
habits of life. There is no question that the Indian dress is the most
suitable for the climate; it is healthy, it is beautiful; why then give it
up? I know it cannot be worn while a man is engaged in certain vo-
cations, and that he is compelled to wear English clothes while
working in offices where the dress of Western nations is compulsory.
Now that is a thing which you cannot help; but what you can help is
the not carrying on of these foreign clothes into private life: the
Westernising of dress in the home as well as in the law-courts, in the
home as well as in the office. This is not only folly, but a mistake as
well. If Englishmen out here were wise they would adopt the Indian
dress, instead of which we have Indians adopting the English dress
at a possible risk to health. The Western man has to face a severer
climate, and to bear a severer cold. In the Indian dress it would be
utterly impossible to live in England, for men would simply die of
the cold. But here, the wearing of English dress is simply absurd.
There is nothing whatsoever to be said in favour of it, for it is abso-
lutely ugly. If Englishmen would go back two hundred years and use
the dress then worn, there would then at least be an artistic defence,
for the dress then worn was beautiful, as compared with the peculi-
arly hideous clothing now worn, and which seems so much to attract
the average young Indian mind. Now the matter is not simply a mat-
ter of sentiment; it is really a matter of health, of convenience, and
of economy; for the Indian dress is suited to the Indian climate, not
only because it is light, but also because its material can go through
water daily, and so is far more suitable to a hot country than the cloth
coat and trousers which are worn unwashed over and over again.
Considered as a mere question of hygiene in a hot climate, clothes
which come into daily contact with water are eminently desirable.
There is no reason, no common sense, which should make the Indian
lay it aside, when the experience of thousands of years has shown it
to be the best kind of dress for India. But it is not only that. The inner
feeling and outer expression often go together, and he who Western-
ises his outside attire is very likely to grow Western inside as well,
and therefore instead of strengthening he really tends to weaken his
motherland. Then again the question of economy comes in. Clothing
which fifty years ago cost very little is now a serious drain upon the
purse. Then, dress was simple, dignified without being costly, save
among the wealthy and the ruling classes. Ordinarily it was a simple
dress, which did not make any marked distinction between the rich
and the poor in the same caste, and was suited to the wants of the
people. Suppose a man was learned but poor, he was not looked
down upon for his simple dress, but in his pure white clothing he
could make his way into every wealthy house in the land. Dress was
not then, as it is today, a question of social appreciation and the in-
crease in expenditure upon it means a heavy addition to the already
large burden on many families, in the ever-increasing struggle and
competition brought into Eastern life by the adoption of Western
methods. Again to the ordinary Hindu this Westernising process
means a far greater demand upon him in other matters than that of
clothing; for not only does it mean a change of dress, but it also
means an increase in the number of meals, a change in their charac-
ter, increase of wants in furniture, and so on, until, if you work it out,
you will find that it means a greatly increased cost of living.
See the benefits I told you of yesterday, of simplicity of life.
I did not mean asceticism by that. I did not mean to say that men of
the world should lead the life of asceticism. I did not mean to say
that men should live as Yogis in jungles or under trees, but I did mean
that they should lead a national, a simple, life with all the noble char-
acteristics of the ancient times; that their houses should have the old
simplicity and not be crowded over with a multiplicity of things of
foreign manufacture.
And this leads me to the next point namely, that it is the
bounden duty of every patriotic Indian to encourage Indian art, In-
dian manufactures and Indian labour; and not to go across the seas
to bring here endless manufactured articles, but to give work to his
own people. Let all encourage Indian manufactures and arts, and use
Indian-made goods in India. Indian art has gained a name all over
the world because of its beauty and artistic finish, and why should
men who have such art on their own soil, why should they go and
buy the shoddy productions of Birmingham and Manchester? why
should they cast aside the labour of their own countrymen? why
should they purchase foreign goods instead of home-made, and en-
courage bad art instead of good ? There is really no excuse for
leaving Indian national art to perish, for this is an important thing in
a nation’s well-being, and especially the encouragement of all those
forms of art which depend upon the delicacy of the human faculty,
refine the people at large and increase the material progress of the
nation. Why, if you take some of the foreign manufactured goods
and compare them with the Indian, what do you see? You find that
in the Indian the colours are most delicately graduated and blended,
giving an exquisite softness of shading to the Indian carpet, and this
is the result of generations of physical training in the sense of colour;
while in the carpet of foreign manufacture it is harsh and crude, and
there is no need to print upon it “manufactured in Germany”, for you
have only to look at its colouring to know it is not Indian. You are
therefore injuring your own beautiful national art by using inferior
goods of foreign make, and extinguishing Indian trade by continuing
to encourage foreign goods, to the impoverishment of India and to
the throwing of Indians out of employment. Look also at the large
prices the people in England are ready to pay for Indian art objects.
I urge you, therefore, to support your own labourers, thus strength-
ening your manufactures and arts, and laying a sound material
foundation for national wealth. The strengthening and developing of
these Indian industries is the work to which Vaishyas should devote
themselves, for that is the work essentially belonging to their caste,
on which of old the material welfare of the nation hung. You would
also have coming to you constant demands from foreigners who pur-
chase Indian goods because of their beauty. And we must press upon
wealthy men that instead of sending to England to buy costly furni-
ture, they spend their money at home in encouraging the arts which
are around them in their motherland, so that a public opinion may be
formed which would cry “shame” upon a prince or rajah who filled
his palace with foreign articles instead of having them produced in
his own country, so that his wealth should add to the comfort and
happiness of the people and strengthen the national prosperity. These
would awaken a sense of nationality, filtering down from the higher
to the lower, regenerating the nation, and striking its roots deep down
into the physical lives of, the people, uniting all India, binding all
India together closer and closer and closer, till her oneness is real-
ised, till Indians recognise in themselves a people. See in the
Ramayana how all the arts and handicrafts flourished, and how pros-
perity and happiness abounded among the people on every side, for
the masses need physical comfort; they are not developed to the
point of finding wealth in thought. These ideas should appeal to your
reason and claim your judgment, for they are practical lines of work-
ing out a material regeneration, and deal with those concerns which
the people at large can understand. The growing poverty of India is
a matter you must reckon with, for you are already feeling the pres-
sure of the struggle for existence, and that pressure must increase if
you continue to feed its causes.
But remember that these physical means of regeneration can-
not succeed unless they flow down as the lowest manifestations of
the spiritual ideal that I have been setting before you, for they all
have as aim the unifying of India, and that unifying must be founded
on and permeated by a spiritual life, recognised as the supreme good,
as the highest goal. Everything else is to subserve that, no matter
how much material prosperity and wealth are needed for the encour-
agement of weak and undeveloped souls.
There is one other matter on which I must touch—the unifi-
cation of religions, which can be done nowhere if it be impossible
here. The glory of ancient Hinduism was its all-embracing character,
its holding up of the perfect ideal, and yet its generous inclusion of
all shades of thought. Under that wide tolerance, philosophies and
religious sects grew up and lived in amity side by side, and all phases
of thought are found represented in the different Indian schools and
the numerous Indian sects. This gives to Hinduism a unique position
among the religions of the world. Therefore an effort should be made
to draw into amicable relationship the religious bodies that went out
from Hinduism, and have become oblivious of, or hostile to, the root
whence they sprang. The Zoroastrians—the modern Parsis—have a
noble and philosophical religion, holding the essential truths of all
spiritual religion. This religion has become sadly materialised, and
its adherents, in too many cases, have no idea of the deep meaning
that underlies the ceremonies they so ignorantly perform. Alas! this
materialising process has affected the masses in all religions; the
more reason that the fundamental unity should be proclaimed by
those who see spiritual truths, and that the daughters who have mar-
ried into other families should not utterly forget their mother’s home,
but should recognise their descent and let love replace hatred.
And so with Buddhism. This also is a daughter of Hinduism,
but at present the estrangement is too sharp, and has been caused
very largely by misunderstandings. In the Buddhism of Tibet and
China the ancient traditions have been preserved, and the Hindu gods
and goddesses are worshipped under other names—sometimes even
under the same names. Mantras are used, Japa is performed, many
religious rites are the same. And in the great philosophical system,
but little known, which is expounded in the Abhidhamma (I am told),
there is found the metaphysics and the spiritual profundity so defi-
cient in popular Buddhism. Nor is it lacking on the esoteric, the
occult, side; in the definite training of the Soul in Yoga. And the
Siddhis are acquired by the Buddhist ascetic as by the Hindu. No
division exists in that inner region. Why should it not be recognised
that the Hindu social system, which is the chief point of difference,
while invaluable as a type to the world, and to be maintained and
cherished by all true Hindus, is not suitable to many other nations,
and that religious intolerance is no part of Hinduism? A true Hindu
nation in its fourfold order would be the Brahman of Humanity, the
spiritual Teacher, the channel of Divine Life to the world. But other
castes as well as the Brahman are necessary in a nation, and other
social forms as well as the Hindu are necessary in the world. If India
could be regenerated, if India could be purified, if India could be re-
spiritualised, then the nation as a whole, with her spiritual faculties,
her intellectual powers, her ideally perfect social organisation, would
stand forth in the eyes of the world as the priest-people of Humanity,
standing before the Gods in her collective capacity, fitted to be their
mouthpiece to the world. That is the destiny to which India was ap-
pointed when she was peopled by the first men of the Fifth Race, and
her religion and her social system were founded by the Rishis that
she might serve as the model for that Race. Shall she ever again so
serve? Shall she ever again rise from her present degradation, and
fulfil the sublime charge laid in her hands? Who may pierce the dark-
ness of the future? Who may read the scroll of destiny? This alone is
sure, that no other future may be for her; that it is either this or death;
and that it lies wholly with her children to give back to Humanity the
India which may be the Saviour of Spirituality to the world.
 7

India’s Awakening
1921 April 6th, appointed Hon. Commissioner for All-India of the Boy
Scouts Association;
July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical Society;
July 23-26, president of the first Theosophical World Congress
at Paris (1400 delegates representing 39 countries);
July 26th, lectured at the Sorbonne in French;
Dec. 3rd, welcomed back to India J. Krishnamurti and brother;
Dec. 14th, Benares Hindu University conferred on her the hon.
degree of Doctor of Letters;
1921 December, instituted Adyar Day, to begin 17 Feb. 1922;
Started the 1921 Political Club in Madras, from which came the
idea of drafting a constitution for India
1922 October inaugurated the Brahmavidyā Ashrama at Adyar
1922-23 Engaged in the Martyn ‘case’
1923 Inaugurated the Youth Movement in the Theosophical Society;
Inaugurated the Brotherhood Campaign for which wrote the
powerful universal prayer, ‘O hidden Life’
1924 Attended in Queen’s Hall, London, the Golden Jubilee celebra-
tion of her Public activities; also in Bombay and Madras
1925 Took the Commonwealth of India Bill to London, to be pre-
sented in Parliament;
Attended a great Star Camp in Holland;
Celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Theosophical Society at
Adyar, to which 3,000 delegates came from all over the world;
Established Temples of the religions in Adyar;
Proclaimed three World Movements;
Dec. 28th, was present at a memorable meeting of the Order of
the Star
 India’s Awakening
[A lecture delivered by Annie Besant in 1910 and published in her
book India – Bond or Free? –A World Problem, London & New York, G.
P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926.]

For many long years past I have urged on you, and on those
like you in all parts of India, the necessity of a spiritual awakening
before the awakening of a material prosperity becomes possible. You
know that during many years past, since the Theosophical Society
was established on these shores, the importance of religion, the ne-
cessity of spiritual knowledge, has been constantly insisted upon, has
been constantly urged; and in doing this, those who brought the re-
newal of the message were only treading in the footsteps of their far-
off predecessors, who have ever declared that from the Spirit come
forth all things that exist, and that without the life of the Spirit not
even animal, vegetable or mineral life were possible. That profound
truth in the ancient philosophy of India is the only foundation for
progress of every kind. One Spirit, and one only; one Life, and none
other; every form from the one living Essence, every being rooted in
the everlasting One.
In the past, I have sometimes traced for you the steps of In-
dia’s descent; how from the time of her great spirituality, when the
life of the Spirit was seen as the sun in the heavens, how from that
time downwards, with the decay of spirituality, went also the decay
of all desirable things. And I remember how often I have pressed
upon you how first there came the lessening of the spiritual life, then
the decay of the original side of intellectual thought, of the creative
intelligence, and only when those had gone far down into the twi-
light, came the slow decay of material prosperity. You may
remember that I have put it to you that the awakening, the reviving,
of Indian life must follow the order in which the descent had gone.
First of all, the reviving of true spirituality, of true religion, of the
vital understanding of the profoundest truths of all existence; then,
after that has made its way to an appreciable extent, then must come
the training, the culture, the guidance of the intelligence, so that a
wisely planned and wisely guided education might train the future
workers of the land. I remember saying to you that when the spiritual
life has again become potent, when the educational life has again
become pervasive, then only can material prosperity safely return.
To men with the knowledge of the One, with the unselfishness which
grows out of the realisation of the common life, to their hands only
can be safely entrusted the material guidance of the people. It is
along that line that Indian progress has gone for many a year past.
First, the great revival of religion. It began with the revival of Bud-
dhism in the island of Ceylon, where, as you may remember,
education swiftly followed after the re-awakened faith. Then came
the great revival of Hinduism, that has spread from one end of the
land to the other, from the Himalayas to Tuticorin, and everywhere
is recognised as a fact. Then followed the recognition that in a rightly
directed education lay the only way of training for the motherland
citizens who would be worthy of her past and therefore capable of
building her future; out of that will arise all the varied activities of a
full and rich national life, and we shall see the nation, which India
never yet has been, but which India shall be in the days that are
dawning.
Now the change to the material awakening has come some-
what more swiftly than most of us expected. I should say it has come
a little too soon, were it not that I believe that over the destinies of
nations there are hands so wise and so loving that guide, that nothing
can really come either too soon or too late. But, to our eyes, looking
with purblind vision, we should sometimes be almost inclined to say
that events are travelling in India a little more rapidly than is well.
For we need for the wise guiding of a material movement, men
trained from boyhood in religion and in true wisdom, so that the
brain may be balanced and calm, the hands strong and steady, for the
moment you touch the popular mind and the popular heart you
awaken forces that are apt to go beyond the control of wisdom, and
it needs a nucleus of wise and steady thinkers in order that a popular
movement may find its way aright.
Let us, then, at this moment of immense importance to In-
dia’s future, consider what ought to be the line most wisely to be
followed in the great rush which is coming upon us. I pause a mo-
ment on the sentence just uttered, of the hands that guide, and the
wisdom and the love which shape a nation’s destinies. It is no new
thought to you, who have grown up in the atmosphere in which the
celestial and the physical worlds are mingling—it is no new thought
to you that the Devas, the Shining Ones, mingle in the affairs of men.
Nor should it be a new thought to you—although to many it may
now seem strange—that every nation also has its own Devas who
guide its affairs, who shape its present and its future.
Let me then remind you that in the vast unseen hierarchy who
mingle in human affairs, there are Devas of many grades, as well as
the great Rishis who are the planners and regulators of events. First
of all, there is the plan of the Lord himself, of Ishvara, the Ruler of
the system, who sketches, in the dawn of the creative days, the plan
of evolution along which His universe shall go. Out of the innumer-
able conceivabilities in the mind of the Supreme, some are chosen
by the Ishvara, who builds a system, as the material for His system,
and woven into the plan for His unfolding. No pen, save that of His
finger, writes that wondrous drama, which slowly is unfolded in the
history of the evolving universe, written so that none may change,
written so that none may amend, written by a wisdom inconceivable
to us, and by a love of which the deepest love of the human heart is
but the faintest and most shadowy reflection.
Then the working out of that plan is given into the hands of
those whom we may call His ministers, the great Ones who come
into the system, from systems long gone by, to co-operate with Him
in the shaping of a new humanity; into their hands His plan is given,
and theirs the brains of wisdom and the hands of strength that bring
that plan into the details that we call history. They plan out the work-
ing and give to every nation the acting of a part in that great plan; to
the Deva who rules the nation, and who has under his control a hier-
archy of lesser Devas, that part is given to be worked out in the
history of the people. Now the plan is for all humanity, and not for
one nation only, and each nation, in turn, has its part to play; each
nation in turn is cast either for the moment’s weal or the moment’s
woe; and those only can read aright the history of humanity who
know the powers that work behind the veil; for you cannot manage
a household unless you know the will of the householder, and before
you can realise the wisdom of household guidance, you must know
the wants of the children and of the other members of the house. So
in the history of peoples you cannot judge by the Statesmen, the Gen-
erals, the Admirals, and the Monarchs, who all work out the various
tasks that are given them to do. You must look behind them to those
who guide, to the great Householder, the supreme Grihastha of the
system. When we come to India, we know that all this is true of India
and of India’s Deva-King, who stands high above the nation and
works out, millennium after millennium, the parts which are given
to him for his nation to play in the world’s history, these parts have
outlined the nation’s story through all the difficulties, the dangers,
the humiliations of the past. On that I may not dwell long now. For
the moment I leave them untouched, to turn to that which immedi-
ately concerns us. Now to the present and its working.
First of all, in order that India might again take her place
amongst the nations of the world, mightier even than in the past—a
glorious past—there came the spiritual messengers, the messengers
who were to revive the varied religions of the land. That has been
done to a great extent as regards Hinduism and Buddhism. But you
must remember that the other religions must also have, and to some
extent have had, each in its own place, the advantage of the same
spiritual and enlivening influence. Look at the community called
Zoroastrian, and see how it has of late years become spiritualising in
its tendencies instead of materialising as in the past. The great faith
of Islam is the one which only shows in a very limited measure the
enlivening influence of the new spiritual impulse, yet there also the
same working is beginning, and there also there are signs of the
spreading of the same influence, so that Islam also shall take her
place, spiritually alive and spiritually potent, to bear her part in the
re-shaping of India as she is to be. That work is not finished, in fact
never will he finished, rather ever continuing, but all the first great
steps are taken and success in that is assured.
Passing to education, there an immense amount has been
done, and far more has yet to be done, as I shall put it to you in a few
moments. We have only begun the very A B C of the educational
reform which is necessary in order to make India what she should
be. Now, when a nation does not move sufficiently swiftly along the
path of progress, when she does not rouse herself enough to the voice
that appeals, that warns, and that counsels, then the Deva of the na-
tion takes other means in hand, in order to awaken his people and
make them see along what lines their path should be trodden. And
these other means used by the Deva are goads. They are like the whip
that touches the horse when he is too lazy, and what you look on as
national misfortunes, as things that you even cry out against with
insistence and with passion, these are very often, rightly seen, the
goads which make a nation move a little faster towards the goal on
which the Deva’s eyes are fixed. This is especially true just now, and
will serve my purpose well as an illustration with regard to educa-
tion. Education is a matter that belongs to the nation when rightly
understood. Fathers and guardians are the people who ought to fash-
ion the national education. How long have I been urging upon you
to take this matter of education into your own hands, and not leave
it for others to guide and plan. How long, in my travels up and down
through the country, have I urged upon you the importance of this
question of national education. I remember how about three years
ago when I spoke in Bombay, I urged on every man and on every
woman, mother and father, that on them lay the heavy responsibility
of the education and the training of the child. I remember how there
I urged upon you that your own interests, if nothing else, should stir
you to the guidance of your children’s education; for you do not want
to continue to overcrowd, as you are doing, the ranks of the so-called
learned professions and the ranks of the Government service. Those
are not things which make nations great, however necessary they
may be, and however necessary they are, for the mechanism and ad-
ministration of the nation. The things that make a nation great, from
the material standpoint, are not the learned professions and Govern-
ment service, but scientific agriculture, well-devised manufactures,
thoughtfully planned arts and crafts, and the innumerable forms of
workmanship that go to the building up of national wealth. But along
the lines on which education has been going on, this has been left on
one side, and, mind you, the blame for that does not lie on the Gov-
ernment; it lies on the people. It is useless and idle to blame
Government, when you are the people who can do it, if you have the
heart, the will, and the perseverance. Out of your pocket comes every
rupee that the Government spends on education. Out of your pocket
come the far too few rupees that build the colleges and schools, save
the missionary establishments. If instead of sending your boys to
Government colleges and missionary schools, you built your own
schools, and had your own teachers, you might guide education ex-
actly as you would. It is not that there is not money enough in the
country. I know it is said that India is poor; so she is in a sense poor,
that is as regards the masses of her people. But not too poor to build
colleges and schools for your children, while you are able to main-
tain, as you are doing, large crowds of men as mendicants, in the full
strength of vigorous life, who are innocent of all sacred learning, in-
nocent of the light, who have nothing of the Sannyasi but the cloth
that covers them, and who are yet fed and sheltered by the crore.
India is not poor so long as your Chetties and Banias can give lakhs
upon lakhs of rupees for the restoration of ancient temples and the
gilding of their pinnacles. You do not need to increase your charities,
that is not wanted; but oh! if you would only turn them into channels
that fertilise instead of channels that corrupt, India would have
wealth enough to educate her sons and daughters, and to make pos-
sible a new life in the future.
I do not speak against the restoration of temples. That is well.
It is well that man should worship, rightly, nobly and rationally. I do
not speak against the restoration of temples, but I do speak against
the mere restoration that leaves the priesthood ignorant and profli-
gate. I do speak against the restoration of a temple where no school
lives under its shadow, and where children are not taught by those
whose duty it is to teach—less gilding on the pinnacles of temples,
and more gilding of learning in the hearts of boys and girls. And if
you still keep your temples in order, but spend some of the money
that is wasted on vast crowds of idle mendicants on the education of
your children, how rapidly would India rise in the scale of nations,
and how quickly she would claim her right place among the peoples
of the world.
And that is your work. Last year in speaking on “Theosophy
in Relation to Politics”, I urged upon you the formation of Educa-
tional Boards in every district of India. Now Government has
nothing to do with that. You do not need to ask for Government per-
mission or authority. You have only to gather a few of your cleverest
men and princes together and make them into an Educational Board,
for a definitely outlined area. What is wanted is not Government
help. It is your work. What is wanted is self-devotion, energy, initi-
ative, the willingness to go through years of drudgery; for only in
that way can true education be built up. This has not yet been acted
on. The idea, when spoken about anywhere, causes a good deal of
cheering, but only in a few places has there been any real earnest
work, even in starting an Indian school. Hence a goad was needed,
and it has been applied. An Education Commission goes all round
the country. The Education Commission presents its report, and the
representative of the vast majority of those whose children have to
be educated under the new law presents a minority report—a minor-
ity of one. Now certainly, if you weigh heads instead of counting
them, that minority might outweigh many, for that one was Mr Jus-
tice Gurudas Bannerji. He knew very well what sort of education
was wanted by the people, but he was only one, and the English ma-
jority shaped the Education Bill, and passed the Act. When it was
passed, a number of very wise protests were made—thoughtful,
well-considered, and rational; but why only protests? Why were not
the protests followed by the formation of Boards, which should do
that which the protestors wished? The protest was wisely made. Such
protests are necessary, but they should be followed by action, for
thought that is not followed by action acts like a gangrene in the hu-
man mind. Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not
prepared to act; better not think, unless you are prepared to put your
activity into action, for in the higher spheres, as you know, thought
produces action; down here, thought and especially talk, without ac-
tion, does not get a nation very far along the line of progress. So all
the energy flows out in the talk, and nothing is done. The national
Deva thought something more in the way of pressure was wanted,
and the Education Act became law. And very well it did. You do not
approve of it, nor do I; but still it was wanted, because nothing else
would stir the people into action. That was why I said that where a
people would not move by exhortation and advice, some goad was
used in order to stir them into activity. Now that you find education
has become dearer, that to educate the boys strains to breaking the
narrow incomes of the fathers; now that you see Higher Education is
being more and more blocked to the class that needs it most—a class
hereditarily learned, but always poor and now largely shut out from
the costly education of the day; now that the education question has
come in this form: “You must take this costly education or noth-
ing”—you must begin to say: “No, it shall not be nothing. It shall be
something, created by my own hands and out of my own money and
brains.” But in order that the goad may serve its purpose well, it is
necessary that there should be hot and bitter feelings in the hearts of
many of the people affected. It is that which makes the steam that
drives the engine. It is that which presently makes the piston to go
backwards and forwards and the wheels to turn. It is that which gives
force, though it also causes an immense amount of excitement and
foolish talk. These things are necessary, in order to generate the
forces which make the engine of the nation move. So that, the Edu-
cation Act is, as I regard it, a goad to make us struggle against it, as
we are obliged to struggle at Benares, in keeping our fees low. I am
glad it has passed, because it has—I hope it has—given the impulse
which will make men take the education of their children into their
own hands.
But now, how? By beginning at the right end and not at the
wrong. First by making your Educational Boards all over the coun-
try; next by creating colleges and universities, and most of all by
making such a public opinion, especially among the Indian princes,
the great merchants, and employers of labour, as shall induce them
to recognise the degrees given by the Indian universities as valid cre-
dentials for those who are seeking employment. Until you have done
that, you have done nothing. It is no good even making a university,
unless you have made a body of people who are prepared to take its
graduates when they have taken their degrees, and thus open to them
means of livelihood. It is no good beginning with boys. You must
begin with men.
Now I will tell you why I object to boys being thrown into
political conflicts. They may ruin their whole lives in a sudden surge
of excitement, and in their manhood bitterly reproach those who took
advantage of their inexperience. While education is under the control
of Government, and the fate of every boy is in the hands of the offi-
cials of his town, it is cruel to fling the lads against them. A boy
dismissed from school or college, and refused a leaving certificate,
has his education ruined and his future livelihood destroyed. When
people unaccustomed to political action suddenly plunge into it, they
are apt to think after they act instead of before. Here lies one of the
dangers in India’s Awakening, and that is why I said, I fear it has
come too soon. Those who are trained in politics, as in my past life
I have been—for I have taken a large part in the political struggles
of the people in England, and I worked there in difficult times side
by side with my old friend, Mr. Charles Bradlaugh—make it, as we
made it, one of the rules of political life never to tell another man to
go where there was risk, where we did not go in front; never to tell a
procession to go where there was danger, unless we walked in front,
so that we should be the first people on whom blows fell. It was the
glory of Charles Bradlaugh, when he lay on his deathbed, that de-
spite his struggles and difficulties, there was not one home that had
been made desolate by him, not one man who had gone to jail for the
work that he had asked him to do. The front is the place of the leader;
it is the place of the man, and not the place of the boy.
There is another reason why it is bad to send boys to the
front. There can be no wise politics without thought beforehand.
People who shout first and think afterwards make a mob, they do not
make a political party; and that is the thing that the boy does. How
much do you think a boy of this height (pointing to a boy about four
feet) knows about the good or the evil of the Partition of Bengal? He
shouts out and protests. It is bad training for the future. In the Col-
lege, students should discuss political questions, social questions and
economic questions. They should debate them, discuss them, and
talk them over in every possible way. We train them to do that in the
Central Hindu College. But we do not allow them to protest against
the Government. And the reason is a very simple one. When they
have discussed these questions beforehand, when they have talked
them over, then, when they have gone out into the world, they will
be ready to form rational opinions. But if, before they study and un-
derstand the questions of the day, they shout their approval or
disapproval out of empty heads, they make a great deal of noise, but
noise of no value, like bladders which, when beaten, make a noise,
but collapse if you prick them with a pin. I do not want India to work
along those lines. Train your boys to think first and then to form
opinions, not to call out first and then wonder what they have been
shouting for. That is bad moral training. It puts boys on wrong lines,
and it takes away that profound sense of responsibility which ought
to be at the heart of everyone who mingles in political life. For, re-
member what playing at politics means. Remember that it means
playing with property; it means playing with liberty; it means play-
ing with the lives of men. Leaders in the political arena have to
remember all that, when they take the responsibility of calling men
to action. When you have a man like Mr. Gokhale, who has trained
himself by years upon years of study and of self-denial, by his self-
sacrificing work in the Fergusson College, for twenty years on Rs.
75 a month and a retiring pension of Rs. 25 a month—when you have
a man trained in that way, and who studies every subject to the very
bottom before he speaks about it, then you have a man who may be
trusted and of whom a nation may well be proud, a worthy leader in
the political arena.
In the matter of education, why not begin to act? You know
you send your boys still by thousands and thousands to missionary
schools, and it is a disgrace—not to the missionaries, for they are
doing work which they honestly think to be to the glory of God and
for the good of all men; they believe that their religion is much better
than yours, and I am bound to say that they love it better, because
they work for it much harder, as a rule. You ought to remember that
your religion is the oldest of all living religions, and the most perfect
in its range and in its details. Surely, it is not for you to take the
children, whose bodies you have given, and, robbing them of their
birthright, put them into other hands and mould them in an anti-In-
dian fashion. The missionaries do not make many Christians. Here
and there they do, as in Trichinopoly, but, as a rule, they do not make
many converts. But I tell you what they do. They dig up the roots of
devotion and religion in the plastic soil of the boy’s heart. They
wither them with ridicule, they trample them down with sarcasm,
and when the boy grows up, he grows up an unbeliever in all reli-
gion, a bad Hindu and not a Christian—a kind of hybrid, who is of
no use to his country. When you despiritualise an Indian, you dena-
tionalise him. Why does that go on? Because you do not care. It
sounds hard to say so, but it is true. If you cared, it would not last for
another month. What does it want to bring about the change? A few
men in every town to band themselves together into an Educational
Committee; a few rich merchants to be visited and asked to subscribe
so much per month for some years, and then the putting up of a build-
ing for a school, and the sending of the boys. There is one difficulty
in your way—the recognition of the school by the Government, and
that is a serious difficulty as things are for unless the school is rec-
ognised, the pupils of the school are not permitted to go on into the
University. Still, if you would work well and steadily and persever-
ingly, you would, I think, be able to win recognition in the long-run,
and, if not, to do without it. I have in my mind what happened in
Trichinopoly two or three years ago, when I got a few people to-
gether who said that they would collect monthly subscriptions in the
town to have a college of their own. The Roman Catholics have a
college, and some other missionary body has a college, but the Hin-
dus and the Mussulmans have no college of their own. Did they
succeed? Not a bit of it. I myself drew up a proposal for the Madras
University. The University took it into consideration. But where
were the funds? The people of Trichinopoly did not care enough to
keep their children from the missionary schools and colleges, to sup-
ply the small sum, comparatively, that is wanted to make a college
there, where the Hindu and Mussulman boys might learn apart from
Christian influence. Not long ago in another southern town there was
a college for sale, and for sale without money. It is not often that you
can buy anything without money. The Government wanted to get rid
of it, but the Government asked for a body of Hindu gentlemen who
would pledge themselves to conduct the college. But they could not
get them. The college went a-begging and still is in Government
hands.
These are the things which you have to take seriously, espe-
cially now that the people are awakening. For things are going on
swiftly, and unless you bestir yourselves to make your educational
mechanism, the tide of enthusiasm will flow into channels that will
be harmful instead of useful. Do not call your boys out from the pre-
sent schools until you have others in which to receive them. When
you can say to your son, “My boy, walk across the road to that
school, which is our own”, then by all means do it. Then you can do
without missionary schools. Otherwise you will find yourselves in
endless trouble. What you should do in Madras, and do at once, is to
begin the formation of a great organisation of leading, wealthy, in-
fluential people, who will give employment to your boys, if so be,
when the pinch comes, and Government refuses to recognise your
colleges or universities. I believe in Indian universities for Indians,
where Indian degrees shall be given in Arts and Science, and in in-
dustries that are useful for the national unfolding.
I see they are now going to teach French and German, Latin
and Greek. Very useful, no doubt. So many of you will want to go
to France, and talk French in Paris. So many of you will want to go
to Germany, and enter into trade concerns there. Latin and Greek
you may want to read, in order to understand medieval Christian
writers, I suppose, for your spiritual training. Unless this absurdity
is the idea, it is difficult to see why they should be preferred to San-
skrit and Arabic, for Sanskrit is as good and as intellectual a training
as either of these two languages—Greek being but a child of San-
skrit—and Arabic is the language in which the Middle-Age learning
of Islam is embodied. Our Mussulman brothers are not at present
wise enough to vindicate Islamic learning by translating the treasures
of that knowledge, which from Bagdad spread into Europe. Arabic
and Sanskrit, these are the two classical languages for India, not
Latin and Greek. Instead of French and German, you should teach
English and one vernacular, one common language which would
serve everywhere as a means of communication between educated
and uneducated alike. You ought to make Hindi a second language
throughout the land. I have heard it said that Tamil has a literature
which is magnificent, and this must certainly not be left to die. But
in addition to the boy’s own vernacular, he should always learn
Hindi, for that is the most widely spread vernacular of the country,
and one can go from one end of the land to the other and talk in Hindi
to all, save the most illiterate people in every part of it. If you had
Sanskrit or Arabic, according to the religion of the boy, Hindi as a
common tongue, a thorough knowledge of his own vernacular, and
then the necessary English for all dealings with foreign countries,
and in Government and Court matters, you would have an education,
so far as languages are concerned, that would make a boy ready for
the future, and enable him to take up his work in the world as soon
as he goes into it.
The most important thing, which I have often urged, is tech-
nical education, and above all thorough education in agriculture.
Unfortunately you have got only one general business here, namely,
agriculture. At least it might be made very much better than it is at
present, so that famines, which are a recurring horror in the land,
might be prevented. Famines are preventable things, and things that
ought to be prevented. But they can only be prevented by a wiser
system of agriculture on the one hand, and by the building up of
manufacturing industries throughout the land on the other.
But, mind you, the manufactures that you want are the man-
ufactures of this country. Here arts and crafts are fast dying. Your
weaving craft is dying out of existence, because its products are not
bought. That brings me to the next point, for education here slips into
economics. Why is it that the weavers of cloths, the potters, the metal
workers, and the makers of beautiful objects of all kinds, the weavers
of shawls in Kashmir, and of muslins, silks, in other parts of the land,
why are they slowly disappearing? These people, who, by heredity,
are fitted for the work, are swelling the ranks of the agricultural la-
bourers, starving the land and overcrowding the fields. Why this?
Because for many many years you have been wearing foreign goods
in preference to home-made ones. It should not have wanted the Par-
tition of Bengal to teach you to produce at home what you need.
When you think of it, the Svadeshi movement has nothing to do with
that. Whether Bengal has one Lieutenant-Governor, or two, may be
a point of serious importance to the population over whom they rule.
But the Partition of Bengal was not wanted to make the Svadeshi
movement. The Svadeshi movement was not born after the Partition.
It has been going on for years and up and down the country, but the
difficulty was that only a few people were in favour of it, and the
great mass of the people were totally indifferent. One thing, of
course, was that the foreign-made goods were cheaper, but also less
durable. Assuming that they are cheaper, how stupid that they should
be so! You grow cotton, you send the cotton to Lancashire, Lanca-
shire spins and weaves it into cloths and sends them out here, and
sells them cheaper than you can spin and weave your own cotton!
There is something very badly managed in this, to say the least of it.
If a thing can be sold more cheaply after paying all the freight to
Lancashire and back, after paying high wages in England instead of
small wages to Indian handloom weavers, it is certainly by some
queer kind of upside-down management. I am not forgetting, of
course, the unfair duties levied on Indian mills for the benefit of Lan-
cashire, and other difficulties that occur to your minds. But they do
not practically touch your village weaving industry at all. You
should have gone on supporting the Indian weaver, working in his
own village, and giving you lasting and well-made cloths. If that had
been done, the village weavers would have remained prosperous,
and that prosperity would have reacted on the agriculturists, and so
with everything else. Fashion has been more powerful than
patriotism. Now, thanks to the Partition of Bengal, poor patriotism
has a chance. But the present enthusiasm for Svadeshi goods will
only be a flare like the blaze of twigs, easily lighted and quickly dy-
ing out, unless a principle underlies the movement and not a passing
political irritation. No durable things are built on violent passion.
Nature grows her plants in silence and in darkness, and only when
they have become strong do they put their heads above the ground.
Now I am glad of all this excitement, for, as I said before, it
generates steam. It has made the Svadeshi movement a far more liv-
ing movement than it was. So I am very glad of it. I am glad to see
all the froth and the bubble and the fuss. Some of them are very fool-
ish, I admit, but still it means life instead of stagnation. What all good
men should set their faces against is any attempt to put forcible pres-
sure on people to do what others think that they ought to do. Wear
Svadeshi clothes, as I have been urging you to do for years, but if
your neighbour chooses to wear an English coat, argue with him, tell
him it is unpatriotic, but do not tear it off his back. That sort of vio-
lence has ruined some good movements in England, and it is always
wrong. None has the right to force other people to tread his own path
against their will. Every man has a right to choose, to follow, his own
judgment. Convince him by argument and reasoning. Tell him that
his conduct is unpatriotic, wrong and irrational; tell him he is making
other countries rich while he starves his own. But do not carry on a
mad crusade against everything English, especially with the help of
the boys. Appeal to a man’s brains. Surely there is argument enough:
without home manufactures, there is no prosperity; without home
manufactures, there are recurring famines; without home manufac-
tures, there are overcrowded unproductive professions and
undermanned industrial pursuits.
Every one of you can quietly, in his own town, go against the
craze for foreign goods, and help forward Indian manufactures. It is
so easy to do. Sometimes there is a little more trouble, I admit; some-
times I have had to wait patiently for four or five days, or even
weeks, before I could get an Indian-made thing, when I could have
got a foreign-made one in a moment; but if you cannot be patient for
the sake of building up the industrial prosperity of your country,
what a poor thing your patriotism must be. Help this movement in
every way that you can, save by ways that are wrong; for remember
that the Devas are behind all national policies, and therefore that the
wrong way is always the long way, and useless.
Utilise the enthusiasm of the moment by turning it into
wisely planned channels. Band yourselves together, for cooperation
strengthens and helps enthusiasm. Use the crafts and products of this
country in preference to others. But be a little patient. If you find that
Government, which has been favourable to this movement, is now
frowning on it in one part of the country, remember that, after all,
that is quite natural under the conditions that have arisen. Govern-
ments are not perfect, any more than the governed. After all,
Governments are only men, just as you are, with the same faults and
the same short-sightedness. Therefore the Government should learn
to be patient with the governed, and the governed with the Govern-
ment. Now in the past, Government has been favourable to the
Svadeshi movement, and it will be so again. Naturally, for Govern-
ment does not want famines in the land; it does not want the people
to be poor, for, apart from all questions of humanity, if they are poor
they cannot pay much in the way of taxes. It is to the advantage of
Government that you should be rich; therefore it will help the move-
ment again, when things are quieter; just now, it has been made into
a political battle-cry, but that will pass. Politics are constantly chang-
ing, one burning question today and another tomorrow. Go on
quietly and steadily without any fuss, building up your Indian man-
ufactures, educating your sons. You think brains are wanted for
pleading; much more brains are wanted for carrying on large agri-
cultural and industrial concerns. We want the brightest brains for the
building up of Indian industries at the present time. If an Indian
prince wants to have an electrical plant installed in his capital, he has
to go to Europe to find an engineer who will set up for him his elec-
trical machinery. That must be so, until you educate your boys on
the right lines. Educate them on all the lines of the learning wanted
to make a nation great. Get rid of the stupid idea that it is good, from
the standpoint of class, to be a starving pleader, and had to be a flour-
ishing merchant. It is a mistake. A nation that goes that way goes
down. It is a man’s business to make his livelihood respectable, and
respectability grows not out of the nature of the livelihood but out of
the man. A man of high character, of noble ideal, of pure life, can
make any calling respectable, and do not forget that a calling which
helps national prosperity is more respectable than a calling which
does not. That is a lesson that has to be learned in modern India.
Many resent the changes which are coming about, but alt-
hough many of them be not along the lines of the ancient civilisation,
yet it must be remembered that the spirit of this time, as much as that
of any other, is the Divine spirit. In whatever form it clothes itself, it
is in the work of humanity today, as it was in the work of humanity
in the past, to help humanity onwards, or to make it step forward in
the right way. But it is not the right way now to tread only in the
footprints of the past, simply to reintroduce what has been. Your
duty is to be inspired by the same spirit that made the past great, and
in that spirit to shape the form suitable for the India of tomorrow.
Why should you be afraid to tread a new path? What is the
creator of every form save the spirit? Why then be afraid to go on
with the life, and to leave dead forms behind? And the strange thing
is that often men cling most passionately to the forms which do not
really belong to the life, but which are only excrescences which have
happened to grow up round the living forms, as barnacles grow on a
ship’s bottom, and can be knocked off without harming the ship.
There is one rule that helps us in distinguishing customs that are only
barnacles from the vessel that carries the life. That is to be preserved
which is ancient, according to the Shastras, and universal. But that
which is local, partial, modern, not according to the Shastras, these
are the things which may indeed have been useful at the time of their
formulation, but are now the useless and even mischievous barnacles
on the ship. Trust to life, to the living spirit. We were not there to
guide the life, when it made the glorious past. Life can be trusted, for
it is divinely guided, and all we have to do is to cooperate with it.
That is the idea you must have above all things. Life is something
greater than yourselves; you are only one tiny part of life, and the
life makes its own forms. Study its tendencies and work with them,
but it is life that builds, not men. Then you cooperate in the building
of the forms, and if a form does not succeed it will be broken; and
you should be glad in the breaking of the useless form as you should
be glad in the form that means success. Failure often means winning,
and it needs dozens, nay hundreds, of attempts before the perfect
masterpiece shines out in full. Trust life; that is the great lesson for
these days of change, for change is coming, change from every side.
Those changes that are good will endure, and you must be very pa-
tient while they are in the making. But full of hope and full of
courage.
All men die. You may say: Is that encouraging? Surely yes,
for when a man dies, his blunders, which are of the form, all die with
him, but the things in him that are part of the life never die, although
the form be broken.
There is a new form to be built here, a form which has never
yet been built, and that she exists in the world of spirit; as one nation,
she exists in the world of mind. As one nation, she has never yet
existed on the physical plane, but the day of her birth is near. Many
States and Kings have been, many Maharajas, Rajas, and sometimes
one Raja, great beyond his fellows, has held a wide imperial sway.
But never yet has there been one India from north to south, from east
to west. But she is coming. That one India, when she comes, will
have her head crowned with the Himalayas, and her feet will be
bathed in the waters that wash the shores of Tuticorin; she will
stretch out her right hand to Burma and Assam, and her left hand to
Kathiawar and Beluchistan. That India has to be born. How? First,
by believing in her with a strenuous faith, for faith is a mighty power;
and then by thinking of her and aspiring after her as an ideal. For
what a man thinks becomes actual in practice. And never yet was a
nation born that did not begin in the spirit, pass to the heart and the
mind, and then take an outer form in the world of men. That India,
the sound of her feet is on the mountains, and soon the rising eastern
sun shall glow upon her forehead. Already she is born in the mind of
men.
But let your thought for unity be potent and resolute; learn to
drop sectarian divisions; learn to drop provincial divisions and ani-
mosities; leave off saying: “I am a Madrasi; I am a Punjabi; I am a
Bengali; I am an up country man”; leave all that behind and teach
your boys and girls to say “I am an Indian”. Out of the mouths of the
children thus speaking shall be born the India of tomorrow. Many
religions will grow within her; not only her own parent religion, but
others too will be woven into her being. Hindu and Mussulman must
join hands, for both are Indians. Mussulmans, Parsis, Christians,
must join hands, for all are Indians. In the India of the future, all men
of every faith must join.
If India is to be the spiritual light of the future, in her must
be focussed the light that comes from every faith, until in the prism
of India they are all united into the one light which shall flood with
sunlight the world, and all lights shall blend in the Divine Wisdom.
That is our work. My Brothers, I am now talking to you, but this
thing will not be made by talking. It is made by living. I would not
dare to speak to you and offer you counsel, if I did not strive to live
that which I advise. Day by day, week by week, month by month, I
strive to shape my life on the noble models which may serve the land,
and in serving India will serve Humanity; for greater than any land
is Humanity, and greater than any one people is the race of whom all
people are but branches; and if we have such hopes of future India,
it is because we believe that her coming will be a new light to the
world. There was an old people in the ancient days, and not very
ancient either, that was conquered, and apparently cast away. One
person of that race cried out: “If the fall of them be the riches of the
world . . . what shall the receiving of them be but as life from the
dead?” If India’s humiliation has, in a very real sense, been the riches
of the world—for this has been the means of spreading India’s
thoughts in the most widely-spoken tongue of the world, to the north
and south, east and west, all round the habitable globe —what shall
it be for humanity when India herself in her new glory is born into
the world? India, from whose lips, in this land of the Rishis, came
the religion that uplifts and spiritualises, the philosophy that illu-
mines, and the science that trains; India, from whose mind,
throughout the world of mind, came those great systems of thought
which are now recognised as the noblest products of the human in-
tellect; India, whose feet once passed through many States, and made
every one of them fertile, prosperous, and wealthy India, who was
perfect in spirit and mind when that India is born into the full vision
of the eyes of men, perfect in body, is it too much to say that her
coming will be as life from the dead? That is the glorious goal, for
which we work; that is the splendid hope, that cheers our labour; that
is the sublime aspiration, that rises perpetually to the ears of the De-
vas. For India’s coming means the spiritualising of humanity; India’s
thinking means the lifting of thought on to a higher level; prosperity
shall be the justification of religion, the justification of philosophy,
as part of the life of a nation; and the world shall be redeemed from
materialism because India is awake.
 8

Home Rule for India

1926 Started the Theosophical Colony at Juhu, Bombay, lay-
ing a cornerstone
1927 Started the Happy Valley in California, appealing for
the Happy Valley Foundation Fund;
Eighty years ‘young’ this year, she gave fifty lectures
in twelve countries of Europe in twenty-one days, trav-
elling by aeroplane
1928 July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical So-
ciety;
Recorded highest membership of the Society; 45,000
active members;
On invitation wrote a statement for the World Peace
Union;
Was ill in London, and had to cancel Queen’s Hall Lec-
tures
March 25th, announced the existence and work of the
World Mother
1929 August 26th, inaugurated the fourth Theosophical
World Congress at Chicago, sending therefrom a letter
to president Hoover pleading for the abolition of war

Home Rule for India

[Chapter V of India – Bond or Free? A World Problem by Annie Bes-

ant, London & New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926]
 Events moved fast. The Congress of 1915 ordered its Commit-
tees to prepare a scheme outlining India’s claim. It was done and was
endorsed at Lucknow by the Congress of 1916, and also by the Mus-
lim League. Two Home Rule Leagues had been formed in
September, 1916, and these worked side by side, and the two Presi-
dents, Mr. Tilak and myself, were members of both. Enthusiasm had
risen higher and higher, guided by a vigorous propaganda of pen and
tongue during the autumn of 1915 and the spring of 1916, and the
Madras Government took fright. Lord Pentland, the Governor, a kind
and well-meaning but weak man, wholly in the hands of the old type
of Civilians, allowed some of these to ally themselves with some of
the ablest of the non-Brahmanas to misrepresent the Home Rule
Movement as the attempt of the small number of Brahmanas to tyr-
annise over the huge majority outside their own caste; by utilising
religious feeling to stimulate political ambition, these Civilians and
the non-Brahmamas formed an unholy combination which threw it-
self against Home Rule. The Government consequently thought
itself strong enough to attempt repression, and the Press Act of 1910,
which placed every newspaper in a Province at the mercy of the local
Government, was used against New India, the leader of the Home
Rule agitation. On May 26, 1916, a notice was served on myself lev-
ying a security of Rs. 2,000 on the paper. It was paid, and Lord
Pentland and his Government became the chief propagandists of
Home Rule, for New India continued cheerfully on its path, knowing
that it was virtually doomed, unless the country rose in its defence.
Now came in the value of my political training by Charles
Bradlaugh. “In fighting a bad law”, he would say, “never give way,
but utilise every opportunity of delay which the law gives you. For
time is on the side of a just agitation, and stirs up the people.” Little
chance of delay was there in action taken under the Press Law, for it
was by Executive Order to a magistrate, and the magistrate was
bound to obey. Still the battle could be fought in the same spirit,
fought out step by step, undeterred by inevitable failure. And it was
so fought.
The security was forfeited on August 28, and a new security
of Rs. 10,000 was levied. The Press Act gave to the Editor the option
of paying in cash or in Government notes, but the Government of
Madras did not feel bound by the law it utilised, and insisted on cash.
The Law Officer of the Governor-General’s Council had promised
that interest should be paid on any security levied. The Madras Gov-
ernment taking cash, paid no interest, so levied also a continuing
fine. I began an action against the Government for the interest, but
that disappeared in the course of the struggle and the final triumph.
The Press Act was so worded that defeat was apparently cer-
tain, so beginning with a Special Bench in the Madras Court on
September 27, 1916, I fought on up to the Privy Council. The Advo-
cate-General of the Madras Government was the prosecutor and I
defended myself, aided by the very able advice, and on a technical
point by the skilful pleading of Mr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar. As I
knew that I was bound to lose the case, I arranged to sell the New
India Press, and the Vasanta Press on which also security of Rs.
5,000 was levied as the printer of the Commonweal, to two different
persons when the need arose, as the next step of the Government,
under the Act, would be to forfeit the Presses. I was wholly acquitted
under the charge of sedition and was admitted to be perfectly loyal
to the Crown; but some of the articles were held to come under other
all-embracing sections of the Act, so drawn that, as Sir Lawrence
Jenkins, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, had pointed
out, no one attacked by the Executive under it could possibly escape.
As time was wanted, I applied against the decision of the Madras
Court to the Privy Council, as that prevented the Government from
taking further action until the appeal was decided. The Government,
having levied a second security could not forfeit it and then forfeit
the Press, until the case had been decided in London—a way of
fighting that had apparently escaped the notice of the Government of
India in its efforts to strangle the Indian Press. It had many successes
with papers not trained, as I had been, in the way of fighting bad law
legally. Charles Bradlaugh had abolished securities on the English
Press by the policy he had recommended to me in case of need, and
had received John Stuart Mill’s congratulations thereon. He must
have been pleased, I think, when the first reformed Legislative As-
sembly and Council of State, abolishing a mass of “emergency
legislation”, reduced the Press Act to an innocuous Registration Act.
A Home Rule (English Auxiliary) League had been formed
in England in 1915, in aid of the Indian Movement, and it re-pub-
lished a little book of mine, entitled India — A Nation, when the
English Government, in 1916, persuaded the publishers to withdraw
it from circulation.
The adoption of the “Congress League Scheme”, mentioned
above, gave fresh vigor to the agitation, and this so provoked Lord
Pentland, that he told the Madras Legislative Council (May, 1917)
that “all thoughts of the early grant of Responsible Self- Government
should be put entirely out of mind”. It was apparently decided by the
Madras Government that as New India went on with the propaganda
of Home Rule, and as it could not forfeit the security and then the
Press, because of the appeal to the Privy Council, it would stop the
paper by interning the Editor (myself), the Assistant Editor (Mr. B.
P. Wadia) and a particularly breezy and popular contributor (Mr. G.
S. Arundale), by interning this most objectionable trio. These three
out of the way, the paper would probably collapse. The order was
issued on June 16, no reason being given, and Lord Pentland refusing
any explanation though he called me to see him—why or what for, I
never learned; he may have supposed I would take the opportunity
of asking for mercy, but I did not. As I wrote a little later:
“I suspended New India on June 18th, sold the Vasanta Press
to Rao Sahab G. Soobhiah Chetty and recovered its Rs. 5,000 on
June 19; on June 20, I sold the Commonweal Press to Mr. Ranga
Reddi and the New India Press to Mr. P. K. Telang, recovering Rs.
2,000 and Rs. 10,000, and issued a notice to New India subscrib-
ers; the paper appeared again on the 21st; it was quick work, but the
time was short, and I had to ‘hustle’. So we had three brand-new
press-owners, under securities of only Rs. 2,000 each, instead of Rs.
17,000. I do not think the Press Act was intended to have a motor
car, driven by a lady of nearly seventy, rushed through it in this way,
like the proverbial ‘coach and horses’. But then it was drawn up by
bureaucrats who had no experience of Home Rulers; they were ac-
customed to revolutionaries, and even passive resisters, but had
never met with constitutional fighters for Liberty, who regarded
them with amused unconcern and perfect good temper. Before we
left, Mr. Horniman (Editor of the Bombay Chronicle) and Mr. N. C.
Kelkar (Editor of the Mahratta) came over from Bombay and Poona
to offer help, and each wrote an article for the New India of the
21st. As they were already Editors, we thought it was better that
Mr. P. K. Telang should assume charge of New India, and he
promptly filled the gap. He forfeited the security in due course, and
another Rs. 10,000 was levied. When I resumed the editorship, Mr.
Telang presented the Press to Mr. Ranga Reddi, who started again
with another Rs. 2,000. The magistrate, however, most improperly
kept the Rs. 10,000 on various excuses for over a year, but when
another magistrate took his place, the money was at once refunded.
The long fight with good propaganda had helped Home Rule im-
mensely.
“For when we, the interned, foregathered at Ootaca-
mund (where I had, as President of the Theosophical Society, a
little house), a whirlwind broke out, raged up and down the country,
stormed over to Britain, Russia, France, America, at several hundred
miles an hour. Questions were asked in the House of Commons and
in the Viceroy’s Legislative Council. Members of Parliament, like
the babes in the wood, were snowed under with leaves – of paper.
‘Who would have thought,’ said a very high official pensively, ‘that
there would have been such a fuss over an old woman?’ Crowds of
people and many popular leaders joined the Home Rule League.
Meetings were held; resolutions flew about; C. P. Ramaswami Ai-
yar, Jamnadas Dwarkadas, Congressmen everywhere, fanned the
storm and rode it. They preserved perfect order; never a window was
broken; never a riot occurred; never a policeman was assaulted;
never man, woman or child went to gaol. For three months the vehe-
ment agitation continued unbrokenly, without ever breaking a law,
and the students who wanted to strike were kept in their schools and
colleges and then – came the Declaration of August 20, 1917, that
the goal of Great Britain in India was Responsible Government, and
an announcement that the Secretary of State for India was coming
thither to learn the wishes of the people. To ‘obtain a calm atmos-
phere’ the three internees were liberated.
“It was a truly constitutional triumph, won by a United India,
and was crowned by the election of the Home Rule President (my-
self) as President of the National Congress of 1917.
“Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State, came to India, and
travelled with the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, all over India, meeting
Deputations representing every type of political opinion. The Na-
tional Congress and the Muslim League and the two Home Rule
Leagues presented at Delhi on November 26, 1917, memorials ask-
ing for Home Rule. The National Congress and the League were
represented by a Joint Deputation from their respective Executives,
and the memorial was read by Mr. Surendranath Bannerji. After a
careful and argumentative presentation of the Indian case it wound
up:
“‘We submit that the reforms for which the National Con-
gress and the Muslim League plead, are needed as much in the
interests of the good government of the country and the happiness
and prosperity of the people as for the legitimate satisfaction of our
National self-respect and for a due recognition of India’s place
among the free and civilized Nations of the Empire and the outside
world . Nor are they less necessary to strengthen and solidify the
British connection with this ancient land. India has given freely of
her love and service to England, and she aspires to attain to her
proper place of equality and honor in the Commonwealth of Nations,
which are proud to own fidelity to his Imperial Majesty the King-
Emperor. If, as has been said, the British Empire is the greatest sec-
ular power on earth making for the good of mankind, India is hopeful
and confident that she will not be denied what is in every way due to
her, especially after this great War of Liberty, in which it has been
authoritatively recognised that she has played a distinguished and
honorable part.’
“The two Home Rule Leagues were represented by Mr. Tilak
and myself respectively, and we also read our memorials. At Madras,
the All-India Home Rule League presented Mr. Montagu with a mil-
lion verified signatures, gathered in the Presidency, and conveyed to
him in three or four carts.
“It was the end of a strenuous struggle of three crowded
years; to me the end of another stage in twenty-four years of steady
labor; to the Congress the end of one stage in its thirty-three years of
political efforts for Liberty.
“Thenceforth Liberty’s battle entered on another phase.”
As President of the National Congress – the gift that had,
since its foundation, been regarded as the greatest proof of India’s
love and of her trust – I sketched the causes of what I had called “the
New Spirit in India”. These were six in number:
l. The awakening of Asia.
2. Discussions abroad on Alien Rule and Imperial Recon-
struction.
3. Loss of belief in the superiority of the White Races.
4. The Awakening of the Merchants.
5. The Awakening of the Women to claim their ancient po-
sition.
6. The Awakening of the Masses.
 The first was largely due to the Russo-Japanese War and to the
English ideas of Liberty already mentioned; Lord Minto, as Viceroy
of India recognised that “new aspirations were stirring in the hearts
of the people, that they were part of a larger movement common to
the whole East, and that it was necessary to satisfy them to a reason-
able extent by giving them a larger share in the administration”. It is
difficult for an English Viceroy, however sympathetic, to realise that
India wants not “a larger share in the administration”, but Self-Gov-
ernment. Similarly I noticed Lord Chelmsford (the Viceroy) start
when, in reading the memorial from the Home Rule League above-
mentioned, I quoted Mr. Asquith’s words, as to the “intolerable deg-
radation of a foreign yoke”, as expressing the feeling of the people
of India towards the British rule over their country.
Really, the awakening of India is not only a part of the move-
ment in Asia, stimulated by the aggressiveness of western peoples,
but it is also part of that World Movement towards Democracy,
which began for the West in the revolt of the American Colonies
against the rule of Britain, ending in 1776 in the Independence of the
Great Republic of the West, and in the French Revolution of 1789.
The invasion of India by the European merchants in the seventeenth
century and its fatal results in reducing India to ignorance and to
poverty; the self-abnegation of the Samurai of Japan; the fall of the
Manchu dynasty in China, followed by a Chinese Republic; the
struggle of Persia to free herself from the “spheres of influence” of
alien Powers; all these had their share in the awakening of India; and
she has seen later the fall of the Russian, German and Austrian Em-
pires, and the growth of Democratic institutions all over Europe.
European statesmen pretended that in the War of 1914 to
1918, they were, as Mr. Asquith said, “fighting for nothing but free-
dom, and for nothing short of freedom”. In the speech just quoted,
he was promising to stand by France in her claim for the restoration
of Alsace and Lorraine, rent from her after the War of 1870, and he
defended her claim because those provinces were suffering “the
intolerable degradation of a foreign yoke”. India has realised that all
the talk about Freedom was only meant for white races, and held no
sincere sympathy for the colored peoples, however civilized they
might be; that the Empire of Britain meant only the rule of the five
white Nations instead of one, over colored races, the exploitation of
their mineral resources and of their crops for the benefit of Britain,
and their working as subordinates, even as slaves, of the white men
who had stolen their lands. Indians began to feel that they were not
allowed to have a country of their own, like the other Nations of the
world; they began to realise that though they had fought for the Free-
dom, nay, for the very life of the Empire, they were not to share in
that Freedom; they glimpsed before themselves a future of subordi-
nation, of inferiority, of unbearable humiliation. They had fought as
men, as equals; the danger over, they were to fall back into a “subject
race”.
Subject to whom? To a white race in whose superiority they
had lost belief. First the triumph of Japan, and then the frank brutality
and cruelty of the European War, the laying waste of cultivated
lands, the bombing from the air of cities full of non-combatants,
forced them to see the thin veneer of civilization over the savagery
of European War, the slaughter of the defenceless, the destruction of
magnificent buildings, the architecture centuries old scattered in
fragments over a devastated tract. Nothing is left in India of the su-
perstition “of the superiority of Christendom over Asia”. “Gazing
from afar at the ghastly heaps of the dead and the hosts of the muti-
lated, at science turned into devilry and ever inventing new tortures
for rending and slaying, Asia may be forgiven for thinking that, on
the whole, she prefers her own religions and her own civilizations.”
The fourth sign of the New Spirit is very significant, for the
merchant class had not, as a rule, concerned itself with politics; its
special duty was that of the steward of the National resources, or-
ganizing agriculture and industries, accumulating wealth and
dispensing it, largely in the form of gifts to education, charity to the
poor, and generally among useful public purposes. In the organi-
zation of the Nation, the merchant was the typical householder,
including men of great wealth who made magnificent donations to
temples, schools, colleges, universities, and also small traders who
gave handfuls of rice or other food-stuffs for the meals of students,
gathering such alms for themselves and their teachers. The normal
attitude of the Indian merchant – save where denationalized by
western competition – is the duty of charity, supremely to religion
and to education. The War awakened them to the extent in which
the foreign Government of India had alienated her natural resources,
allowing them to pass into foreign hands; German industries were
closed down, and no help was given for their replacement; Govern-
ment securities became depreciated, and they were forced to sell
them to meet their liabilities; Government paid for their goods in
War Bonds instead of cash. They were compelled to realise the
disadvantages of foreign rule; moreover the depreciation of Govern-
ment paper made them doubt the stability of the Government. They
also realised that India might be far more self-supporting than she
was and might export her surplus, as of old, and they also saw the
enormous advantage of Self-Government to a country, when they
witnessed the rapid increase of Japanese trade under a Home Gov-
ernment. They also noted how strongly their trade rivals, the
European Associations in India, opposed Indian Home Rule, and that
their own interests would benefit by it. As Mr. J. W. Root had ob-
served, to give Great Britain “the control over Indian foreign trade
and internal industry that would be secured by a common tariff
would be an unpardonable iniquity . . . can it be conceived that were
India’s fiscal arrangements placed to any considerable extent under
the control of British legislators, they would not be regarded with an
eye to British interests? Intense jealousy of India is always cropping
up in everything affecting fiscal or industrial legislation.”
The merchant class began to see that Home Rule would be to
them an immense advantage, and this explains why, a little later, they
contributed largely to Mr. Gandhi’s movement, which they mistak-
enly supposed would bring Home Rule to India.
The awakening of the Women of India was the fifth great
factor in the production of the New Spirit. The Theosophical Society
had, by strongly aiding the revival of Hinduism, intensified the re-
pugnance felt by Indian women towards foreign and Christian rule.
They resented the education that had led away their husbands and
sons from allegiance to their own Hindu faith, and which had also
for five or six generations pushed away Indian women from their
husbands’ sides in the new strange phase of public life, caused by
the dominance of the foreigner. The home had been closed against
him, but he dominated public life and masculine education; the cul-
ture of the men became utterly different from that of the women, and
while they closed their home doors against him, he closed against
them the interests of the larger life of the Nation. They cherished the
names of the glorious women of their race, rulers, poets, ascetics,
even warriors, and yearned for the re-winning of the elder world. The
ill-usage of Indians abroad, the Indenture system with its dishonor-
ing of Indian women, the partition of Bengal and other matters that
touched their religion, led to a striking instance of their antagonism
to British Rule, when five hundred highly born women of Bengal
went to congratulate the mother of an Editor, sentenced for sedition,
for having given birth to so noble a son. I wrote a little later:
“Deep in the heart of India’s daughters arose the Mother’s
Voice, calling on them to help her to arise, and to be once more mis-
tress in her own household. Indian women, nursed on her old
literature, with its wonderful ideals of womanly perfection, could not
remain indifferent to the great movement for India’s liberty. And
during the last few years the hidden fire long burning in their hearts,
fire of love to Bhāratamātā, fire of resentment against the lessened
influence of the religion which they passionately love, instinctive
dislike of the foreigner as ruling in their land, have caused a marvel-
lous awakening. The strength of the Home Rule movement is
rendered tenfold greater by the adhesion to it of large numbers of
women, who bring to its help the uncalculating heroism, the endur-
ance, the self-sacrifice, of the feminine nature. Our League’s best
recruits and recruiters are among the women of India, and the women
of Madras boast that they marched in procession when the men were
stopped, and that their prayers in the Temples set the interned cap-
tives free. Home Rule has become so intertwined with religion by
the prayers offered up in the great Southern Temples – sacred places
of pilgrimage – and spreading from them to Village Temples, and
also by its being preached up and down the country by Sādhus and
Sannyasins, that it has become in the minds of the women and of the
ever-religious masses, inextricably intertwined with religion. That
is, in this country, the surest way of winning alike the women of the
higher classes and the men and women villagers. And that is why I
just said that the two words, ‘Home Rule’, have become a Mantram.”
The Awakening of the Masses inevitably followed the lead
of the English-educated Indians. The Indian peasant and artisan had
never troubled much about the proceedings of the Governments of
Provinces, Kingdoms or Empires. The freely elected Village Coun-
cil, as we have seen, managed the village affairs for countless
generations; since it had been destroyed all had gone wrong with
them. The land they had cultivated to support their village Temple
and its priest had been seized by some incomprehensible power, and
the village school had vanished. The peasant had to pay cash, instead
of a share of the crops, to some usurper, who represented the sacred
person of the Indian King. His land rent is raised from time to time
by some unknown power. He is punished for innocent acts, and for
breaking irrational laws that did not exist in the time of his forefa-
thers. He is tyrannised over by village officials who used to be
controlled by the village. His educated countrymen lecture to him on
interesting matters touching the village life, and help him to join with
his fellows in a movement he finds useful – Co-operation. He may
read in the Quarterly Review:
 “The change of attitude on the part of the peasant coupled
with the progress made in organization mainly through the Co-oper-
ative propaganda, is the outstanding achievement of the last decade,
and at the same time the chief ground for the recent confidence with
which agricultural reformers can now face the future.”
The submerged classes are also moving, much aided by the
Brāhmanas, ashamed of their past indifference, and the monster
petition of a million signatures, quickly gathered in favor of Home
Rule, mentioned above, shows how the people of the Madras Presi-
dency have been awakened to their need of political liberty.
We have seen how Gopāla Krishna Gokhale spoke of the
stunting of his race under British Rule. The Hon. Mr. Bhupendra
Basu had also declared:
“A bureaucratic administration, conducted by an imported
agency, and centering all power in its hands and undertaking all re-
sponsibility, has acted as a dead weight on the Soul of India, stifling
in us all sense of initiative for the lack of which we are condemned,
atrophying the nerves of action, and, what is most serious, neces-
sarily dwarfing in us all feeling of self-respect.”
The cry for Home Rule, Swarāj (Self-Rule), ringing from all
parts of India, is really a cry for that which is most priceless in a
Nation’s life, for the life of its very Soul, for its right to grow, to
evolve, on its own National lines. It is an echo of the words:
“What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and
lose his own Soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul?”
India’s very Soul is in peril. The fact that she can deal with
her own needs better than Englishmen can deal with them is seen in
the action of her only partially free Legislatures since 1921, in giving
Free Primary Education to her people, compensation for injury to her
factory workers, and the suffrage to her women on the same terms
as it is given to men by the Reform Act of 1919.

The Breaking up of United India

 A very violent movement led by Lord Sydenham and others,
called “The Indo-British Association”, arose in Great Britain in
1918, and assisted by the bureaucracy in India, did all that greed of
power could do to prevent the Secretary of State for India from pro-
posing effective Reforms. When the Home Rule Leagues for India
sent Deputations to England to work in favor of a generous and
statesmanlike policy, they were stopped at Gibraltar by the War Cab-
inet, their passports cancelled, and their members held in Gibraltar
for six weeks. This was done although both Mr. Tilak and myself,
the respective Presidents of the Leagues, had declared that we would
use to the utmost whatever Reforms were granted in order to obtain
more. Much argument arose in India, some declaring, at a Confer-
ence held in the Madras Presidency in May, that they would boycott
the new Councils if the Reforms were inadequate, and attacking
those who would, even if inadequate, utilise them to the utmost.
I urged this utilisation in the Commonweal, and was asked
why this question should be raised before the report on the tour of
the Viceroy and Mr. Montagu was issued. I answered:
“Because if, in a natural surge of anger and distrust, on find-
ing the Reforms to be inadequate, persons committed themselves to
the policy of boycotting the new Councils, it might be difficult for
them to retrace their steps, and Parliament, relieved from the fear of
an ‘Irish Party’ in the new Councils, would ignore the agitation and
sit tight, and pass their inadequate measure. There is such a thing as
foresight in political work, and it may be well sometimes to look
ahead.”
Unfortunately the words proved to be prophetic. The Mon-
tagu-Chelmsford Report was published in 1918, and three views
were taken in India, the basis of subsequent parties; the “Moderates”
accepted it, but urged important amendments; the “Home Rulers”
declined to accept them, and urged amendments; the “Extremists”
declined them altogether. A Special Congress was held in Bombay
on August 31 and September l, and a compromise was agreed to,
declaring the proposed Reforms to be “inadequate, unsatisfactory
and disappointing”, but resolutions were passed which would make
them workable. A Conference of Moderates in October made similar
amendments, but did not condemn the Report. The regular Con-
gress meeting in December rejected the Pact made in Bombay by an
Extremist majority against the protest of the Home Rulers and a few
Moderates. Early in 1919 two Deputations went to London, one from
the National Congress and one from the Moderate Conference. In
February, 1919, the Home Rule League split in twain, in conse-
quence of Mr. Gandhi starting “passive resistance” against the
Rowlatt Act, a movement which I opposed, part of the League sup-
porting him, while the other part supported me. Each part sent a
Deputation to England, and both did useful work, co-operating with
each other and with the Moderates and with the Deputations
from the Muslim League and the Congress, and obtaining large
amendments in the proposed Bill; we went before the Joint Commit-
tee of the two Houses of Parliament as witnesses, and also held
various meetings in England. The Rowlatt Act had been passed in a
form which could only be broken by revolutionaries, and it had been
decided to break other laws, chosen by a committee, as a protest
against it, laws such as those which enforced the printing of the
printer’s name on all publications.
This seemed to me such an absurd proposal, that I declined
to accept it. I was prepared to disregard a tyrannical law, which can-
celled the ordinary rights of a peaceful citizen, and to suffer whatever
penalty was imposed for the breach; but I was not prepared to break
innocuous laws which I had hitherto obeyed at the command of a
committee.
The passive resistance movement of 1919 had been stopped
by Mr. Gandhi, who called it a “Himalayan blunder” when it broke
into rioting. But the Non-Cooperation movement was none the
less started in April, 1920. The Musalmāns were much disturbed
about the Khilāfat and Turkey, and had formed a Khilāfat Committee
early in 1920, and Mr. Gandhi suggested, if the Turkish Treaty
should be unsatisfactory, that, avoiding all forms of violence, people
holding office under Government and Government menial servants
should resign. “Non-Co-operation with the Government, free from
all things of violence, is the only effective remedy open to the peo-
ple.” A hartal (cessation of all work) was called for by Mr. Gandhi
for March 19, and was kept all over India. A National week was fixed
for April 6 to 13 (the day of the massacre the year before). All parties
were represented, and on April 6 the repeal of the Rowlatt Act was
demanded. Mr. Gandhi declared that if it were not repealed before
the Reforms were started, the request for “Co-operation would be
futile, and he, for one, would find the situation such as to make re-
maining within the Empire impossible” (New India, April 7). April
9 was Khilāfat Day, and a resolution was passed that if the just de-
mands of the Musalmans were not agreed to, “it will be the duty of
every Indian to withdraw Co-operation from Government until
pledges fulfilled and Muslim sentiment conciliated”.
A great demonstration was held on April l7 in Madras, and
Mr. Gandhi's “four progressive steps” in Non-Co-operation were
passed as follows:
“In consonance with the spirit of the Resolution adopted by
the All-India Khilāfat Committee, this Conference, in the events of
the present agitation proving futile and ineffective, calls upon all In-
dians to resort to progressive abstention from Co-operation with
Government in the following manner:
“Firstly, to renounce all honorary posts, and memberships of
Legislative Councils.
“Secondly, to give up all remuneratory under Government
service.
“Thirdly, to give up all appointments in the Police and Mili-
tary forces.
“Fourthly, to refuse to pay taxes to Government.”
 Moulana Shaukat Ali, after reciting these, as President of the
Conference, said: “We do not embark on this step without fully re-
alising what it means. It means a movement for absolute
independence.”
Mr. Gandhi did not endorse this, but some of us realised that
Non-Co-operation was not a movement for Home Rule as a Free Na-
tion among other Free Nations, with the British Crown as the link of
the Federation, but was one of Mass Direct Action, directly revolu-
tionary. As, personally, I regarded the union between India and
Great Britain as the one great defence against a war of the white and
colored races, I kept up a definite opposition to the Non-Co-opera-
tion movement.
The part of the old Home Rule League, which rejected me as
President in l919 in favor of Mr. Gandhi, had accepted a new Con-
stitution from Mr. Gandhi, and became the Swarāj League, a part of
the Non-Co-operation movement. The Swarājists boycotted the
Legislatures. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught came to India to open
the three Presidency and the Central Legislatures. Both he and the
Viceroy declared that autocracy was abandoned, and the King’s mes-
sage proclaimed “the beginning of Swāraj within my Empire”. Both
King and Duke expressed “their sorrow for the Panjab tragedy and
their sympathy with the sufferers. The Duke’s words were broken
by strong emotion, moved the whole great Assembly and have rung
round India”. The Central Legislature opened well by the Govern-
ment giving way to the Hon. Mr. V. S. Srinivāsa Sastri, who
“moved a resolution accepted by the Government, to examine the
Repressive Laws on the Statute Book and report on their repeal or
amendment. (The ‘Repressive Laws’ are those which substitute Ex-
ecutive for Judicial action, and since 1804 have been used arbitrarily
to repress political efforts for Reform, placing liberty and property
at the mercy of the Executive.) In the Assembly, following up this
resolution, Mr. O’Donnell moved and carried a resolution for a com-
mittee to examine and report on the Press Laws. Under these fell
fourteen Acts dealing with Repression, and three under Press Laws.
In the first set twelve and a half Acts were repealed at once, the re-
maining one and a half to be repealed when the country was less
disturbed. In the second, only an amended Registration Act was left.
The first working day in the Assembly was given “to a reso-
lution moved by Mr. Jamnadas Dwarkadas and accepted by the
Government, that expressed regret for the unnecessary humiliations
and hardships inflicted on Indians in the Panjab (sic) tragedy, as-
serted the equality of Indians and Europeans in the sanctity of life
and honor, stated some of the punishments inflicted on guilty offic-
ers, and promised liberal compensation to families which had
suffered in the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, on a scale similar to that
awarded to the British victims. General Dyer had been removed from
the Indian Army . . . 1,700 condemned prisoners were released out
of 1,786; a political reformer who had been condemned to an extrav-
agant sentence of transportation and confiscation is now (1922) an
honored Minister in the Panjāb (sic); the administration of Martial
Law was reformed so that no such excesses could happen again, as
was proved during the Malabar Rebellion in 1921, 1922.”
Other signs of the changed spirit, that it would take too long
to recount, were also shown in the various Legislatures, and much
useful work was done. I wrote in 1922 on these things, and con-
cluded the recital by paying tribute to those English rulers who had
worked for us so well:
“It only needs a little patience and courage on the part of In-
dia to win Home Rule through the Reform Act, and Mr. Montagu, as
Secretary of State, will remain glorious in Indian History, as the man
who opened the gate of the road leading to Home Rule, and stood
firmly by India as she began to tread it. Nor should the Viceroy, Lord
Chelmsford, be for- gotten, who worked with Mr. Montagu through
the initial stages, and had the courage to declare at the opening of the
Indian Legislature that ‘autocracy was abandoned’, laying down, by
his own work and will the mighty power he had wielded over more
than three hundred millions of human beings. Few are the autocrats,
who, like Lord Chelmsford and Mr. Montagu, being offered a great
opportunity, have risen to the height of renunciation to which they
attained, and, without the compulsion of Revolution, laid at the feet
of a great subject Nation the splendid gift of Freedom to tread the
path which led to Home Rule, working out her own salvation. The
nobility of their action is not yet appreciated, for we are still strug-
gling to reach our goal, and do but poor justice to those who have
brought us within reach of it; we wanted more than they were able
to obtain for us, facing the tremendous forces of race pride, con-
sciousness of armed strength, contempt of oriental peoples, and the
strong ground of possession unchallenged effectively for one hun-
dred and sixty years, and all the wealth obtained by India’s
subjection. Against all these they struggled gallantly, and when India
rules herself, she will do them justice and gratefully acknowledge
the debt she owes them. History will write their names in golden
letters, who found a Nation enslaved and set it free to win, by its own
strength, its place among the Self-Governing Nations of the world.
Never before has so great a Revolution been accomplished
without bloodshed; never before has the autocrat voluntarily re-
signed power into the hands of subjects, re-created into citizens.”
These hopes were frustrated for the time by the success of
the Non-Co-operation movement, which not only ruined thousands
of school and college students by calling them away from edu-
cation and then leaving them stranded, but also swept the
country under a new tyranny, that of the Swarāj Party, which
hooted off the platform those of us who opposed Mr. Gandhi and
blocked for the time all political action save obstruction. As I said
during that unhappy period:
“Under the Gandhi Rāj there is no Free Speech, no open
meeting except for Non-Co-operators. Social and religious boycott,
threats of person violence, spitting, insults in the streets, are the
methods of oppression. Mob support is obtained by wild promises,
such as the immediate coming of Swarāj, when there will be no rents,
no taxes, by giving to Mr. Gandhi high religious names, such as
Mahātmā and Avatāra, assigning to him super- natural powers and
the like.”
Mr. Gandhi never approved of violence, but he could not
control his followers, and the result has been a great setback of Po-
litical Reform. Mr. Gandhi’s book, Indian Home Rule, is full of the
wildest statements. At last he called for millions of volunteers and
bade people pay no taxes, whereon the Government arrested him,
very courteously, and sent him to prison. He said, very truly, that he
could not control the forces he had raised. His real followers are non-
violent and harmless, for they are now told not to break laws but only
to spin and weave.
The National Congress of 1920 at Delhi had carried a reso-
lution demanding (1) that the principle of Self-Determination should
be applied to India; (2) asked for the removal of all hindrances to
free discussion; (3) demanded an Act of Parliament establishing
complete responsible Government in India, and that in the recon-
struction of Imperial policy (4) India should be placed on an
equality with the Self-Governing Dominions. The second point
has been almost carried out; the third and fourth have not. But the
Commonwealth of India Bill, as may be seen by referring to the Ap-
pendix, will carry them out when it becomes an Act. It has been
delayed by the breaking up of political parties caused by the Non-
Co-operation movement, now dead.
Shall India become an isolated country or be a Free Nation
in a Commonwealth of Free Nations linked together by the British
Crown? My own hope is to see an Indo-British Commonwealth of
Colored and White Nations, as otherwise the “clash of color” may
cause a fearful war, in which the present civilization will go down as
other civilizations before it have gone down. Consider the position
as to the ownership of land and the growth of population, as it arises
between the Colored and the White Races; here are some startling
figures:
The population of the world is put at l,800,000,000. Japan
and China contain about 500,000,000; India and Burma
320,000,000. The rest of Asia south east of Burma has populations
which bring up the total of Asia to nearly 1,000,000,000. And they
are all awake, the students in the colleges are full of great ideals, and
books are circulating with enormous rapidity, stirring these students
to new ambitions.
On the other side of the Pacific and to the South are huge
countries sparsely inhabited; Canada, with an area equal to Europe,
has a population of 8,000,000. The United States has 3,000,000
square miles of territory and a population of 105,000,000, Australia
has a territory the same as that of the United States and a population
of 5,500,000. New Zealand, about the size of the British Isles, has a
population of something over 1,000,000. China has territory half as
spacious as that of the United States, and over 400,000,00 inhabit-
ants. Let anyone visualise these facts, and ask himself what must be
the inevitable issue. The author of the vividly written The Clash of
Colour, from which these figures are taken, sees “a broad fluttering
tide of human beings in Asia pressed by the urgent drive of their own
incredible multitude eastward and southward towards the other
shores of the Pacific – the relatively sparsely populated lands of
America and the open spaces of Australasia”. This is not a movement
of war but of economic compulsion, an inevitable irresistible move-
ment of the hungry towards the empty fertile lands where Nature will
reward labor with food. If resisted by legislation, it will burst into
war, war implacable and sustained. Once the struggle blazes into
war, numbers must tell. “In the clash of arms, laws are silent”. And
such a war will not end before the present civilization has received
its deathblow.
But if India and Britain come to terms, if India becomes an
equal partner in the firm instead of a servant, then all will be
changed. As Mr. Rushbrook Williams says, in one of his masterly
reports, India in 1922-23:
“The impending struggle between East and West, foretold by
many persons who cannot be classed either as visionaries or as fa-
natics, may easily be mitigated or even entirely averted, if the British
Commonwealth of Nations can find a place within its wide compass
for three hundred and twenty millions of Asiatics, fully enjoying the
privileges, and adequately discharging the responsibilities, which at
present characterise the inhabitants of Great Britain and the Self-
Governing Dominions.”
If India be fully admitted into the Commonwealth of Nations,
if she possesses Dominion status at Home as well as abroad, then
may a World Peace brood over our seething Nations. In 1919 I urged
that India should determine for herself her own form of Self-Gov-
ernment, and reference to the Appendix will show how that idea has
been carried out in the Commonwealth of India Bill, now before the
House of Commons.
The Future of India will, I hope, be united with that of Britain
for the sake of both Nations and for the sake of Humanity at large,
for they supply each other’s defects, and united can do for the world
a service that neither can do alone. India in the Past has shown that
the highest spirituality does not prevent, but ensures, the greatness
of achievement in the many-aspected splendor of a Nation’s life;
under the shelter of her sublime religion she developed a literature
of unparalleled intellectual power, philosophical and metaphysical;
her Art flowered into exquisite beauty; her dramas still purify and
inspire. Her physical prosperity endured millennium after millen-
nium, and her wealth was the envy of the world. Let her have
Freedom to develop on her own lines and she will again rival her
ancient glory, and even excel it in the future. Robbed of Liberty, she
is treading the path of death, and will soon leave the world only the
memory of what she was. Critical are the coming years, wherein the
decision must be made. Let India remember what she was and realise
what she may be. Then shall her Sun rise once more in the East and
fill the western lands with Light.
Her salvation lies in Swarāj, Self-Rule, Home Rule, and in
that alone. Nothing else can preserve and renew her vitality – slowly
ebbing away before our eyes. Yet that vitality has endured from a
Past for which archeological research has not as yet discovered a
boundary, beyond which the Mother-Race of the present civilized
Nations of the world did not raise her stately head, wearing the au-
reole of spiritual glory, holding her sceptre of intellectual and moral
achievement over the countless millions of her children, spreading
westwards ever till their setting Sun becomes the Rising Sun on their
ancient ancestral Homeland.

PEACE TO ALL BEINGS

 9

Commonwealth of India Bill:

A Foundation for the Future
[Published as an Appendix of India: Bound of Free?, London & New
York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926.]

This Bill was not a sudden move, but was led up to by

progressive steps.
In September, 1913, a small band of my immediate Theoso-
phical workers formed themselves into a group called “The Brothers
of Service” to prepare for steady advance not only along the lines named
above of Religious, Educational and Social Reform, but also along
Political, since the intolerable pressure of tyrannical legislation ham-
pered all forward action. They drew up the following leaflet which
was widely circulated:
“Theosophy must be made practical” was a sentence written and
published long ago by one of Those whom Theosophists regard as Mas-
ters. Since Mrs. Annie Besant came to India in 1893, she has been
seeking for ways of service to India, so that the country of her adoption
might rise in the scale of Nations, and take the world-position to which
her past entitles her and which her future will justify. Rightly or
wrongly, she judged that the great Forward Movement must begin with
a revival of spirituality, for National self-respect could only be aroused
and the headlong rush towards imitation of western methods could
only be checked, by substituting spirituality and idealism for mate-
rialism. Great success attended the work, and she then added to it
educational activities, so as to appeal to the citizens of the future and
shape their aspirations towards Nationhood, as an integral part of the
coming World-Empire. Cautiously she carried on some Social
Reform activities, organizing propaganda against child-marriage, and in
favour of foreign travel, helping the latter by the establishment of an
Indian Hostel in London11, and of a Committee of friendly Theosophists
who would welcome youths arriving in England as strangers. For
many years many of her more attached followers have been pledged
to delay the marrying of their children for some years beyond the cus-
tom of their caste and neighborhood. In Politics, she has urged the
larger ideals, and has especially in England, spoken for the just claims
of India.
“Believing that the best interests of India lie in her rising
into ordered freedom under the British Crown, in the casting away of
every custom which prevents union among all who dwell within her
borders, and in the restoration to Hinduism of social flexibility and
brotherly feeling,

I PROMISE
“1. To disregard all restrictions based on Caste.
“2. Not to marry my sons while they are still minors, nor my
daughters till they have entered their seventeenth year.
(‘Marry’ includes any ceremony which widows one party on the
death of the other.)
“3. To educate my wife and daughters—and the other
women of my family, so far as they will permit—to promote girls’
education, and to discountenance the seclusion of women.
“4. To promote the education of the masses as far as lies in
my power.

11
This is an error; we only kept a register of lodging-
houses with trustworthy landladies, and of private families
where Indian lads would be taken as paying guests.
 “5. To ignore all color distinctions in social and political life,
and to do what I can to promote the free entry of colored races into
all countries on the same footing as white immigrants.
“6. To oppose actively any social ostracism of widows who
remarry.
“7. To promote union among the workers in the fields of
spiritual, educational, social and political progress, under the
headship and direction of the Indian National Congress.”
It was further pointed out that while the Theosophical Soci-
ety could not, as a whole, be committed to special lines of activities,
it should work in India as it was doing in England, “ventilating plans
for profound social re-organization with love instead of hatred as an
inspiration. She (Mrs. Besant) aims at the ever-closer union of the
British and Indian races by mutual understanding and mutual re-
spect”. A further publication urged “the changes necessary to enable
her (India) to take her equal place among the Self-Governing Na-
tions which owe allegiance to the British crown”. Religious Hindus
were warmly invited to join in the work, “in order that they may
preserve to India the ancient and priceless religion of Hinduism,
now threatened with decay by its practical separation from the
movement of Progress in India”. It was stated that Hinduism should
shelter all progressive movements, and not stand apart in selfish iso-
lation. “Let her cling only to the essentials—the Immanence of God
and the Solidarity of Man. All gracious customs and elevating tra-
ditions may be followed by her children, but not imposed on the
unwilling, nor used as barriers to prevent social union. So shall she
become a unifier instead of a divider, and again assert her glory as
the most liberal of religions, the model of an active spirituality,
which inspires intellectual vigor, moral purity and national prosper-
ity.”
This was followed by a course of lectures delivered by me in
Madras, in October and November, 1913, the subjects of which
show how definitely the Reform Movement was guided, and the
chairmen the type of men who supported it.
Foreign Travel: Chairman, Dr. S. Subramania lyer, late Acting
Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
Child-Marriage and Its Results: Chairman, the Hon. Dewan Ba-
hadur T. S. Sadasiva Iyer, M.L., Acting Judge of the Madras High
Court.
Our Duty to the Depressed Classes: Chairman, the Hon. Justice
B. Tyabji.
Indian Industries as Related to Self-Government: Chairman,
Dewan Bahadur M. Ādinārāyana Iyah.
Appendix to the above lecture.
1. Exports.
2. Weaving.
3. Political Effects.
4. Moral Effects.
Mass Education: Chairman, the Hon. Justice Miller.
The Education of Indian Girls: Chairman, the Hon. Mr. P.
S. Sivaswāmi Aiyer, C.I.E., C.S.I., Indian Member of Executive
Council, Madras.
The Color Bar in England, the Colonies and India Chairman:
The Hon. Kesava Pillai.
The Passing of the Caste System: Chairman, Dewan Bahadur L.
A. Govindarāghava Iyer.
It will be noticed that the three first Chairmen were Judges of
the High Court, two (Theosophist) Hindus and one Musalmān,
while an English judge was the Chairman of the fifth lecture. The
eighth was also a Theosophist. All the lectures dealt with burning
social questions, and were intended to lead up to a Political Move-
ment.
 With the object of training ourselves in Parliamentary meth-
ods, on January 1, 1915, it was proposed to form a “Madras
Parliament,” a Debating Society with Parliamentary forms. We
passed a Pañchayat Act, presented by Mr., T. Rangachari, now a
member of the Legislative Assembly and its late Deputy President;
an Education Act, presented by Mr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, now
Law Member, Vice-President of the Madras Executive Council,
K.C.I.E.; and a Commonwealth of India Act presented by myself,
the parent of the Bill now before the House of Commons. We
flooded the country with pamphlets, bearing the stirring motto:

“We bring the Light that saves:

We bring the Morning Star
Freedom’s good things we bring you,
Whence all good things are.”

Another series, New India Political Pamphlets, had the motto

“How long ere thou take station?

How long ere thralls live free?”

How India Wrought for Freedom, the story of the Congress front
1885 to 1914, was published week by week in the Commonweal, and
was published as a book with a Historical Preface, arousing great
wrath in the I.C.S. and the Anglo-Indian press, being a narrative of
facts, then known to few, but now used by writers on India, and fa-
miliar all over the country. In New India we wrote on grievances,
demanded Home Rule, hammered away day in and day on how
“Home Rule” was woven into scarves, borders of saris, handker-
chiefs. Its red and green colors appeared everywhere. Then we
decided to have a Home Rule League, and Dadabbai Naorogi ap-
proved, but the local leaders were more cautious, fearing it might
weaken the Congress, whereas we wanted to carry on a continuous
agitation to support Congress in the equality it had claimed in the
Congress of 1914. The effect of the agitation, aided by the before
quoted words of Asquith, and the daily news from fields of battle,
swept over the land, carrying all before it. Here are two extracts, a
prose one and a song of my own writing, which show the feeling of
those thrilling days:
“While this many-featured and powerful educational agitation—
a thoroughly healthy and constitutional one, never once disfigured
by violence—was going on all over the country, the circumstances
of the time were such as to force the Nation rapidly forward into a
consciousness of Nationhood, and of her then place in the eyes of
the world, a place so unworthy of her storied past, and of the virility
of her people in the present, when stirred by a call that moved them
to exertion. That call came from the War, which became more and
more terrible as it swept over the lands, and India became full of
pride in the prowess of her soldiers, fighting side by side with the
flower of European troops, and fighting against the mightiest army
in the world. India felt herself living as her children died for Free-
dom, and the villages which sent their men became conscious of a
wider and more stirring world. The words of English statesmen, spo-
ken to enhearten their own countrymen, rang across the seas to India.
Asquith spoke of what England would feel if Germans filled her
highest offices, controlled her policy, levied her taxes, made her
laws; it would be inconceivable, he cried, and intolerable. India lis-
tened, and murmured to herself: ‘But that is exactly my condition;
here, these same Englishmen think it the only conceivable and the
only tolerable life for me.’ He spoke of the ‘intolerable degradation
of a foreign yoke; India whispered: ‘Is it so? Do Englishmen think
thus? What, then of me?’ She had accepted English rule by habit;
now she was shocked into realising the position which she filled in
the eyes of the world. A subject Nation. A subject race. Was that
really how the white Nations looked on her? Was that why her sons
were treated as coolies in the outside world? Did a foreign yoke at
home mean unspeakable humiliations abroad?
 “Then the pride of the Aryan Motherland awoke. Had she not a
civilisation dating back by millennia, beside which these white
races, sprang from her womb, were but of yesterday? Had she not
been rich, strong, and self-ruled, while these wandered naked in
their forests, and quarrelled with each other? Had she not lived as
equal with the mightiest Nations of a far-off past, when Babylon
was the wonder of the world, when the streets of Nineveh were
crowded, when Egypt was the teacher of wisdom, when Persia was
a mighty Empire, when Greek philosophy was an offshoot of her
schools, when Rome clad her haughtiest matrons in the products of
her looms? Had not many a Nation invaded her, and had she not
either driven them back, or assimilated them, and re-created them
into Indians? Had not the gold of the world flowed into her coffers?
Yet now she was poor. Had not great Empires, now dead, sent am-
bassadors to her Courts? But now she was ‘a Dependency’ of a little
far-off Island in northern seas. She had been asleep. She had been
dreaming. But now she awakened. She opened her eyes, and looked
around her. She saw her peasants, starving at home, but holding
their own as soldiers abroad. The coolies, despised in England’s
Colonies, were cheered as heroes by Englishmen in the streets of
their capital city. Yes, Asquith was right: ‘the intolerable degrada-
tion of a foreign yoke.’ If she was worthy to fight for Freedom, she
was worthy to enjoy it. If she stood equal with Englishmen, Scotch-
men, Colonials, in the trenches, and her poured-out blood mingled
with theirs, indistinguishably soaking into French and Flemish soil,
then she should be equal with them in her own ancient land. The
souls of her dead in France, in Belgium, in Gallipoli, in Palestine,
in Syria, in Mesopotamia, in East Africa, cried to her to claim the
Freedom for which their bodies lay scattered far from home and kin.
India sprang to her feet—a Nation.
“And then, because a white woman had been crying in her sleep-
ing ears these truths about herself for more than twenty years, and
was crying them aloud still in her ears awakened by the crash of
War, she turned to her for a while as her natural leader, who had
blown the conch for Liberty’s battle in India. And she sang!”
Here is one of the songs:
WAKE UP, INDIA

“Hark! the tramp of marching numbers,

India, waking from her slumbers,
Calls us to the fray,
Not with weapons slaughter dealing,
Not with blood her triumph sealing,
But with peace-bells loudly pealing,
Dawns her Freedom’s Day.

“Justice is her buckler stainless,

Argument her rapier painless,
Truth her pointed lance,
Hark! her song to Heaven ringing,
Hatreds all behind her flinging,
Peace and joy to all she’s bringing,
Love her shining glance.

Mother, Dear! all victorious,

Thou hast seen a vision glorious,
Dreamt of Liberty.
Now the vision has its ending
In the truth, all dreams transcending,
Hope and fact together blending,
Free! from sea to sea.
“By thy plains and snow-clad mountains,
By thy streams and rushing fountains,
By Himalayan heights,
By the past of splendid story,
By the hopes of future glory,
 By the strength of wisdom hoary,
Claim thy sacred Rights.”
And she claimed them.
The Commonwealth of India Bill.
We all considered it vital that the Indian Constitution should be
framed by Indians, and in answer to a question from Lord Selborne −
the Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Houses of Lords and Com-
mons in 1919, addressed to myself as witness—whether India would
ever be satisfied with a Constitution drawn up by Englishmen, I re-
plied in the negative, basing the reply on the great age of her
civilisation and the difference of manners and customs.
The practical framing of a Constitution for India by Indians took
birth in February, 1922, in a discussion in the Political Section of
the 1921 Club, Madras, on the method of winning Swarāj. Mr. V.
S. Rāmaswami Sāstri, then Assistant Editor of New India, the brother
of the Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivāsa Sāstri P.C., suggested that India should
resort to a Convention for the framing of a Constitution. The idea was
adopted and discussed widely in the press. The Political Section sent
Dr. Annie Besant to Simla in September, where the Indian Legis-
lature was in session, to seek its views; informal meetings were
held by members of each House separately, and both approving the
idea of calling a Convention, a joint meeting was held which elected
an Executive Committee from among themselves to call a Con-
ference of members of the Central and Provincial Legislatures to
arrange and call a Convention. The Conference met in February,
1923, at Delhi, during the session of the Indian Legislature, and after
some days’ discussion, outlined the essentials of a Constitution car-
rying out the resolution of the Congress of 1918 to place India on
an equality with the Self-Governing Dominions of the British Em-
pire. The Conference Executive drew up a pledge for candidates for
the Legislatures at the forthcoming elections in the autumn, accepting
the outline and binding them to call the Convention. This was done,
and a second Conference met in February, 1924. This approved the
work of the year 1923, and called the Convention, into which it then
merged itself, to meet in April, 1924. It consisted of Members and
ex-Members of the Legislatures, Central and Provincial (231), the mem-
bers of the Council of the National Home Rule League (19), the
elected representatives of the Political Sections of the 1921 Clubs in
Madras, Bombay and Calicut (3), the co-opted representatives of the
Indian Women’s Association (2), and the late Law Member of the
Governor-General’s Council, 256 in all, and this Convention is re-
sponsible for the Commonwealth of India Bill. Until now every
member has been an elected representative, all but a handful belong-
ing to the elected Members of the Legislatures.
It divided itself into seven Committees to deal with different
Sections of a Constitution establishing Self-Government, and di-
rected then to report in the autumn of the same year. A draft was
based on these reports, and the Convention sat in Bombay in Decem-
ber and considered and amended it. It printed the results and
circulated them to political parties inviting further amendments, and
submitted the draft also to a sub-committee appointed by a Commit-
tee of all parties, presided over by Mr. Gandhi in November, 1924.
This sub-committee made a number of amendments, and these with
all others were submitted to the Convention sitting at Cawnpur on
April 11, 12 and 13, 1925; it was finally submitted to a Drafting
Committee in Madras, consisting of the Hon. Mr C. P. Ramāswāmi
Aiyar, Messrs. Shiva Rao, Sri Ram, Yādunandan Prasād and Dr. An-
nie Besant, with power to correct any oversights in language where
necessary, to see the Bill through the press, and publish it in the name
of the Convention.
In May, 1925, it was sent to England to Major D. Graham Pole,
the Hon. Secretary of the British Committee on Indian Affairs. He
laid it before leading members of the Labor Party and it was backed
by them, read a first time in the House of Commons and ordered to
be printed. It then went before the Executive Committee of the Par-
liamentary Labor Party, that examines every Bill before it is taken up
by the Labor Government or Opposition, as the case may be. It was
closely examined, clause by clause, and finally passed unanimously
as embodying the resolutions passed by the Labor Party from time
to time respecting India. It thus passed into the hands of the future
Labor Government, and was put on the list of bills balloted for as an
official measure.

SUMMARY OF BILL.
General Principles.
India will be placed on an equal footing with the Self-
Governing Dominions, sharing their responsibilities and their privi-
leges.
The right of Self-Government will be exercised from the Vil-
lage upwards in each successive autonomous area of wider extent,
namely, the Taluka; the District; the Province; and India (exclud-
ing the Indian States).
The three great spheres of activity, Legislative, Executive and
Judicial, will, as far as possible, be independent of each other, while
correlated in their working.

Declaration of Rights.
The following Fundamental Rights will be guaranteed to every
person: (a) Inviolability of the liberty of the person and of his dwell-
ing and property, save by process of law in a duly constituted Court
of Law. (b) Freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion,
subject to public order or morality. (c) Free expression of opinion
and the right of assembly peaceably and without arms, and of form-
ing Associations or Unions, subject to public order or morality. (d)
Free Elementary Education as soon as practicable. (e) The use of
roads, places dedicated to the public, Courts of Justice and the like.
(f) Equality before the law, irrespective of considerations of Nation-
ality, and (g) Equality of sexes.

Legislative.
Legislative power is vested in the King, a Legislative Assembly
and a Senate. “Parliament” shall mean only the Parliament of the
 Commonwealth of India, The Legislative Assembly will consist of
300 Members, and the Senate of 150.
The Senate will have equal powers with the Legislative Assembly
except in regard to Money Bills, which will originate only in the lat-
ter. The life of the Legislative Assembly will ordinarily be for five
years, that of the Senate for six years. The Senate will have a contin-
uous existence, with half the number of Members retiring every three
years by a process of rotation.
In the Provincial Legislative Councils, the number of Members
will vary from 100 to 200 according to the size and importance of
the Province. The life of a Legislative Council will ordinarily be for
four years. There will be at present only one Chamber in a Provincial
Legislature, but provision has been made in the Bill for the addition
of a Second Chamber in a Province, if it so decides.
In the District, Taluka, and Village Councils, which are termed
the Sub-Provincial Units of Government, the number of members
will vary according to local conditions. The ordinary life-term of
the District Councils will be for three years, that of the Taluka for
two years, and that of the Village Councils for one year.
Franchises.
The franchises for the various Legislative bodies have been
graded, commencing with universal adult suffrage in the Village,
and restricted by higher educative, or administrative, or property or
other monetary qualifications in the case of each higher body.
The principle of direct election has been maintained throughout,
except in the case of the Senate, where candidates will be nomin-
ated to a panel from which the electorate will make its choice. A
distinction has also been observed between Members and Electors,
the qualifications for the former being kept at a somewhat higher
level than for the latter.
The powers of the various Legislative bodies have been em-
bodied in a Schedule to the Constitution; and residuary powers
have been vested in the Parliament.
 Defence.
There will be a Defence Commission with a majority of Indians
thereon, every five years, appointed by the Viceroy in con-
sultation with his Cabinet. The Commission will
recommend a minimum of non-votable expenditure for the De-
fence Forces and also report on the progress of the
Indianisation of those Forces. In the event of disagreement,
the Viceroy will have power to secure the minimum which, in
his opinion, is necessary for the Defence Forces. No revenue
of India may be spent on any branch of Defence Forces in
which Indians are ineligible for holding commissioned rank.
As soon as the Commission recommends favorably, Parlia-
ment may pass an Act to undertake the full responsibility of
Defence.
Executive.
There will be a Cabinet in the Government of India consist-
ing of the Prime Minister and not less than seven Ministers of
State, who will be collectively responsible for the administra-
tion of the Commonwealth. The Prime Minister will be
appointed by the Viceroy, and the other Ministers on the nom-
ination of the Prime Minister. The Viceroy will be temporarily
in charge of the Defence Forces. In all matters except Defence,
the Viceroy will act only upon the advice of the Cabinet. The
salaries of the Viceroy and of the Members of the Cabinet will
be fixed by Parliament, but in the case of the former, no alter-
ation will come into force during his continuance in office. The
Cabinet will resign as soon as it has lost the support of a ma-
jority in the Legislative Assembly.
In the Provinces, the same principles will apply as in the
Central Government, except that the minimum number of Min-
isters will be three.
 The Secretary of State.
The powers and functions of the Secretary of State and the Secre-
tary of State in Council over the revenues and the administration of
India will be transferred to the Commonwealth Executive.
Judicial.
There will be a Supreme Court of India, consisting of a Chief Jus-
tice and not less than two other judges with original as well as
appellate jurisdiction to deal with such matters as may be deter-
mined by statute. It will have power to deal with all matters arising
out of the interpretation of the Constitution or of laws made by the
Parliament. It will also be the final appellate authority in India, un-
less it certifies that the question is one which should be determined
by the Privy Council.
The existing High Courts will have the same powers and author-
ity as before the establishment of the Commonwealth.

Finance.
The revenues of Parliament will form a consolidated revenue fund,
and will be vested in the Viceroy. No revenue may be raised by the
Executive without the sanction of Parliament.
The allocation of revenues between Parliament and the Prov-
inces will be decided by a Finance Commission every five years.

New Provinces.
Parliament will have the power to alter the limits of existing Prov-
inces or establish new Provinces and make laws for their
administration.
Minorities
Communal Representation as now existing will be abolished, and
all elections will be held on the basis of purely territorial electorates.
As a temporary measure, the number of seats now reserved for Mu-
salmāns and Europeans will be guaranteed for five years, at the end
of which period the question of its continuance, modification or abo-
lition will be examined by a Franchise Commission.
Bills affecting the religion or the religious rites or usages of a
community or communities will be referred to a Standing Commit-
tee of the Legislature in which they are introduced; and if the
Committee, on which there will be a majority of the members of
the community or communities concerned, reports adversely, such
Bills will lapse for the period of one year.

Public Services.
There will be a Public Services Commission to exercise full con-
trol over the public services of India as regards recruitment,
discipline, promotion and pensions. Officers now in the service of
the Government of India or of the Provincial Governments will be
guaranteed their existing rights but, at the establishment of the
Commonwealth, they will pass into the service of the Common-
wealth or the Provinces, as the case may be.

Alteration of the Constitution.

Parliament will have power to alter the Constitution.

The Schedules.
The First Schedule gives the oath of allegiance and affirmation
to His Majesty King George V and his heirs and successors.
The Second Schedule
(1) Electors must be at least 21 years of age.
(2) Qualifications for the graded electorates are given, begin-
ning with the Village, where universal suffrage is provided for. The
qualifications of the remaining electorates relate to (a) administra-
tive experience, (b) education—literary or technical, (c) economic
and industrial ministration (co-operative stores and banks, wells,
tanks and canals, cottage industries, forests, local taxation, works of
public utility), (d) income, (e) possession of land property, (f) occu-
pation of a house; thus including different classes of citizens. These
qualifications are graded, being very low for the Taluka (collection
of villages), and highest for the Senate. Only one of the various
qualifications is required to qualify a man or woman as a voter in
any council.

The Third Schedule.

The powers of each Council, from the Village Pañchayat to the
Parliament, are fully stated.

The Fourth Schedule.

(1) There will be no communal electorates, but as a transitory
provision, the same number of seats will be reserved for Musalmāns
as is provided for in the Government of India Act, 1918, for five
years, when a Franchise Commission will report on its continuance,
amendment or abolition.
(2) Proposed legislation affecting religions shall be postponed
for one year if a Committee of the House in which the legislation is
introduced, and consisting of a majority of members of the religion
or religions affected, decide against the measure.
(3) The number of members assigned to the Provinces for the
various legislative bodies are given.
(4) The salaries of the Viceroy, Governors and the Common-
wealth and Provincial Ministers are given.
 10

The Departure of the Diamond Soul

1930 Celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Blavatsky Lodge in Bombay,
the foremost Theosophical Lodge in India;
Last visit to Benares;
Last visit to England: presided over the Convention;
Last visit to Europe: attended the Star Camp at Ommen, and
presided over the tenth Theosophical European Congress at Ge-
neva;
Attended the wedding of her granddaughter, Miss Sybil Besant,
to Commander Lewis, in London on Oct. 1st
1931 Celebrated the Blavatsky Centenary at Adyar in August;
Resolved to make Adyar a Flaming Centre;
Delivered her last address on Dec. 24th
1932 Celebrated the Olcott Centenary at Adyar in August;
Summed up the lifework of the two Centenarians in 25 words;
Awarded ‘Silver Wolf,’ the highest Scout honour

* * *

1933 September 20th, expired at Adyar, 4 p.m.

Below are some of the tributes to Dr Besant by well-known In-

dian political leaders and influential personalities:

MR. JINNAH (Leader of the The All-India Muslim League)

“No other person has worked and served our cause with that sin-
gleness of purpose, devotion, and transparent sincerity as has
 Mrs. Besant. She has sacrificed all that she could. What for? For
the freedom of India.”
20 February 1918, New India

LOKAMANYA B. G. TILAK
“You have adopted India to be your Motherland; you have suffered
a great deal for her, and found her almost triumphant. India is united
for the commonweal, and all our efforts are directed towards reach-
ing the goal of Swaraj. Our reception may not be as magnificent as
from others you may have obtained. But I may assure you it comes
from the inmost of our hearts. If India is nearer the goal, it is due to
your strenuous efforts, and, if I may be allowed to add also, largely
to your internment. Regarding you as an embodiment of our princi-
ples and our success, we offer you our welcome and wish you long
life and inexhaustible energy.”
15 October 1917, New India

POET RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Calcutta, Sept. 22—Sir Rabindranath Tagore sends to the press a
copy of the letter which he has written to a literary friend in England.
In the course of the letter he writes: “In your letter you seem puzzled
at my conduct in sending a message of sympathy to Mrs. Besant. I
am afraid, compared with your own troubles, it may appear to you
too small, but yet sufferings have not lost their keenness for us, and
moral problems still remain as the gravest of all problems in all parts
of the world. The constant conflict between the growing demand of
the educated community of India for a substantial share in the ad-
ministration of their country and the spirit of hostility on the part of
the Government has given rise, among a considerable number of our
young men, to methods of violence, bred of despair and distrust. This
has been met by the Government by a thorough policy of repression.
In Bengal itself hundreds of men are interned without trial, a great
number in unhealthy surroundings, in gaols and in solitary cells, in
a few cases driving them to insanity or suicide. The misery that is
carried into numerous households is deep and widespread. What I
consider to be the worst outcome of this irresponsible policy is the
spread of the contagion of hatred against everything western in
minds which were free from it. In this crisis the only European who
has shared our sorrow, incurring the anger and derision of her coun-
trymen, is Mrs. Annie Besant. This was what led me to express my
grateful admiration for her noble courage. Possibly there is such a
thing as political exigency, just as there may be a place for utter ruth-
lessness in War; but I pay my homage to those who have faith in
ideals and, therefore, are willing to take all other risks except that of
weakening the foundation of moral responsibility.” (A.P.I.)
25 September 1917, New India

MR. M. K. GANDHI
“Cultivate the great qualities of Dr. Besant, namely, firmness, sim-
plicity, self-control, etc. She is one of the greatest orators of the
world, because she speaks what she believes and acts according to
what she speaks.... She has the courage of her convictions and al-
ways puts her words into action ... Imitate her unflinching
determination and simplicity of life.... Obtain the same strength and
indomitable will that she possesses which alone will bring Swaraj.
India is not fit for Swaraj without these qualities. Remove India’s
chains and then alone will we achieve our goal. Religion is interwo-
ven in Dr. Besant’s life and she has built a bridge between politics
and religion. Swaraj without religion is of no use. It is Dr. Besant
who has awakened India from her deep slumber and I pray that she
may live long to witness a free India.”
2 October 1928, New India

DR. BESANT ANSWERS

I do not know what I can say for the over-generous words.... I could
not thank you sufficiently for your good thought of me, but I would
pray you not to pitch your thought too high, for then you will expect
what none can give. I am no incarnation ... but only a servant of the
mighty mother Shakti, who is embodied in no mortal body, but in
the immortal body of India, the reflection of the Mother. I am only a
poor instrument in far mightier hands, and you should no more praise
me than you praise the chisel in the hands of the sculptor. The sculp-
tor cuts the marble into some exquisite form of beauty. You praise
the artist and not the tool.

The following tributes were included in The Annie Besant Cen-

tenary Book, published by The Besant Centenary Celebrations
Committee, Adyar, Madras, 1 October 1947.

Annie Besant through an Indian Child’s Eyes

Sri Prakasa

Mrs. Besant was forty-seven and I was four when we first met
each other. I am fifty-seven now—ten years older than what she was
when first I set my baby eyes upon her, as affectionately described
by herself on one occasion; but as I think of her today, I cannot help
feeling that I am still a tiny child; and if I met her—and I wish I could
meet her—I am sure I would feel much the same as I must have felt
at that time: an eternal child before eternal age. And still Mrs. Besant
was not a person who would make anyone feel that she was so wise,
so great, so famous. She was herself as simple as a child with chil-
dren, and made no child feel small before her. My earliest memory,
confirmed by continuous contact of years, is that she was a very hu-
man person. She made every allowance for human weaknesses and
did not put any strain on ordinary human nature in others even when
she, more often than not, transcended it in her own person. She was
so approachable, so sympathetic, so understanding.
She loved India with a fervour and devotion all her own. Our
country’s philosophy, our history, our legends, our spiritual heritage,
our achievements in the past, our sorrows in the present, our aspira-
tions for the future, were part and parcel of Mrs. Besant’s own life.
India’s climate, however, I fear, did not suit her; and any attempt on
her part to pass a hot summer in the burning plains, made her very
uncomfortable and even ill. But in India, she would live like an In-
dian; she would refuse to go to hill stations as so many Europeans
did, and imitating them our own people do; and so she more often
than not utilised the summer months for travels abroad, making India
known to the world and drawing the attention of thinking men and
women in many lands to this ancient country with its continuing tra-
ditions and its past glories.
And, as I think of it, it was just as well that she went abroad;
for when she came back, she did not fail to bring a box of toys for
the little children of her friends and colleagues here. It used to be a
great day indeed for us when she came back from her annual pil-
grimages abroad, came without fail to breakfast with us and to
distribute the beautiful toys and the useful presents that she had
brought. She had something to give to everyone; and not only to give
but also to explain how the various mechanisms in the toys were
worked and what amusement and instruction could be got out of
them. No wonder all of us children clamoured round her as the “Bari
Mem Saheb”, the grand-old lady with her white hair, white face and
white clothes, distributed these welcome gifts to us.
The gifts were suitable to the individuals concerned and they
changed as the receiver grew up. For me, they began with little
blocks with pasted pictures on them, and then changed into toy
steamers, and at last books. It was Henty's “In Freedom’s Cause”
when I was fourteen; a book on travels a little later; and then, a book
of the beautiful pictures of Scotland still later; and then the gifts
stopped, for I was twenty and accompanied her to England for stud-
ies. Let me not forget that she was keen on these breakfasts—of
which she ate so little that even a sparrow could scarcely break its
fast on the amount. When my father was in jail in 1921 and she came
to Benares for the annual Theosophical Convention, and I, with the
rest of political India, was angry with her for the attitude she had
then taken up regarding Gandhiji’s movement and the boycott of the
Prince of Wales’ visit, I had a note from her saying: “I have not had
my usual invitation to breakfast!” And she came afterwards full of
sympathy for us, despite obvious differences.
The great lesson that she can usefully teach to all, specially to
us in India, is the simple art—which almost everyone here lacks—
of encouraging others in good work. Where nobody seemed to en-
courage a boy to do anything, she offered the greatest possible
encouragement, not only to the children of her friends’ families, but
to all students of her College. She published an article on the “Com-
mon Language of India” from me in the Central Hindu College
Magazine that she edited and which I had ventured to send to her
when I was only fourteen years of age. She came to tell my mother
what a good article I had written; and later gave me the further priv-
ilege of translating into English a few stories on Rajput chivalry,
published later with her own contributions in a book entitled the
“Children of the Motherland”. She prominently published my name
in the Introduction as one of her “colleagues” in the work. Any boy
of fifteen would feel proud—any man of even fifty-seven will feel
proud—of such recognition at the hands of a famous author like her.
She would come down from the gallery and congratulate me
for having made a very “fine” speech in the College debating soci-
ety: to have such words of praise from the recognisedly greatest
orator of the time, would make anyone feel elated and encouraged to
do his best; and it was the sorrow of her life as I almost compelled
her to tell me, that we in India were not a generous people and would
not encourage the young and enable them to take their place in world
affairs. I asked her: “What is it, in your opinion, that does not enable
us to rise? You should surely be able to tell me after your whole life
passed with us and in our service.” And she hesitatingly said: “Your
leaders do not help younger people to find their feet”.
 Another characteristic of Mrs. Besant, forcibly printed on my
mind, is her capacity not only of attracting people, but of keeping
them bound to her in chains of unbreakable affection. She would
never neglect a friend. She would cling to him despite his weak-
nesses, his limitations and even his unkindnesses. It was this
generosity of her nature which enabled her to make herself win
friends and keep them attached to her work. It was—so it strikes me
as I throw my mind backwards—the root of her success. She was
able to build up her great institutions by making all her friends and
colleagues feel all the time that they were doing her work, that she
was constantly looking at them, admiring, helping and encouraging
them throughout. She was full of praise of her friends and had not
any unkind thought or word for them at any time, whatever befell.
She was a most punctual woman and punctiliously fulfilled
all her engagements and her promises. We are often inclined to make
vague promises of all sorts off-hand, without the least intention of
fulfilling them. Not so she. She would fulfil her promises to a child.
I took it in my head, for instance, to ask for a particular book as a
prize for a recitation at my school anniversary. That book was not
available in India. She wrote for it to England herself; got it at
Madras and remembered that it was meant for me, months after-
wards when it arrived. She packed it herself, addressed it herself, and
sent it on to me. I was anxious on one occasion that a special silver
badge in recognition of good work should be awarded to a fellow
student. She had invited me to come and see her one morning and I
mentioned this desire of mine to her. She then asked me to leave the
name behind, and some weeks later, at a public function, unknown
to anyone she called up this young gentleman to the dais and pre-
sented him with the badge and praised him, before all, for the good
work that he had done for the poor students in the College.
Mrs. Besant kept herself in personal touch with all her col-
leagues and with all her students in the college—the Central Hindu
College—that she made. I can never forget how during the anxious
days when I was scarcely fifteen, my father was dangerously ill and
she came night after night, after busy days of hard work, to nurse
him through the dangerous illness. The gratitude that we all felt for
her efficient nursing, for her affectionate solicitude, could never be
repaid; but she did what she did without thinking anything about it
and took it all as part of the day’s work. It was all second nature with
her; she wanted no thanks; she expected no gratitude. My father was
one of her dearest and closest colleagues in her Theosophical work
in India. She wrote to him every day when in India, and every week
when abroad. Along with her letters to him, came innumerable
stamps of all countries, torn from envelopes sent to her, all meant for
my brother who was at that time an enthusiastic stamp-collector.
She was a great letter-writer and kept in touch with all her
friends all the time. From distant lands I have had letters from her,
of congratulation on my marriage, of condolence at my wife’s death.
And I have known of fellow students who received letters of sympa-
thy and enquiries when seriously ill and in great physical suffering.
People would entrust her with missions of all sorts and she always
executed them most carefully. I remember her old friend Dr. G. N.
Chakravarty, wanting a dressing gown of a particular variety from
London when I went with her, for the sample gown was packed in
my box. She took great pains to have a similar one made in London
for him and must have given it to him on return. She would scrupu-
lously and promptly reply to every letter written to her, whether the
letter came from a child or a great man. She made twenty-four hours
yield the work of three times as many hours, for she was punctual to
a second in everything, whether it was in taking her food, in deliver-
ing a lecture or in going to bed.
And then there was a third great characteristic of Mrs. Bes-
ant’s: she was most scrupulous about the care of her health. No
wonder who lived to be almost eighty-six. She was a great horse-
woman in her comparatively younger days. She was old-fashioned
and did not ride astride as ladies now do. She could keep on
horseback for long hours, fatiguing her companions a third of her
age. She was an exquisite croquet player. She did not shun the thea-
tre, and loved to play “patience” with her cards. She was indeed very
human and she had no pretences. She dressed well, though always
simply; she ate well, although frugally; and she always travelled in
comfort without denying herself anything that was necessary to
make her efficient and fit for her work in life. She had no prejudices,
and would use any vehicle that came her way to travel about to carry
her message far and wide.
My memories as a child of her are wrapt up also with her
wonderful eloquence. I learnt English fairly early in life; so I remem-
ber even to have been able to follow her very early lectures on the
“Ramayana” a few years later. She needed no notes, and spoke just
for sixty minutes, keeping her audiences spell-bound all the time and
leaving them at the very climax of her oratory, gaping and yearning
for more. I think the best setting for her lectures was the Queen’s
Hall of London, where I had heard her to the best advantage and in
the most fitting surroundings. She was an artist in words, and she
was keen both on the dress she wore when delivering her lectures
and also the seating arrangements she wanted made at them. She did
not like anyone to speak after her, and she always resented any at-
tempts on the part of her chairman to give instructions to the
audience after her lectures. At Oxford, a chairman after her lecture
told his audience of the exits provided for them; and she said to the
managers of her lectures afterwards that all notices of exits and en-
trances must be given before she began. She never liked an open
vacant aisle in front of her when speaking. She felt as if she was
lecturing to empty space even though the sides were crowded.
She was a most motherly person and she was essentially a
woman. She would give good advice as to how to keep out the dust
nuisance or to keep the room cool in the summer. She knew how
babies should be treated, and she once pulled me up badly for stand-
ing behind my baby when she was holding it in her hands, because
the little one would try to turn its eyes backwards in order to see me.
She wanted me to stand in front and not hurt the baby’s eyes. As a
speaker, she was great. She helped us to discover our own country
and take pride in our ancient days. She ashamed us for our present
and encouraged us to work for a really great future of freedom and
of joy. She was a great master who taught us how we should live and
build up happy homes, though her own was shattered. She was a
woman who lent grace and dignity to whatever she touched, and kept
her friends and her colleagues bound and attached to her in eternal
affection and devotion. She was a person full of human kindness, full
of sympathetic understanding, ever anxious that others should be
helped to find their feet in life and trained to do the world’s work in
the right spirit, and for the right ends. And today, as we celebrate the
centenary of her birth, I lay at her feet my tribute of admiration and
of gratitude, and with the innumerable memories that crowd in my
mind today, I offer her the love and reverence of a grandson to a
grand-mother: I cannot offer less, I dare not offer more.

Annie Besant
B. Sanjiva Rao

“In life, through death to life again, I am but the Servant of the
Great Brotherhood and those on whose head but for a moment the
hand of the Master has rested in blessing can never again look at the
world save with eyes made luminous with the radiance of the eternal
peace.”
These are the closing words with which this great servant of
Humanity concludes the first chapter of a life of storm and stress, of
a ceaseless search for truth, battling against the tyranny of an age
which had not outgrown the fanatic in tolerance of the middle ages.
With the joining of the Theosophical Society and the taking up once
more with her Teacher the link that had bound her to Him during
many lives in the past there dawned upon her the peace that broods
over those who dwell in the eternal.
The readers of the ‘Autobiography’ are hardly prepared to
realise that the close of that first chapter marks the beginning of a
work so great, so wonderful, so far-reaching that I do not believe that
contemporaries can do justice to its importance. Forty years ago In-
dia appeared to our fathers to be lost in a slumber so profound that
even the greatest patriots of the day declared that it was dead and
that the leaders of the Theosophical movement were attempting the
futile task of awakening a dead people.
It was Mrs. Besant’s supreme privilege to be given the task
of awakening a whole nation from its sleep of centuries, of pouring
into India that splendid stream of vitality which has created a new
elation out of a people who had given themselves up as lost. It is true
that so stupendous a task cannot be the work of a single individual,
however eminent, however great. Yet history shows us that at every
great crisis in human affairs there stand out great and towering per-
sonalities through whom the great Hierarchy of the Elder Brothers
of humanity guides the destinies of nations till they reach their ap-
pointed end. There is only one name by which Mrs, Besant’s
personality can be adequately described: ‘In life, through death to
life again, she is but the great Servant of the Great Brotherhood’. It
is as a Servant of the Great Brotherhood that she stands out before
the outer world.
Throughout her long period of the service of India, the key-
note of her life is that of a splendid consecration of all her faculties,
of her supremely commanding will; of her magnificent organising
capacity to the carrying out of a plan given to her to be worked out
by the Guardians of Humanity.
“The most significant fact of modern days is this,” says
Rabindranath Tagore, “that the West has met the East. Such a mo-
mentous meeting of humanity, in order to be fruitful, must have in
its heart some great emotional idea, generous and creative. There can
be no doubt that God’s choice has fallen upon the knight errants of
the West for the service of the present age ..... The world today is
offered to the West. She will destroy it, if she does not use it for a
great creation of man.” Splendidly equipped with the latest scientific
culture of the West and having gained or rather regained a
knowledge of the mystic and hidden wisdom of the East, Mrs. Besant
came to India, to interpret India to the Western world, to restore to
India the dignity and splendour of her ancient heritage of Aryan wis-
dom.
For many a long year, she studied India with reverent sym-
pathy, fearing to condemn, lest through her ignorance she should
destroy the delicate fabric of the ancient culture, she studied the writ-
ings of the Rishis, and by her sympathy and insight gained a
marvellous power of entering into the spirit of Hinduism and of the
Hindu people. She travelled incessantly through the length and
breadth of India, proclaiming to a people who were unconscious of
the greatness of their ancient inheritance, the priceless value of In-
dian philosophy and Indian religion. Those were happy days for our
President, living in her Benares home, in loving communion with
her Hindu friends, attracting by her wonderful sympathy, many an
ardent soul to the cause of Theosophy, many people do not realise
the vital connection between her work of reviving Hinduism and her
present political work. She saw truly that the heart of India was
deeply religious, that the secret of her culture lay in her profound
religious consciousness. Placed amidst surroundings which by their
vastness, their glory and majesty ever whisper of the Infinite the In-
dian mind turns to the Eternal within him to meet the touch of the
Supreme Person. Social reform, Political and Educational reform to
be successful must be viewed from the standpoint of the spirit in
man.
The same truth was seen by that virile and fiery prophet of
Bengal, the late Swami Vivekananda. It expresses itself in the life
and work of Mr. Gokhale who declared that politics must be
spiritualized. It is the secret of the marvellous outburst of devotion
of the millions of the Indian people at the call of the prophet of non-
violence whatever one may think of the practical outcome of the
movement of non-cooperation, one cannot be convinced, that it is
the call of the ideal that brings out the supreme qualities in the Indian
heart.
It was Mrs. Besant’s privilege to help in the great revival of
a people’s latent genius. The testimony of one who had so long been
the champion of scientific agnosticism to the deathless reality of the
spirit in man, a testimony not based on mere tradition or authority by
any book however sacred and ancient, but on the bedrock of personal
realisation made on an instant and powerful appeal to the eager In-
tellect of educated India. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say
that almost every eminent man of our time has some time or other in
his life been profoundly affected by the teachings of Theosophy. But
religion, if it is vital, must express itself in life and work. This is the
wonderful truth that our President brought from her western home.
The true greatness of the West lies not so much in the marvellous
development of her scientific research, but in the spirit of service
devoted to the welfare of man.
It is this combination of the mystic with the soul in eternal
communion with the Immortal Ruler within and the practical worker
ever engaged in the work of the outer world, it is this union of the
East and West that is seen in rare perfection in the personality of our
President. She is certainly one of the most active workers of the
world though she has attained the age of 75. Yet the atmosphere
which surrounds her is one of peace and repose. It is as if in the midst
of her ceaseless work, she holds unseen communion with a Power
that is not of earth. Absolutely tireless in her efforts, it looks as if the
work is not so much the result of any outer thing but rather the ex-
pression of an exuberant vitality of the spirit that must pour itself
forth in active work for the welfare of man. It is as spontaneous as
the music of the singer or the melody of the poet, the song of the
bird. Such vitality of the spirit is of the very essence of that creative
power that gives birth to art and literature and there breathes in all
that she does that spirit of harmony and beauty which we associate
with a great poem, but what a magnificent poem it is! l have watched
her at work, at committee meetings, in the railway trains, at all kinds
of functions. There is no false note, no discord; it is as if one heard
the far-off tones of a divine music of a spirit in harmony with the
will of the Supreme.
It has been my privilege to listen to the wonderful eloquence
of our President and be thrilled and inspired by it. But I believe I
have learnt far more by watching her at work. I remember going up
to her considerably troubled by an impending financial crisis that
was about to take place in one of her many departments of work. She
asked me not to worry. Foolish I asked her if she would not feel wor-
ried if her Master had some grave trouble. Her answer was
characteristic – it was an emphatic “no”. “I give myself up to my
Master – I hold back nothing”, she said. It taught me more than many
lectures have done. It enabled me to realise the continual abiding
consciousness of the Supreme, not as a vague, shadowy, far off real-
ity to be felt in moments of rare insight, but as something which lay
behind every action and thought of her, influencing, through the au-
tomatism of the body, every detail of her daily life,
I understood, as never before, how an occultist works. Seated
in the heart of the Eternal, every detail of life on the plane of thought,
feeling or action is but the spontaneous expression of that Divine will
to which the human has been attuned. That central lesson of the Gita
which teaches us to look upon ourselves as the instruments of the
one worker was borne in upon me. It is said that all spiritual truths
are taught to us through the medium of personality. The personality
of our President is the supreme gift of the West and the East alike to
the culture of a future age.
 Dr. Besant as Constructive Statesman
By B. Shiva Rao

Dr. Besant’s active participation in Indian politics synchronised

with the commencement of the first world war. For a period of fif-
teen years thereafter she dominated the political scene, contributing
and subsequently working out, with thoroughness and precision, two
great conceptions which all progressive forces in the country imme-
diately accepted as of vital importance. Home Rule for India as a
member of the British Commonwealth of Nations; and second, when
the goal of responsible government was accepted by Mr. Lloyd
George’s Cabinet at the end of the war, the principle of self-determi-
nation for India—a Constitution framed for India by Indians. In the
middle of the world war (in 1916), when India’s leading politicians
were thinking modestly in terms of a fresh political advance on the
basis of the Minto-Morley Reforms then in operation, Dr. Besant
came out with the striking slogan of Home Rule for India. It captured
the imagination of the younger generation which rallied round her as
the leader of a new movement. Brushing aside the legalistic ap-
proach characteristic of the lawyer-politician of that generation, she
built up for the Home Rule League an emotional mass support. The
Indian National Congress and its auxiliary the Home Rule League
became, under her inspiring leadership, instruments for carrying the
message of Home Rule as our birthright to remote villages as much
as to India’s urban population.
Her technique was instructive. In the early stages of the
Home Rule movement, the Moderates, apprehensive of the pace she
was setting for India’s political progress, placed themselves in oppo-
sition to the demand for Home Rule. She became the centre of an
intense, if somewhat controversial, agitation for a British declaration
promising India complete self-government. Internment not only
proved ineffective, but provided a powerful stimulus for the move-
ment. A British declaration came, associated with Mr. Montagu,
towards the end of the war “for the progressive realisation of respon-
sible government through the increasing association of Indians with
the administration.”
It sounded a feeble, half-hearted response to India’s passionate
plea for equality of status. “Unworthy of Britain to offer, and of India
to accept” was Dr. Besant’s first reaction. Then followed numerous
conferences and deputations and two years of negotiations and de-
tailed discussions—all intended to improve upon and enlarge the
scope of the British declaration. She remained a critic, as long as
there was the least hope of securing a more liberal scheme from the
Lloyd George Cabinet. When the phase of negotiations finally came
to an end and the scheme was ready for introduction, she became a
discriminating supporter.
To many of her contemporaries this seemed an incomprehen-
sible change of attitude. Lacking her realism, they could not see that
acceptance of the British scheme at that stage meant only an advance
towards the ultimate goal, not its repudiation. For Dr. Besant it was
an extremely difficult decision to take in circumstances of extraordi-
nary complexity. The British constitutional scheme (since known as
the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) bore little resemblance to the
original conception of Home Rule or complete self-government for
India. A scheme is the product of many inevitable compromises, and
compromises cannot evoke mass enthusiasm.
Moreover, the political disappointment caused by the whit-
tling down of the original reforms was negligible as a factor in
comparison with the indignation which swept India over the tragedy
of Amritsar in 1919 and the excesses of martial law administration
in the Punjab. Gandhiji appeared for the first time on the scene as a
political front-rank leader, with his non-co-operation movement and
the boycott of the new legislatures.
With a courage which never failed her throughout her stormy
life, Dr. Besant decided to oppose Gandhiji’s movement and the pol-
icy of boycott. The decision was painful and costly. It meant parting
company with several valued colleagues who preferred to throw the
weight of their influence on Gandhiji’s side, and the sacrifice of her
immense popularity built up during the war. At a critical moment
came Mr. Tilak’s death, thus completely isolating her in the political
field. But she did not abandon hope, nor remain idle. While the rest
of India was busy with the boycott of the new legislatures and plung-
ing into non-co-operation, she turned her attention to the next stage
in India's political development.
Self-Government for India was no longer in dispute, though
on the pace of advance there were sharp differences of opinion. The
new idea was self-determination. It was Mr. Lloyd George’s phrase,
coined for a very different purpose, with no relevance or significance
for India. Dr. Besant turned it to India’s practical benefit. Self-Gov-
ernment, according to her, was meaningless, unless it was conceived
by Indians in a form essentially in conformity with the country’s po-
litical genius: a Constitution, in other words, which was modelled on
her indigenous institutions.
In one sense, the project could not have been ushered into
being under more unfavourable circumstances. Undeterred by the in-
difference and even the personal hostility of a number of Indian
Nationalists, her erstwhile supporters, she pursued the idea with de-
termination. Fortunately, there was an able collaborator in Sir Tej
Bahadur Sapru, like her a constructive statesman with a clear vision.
Between them they produced a scheme for a National Convention of
all parties in India, to draft a Constitution for India without interfer-
ence from the British.
The National Convention met in New Delhi in 1924 and pro-
ceeded with its task of framing a Constitution and produced, in the
following year, the Commonwealth of India Bill. It was not a fully
representative body, lacking the support of the Congress. At every
stage she sought it, but the leaders of the Congress—Gandhiji, C. R.
Das, Motilal Nehru—were preoccupied at the time with capturing
the machinery of the legislatures after realising the futility of
boycott. The Commonwealth of India Bill went, nevertheless, to the
House of Commons, as Mr. George Lansbury’s bill—a private mem-
ber’s measure—in the absence of official recognition from the
Labour Government of that time under Mr. Ramsay MacDonald.
There it remained, a bill which had obtained its first hearing in Par-
liament—but could progress no further. A fresh and belated attempt
was made to secure the support of the Congress leaders. Mr. C. R.
Das was willing to associate himself with the measure provided Dr.
Besant would agree to some mass sanction in the event of British
rejection. Gandhiji less pointedly made a similar stipulation.
Though the Commonwealth of India Bill was thus seemingly
lost in the mass of private parliamentary bills, Dr. Besant’s idea of
self-determination for India, sown in the barren and unpromising soil
of 1921, began gradually to bear fruit. Congress leaders like Mr. S.
Srinivasa Iyengar and Mr. C. Vijayaraghavachariar, produced their
own schemes, acknowledging the debt they owed to hers. Later came
the All-Parties' Conference under Pandit Motilal Nehru’s leadership,
with the Nehru Report representing the largest measure of agreement
then obtainable in India—the product of a movement very similar to
her National Convention.
The completion of the Nehru Report, in the preparation of
which Dr. Besant played as great a part as any of her associates, vir-
tually marks the end of her political activities. Indian Nationalism
took a sudden plunge towards complete independence, leaving be-
hind all the old moorings, including the Nehru Report. She did not
live to see the final stages of the Round Table Conference in London,
nor the later political developments before and during the second
world war.
A Constituent Assembly is sitting today in 1947 in New
Delhi, to draft a new Constitution for an independent Socialist Re-
public of India. Whatever may be the ultimate shape of the
Constitution, one thing India can never afford to forget: through all
the years of weary struggle for liberty, no one laboured more self-
lessly, or with greater courage and wisdom than Dr. Besant.
Dr. Besant as Leader
By C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar

If we analyse the character, the achievements, the life-

work of Dr. Besant, we may best style her as the great and
dauntless fighter, a great champion who nevertheless made up her
mind from the beginning to fight within the law and never without
the law. That, it seems to me, was one of her fundamental mes-
sages to us. Laws may be corrupt, laws may be wrong, but the
way to proceed about the business of rectifying them was to strive
to educate public opinion, to rouse popular conscience, so that the
laws may be modified or eradicated. So long as the law remains
law, notwithstanding all legitimate grievances which it occasions,
she held that it should be obeyed. Dr. Besant was thus the most
pacific of fighters and the most combative of peacemakers.
When she first came to India, I confess that most of us attended
her lectures not so much for their religious inner vestures, but for
the outer vesture, namely, language. Her voice and her elocution
were the finest things we had known. Her voice was audible in
every part of a crowded hall, a voice which could rumble like
thunder, and yet thrilled one with the diapason of its music; a
voice that was the vehicle of thoughts winged and dynamic,
sometimes disruptive, sometimes creative. With this voice and
this gift of language she did her work in India as few others have
done theirs.
Mrs. Besant came to India as a champion of India and of the
Indian way of life and thought. She came to India in 1893, but
before leaving England she wrote a booklet on “England, Afghan-
istan and India” which people may well read today for its
soundness and right outlook.
On arriving in India Dr. Besant made up her mind to rouse the
 self-respect of Indians in India. Not that similar work had not
been attempted before her time. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Suren-
dranath Banerjee, Gokhale and Tilak had done a great deal in that
direction, and Gandhi after her, and perhaps the contribution of
Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest in this respect. But at the time
that Dr. Besant came here, it was with somewhat shamefaced
countenance that an Indian would wear Indian clothes. A man was
so mixed up with his studies where he had to learn everything in
English, that he had no time for shaking himself free of the ob-
session of the West. Great protagonist that she was, she defended
everything good in India. You might differ from her way of pro-
ceeding, but to a people imprisoned in alien ideas and bewitched
by the Western standards and modes of life, some voice had to
come to release them from the dungeons of their own musings
and imaginings and from their inferiority complex. Dr. Besant’s
was the voice that came.
Having begun thus, she started work in the educational
sphere. I am not going to deal with her work in Benares which
culminated in that magnificent educational institution, the Bena-
res Hindu University. Many collaborated with her in this work,
notably Pandit Malaviya. But she it was that compelled Indians to
shed their lethargy and work for a common purpose.
After that, she turned to politics, and my only excuse for the
narration of a personal episode is the light it throws on her life and
character. In the years 1912 and 1913 it fell to me to oppose Dr.
Besant in relation to a particular matter respecting the guardianship
of J. Krishnamurti and his brother. I had to fight Dr. Besant, to fight
Mr. B. P. Wadia, to fight Sir Subramania Iyer, and many others for
whom I had great reverence and respect. Naturally, as a lawyer, I felt
it my duty in cross-examination to suggest things that were resented.
I had to suggest hidden depths of iniquity in what might have been
a normal affair; but it was characteristic of Mrs. Besant that not one
of the epithets I used or extravagances of speech on my part deflected
her from her purpose. It was after the conclusion of the case which,
with childish vanity, I felt proud of winning, when I was wrapped up
in my success, she said to me: “I think you have fought a clean fight.
Will you come and join me to work for India’s political uplift?” This
was three days after the conclusion of the case.
The history of politics in India until Tilak, Besant and Mahatma
Gandhi came on the scene was the history of debating societies in
whose chambers met groups of twenty, forty or sixty people collab-
orating over resolutions academically faultless and essentially just,
but so suave, so sweet, so reasonable that nobody bothered about
them. To none of us had come the vision of going to the villages, of
speaking to the people at large, of making them realise what they
could do, and what it was their duty to do in the future. As a tried
political and social worker, Dr. Besant brought into Indian politics
for the first time this idea of propaganda and publicity, and of ap-
pealing to the masses, of studying group-psychology and crowd-
psychology, and realising that good use could be made of this great
gift. The awakening of India from a long sleep had to come. It came
through Dr. Besant herself, and none of us who have been in political
work can forget that Indian life, Indian politics and political agita-
tion, Indian education, would not have been what it is today, the his-
tory of India would have been fundamentally different, if Dr. Besant
had not come on the scene.
It was between the years 1914 and 1917 that all this happened.
There was a reverberation of new life in the country. Dr. Besant be-
came President of the Congress in 1917. She had been interned, and
for a while was easily the best beloved popular idol of India. But
popularity in politics is easy to acquire; and it is quite as easy to lose.
By 1918 Mrs. Besant had lost her popularity by reason of her insist-
ence on the need to obey the law and to shun non-co-operation. She
could not command audiences or compel attention. But Mrs. Besant
never for one moment dreamt of being either angry, disappointed or
disgruntled. Through “New India” and “The Commonweal” and on
the public lecture platform she fought day in and day out against Mr.
Gandhi—just as she wrote against the present (1943) system of gov-
ernment. She fought for Home Rule. She worked against Non-
cooperation. Side by side she incurred the dislike of the authorities
and of the masses which she herself had awakened, and she became
comparatively friendless. But she was always the same silver-
tongued orator, the sage counsellor with infinite patience, the fighter
and yet the reconciler. I emphasise the word “patience.” Realising
that all these setbacks are only temporary, she believed that one must
learn to put up with failure, and then to transcend and surmount ill-
success. That was the Besant policy.
After the year 1926 she travelled abroad with Mr. J. Krishna-
murti, and came back to Adyar in 1927. I should like to say a few
words of the period of 1928 to 1933, because I regard these years as
specially indicative of her spirit. Easy it is, if success blesses us, to
display some easy virtues and to prove and demonstrate them. But it
is difficult for one living amidst calumny and obloquy, at such a
juncture to remain sweet-tempered, patient and forgiving, long-suf-
fering, and yet hopeful of the future. As one who came across her
very often during these years, I can say that I did not see one bitter
expression on her face, nor did I hear from her lips one vengeful
word. She often said: “These are times through which India must
pass. Having surmounted the present obstacles, she must come to her
own. My work is done, but others must fulfil it.”
Dr. Besant’s life, as human life generally is, was an amalgam of
success and failure. What was her success? And what was her fail-
ure? Her success, in my mind, lay in this—that she organised the
people of India. She taught them the virtue not only of organisation
but of business-like organisation. Politics and book-keeping seemed
to be strangely at variance with one another. Dr. Besant showed that
steady business-like habits and persistence are as essential for poli-
tics as for professions and careers. Her second success was the
creation of an all-India spirit and the attempt to eliminate barriers
that are threatening us more and more as time goes on. The third
success was the inculcation into us of respect for Indian personality
and for Indian civilisation. What was her failure? I think her failure
was that, notwithstanding her inmost desire, neither the religious
harmony and religious unity of India nor India’s political salvation
was achieved. But if she failed in these, was it not primarily because
we failed her and failed ourselves? I rather think the answer will be
in favour of Dr. Besant.
The work of persons like Dr. Besant is not for a day, is not for a
year, is not for a decade. The results of that work are not easy for us
to keep alive and to profit by. Whether this battling for the right,
battling always within the law, battling without any reserve, has been
of avail, time alone will tell. She made us realise the impermanence
of failure, and the certainty of ultimate success if we remain true to
ourselves and our destiny. These were the lessons of our life. The
efforts of such selfless workers as Dr. Besant, irrespective of their
immediate fruits, are never lost, but provide the energies that, in her
own words, “are making for peace universal in the future, when the
need for the lessons of war will be over.”

How Dr. Besant Worked for India’s Freedom

A. Ranganatham

I cannot call Dr. Annie Besant a politician—as the word is gener-

ally understood. She was a great spiritual personage, but intensely
practical. For her, there was no activity that was not spiritual. In her
view, “the place of religion in national life is everywhere. No reli-
gion is a true religion unless it permeates the whole life of a nation,
and a nation cannot be called religious unless it be inspired in the
whole of its activity by religious feeling, religious thought, religious
action.”
She set foot on Indian soil on 16th November 1893, and in 1894,
when about to leave India for England she said: “To be able to lay at
the feet of India any service is to me full of reward for the many
sufferings of a stormy life through which the power of service has
been won.”
But what kind of India had she in her mind? “The India I love and
revere and would fain see living among the nations, is not an India
westernized, rent with the struggles of political parties, heated with
the fire of political passions, with a people ignorant and degraded,
while those who might have raised them are fighting for the loaves
and fishes of political triumph. The India to which I belong in faith
and heart is a civilization in which spiritual knowledge was ac-
counted highest title to honour and in which the people reverenced
and sought-after spiritual truths. To help in turning India into another
Great Britain or another Germany is an ambition that does not allure
me. Therefore the India that I would give my life to help in building
is an India learned in the ancient philosophy, pulsing with an ancient
religion, an India to which all other lands should look for, spiritual
life—where the life of all should be materially simple but intellectu-
ally noble and spiritually sublime.”
It was her firm belief that the future of India and the happiness of
our people can be secured only by the revival of her philosophy and
religion. When Indians told her that India was dead, her reply was:
“India is not dead, but sleeping.” Subsequent events have more than
justified her optimism. “Her interest up to 1898,” says Geoffrey
West, “was primarily religious; from 1898 until 1903 she was busy
with education, necessarily according to her ideas upon a religious
basis; about 1903 she took up social reform, and it was not until 1913
that at last she definitely returned to politics.” But it would be a mis-
take to think that while she worked for religious revival she was not
alive to the need of proper education or eradication of social evils or
political freedom. All of them were present in her mind all the time,
but the emphasis was shifted from one to the other in logical se-
quence.
Mr. West asks: “Did she realize that no true spiritual revival is
possible in a nation ruled by a foreign bureaucracy, seeking to im-
pose foreign conditions and a foreign consciousness, that such a
revival must be based on a living National self-consciousness, a
pride in the past, in the tradition of the arts, in ancient industries and
customs? Did she realize that such a living self-consciousness could
never be created in schools intended to supply an officialdom with
clerks and servants and that sooner or later the challenge and the
break with that officialdom must come—beginning with the mould-
ing of the stuff of politics (that is, with education) and ending
with politics itself, leading her back sooner or later to as active an
opposition to the British Government’s policy as any cam-
paign she had ever undertaken.” Mr. West answers his question thus:
“It is hard to believe that she did not.”12
Not only did she realize all the above, but she was in constant
touch with her Guru’s plan for India’s regeneration. It was not until
some years before her passing that she disclosed this fact to the pub-
lic. “I add for what it is worth, that in what I say of the Inner
Government of the World, I speak from personal knowledge, for I
have studied and practised Raja Yoga steadily during the last forty
years. I shall be 82 on October 1st of the present year. During those
years I have obeyed instructions given to me by my Guru in my po-
litical actions in India and England.”
So, Dr. Besant began her political work in India, devoting her at-
tention first to religion. There was no doubt in her mind that “each
religion moulds the life of its own nation”. But in India there were
many religions. How should they affect her National life? Not by
emphasizing the outer ways, outer customs and outer dogmas which
are different, but by looking into “the uniting power of the religions
in the spirit of Religion more than in the outer forms”. According to
her, “these many religions of the world on Indian soil are meant to

12
The Life of Annie Besant, by Geoffrey West.
bring together into one mighty power all the powers of the world.
The Indian nation of the future is not to be a nation of one single
religion only but to embody the very essence of all religions; that it
will have in it the philosophy of Hinduism, the valour and learning
of Islam, the purity of Zoroastrianism, the love and tenderness of
Buddhism, the self-sacrifice of Christianity.” Religious exclusive-
ness destroys love of country. It is the exclusiveness that is the
enemy and not religion. Therefore the warring religions must learn
their unity, and when they feel themselves as one they will strength-
en, not weaken, patriotism.
Turning her attention to Education, she said that just as one cannot
build a good house out of rotten bricks, so “you cannot build a great
nation out of citizens of bad or indifferent character. The citizens are
the nation; and as is their character so must be the character of the
nation. Hence it is vital that the education given by any nation to its
youth should include the building up of character by religious and
moral methods, and an education that leaves out of account religion
and morality is no true education at all.” She emphasized that one of
the chief virtues necessary to the good citizen is public spirit, and
that without public spirit there is no nation. She was equally em-
phatic that “with one’s patriotism should not be mingled the poison
of hatred, for hatred is the root of vices as love is the root of virtues.
When patriotism is poisoned by the hatred of other countries, it be-
comes diseased and loses its essence and its life.”
Soon after she came to India she saw the need for social reform.
The illiteracy of the masses, the treatment of the submerged classes,
the non-recognition of the rightful place of women in the life of the
nation, all these could not but attract her attention; and when she
found that the ancient ideals of Hindu life could not be restored, she
did not hesitate to draw pointed attention to these social evils in the
country and plead for their eradication.
In 1913 she organized a band of T.S. workers, who took a pledge
the last clause of which was: “I promise to promote union among the
workers in the fields of spiritual, educational, social and political
progress, under the headship and direction of the Indian National
Congress.” It seemed to Dr. Besant that the National Congress could
not ultimately succeed unless its programme included these four as-
pects of National life, but the Congress hesitated. Then she started a
weekly paper, The Commonweal, to popularize her ideas. In enunci-
ating its editorial policy, she declared: “We stand, then, for Union
among all workers in the National cause and ask only to be allowed
to serve it in any of the four great departments.” She respected the
wishes of the Congress leaders who thought that a separate organi-
zation for educative propaganda would weaken the Congress, and
agreed to postpone the formation of a Home Rule League for the
purpose till 31st August 1916, and to start the League after that if the
Congress did nothing in the meanwhile.
The Congress took no action till August 1916, and so Dr. Besant
duly formed the Home Rule League. The propaganda proposed for
the Home Rule Leage was subsequently accepted by the Congress,
and vigorous propaganda for Home Rule began in earnest with the
result that the Government sought to stifle the movement by intern-
ing her. Her internment, far from weakening the movement, rallied
the nation as nothing else could have done, and the Government were
forced to release her within three months of her internment, with a
promise that the Secretary of State was coming to India to hear for
himself what India wanted.
The great work done by Dr. Besant in this and other directions
won the enthusiastic appreciation of members of all schools of
thought and communities. Sir C. Y. Chintamani said that “Dr. Besant
looked upon India and served India as her Motherland with a devo-
tion and at a sacrifice equalled by few and surpassed by none”.
Lokmanya Tilak, leader of the Extremist section, admitted that “if
India is nearer the goal it is due to your strenuous efforts”. Mr. Jinnah
of the Muslim League was no less appreciative; he said “No other
person has worked and served our cause with that singleness of
purpose, devotion and transparent sincerity as has Mrs. Besant. She
has sacrificed all she could. What for? For the freedom of India.”
Of her work since then up to about a couple of years before her
passing in 1933, who can give a complete account? Many sided were
her activities, and each one of them would fill a volume if justice is
to be done to her. Her ideal was a World Federation, a “Common-
wealth of Free Nations in which India plays her equal part. The East
and West are to be brought together not for themselves alone but for
the good of the world. India and Britain are to be the main constitu-
ents of the Commonwealth.” Hence her insistence on maintaining
the link between India and Britain. She exhorted Indians “to work
actively for the preservation of the link between India and Britain. It
preserves peace between Asia and Europe. It stands out as a barrier
against the breaking out of war between the two continents, a war
which would mean a conflict of coloured and white humanity, prob-
ably accompanied by the destruction alike of Asiatic and European
civilizations.”
The Swarāj she contemplated for India was no imitation of what
obtained in other countries. She did not want a replica of English
Self-Government “in the form in which England with the wide ex-
tension of suffrage is discovering to be unworkable”. She did not
want devolution but evolution which is natural and easy. She orga-
nized a National Convention consisting of the elected members of
the Legislatures in the country and a few distinguished workers out-
side the Legislative bodies, (practically a Constituent Assembly such
as we have now), and helped them to draft a Commonwealth of India
Bill. This Bill embodies a system of graded franchise suited to In-
dia’s millions. The village is the unit of administration with complete
adult suffrage in it, the Village Council dealing with all matters con-
cerning the village. Then come Councils for Towns, also with adult
suffrage. Next in order come the Taluk Boards and smaller Munici-
palities, and then the District Boards and larger Municipalities, and
the Provincial and National Parliaments with more and more
restricted franchise, for in her view “the voter should understand and
be capable of forming an opinion on the questions which his repre-
sentative is going to decide.” The Bill passed a first reading in the
House of Commons. It did not go through further stages. Gandhiji
would not put his signature to it, unless he had a previous guarantee
that the Parliament would pass it as presented.
Dr. Besant knew that, to achieve Freedom, there should he a
united front on the part of India without difference of parties or of
Hindus and Muslims. The Congress had broken up in 1907 into two
parties—Extremists and Moderates —and when it met again in 1908
it was without the Extremists led by Lokmanya Tilak. With the con-
sent and approval of Mr. Gokhale, leader of the Moderates, Mrs.
Besant went and saw Mr. Tilak in 1914, brought about a meeting
between them, and a proposal was discussed to open a way for a
return of the Extremists to the Congress. The necessary change was
made in the Congress of 1915, and the Tilak party rejoined the Con-
gress in 1916 at Lucknow.
No less remarkable was the success which attended her efforts to
bring together Hindus and Muslims for common National work. The
Hon’able Sir Syed Nabi handsomely acknowledged it in his tribute
to her in the 1917 Conference of the All-India Muslim League. He
said: “I shall be untrue to myself, untrue to the Muslim community,
untrue to the community at large, if I failed at the moment to publicly
acknowledge the services rendered by that great and sincere friend
of India, Mrs. Annie Besant, who was mainly instrumental in bring-
ing about the spirit of unity between the two great communities. It
was she who made that union possible and we cannot be sufficiently
grateful to her.”
It cannot be denied that Dr. Besant’s work has borne fruit
(though not within her lifetime as she expected), significantly
enough, in the Centenary year of her birth. Swarāj, independence,
Dominion Status, has come, (though by a partition of India), within
the British Commonwealth. But will this continue? Dr. Besant firmly
believed that it is in the plan of “the Inner Government of the world”
that Britain and India should remain united as equals, and she wrote
in 1928: “The Will of the Inner Government will he done at last, no
matter what may be the size of the present parties. In the end, Their
Will will triumph—the time is nothing. The Congress may pass
whatever resolutions it pleases; whatever is against that Will will be
broken.”
The relation between Muslims and Hindus began to change even
during Dr. Besant's lifetime and she felt that the question as regards
Muhammadans in India was both serious and urgent.
Can it be that the division of India into Pakistan and Indian Un-
ion, which one expects to be temporary, will ultimately pave the way
for a united India without the menace of independence? God grant
that the leaders of both the Dominions will see that these hopes are
realized. In the words of Dr. Annie Besant, “nothing is too great a
sacrifice if it secures a united front.”
In her political work she was strictly constitutional in her meth-
ods. She did not object to a leader disobeying a bad law and bearing
its consequences in his own person. As a matter of fact, when the
Rowlat Bill was before the public, she had resolved to protest against
the Bill, when it became law, by disregarding its impossible instruc-
tions. But the Bill was largely modified in the Viceroy’s Legislative
Council leaving nothing that she wanted to disregard or protest
against, without being a revolutionary. And when Gandhiji deter-
mined to carry on a campaign of passive resistance, by breaking
other laws, she opposed him with all the power at her command. “To
break other non-tyrannous laws, which one has hitherto obeyed, be-
cause a new tyrannous law had in it no clause that one could
righteously disregard” was not her way of political agitation. “Such
a policy was certain to give rise” (as it actually did) “among the ig-
norant and the criminal, to general lawlessness, destructive of all
Government and fatal to society.” There were undoubtedly many in
this country, who were of her way of thinking at the starting of the
Non-Cooperation movement and during its different stages, but who
did not speak out their minds freely.
Dr. Besant always gratefully acknowledged the valuable train-
ing she had for political work at the hands of Charles Bradlaugh, and
she has often stated that there was not one home that had been made
desolate by him, not one man who had gone to jail for the work that
he had asked him to do. This was strictly true of her also.
The policy she enunciated during those days, because of which
she was so badly misunderstood by the public and lost all her vast
popularity, is now being slowly vindicated. The recognition is slow
in coming, but come it will, in due course. (The sooner it comes the
better for India.) For instance: She was entirely against students still
in schools and colleges taking part in active politics. She loved them
far too much to stand aside and allow all their prospects and useful-
ness to the country ruined. During the days of the partition of Bengal,
she took up that view and enforced it in her college and school at
Benares. Bengal was furious with her. Bepin Chandra Pal was no
exception to it. But, later on, he had the fairness to make amends for
his previous harsh judgment of her: “In common fairness to Mrs.
Besant, it must be admitted, however difficult it may have been for
us to recognize it in those exciting days, that we did not stop to
calmly consider the real psychology of her policy. We did not even
impartially examine the facts of the case. Looking back upon that
unfortunate misunderstanding today, when the old controversies
have died away and the old excitement has given place to a newer
and larger enthusiasm for the Nationalist cause, in which Mrs. Bes-
ant stands completely united and identified with the Nationalist party
in India, we are forced to recognize the very wide difference between
the attitude of the Government and that of Mrs. Besant in the matter.
. . Mrs. Besant’s attitude and action in this matter was strictly correct
and constitutional.”
Is it too much to expect the leaders who are administering the
country today, to re-examine the attitude once adopted towards her;
to see whether there is not wisdom in the methods she recommended,
and in her admonitions and warnings against risks she foresaw and
wanted to guard against; and so to follow her counsels, adapting
them where necessary, in the present circumstances of the country?
That would rejoice her exceedingly, not because her policy was be-
ing vindicated, but that India’s feet were set at last on the only and
best way to achieve her high destiny and fulfil her mission to the
world.

India’s Debt to Annie Besant

By Jawaharlal Nehru

One of the outstanding events in my life is the day when I first

met Annie Besant. I was twelve then and both her personality, the
legends that already surrounded her heroic career, and her oratory
overwhelmed me. With a young boy’s admiration and devotion I
gazed at her and followed her about. Then came a gap of many years
during which period I hardly saw her; but that admiration continued
for a great and unique personality. Long years afterwards I again
came into intimate contact with her in the political field and again I
became a devoted admirer. It has been a very great privilege for me
to have known her and to have worked with her to some extent, for
undoubtedly she was a dominating figure of the age. India especially
owes a very deep debt of gratitude for all her to find her own soul.
The child is a living spiritual intelligence, with an immemorial past
behind him, and an incalculable future stretching in front of him.

Annie Besant - The Dazzling Pilgrim

By Sarojini Naidu

Fresh and vivid as dawn itself is my recollection of the rapture

that enhanced my lyric girlhood, when I first set eyes on Annie Bes-
ant, and heard her speak in the Muslim City of Hyderabad in fervent
praise of Ancient Hindu Culture. To my young romantic fancy, this
dazzling pilgrim from the West, with the glamour of her radiant pres-
ence and the magic of her golden speech, seemed the living
embodiment of all the brave and splendid Women of Old Greek and
Norse and Gaelic legend offering proud and joyous homage to the
Eternal Genius of India. Today, pondering over her incomparable
devotion and her incalculable service to the Indian cause, I can pay
no finer tribute to her manifold greatness than to acclaim the sweet
miracle wrought by her transcendent and transfiguring love for India,
whereby she who came into our midst a stranger, has created for her-
self an honoured and legitimate place in the annals of the glorious
and heroic women of our own race and tradition.

Dr. Besant’s Work in India

[The Times of India of Bombay, one of the leading newspapers of India,

but one that represents the interests of the English community, and so
might have been expected to pay only a grudging tribute to Dr. Besant,
wrote what follows on September 22, 1933. It is a most accurate descrip-
tion of her work in India. C. Jinarajadasa]

By the death of Mrs. Annie Besant after a lingering illness, India

has lost one of its greatest champions in the cause of political free-
dom, the Empire a notable figure, and Theosophy one of its greatest
exponents. There are many facets to Mrs. Besant’s career, but the
one of widest interest to this country was her tireless advocacy of
India’s right to Home Rule within the Empire. To the realization of
that object within a measurable distance of time she subordinated
everything else, unmindful alike of what her associates in the world
of Theosophy felt about her incursion into controversial politics, or
of what a section of Indians themselves thought of a foreign born
woman trying to lay down their ideal for them. We are too near
events to judge in the correct perspective the extent to which Mrs.
Besant’s whirlwind campaign really helped the country’s cause, but
there can be no denying the greatness and constructive nature of her
work. Her claim that India was her adopted land made an excellent
appeal to the imagination of thousands of Indians. Her powers of
organization and oratory, her skill as a journalist and her knowledge
of the correct methods of agitation learnt in England at the feet of
Bradlaugh, accomplished the rest and gave her a hold on the intel-
lectual section of the community, far more powerful in its ultimate
effect than the one which Mr. Gandhi has been trying to establish
over the masses.
Mrs. Besant succeeded to the extent she did because her ideals
and theories left no room for doubt. The Home Rule she contem-
plated was Dominion Status within the Empire. She had no use for
people who indulged in talk of independence. Her political pro-
gramme had a social as well as a religious background, and she
insisted on the preservation of India’s ancient traditions and culture,
seeking only to adapt the western democratic system to modern In-
dian conditions. She would not hear of dispossessing the Princes or
abolishing their order, and actually walked out from a convocation
of Benares Hindu University as a protest against certain observations
derogatory of the Princes made by Mr. Gandhi. Her Home Rule
movement did far more to consolidate the forces of nationalism in
this country than the Congress had achieved in the preceding thirty
years. The Great War was her opportunity. Side by side with day-to-
day insistence on the righteousness of the British cause and on the
obligations which rested on this country to give of its best in seeing
the struggle through, she organized the Home Rule movement. In a
misguided moment the Madras Government interned her and this
“martyrdom” brought her at one bound to the forefront, and com-
pelled the late Mr. Montagu to order her unconditional release in
order to ensure a peaceful atmosphere during his visit to India for the
preliminary inquiry which preceded the Reforms Act of 1910.
Mrs. Besant repaid that gesture of goodwill by supporting the
Montagu-Chelmsford scheme through thick and thin as the first step
in the transfer of power to Indian hands. But she was unable to con-
trol the forces which she had let loose. Militant Indian nationalism
had no more use for her; her power and influence gradually began to
wane. But with rare courage she kept up, at times almost single-
handed, the fight with Mr. Gandhi’s doctrines of non-cooperation
and mass lawlessness. On the morrow of a particularly ferocious out-
break of mob fury, directly traceable to non-cooperation, she did not
hesitate to declare in the columns of New India that “brickbats must
be answered with bullets”. Left wing nationalists never forgave her
for this advocacy of strong action on the part of Government, but
subsequent events proved that she was right in her appreciation of
the terrible dangers of mass lawlessness. Mrs. Besant tried hard to
prevent the national movement from flowing into wrong channels,
and her failure in that direction must be regarded as the greatest trag-
edy of her amazingly varied life.

Reforming India’s Education

C. S. Trilokekar

As a director of education, Dr. Annie Besant had her first field of

activity in India in the Central Hindu College at Benares, which she
started with the co-operation and support of Indian colleagues, some
of whom were Theosophists and others nationalists, so early as 1898.
Long before that, during her work as a Socialist in London, she had
been elected as a member of the School Board in the largest district
in East London against an opponent who tried to defeat her by taking
advantage of her frank opinions about the Christian Religion and the
application of its principles to the cause of human uplift.
In the very inception of the College, Dr. Besant, as a wise educa-
tor, promulgated certain regulations in the conduct of its policy
which have a far-reaching bearing on the future of Indian Education.
This has a two-fold implication and application. It was then about
half a century ago that she saw that the direction of education must
mainly be in the hands of Indians, who must naturally be primarily
interested in the bringing up of their young; that the Indians them-
selves should shoulder the responsibility, monetary and otherwise,
of carrying on such education. That it should be patriotic, since it
was intended for a free India; that it should be wholly Swadeshi but
not divorced from the essence of Religion; that it should be through
and through Indian and Oriental but chiselled and meticulously
moulded by the scientific knowledge of the Occident; and that the
final goal should he the production of a well-cultured full grown In-
dian with a virile intellect and a strong body: these points were
chiefly implied in the scheme.
In its application, it was broad-based on the scientific and psy-
chological foundations of right education as distinctly practised in
far off ancient times in India. Free education, if possible, was the
airs, but to suit the times, very low fees to be charged. Brah-
macharya, as a necessary concomitant for intellectual, emotional and
physical growth, was to be enforced, and in conformity with that the
doors of the Central Hindu College High School were barred against
married pupils. Religion was made the most important plank of that
education, and the youths of the Nation were trained for social work,
as a preparation for service later of the Motherland, through such
organisations as Sons and Daughters of India, Scouts, Guards of
Honour, and cadets of the school and college. Teachers from India
and the West were sought for who would rather work for the love of
the profession than for the emoluments which their posts offered;
services of western savants in Science and the Humanities were se-
cured for a very small pittance or for nothing at all. This was quite
in keeping with the ancient Indian ideals of teachers and professors,
and the management made up the yearly deficit by collection from
the Indian public. Very often Dr. Besant’s pocket, though not very
deep, supplied a major portion of it. This great small venture in 1913
blossomed into the Benares Hindu University in 1919, the direction
of which passed into other hands, but predominantly in the keeping
of highly patriotic Indians.
Though so far the guidance in education given by Dr. Besant was
along liberal Hindu lines and culture, she was too big an idealistic
educationalist to confine herself to such a narrow though sufficiently
wide field. The starting of the Aligarh College for Muslims awak-
ened her to the realisation of a probable schism that might arise in
the future in education; and she thereupon launched a plan for a Uni-
versity of India under a Royal Charter. An appeal was issued under
the joint signatures of herself and many eminent educationists be-
longing to almost all religious persuasions of India. Immediately the
Central Hindu College at Benares was to be a nucleus of it, as later
on the Aligarh College would have been another great Centre. But
the venture ended as one of the “might have beens”. Thus through
our faulty vision, India missed the prophetic guidance of Dr. Besant
which would have once for all cemented unity between Hindus and
Muslims as early as the year 1910. From 1913 to 1918, and till al-
most the end of her career, she directed and inspired Theosophical
education, as the foremost Theosophist of the time. She shaped and
moulded its policy; and in her hands, it energised true education for
humanity, based and fashioned on a pattern of ever abiding princi-
ples. Being possessed of the knowledge of the method and technique
of this perennial craft, she temporarily applied it in the Central Hindu
College, and later in Theosophical educational institutions. At last
she put forth all her strength of organization, her spirit of enthusiasm,
and her love of the motherland when in 1913 she rushed headlong
into the arena of the political uplift of India. As President of the In-
dian National Congress, she got the opportunity of planning out a
system of national Education in India. It was a graded scheme, suit-
ing each type of unit to be educated, for example, village education
supplying the needs of a village. From the village, to the town and
the metropolis, it ascended tier after tier, till it culminated in the Na-
tional University subserving the purpose of the whole nation
according to its natural genius. Regional Universities with the local
mother-tongues as the media of instruction were to be established,
with research encouraged in the indigenous knowledge of ancient
literature, science, art and crafts, blending all these into a synthesis,
aiming mainly that such knowledge be offered as a free gift to the
motherland. Village education was to be country-wide; and on this
foundation was to be raised the superstructure of higher education.
There was to be specialisation after 14 years; in the ordinary High
School with its art, science and Teachers’ training division; the Com-
mercial High School, the Technical High School, and Agricultural
High School, culminating in the University with all these depart-
mental subjects. This was a complete picture of a perfect all-round
education for the young man and woman of the Free India.
Under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of National
Education, which she started in 1918, this well-framed scheme was
given a trial for some time, with the establishment of a National Uni-
versity at Adyar, of which Dr. Rabindranath Tagore was the
Chancellor.
As a practical politician Dr. Besant was not unaware of the strat-
egy of statecraft. Knowing full well that India was proverbially poor
in worldly possessions, she could not suffer to wait any longer. She
boldly ventured to suggest that the problem of universal free educa-
tion could be solved by the Brahmin caste coming forward to educate
the ignorant; that the temple and the mosque should form themselves
into places of instruction, the priests and moulvis being teachers; and
the village Co-operative Societies throughout the land standing guar-
antee for their maintenance. Thus India, the Spiritual Mother of the
world, could set before it a glowing living example of real reform in
education. To this noble task of giving the right lead in national ed-
ucation Dr. Besant dedicated many years of her rich and full life, and
this has earned her ever the gratitude of the Indian people.
 The Religious and Social Reformer
By S. Muthulakshmi Reddi

When I was a school girl in the village town of Pudukottah I first

heard about Mrs. Annie Besant as one who studied our sacred books
and was an eloquent advocate of Hindu Religion; and people from
that town when they visited Madras city never failed to attend her
lectures and returned with the report that a western woman had em-
braced our religion and was one with us. This was a very strange
thing to me as many of our educated intelligentsia then were not only
becoming converts to Christianity but also were apeing western hab-
its, dress, etc. and condemning Hindu customs and practices.
When I came to Madras for my medical studies I was taken by
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu to attend the lectures in the Headquarters at
Adyar. That was the first time I saw the great lady standing on a
platform speaking about the glories of the Ramayana and Mahabha-
rata to a spell-bound audience. That was in the year 1908 by which
time she had become a well-versed Sanskrit scholar and had studied
the original books on Hindu religion.
As I was fully absorbed in my medical studies till 1912, when I
passed out as a full blown graduate, I had no opportunity to come in
contact with her, though I was hearing glowing accounts of the ser-
vice of Dr. Annie Besant and her associates to our religion and
country.
In 1917 she was the chief inspirer of the Women’s Indian Asso-
ciation and was its first President. This association through the
influence of Dr. Annie Besant and her colleagues spread out all over
India from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, from Peshawar to Sylhet
in Assam. The whole country was covered with a network of this
women’s organisation which worked for furthering the progress of
women in education, industry, politics as well as women’s reform.
And so the women were banded together for the service of their
country so much so that when the South-borough committee visited
India for enfranchising the people. Dr. Annie Besant and Mrs. Naidu
and the members of the Women’s Indian Association waited on Mr.
Montague the then Secretary of State for India and presented a mem-
orandum which stated that Indian women also should be made
eligible for the franchise on the same terms as men. Mrs. Cousins
took a leading part in this movement, also Mrs. C. Jinarajadasa, the
then secretary of the W. I. A. Both these ladies were Theosophists
and accompanied Dr. Annie Besant from their native country to In-
dia. At any rate Mrs. Cousins and her husband Dr. Cousins have
adopted this land as their own and have been rendering yeoman ser-
vice to the Indian people in all walks of life. It must not be forgotten
that Dr. Annie Besant was the prime factor who influenced men and
women of other lands in favour of Hindu thought and culture at a
time when India’s own sons and daughters were becoming strangers
to their own religion and culture and were beginning to think that
their ancestors were barbarians and forgetting to learn even their own
mother-tongue, much less the language of the Vedas and the Upani-
shads. It was Dr. Annie Besant who translated in simple and pure
English not only the Gita, but also compiled small booklets contain-
ing tales of Aryan greatness for the use of our little boys and girls.
That was how the whole world came to know India’s spiritual treas-
ures which were engulfed in centuries of darkness and oblivion. She
was the one who brought the light and illumined the hidden treasures
of Indian thought. I need not dilate upon her great qualities of the
heart and intellect which naturally revealed themselves in other
spheres of human activity.
The service she rendered the women of India is invaluable. She
has demonstrated to the world what women are capable of achieving
and it looks that she came to India as an embodiment of Shakti the
goddess of Power. She had revolted against the taboos and meaning-
less customs and convention that hampered women and kept her
down as an inferior humanity. She for a woman had enormous cour-
age, independence and conviction of her own and made her mark in
every department of life—namely religion, education, politics, eco-
nomics and fundamental rights of human beings. She was a lover of
children and started scout movements, child welfare and children-
aid societies and other educational institutions like the Hindu Uni-
versity in Benares, the theosophical College, and encouraged Indian
literature and art and made them known to the world as unique and
common possessions of humanity. She has shown to Indian women
what freedom, education and responsibility could do for them, and
that if given opportunities women could rise to the highest stature of
human thought and achievement. She was an honour to her sex and
an inspiring ennobling example for women all over the world. It is
the great fortune of India that she was thrown in the midst of Indian
people to revive their religion, philosophy, literature and their arts
and sciences. She believed only women could be the custodians of
civilization and culture for any land. Through them only the redemp-
tion of not only India but the whole world could come.
If Indian women are Ministers today, and if they are Ambassa-
dors to other countries, Presidents and Deputy Presidents of Public
bodies and members of Legislatures, the credit must go to the foun-
dation laid by Dr. Annie Besant and her friends. We may safely say
that Dr. Annie Besant prepared the ground for the Gandhian freedom
movement in which women have played a very prominent part.

Annie Besant and the Revival of Religion in India

By C. Rajagopalachariar

Just a hundred years ago a child was born who was destined to play
a remarkable and varied part in the history of the progress of the
world; and we are celebrating the event today. Among those who
have materially contributed to the shaping of India, Mrs. Besant is
one of the biggest personalities. She helped young India to feel sure
of the greatness of Indian culture and religion. Christianity as well
as Science has made a great and successful attack on Hindu religion.
Mrs. Besant’s service in repelling these attacks and in conserving the
self-confidence of India in these matters deserves most grateful ap-
preciation. Mrs. Besant was one of those who, like Gandhiji, could
not be put in a compartment. All things are interrelated; arid religion,
politics, art, industry, education, all are interrelated branches of the
same Truth. Mrs Besant therefore took as much part in politics as in
the revival movement of Hinduism. Her contribution to the cause of
Indian freedom is great. Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji and other Indian
leaders were her contemporaries. Groups gathered round these great
figures came sometimes in conflict with one another. I, as a young
man, kept somewhat away from Mrs. Besant; that is to say speaking
relatively. But I now see in the large perspective how great a person
she was and how much she has done for India. The Theosophical
Society, of which she was the Head, was the target of very severe
attacks in Madras especially. I now see how foolish all these attacks
were and how much she has been misunderstood. She was a firm
believer in the immortality of the spirit. Let us pay our homage to
her spirit on this day of memory a hundred years after she was born.

The Messenger of Hope

By Iqbal Narain Gurtu

It is very difficult to give in the space of an article any adequate idea

of the outstanding greatness of Dr. Annie Besant. In fact true great-
ness can never be fully measured. Even those who violently differed
from her cannot but acknowledge her transparent honesty of pur-
pose, her indomitable will and unfailing strength, her matchless
courage and energy, her extraordinary versatility and intellectual
powers, and her remarkable capacity for organization coupled with
practical idealism and commonsense; while those who had the priv-
ilege of working in close association with her at once felt struck with
the boundless generosity of her noble heart, the utter simplicity of
her life, her wise and understanding love, her lofty spirituality and
grasp of fundamentals which enabled her to offer happy solutions to
the deeper problems of life not merely by precept but in her own
daily life. Throughout her life, crowded with big events and equally
big crises, she had had to sacrifice tremendously for her fidelity to
what she believed to be true. But with all the heavy price that she
had to pay for her intensity of convictions, the one outstanding fea-
ture of her noble character was its freedom from any trace of
dogmatism or bitterness or intolerance.
Mrs. Besant looked at the future progress of the world from the
standpoint of the Spirit. To her, man was God in the making, and his
essentially divine nature must be allowed to express itself more and
more fully through his mental, emotional and physical activities. She
held with all the force of her conviction that the unfolding of the
spiritual life in man did not depend upon his environment or circum-
stances, but upon his attitude towards life. She refused to share the
general belief that the man of the world could not lead a spiritual life
because the relation of the material and the spiritual was that of in-
compatibles. She maintained that the right course was to look upon
the Spirit as the Life, and the world as the form; and the form must
be made the proper channel for the expression of the Life. According
to her, all useful activities were forms of Divine activity, and until
we could see more and more one Life everywhere, and all things and
activities rooted in that Life, our individual and social life was liable
to be materialised and even vulgarised. A constant awareness of this
depth of unity in the very centre of our being, which is a mystery to
the ordinary man, formed a living and permanent background to all
her multifarious activities. It was this inner spiritual urge that created
in her an irresistible attraction towards India, and she resolved to
leave her home and dedicate herself to the Service of humanity
through service to India.
To her the uniqueness of the ancient Indian civilization consisted
in the fact that it was essentially of a spiritual type deliberately
planned and organised for the achievement of a spiritual end. She
was never tired of pointing out that even in its present degraded con-
dition, when much of her dynamic life had disappeared, it was still a
country where a higher value was set on the development of the soul
than on mere material interests. With her matchless eloquence she
proclaimed the great message that if Indians, who formed almost the
last hope of the spiritual uplift of man, yielded to the lure of exclu-
sive material advancement and power, then ‘in their spiritual death
humanity shall find its grave’. She constantly warned us not to look
upon our ancient culture as a static ruin, and in our despair throw
away into the dust heap the rich and accumulated experience of the
past, treating it as mere putrid waste. Till the end of her earthly life
she kept on reminding us that if India could be regenerated, purified
and re-spiritualised she would become the “priest-people of Human-
ity” and achieve her proper destiny. She was at the same time careful
to point out that it will not do to “tread only in the foot-prints of the
past.” There were three fundamental principles which she laid down
in this connection: (1) That it was impossible for any nation entirely
to reproduce its past, but it was possible to re-establish certain prin-
ciples which in their application could be adapted to the demands of
new conditions and circumstances. (2) That national ideals could be
useful and effective only when they were in harmony with national
genius and character and were not an exotic but grew out of its own
past. (3) That nations like individuals embodied a fragment of Divine
Life and had their respective and distinctive line of evolution, and
therefore it would be disastrous for one nation slavishly to follow the
evolution of another nation. Any such attempt was foredoomed to
failure because it clashed with the purpose of the Divine World Plan.
In her long and devoted services to this country and in her ceaseless
and tireless efforts to rebuild the India of the future, her object was
not merely the attainment of political and national freedom—alt-
hough she strenuously worked for it with unflinching
determination—but she aimed at building up a mighty and efficient
spiritual organisation for the uplift of humanity as a whole.
 Mrs. Besant looked upon the spiritual values of life as the true
source of energy, and she proved from history that when the spiritual
impulse weakened, growth and joy of life declined. Having ne-
glected the roots of life from which sprang individual happiness as
well as social and national progress, India had to pay the penalty of
a rapid decay in originality of intellect and in creative intelligence
which finally resulted in the decline of material prosperity and the
loss of her political freedom. With this clear insight into the cause of
India's subjugation and downfall she decided from the day she set
her foot on Indian soil that the revival of Indian life must follow the
order in which India’s decline had come about.
Her first work, therefore, in India was to attempt to revive her
faith in spiritual awakening. We know how assiduously she worked
for it and how eloquently she described the grandeur and sublimity
of India’s ancient ideals which were almost lost in the mist of antiq-
uity. Having laid those foundations she took the next step and started
her great educational work. She had noticed sufficiently early that
Indian education woefully suffered from the lack of nationalistic out-
look and from the absence of the presentation of ideals which would
cultivate the emotional side of Indian boys and girls. The inevitable
result of that was the absence of necessary enthusiasm which could
form the basis of noble character and develop public spirit and a right
sense of true citizenship. “Children” she used to say “ought to grow
like flowers in the sunshine and not like the weeds in the cellar”.
She established the Central Hindu College at Benares with the
object of filling the minds and hearts of Indian youth with the love
of their country and knowledge of India’s past glory which could be
judiciously worked out in the future by training them to understand
the present and keeping pace with the progress of events. In her
scheme of education there was thus to be a proper integration of the
past, the present and the future, as also between the outer and inner
life. The object of true education that she placed before the country
was that it should be organised in itself and fully integrated with life
in its completeness. Her passionate appeal to young students at one
of the anniversary meetings of the College still resounds in our ears
and gives us a glimpse of the vision of a creative education as she
saw it and moves the heart to its very depth. She charged the students
with these soul-stirring words: “Aim at progress, my sons, strive to
make India’s future worthy of her ancient greatness. Outgrow your
fathers in knowledge, outstrip your elders in devotion. For the days
of India’s greatness are by no means over; her future shall be might-
ier than her mighty past. India shall wield a power greater than the
Imperial if only her people will realize her true strength and utilise
it, leading a life in which spirit shall guide and love shall inspire.”
It is not possible in the space of an article to describe her great
and solid work for India in the social and political field. Others better
qualified than myself are sure to deal with her brilliant Home Rule
Campaign and the principles on which she based her struggle for
freedom and also on the pattern of democracy for India as envisaged
in her Commonwealth of India Bill. Others will write about her no
less important work for the uplift of the Depressed Classes and about
the lines she chalked out for India’s economic and industrial ad-
vancement and for reconstructing life in Indian villages which
formed the main pivot in her scheme of India’s material prosperity
and cultural development. Her dream of a future India where the fol-
lowers of different religions would live as brothers and weld
themselves into one strong and united Nation by pooling together for
common good their respective cultural inheritance seems for the mo-
ment to be almost shattered. What is still more serious is that the
Indian nature, instead of further evolving spiritually, seems to be in
imminent danger of losing its culture and descending to the level of
the brute with its crude and unbridled passions and thirst for blood.
The cynic may likely conclude from the present deplorable set-back
that Mrs. Besant’s lifelong efforts have proved a failure, and the
country which she so dearly loved has rejected her completely within
only a few years of her death. But the New India for which she lived
and worked for 40 years and more is yet to be born, and the present
turmoil only marks the travail of a new birth. The great destiny which
she proclaimed was awaiting India in the future is sure to become
hers, for the Divine Plan cannot be ruined by mortal hands.

Some Memories of Dr. Annie Besant

By Bhagavan Das

How can I tell my own heavy personal debt to her? I was never
worthy to unloose the latchet of her shoes; yet she allowed me the
privilege of doing so, and serving as her personal assistant, in Bena-
res and on some of the long tours she made in India year after year
in connection with her work, some ten years before she made Adyar
her principal residence after taking up the Presidentship of The The-
osophical Society. Once I fell very ill with malaria. She was, as
usual, very busy with all kinds of work, and, besides, was preparing
to leave Benares for England for the summer. One morning, on com-
ing back to my senses after a night’s mind-wandering, I was
astounded to learn that she had passed nearly the whole of the night
on a sofa, near my sick-bed, taking turns with my wife in trying to
soothe my wretched worthless mind and body. What wonder that we
all regarded her as veritable mother!

* * *

The following communication was sent to the compiler by Mr S.

Sundaram, former General Secretary of the Indian Section of the
Theosophical Society:

Every year a public meeting is organized at the Indian Section Head-

quarters, Varanasi, on 17 November in order to celebrate the Foundation
Day of the TS in which one or two distinguished speaker/speakers are in-
vited to express their views. In the year 1966 the distinguished speaker was
Mr. Chandrabhal - second son of Dr. Bhagavan Das. During the course of
his talk he mentioned that Dr. Annie Besant passed away in September,
1933. When her ashes were brought to Kashi several members of the TS,
teachers and distinguished citizens of Varanasi assembled at the Indian
Section HQ. The urn containing the Holy Ashes of Dr. Besant was held in
hands by Dr. Bhagavan Das. He carried the urn in order to immerse the
ashes in the Holy River Ganga. The huge procession followed him. After
the ashes were immersed in the Holy River people proceeded to the Town
Hall of the city where a public meeting was organized in order to pay hom-
age and tribute to the Departed Soul. There, in the meeting, Mr.
Chandrabhal’s elder brother Mr. Sri Prakash narrated the following sensi-
tive and heart touching incident:
Once when Babuji (Father) was seriously ill, Mrs. Annie Besant used
to work and take care of the responsibilities of the Indian Section and the
Educational Institutions at Varanasi during the day time and at night she,
along with our mother, used to take care of and attend to our father. After
the meeting when we were returning home, Babuji seemed to be in a very
pensive mood. We thought that he is remembering the days which he had
spent with Dr. Besant and the incidents associated with her. We did not
disturb him. Then he slowly asked my elder brother: “Is it a fact what all
you narrated in the public meeting about Dr. Besant taking care of me dur-
ing my illness?” We (both the brothers), were at first surprised with the
strange question raised by our father. Then, in a flash, we realized that till
date father did not know about it, nobody informed him. Then, my brother
said that it is a true story. To which our father’s response was: “And I have
come to know about it only after immersing her ashes in the Holy River”.
_________

We reproduce below the report by Josephine Ransom in her book

A Short History of the Theosophical Society (Theosophical Publish-
ing House, Adyar, Madras, 1938, pp. 509-510) about Dr Besant’s
passing:
 On 20 September the news flashed round the world that Annie Bes-
ant had passed away. With one accord the newspapers of the world
recounted (more or less intelligently) the story of her life.
Dr. Besant left her body at 4 p.m. She was lying in her bedroom,
and gathered about her were Bishop Leadbeater, Miss Willson, Mr. Sri
Ram, and Mr. Jinarajadasa holding her hand. At 7 a.m. next day her body
was brought down into the great Hall. It was robed in a favourite gold-
embroidered sari and covered with a silk cloth bearing the emblem of The
Society, also a red and green Home Rule flag, and on her breast was laid
a small silk cloth on which was embroidered the seal of The Society. The
great gathering which had come to pay its respects filed past, laying a
tribute of flowers on the body. At 8 a.m. a religious service was held, and
Bishop Leadbeater pronounced the benediction which Dr. Besant had
composed [which appeared in the early liturgy of the Liberal Catholic
Church]:
“May the Holy Ones, whose pupils we aspire to become, show us
the light we seek, give us the strong aid of Their Compassion and Their
Wisdom. There is a Peace that passeth understanding; it abides in the
hearts of those who live in the Eternal. There is a Power that maketh all
things new; it lives and moves in those who know the Self as One. May
that Peace brood over us, that Power uplift us, till we stand where the One
Initiator is invoked, till we see His star shine forth.”
The body was then taken in procession along Founders’ avenue to the
Masonic Temple to receive a farewell, then along an avenue made through
the casuarina groves to a place near the river and the sea. It was then rested
upon a great sandalwood pyre. Tributes were paid to the great leader, and
some verses chanted from the Bhagavad Gita. The pyre was lighted—and
“the flames consumed the noble body.” A few days later the ashes were
placed in a silver vessel and carried to Benares by way of Bombay, where
it rested for a day. At Benares the silver vessel was placed in the Theo-
sophical Hall, and a last tribute paid to Dr. Besant. Bhagavan Das carried
the ashes to the Ganges, accompanied by a great procession, deposited
them in a flower-decked boat, and they were immersed in the river. Dr.
Besant had said in 1915 that her ashes should remain in India, for in life
and in death she was consecrated to the Motherland. [The Theosophist,
September 1915, p. 550]. So passed one of the world’s very greatest.
A crowded meeting was held in the Benares Town Hall, and Dr. Bes-
ant was extolled for her services to India. [She had taken to heart the words
of Master in 1881: “Oh! I for the noble and unselfish man to help us ef-
fectively in India in that divine task. All our knowledge, past and present,
would not be sufficient to repay him.”
Meetings were held throughout The Society to put on record the great
appreciation and gratitude all had for Dr. Besant’s sacrifices and services
to the world and to The Society. The Sheriff of Madras called a public
meeting, presided over by the Mayor, “to express the citizen’s apprecia-
tion of the services rendered to the country by the late Annie Besant and
to take steps to perpetuate her memory.”

Thus departed Annie Bes-

ant, the Diamond Soul. She is
bound to return to continue her
work for humanity for, as she
herself wrote in 1891: ‘I vow
myself to lives of renunciation
until final peace is entered by all
that lives.’
 11

Epilogue
For those who subscribe to the ‘received tradition’ about An-
nie Besant, she was a deluded woman, power-hungry, naïve,
manipulated by men, including G. N. Chakravarti and C. W. Lead-
beater. For such individuals she was responsible for the breakup the
Theosophical Society in 1895, when the Judge Case culminated in
the secession by William Q. Judge and the formation of the inde-
pendent Theosophical Society in America.
The word ‘image’ is derived from the Latin imago, ‘image,
imitation, likeness, statue, representation.’ The images of Annie Bes-
ant mentioned above were created by the intellectual and emotional
passions of those who convinced themselves that that image was a
true one. And with more than a century of strong, passionate, parti-
san image-making, that image acquired a living form in the minds of
many people, academicians included, thus reducing her monumen-
tal, age-transforming work, to an exercise of vanity and egoism on
the part of a woman who was perceived to be psychologically de-
pendent on men. However, as Krishnamurti repeatedly said, the
image or the word is not the thing.
This book is only a bird’s-eye view of Annie Besant’s im-
mense work, encompassing education, social awareness and action,
real politics, a theosophical tour de force, and the compelling and
profoundly transformative work of an individual – a woman – who
worked without fear for the spiritual, social, educational and political
awakening of India. Such a woman is not an image, a representation,
a statue, an imitation. She was an embodiment of a resistless spiritual
force that has its spring in that spiritual intuition which renders all
action effective, right, loving and transformative. Every one of the
burning issues of India today can be seen mirrored in Annie Besant’s
work more than a century ago: the condition of women, child mar-
riage, casteism and communalism, the duties of the parliament, the
relationship between religious communities and the welfare of the
poor. Her diagnosis of Indian society was spot on.
Annie Besant was and continues to be, subjected to nothing
less than a markedly hostile treatment by some of the followers of
William Q. Judge. She is portrayed as a traitor of the Theosophical
Movement, and solely responsible for its fragmentation. Once again,
image-making has played a very large part in this portrayal of her.
But when one reads her motion to the 1894 Convention of the The-
osophical Society, it can be clearly seen that her motives in that
serious crisis were not personal animosity against Mr Judge but a
plea for him to explain himself, which he refused. She never wanted
him to be expelled from the Theosophical Society and he never was.
When she introduced J. Krishnamurti to the world as the ve-
hicle for the coming World Teacher Dr Besant was again attacked,
savagely so. But she continued to work and even when Krishnaji
dissolved the Order of the Star in the East in 1929 she maintained
her certainty that he would be the vehicle for a new teaching to hu-
manity. Krishnaji’s work from that time to his death in 1986, proved
that Dr Besant’s vision was not the ravings of a deluded brain, but
the certainty of a spiritual intuition born in those spheres of con-
sciousness in which there is no doubt, no fear, and no hesitation.
A number of years ago, in conversation with an Indian friend,
I was told that when Annie Besant differed from Gandhiji publicly
she was ‘shelved’ by the leadership of the Independence movement.
Yet, the testimonies included in the last chapter of this book by her
contemporary eminent Indians, and by Gandhji himself, show a
moving recognition of her legacy, as someone who had embraced
India and its soul from the very moment she stepped on its soil in
1893. She gave India her all.
H. P. Blavatsky welcomed Annie Besant into the TS in 1889, in
London, and the latter soon became her right hand. Below we
include Madame Blavatsky’s appointment of Annie Besant to a sig-
nificant position in HPB’s inner, esoteric work. This happened less
than two years of Mrs Besant joined the Theosophical Society:

ORDER

“I hereby appoint in the name of the MASTER, Annie Besant

Chief Secretary of the Inner Group of the Esoteric Section & Recorder
of the Teachings.
H.P.B. ∴

“To Annie Besant, C.S. of the I.G. of the E.S. & R. of the T.
“April 1, 1891.
“Read and Recorded April 11/91. William Q. Judge, Sec. U.S.”

[Source: H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, volume 12]

The abbreviation C.S. of the I.G. of the E.S. & R. of the T.

stands for Chief Secretary of the Inner Group of the Esoteric Section
and Recorder of the Teachings.
In a letter to William Q. Judge, dated March 27, 1891, Mad-
ame Blavatsky stated:

UNSELFISHNESS AND ALTRUISM is Annie Besant’s

name, but with me and for me she is Heliodore, a name given
to her by a Master, and that I use with her, it has a deep Mean-
ing. It is only a few months she studies occultism with me in
the innermost group of the E.S., and yet she has passed far
beyond all others. She is not psychic nor spiritual in the least
– all intellect, and yet she hears Master’s voice when alone,
sees His Light, and recognizes his voice from that of D—.
Judge, she is a most wonderful woman, my right hand, my
 successor, when I will be forced to leave you, my sole hope in
England, as you are my sole hope in America.

[See Theosophical History, July-October 1991]

The source of Annie Besant’s dedication along with her con-

stant, selfless service to India and to humanity was her direct, non-
mediated realization of the indivisible unity of all life. For her, such
unity was not a concept, an idea, but an ever-present and ever-re-
newed experience. Her activism, therefore, was not an ideology-
based activity, trying to persuade people to her point of view. Her
social, educational and political platform for India was the expres-
sion of a soul vision which maintained that undivided unity is the
abiding truth of life and that it was such truth that should lead India
into an inspiring nationhood:

Oh! if for one passing moment I could show to you, by any

skill of tongue or passion of emotion, one gleam of the faint
glimpse – that by the grace of the Masters I have caught – of the
glory and the beauty of the Life that knows no difference and rec-
ognises no separation, then the charm of that glory would so win
your hearts that all earth’s beauty would seem but ugliness, all
earth’s gold but dross, all earth’s treasures but dust on the roadside,
beside the inexpressible joy of the life that knows itself as One.

Annie Besant, The Laws of the Higher Life

Annie Besant took to heart the following verses from The

Voice of the Silence (1889), the last contribution of Madame
Blavatsky to the world, which was published in the very same year
Mrs Besant had joined the Theosophical Society in London. They
speak of a commitment to the service of humanity that knows no
end, that endures every difficulty and trial and that prepares the
candidate to be a future saviour of the world:
 Behold the Hosts of Souls. Watch how they hover o’er the
stormy sea of human life, and how exhausted, bleeding, broken-
winged, they drop one after other on the swelling waves. Tossed
by the fierce winds, chased by the gale, they drift into the eddies
and disappear within the first great vortex.
Fragment I

If through the Hall of Wisdom, thou would’st reach the Vale

of Bliss, Disciple, close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy
of separateness that weans thee from the rest.

Shalt thou abstain from action? Not so shall gain thy soul her
freedom. To reach Nirvâna one must reach Self-Knowledge, and
Self-Knowledge is of loving deeds the child.
Fragment II

To live to benefit mankind is the first step.

Fragment II

Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and
heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River’s roaring voice
whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back, so must the heart of
him ‘who in the stream would enter,’ thrill in response to every
sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes.
Fragment III

She was profoundly convinced that India was the spiritual

Mother of the world, and that from ancient India had emanated a
universal wisdom that had permeated all lands – Brahmavidyā –
Divine Wisdom, Theosophy. For her India was suffused with deep
and abiding sacredness for at the heart of India pulsated the Śakti, the
invincible Mother-Goddess, who is at the same time Wisdom,
Compassion, Truth and Spiritual Transformation. Thus her belief in
the future of India was not emotional, transient, mere guess work, but
firmly rooted in her experience of India as a Divine Mother.
The younger generations may not remember her, those
conditioned by the artificial image created about her may view her as
a romantic westerner who tried to help India out of its mess and the
cynics may see her as a power-driven woman who failed. But those
who knew and worked with her always testified that they were in the
presence of someone who was immensely great and yet who had a
direct relationship with all of them. Her spirit of motherhood was so
all-encompassing that it would enfold both humans and animals.
Every December she would start writing cheques for poor people,
poor students, animals in need of care, schools and colleges. When
31st December came her bank account balance was zero. She did this
because she did not consider that the money that came to her was her
money. And yet, in the first few days of the New Year donations to
her work would start again from different places.
Does India need the Besant spirit? That is for its citizens to
answer. But in a time of such widespread moral darkness in the
world, which includes some political leaders, it could hardly be
questioned that human society needs a new vision. The novelty
created by social media is skin deep and is already showing its dark
side in the exploitation of women and children, to give one example,
not to mention racists and supremacists groups. When one listens to
or watches news reports, there is a distinct feeling that truth has been
on a holiday and that untruth, deceit and lies have come to be
regarded as the new normal.
The essence of the Besant spirit is a social organization based on
timeless values, on a deep sense of duty to one’s country as well as
to one’s deepest Self (Atman). On this foundation can be erected a
living network of activities that benefits all sections of society,
creating a true tissue of helpfulness and compassion. Her view of life
was profoundly based on the truth that all life is one and she viewed
education, social change, politics and welfare activities through that
timeless realization.
 Having lived and worked in India for several years, and travelled
through it, I can understand Dr Besant’s profound faith in that land:
Vasudeva kodumbakam – the whole world is one family. In spite of
its great challenges today, the profound spiritual ethos of India which
Dr Besant discovered and worked for, is still alive. So, too, is her
vision for India. May she return once more.
 Appendix 1

A Besant Diary of Principal Events

(Source: The Theosophist, 1947)

1847 October 1st, born in London, 5.39 p.m.

1852 Death of father, October 5th

1855 Met Miss Marryat who undertook her education till

1864

1861 First travel abroad (in Europe)

1866 Easter, met the Rev. Frank Besant, whom she married
in Dec. 1867; A very devout Christian, she met her
first religious doubt and conquered it temporarily

1867 Met Mr Roberts, ‘the poor man’s lawyer,’ who awak-

ened her interest in the outer world of political
struggle, and became her first tutor in Radicalism;
First experience of an angry crowd, whom she paci-
fied

1868 Received first payment for writing: thirty shillings for

a story in The Family Herald

1871 Attempted suicide: for the first time heard her Mas-
ter’s voice
1872 Met Mr Thomas Scott who became her most
helpful friend

1873 Discovered the gift of oratory;

End of marriage: left home and husband,
compelled to leave her small son with his fa-
ther, and permitted to take her baby daughter
with her;
Left Christianity

1874 Various attempts to earn a livelihood;

May 10th, death of mother to whom she was
deeply devoted;
August 2nd, joined the National Secular So-
ciety, and met Charles Bradlaugh;
August 30th, her first article under the name
of ‘Ajax’ appeared in The National Reformer
August 25th, her first public lecture: on ‘The
Political Status of Women’;
September 27th, her second lecture delivered:
on ‘The True Basis of Morality’;
Took part in the election struggle of Mr Brad-
laugh: her first experience of rioting, and of
English politics

1874-86 Atheist

1875 January, resolved to give herself wholly to

propagandist work, as a Freethinker and a So-
cial Reformer;
Heard the voice of Truth;
Began lectures on the French Revolution,
from the standpoint of the oppressed people
1875-76 Experienced attacks from angry Christians, and
from stone-throwing audiences

1877 April 6th, arrested for selling the Knowlton pam-

phlet; subsequently her first appearance in a lawcourt
as her own advocate; the trial led to the establishment
of the Malthusian League

1877-90 Sub-edited The National Reformer

1878 Deprived of the custody of her eight-year-old daug-

ter, though ably pleading her own case;

1878-79 Championed the cause of Afghanistan

1879 Met Edward B. Aveling, D.Sc., who became her tu-

tor, ‘a marvellously able teacher of science subjects,
the very ablest in fact, that I have ever met’;
Matriculated at London University;
Qualified as science teacher in eight different sci-
ences

1879-88 Helped to conduct a science school

1880 August 25th, represented English Freethinkers at In-

ternational Conference in Brussels;
With Charles Bradlaugh began the battle for the
rights of Atheists

1881 Championed the cause of the Transvaal

1882 Championed the cause of Egypt and Ireland;

 Moved her office to 63 Fleet Street, from where
she carried on her public work till 1891

1884 Met George Bernard Shaw

1885 Joined the Fabian Society;

Helped to form a Society of the Friends of Rus-
sia; Championed the cause of the Soudan

1887 Met W. T. Stead;

Helped to form a Socialist Defence Association;
November 13th, in the course of a struggle to
establish the right of people to hold open-air
public meetings, led and defended one of the
processions to Trafalgar Square which were vi-
olently attacked and dispersed by the police

1887-90 Member of the London School Board

1888 With Herbert Burrows organized and won the

Match-Girls’ Strike which made possible the
birth of the New Unionism;
Organized the Match-Makers’ Union;
With W. T. Stead started the project of building
up a ‘New Church, dedicated to the service of
man’; Studied the hidden sides of conscious-
ness, Spiritualism, etc., for a great despair op-
pressed her that her philosophy was not suffi-
cient

1889 Heard a Voice bidding her take courage for the

light was near;
Read and reviewed The Secret Doctrine;
 May 10th, met H. P. Blavatsky;
May 21st, joined the Theosophical Society, and be-
came the pupil of HPB;
August 4th and 11th, lectured at the Hall of Science
on ‘Why I Became a Theosophist’;
September 4th, met H. S. Olcott

1890 Resigned from the National Secular Society;

Met C. W. Leadbeater;
Founded (with HPB) the Working Women’s
Club at Bow

1891 Succeeded H. P. Blavatsky [in her esoteric

work.]

1893 September represented the Theosophical So-

ciety at the World Parliament of Religions,
Chicago;
November 9th, arrived in Colombo, and on
Nov. 11th lectured on ‘Karma’;
November 16th, landed in India, at Tuticorin,
10.24 a.m.;
December, her first Convention Lectures de-
livered: ‘The Building of the Kosmos’

1893-94 First lecture tour in India, attracting audiences

of thousands

1894 Engaged in the Judge case;

First lecture tour in Australia and New Zea-
land;
First address to Indian National Congress
1895 January, settled in Benares;
Translated the Bhagavad-Gita;
Awarded the Subba Row Medal;
Summer, began clairvoyant research

1896 April, lecture series in London, later pub-

lished as The Ancient Wisdom

1897 Reorganized the American Section;

Edited and issued The Secret Doctrine,
Vol. III

1898 July 7th, started the Central Hindu College in

Benares

1900 First lectured in India on Social Reform

1901 Started the Central Hindu College Magazine,

which soon attained a circulation of 15,000
1902 Joined Co-Freemasonry

1904 Started a Girls’ School in Benares;

Paid a visit to the Pope at Rome

1906 Engaged in the Leadbeater case

1907 July 6th, elected President of the Theosophic-

al Society;
August, pursued researches into occult chem-
istry

1907-1911 Increased the Adyar Estate from 27 to 253

acres
1908 Founded the T. S. Order of Service (renamed, in
1921, the Theosophical Order of Service);
Formed the Sons of India, and the Daughters of India;
Started the Vasanta Press at Adyar
Order of the Round Table started, with her as Protec-
tor;
Dec. 31st, made the first public announcement of the
coming of a World Teacher

1909 Adopted J. Krishnamurti and his brother;

Travelled 45,000 miles during the year
Continued occult chemistry researches

1910 With C. W. Leadbeater engaged in clairvoyant re-

search for the book, Man: Whence, How and Whither

1911 January 1st, first delivered the Star Invocation;

June, started the Order of the Star in the East;
Dec. 28, was present at memorable meeting of the Or-
der; June 15, lectured at the Sorbonne, Paris, on the
‘Message of Giordano Bruno to the Modern World’

1912 Founded the Temple of the Rosy Cross;

Founded the Order of Theosophical Sannyasis;
Heard the oration of Pythagoras at Taormina

1912-14 Engaged in a lawsuit with J. Naraniah

1913 January 1st, transformed the Theosophist Office into

Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar
Entered Indian politics with the clearly stated object
of claiming Dominion Status for India within the
 British Commonwealth; Handed over Central Hindu
College to become nucleus of the Benares Hindu Uni-
versity;
Started the Theosophical Educational Trust;
September formed a small band, which later devel-
oped into the Order of the Brothers of Service;
Reorganized the German Section

1914 January 2nd, started The Commonweal, a weekly

journal of national reform;
July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical
Society;
July 14th, started New India (daily newspaper) which
lasted fifteen years and revolutionized Indian journal-
ism;
Started the Y.M.I.A. [Young Men’s Indian Associa-
tion] and donated Gokhale Hall (Madras) to be a
centre of free speech

1915 Wrote her famous summary of ‘What Does India

Want?’
Formed the Madras Parliament for parliamentary
training and political propaganda: Dec. 16th, inaugu-
rated Adyar Arts League

1916 Started the Home Rule League, which soon reori-

ented the National Congress to a new vigour;
Externed from the Bombay Presidency
Started the Girls’ College, Benares

1917 April 7th, founded the Order of the Brothers of Ser-

vice;
 May 8th, Women’s Indian Association organized in
Adyar under her Presidentship, from which grew the
All-Indian Women’s Conference at Poona in 1927,
and the All-Asian Women’s Conference at Lahore in
1931;
June – September, interned by the Government of
Madras;
August, elected President of the Indian National Con-
gress;
Dec. 26th, delivered her presidential address to the
Congress, later published as ‘The Case for India’
Started S.P.N.E. [Society for Promotion of National
Education] with a National University at Adyar under
the chancellorship of Rabindranath Tagore

1918 Organized the Indian Boy Scouts, which amalga-

mated with the Baden-Powell Scouts in 1921

1920 At the session of the Indian National Congress stood

against Mr Gandhi’s plan of non-co-operation – stood
alone (with five others supporting her) against shout-
ing thousands, three brief years after being a national
hero and acclaimed by vast crowds

1921 April 6th, appointed Hon. Commissioner for All-In-

dia of the Boy Scouts Association;
July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical
Society;
July 23-26, president of the first Theosophical World
Congress at Paris (1400 delegates representing 39
countries);
July 26th, lectured at the Sorbonne in French;
 Dec. 3rd, welcomed back to India J. Krishnamurti
and brother;
Dec. 14th, Benares Hindu University conferred on
her the hon. degree of the Doctor of Letters;

1921 December, instituted Adyar Day, to begin 17

Feb. 1922;
Started the 1921 Political Club in Madras,
from which came the idea of drafting a con-
stitution for India

1922 October inaugurated the Brahmavidya Ashrama at

Adyar

1922-23 Engaged in the Martyn case

1923 Inaugurated the Youth Movement in the

Theosophical Society;
Inaugurated the Brotherhood Campaign for
which wrote the powerful universal prayer,
‘O hidden Life’

1924 Attended in Queen’s Hall, London, the Golden Jubi-

lee celebration of her Public activities; also in
Bombay and Madras

1925 Took the Commonwealth of India Bill to London, to

be presented in Parliament;
Attended a great Star Camp in Holland;
Celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Theosophical
Society at Adyar, to which 3,000 delegates came
from all over the world;
Established Temples of the religions in Adyar;
Proclaimed three World Movements;
Dec. 28th, was present at a memorable meeting of the Order
of the Star

1926 Started the Theosophical Colony at Juhu, Bombay,

laying a cornerstone

1927 Started the Happy Valley in California, appealing for

the Happy Valley Foundation Fund;
Eighty years ‘young’ this year, she gave fifty lec-
tures in twelve countries of Europe in twenty-one
days, travelling by aeroplane

1928 July 6th, re-elected President of the Theosophical

Society;
Recorded highest membership of the Society; 45,000
active members;
On invitation wrote a statement for the World Peace
Union;
Was ill in London, and had to cancel Queen’s Hall
Lectures
March 25th, announced the existence and work of
the World Mother

1929 August 26th, inaugurated the fourth Theosophical

World Congress at Chicago, sending therefrom a
letter to president Hoover pleading for the
abolition of war

1930 Celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Blavatsky Lodge

in Bombay, the foremost Theosophical Lodge in
India;
Last visit to Benares;
 Last visit to England: presided over the convention;
Last visit to Europe: attended the Star Camp at Om-
men, and presided over the tenth Theosophical Eu-
ropean Congress at Geneva;
Attended the wedding of her granddaughter, Miss
Sybil Besant, to Commander Lewis, in London on
Oct. 1st

1931 Celebrated the Blavatsky Centenary at Adyar in

August;
Resolved to make Adyar a Flaming Centre;
Delivered her last address on Dec. 24th

1932 Celebrated the Olcott Centenary at Adyar in Au

gust;
Summed up the lifework of the two Centenari-
ans in 25 words; Awarded ‘Silver Wolf,’ the
highest Scout honour

1933 September 20th, expired at Adyar, 4 p.m.

 Appendix 2

Books and Pamphlets Written by Annie Besant

(Source: The Theosophist, October 1947)

Pre-Theosophical

According to St. John, 1873, (Part 2 of On the Deity of

Nazareth)
Atheism and Its Bearing on Morals, 1887, (debate with
G. F. Handel Rowe)
Auguste Comte: His Philosophy, Religion and Sociol-
ogy, about 1885
Beauties of the Prayer Book, The, 1876, (3vols.)
Biblical Biology, about 1884
Blasphemy
Burden on Labor, A, about 1886
Christian Creed, The, 1883
Christian Progress, about 1878
Church of England Catechism, The
Circulation, 1882, (inc. in Physiology of Home)
Civil and Religious Liberty, 1883, (lecture of 1875)
Coercion in Ireland and Its Results, about 1882
Constructive Rationalism, 1876
Creature of Crown and Parliament, A, about 1886
Digestion, 1882, (inc. in Physiology of Home)
Disestablish the Church, 1896
Egypt, 1882, (second edition)
Electricity, (4 vols.), 1882, (Science lectures)
England before the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1881, (inc.
in Free Trade)
England, India and Afghanistan, 1878
England’s Jubilee Gift to Ireland, about 1887
English Land System, The, about 1882
English Marseillaise, with Music
English Republicanism, 1878
Essays on Socialism, 1887, (collection of some pam-
phlets listed here)
Ethics of Punishment, The, 1880
Euthanasia, about 1875, (inc. in My Path to Atheism)
Evolution of Society, The, 1886
Eyes and Ears, Six Chats on Seeing and Hearing, 1882,
(Science lectures)
Force No Remedy, 1882, (on Ireland)
For the Crown and against the Crown, (inc. in Sins of
the Church)
Freethinker’s Textbook, The, (AB., Ch. Bradlaugh and
Ch. Watts)
Free Trade versus Fair Trade, 1881
Fruits of Christianity, The, about 1878
Giordano Bruno, 1877
God’s Views on Marriage as Revealed in the O. T., 1890
Gordon Judged out of His Own Mouth, 1885
Gospel of Atheism, The, 1876 or 1877
Gospel of Christianity and the Gospel of Freethought,
The, about 1874
Henry Varley Exposed, about 1882, (in defence of Ch.
Bradlaugh)
History of the Anti-Corn Law Struggle, The, 1881, (inc.
in Free Trade)
History of the Great French Revolution, vol. I, 1876,
Vol. II, 1883, Vol. III, 1884
Idea of God in the Revolution, The, 1877, (trans. from
French)
Influence of Heredity on Free Will, The, 1880, (trans.
from German)
Is Christianity a Success? about 1885
Is Socialism Sound? 1887, (debate with G. W. Foote)
Is the Bible Indictable? 1877
Jesus of the Gospels and the Influence of Christianity on
the World, The, 1880, (debate with A. Hatchard)
Labor and Land; Their Burdens, Duties, and Rights,
(inc. in Free Trade)
Landlords’ Attempt to Mislead the Landless, The, (inc.
in Free Trade)
Landlords, Tenant Farmers, and Laborers, 1880
Law of Population, The, 1877
Legalization of Female Slavery in England. The, about
1885, (article of 1876)
Legends and Tales, 1885
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Life, Death, and Immortality, 1886
Light, Heat, and Sound, 1881, (Science Manual)
Marriage as It Was, as It Is, and as It Should Be, about
1879
Mind in Animals, 1880, (trans. from German)
Modern Socialism, 1886, (article of 1885)
My Path to Atheism, 1877
Myth of the Resurrection, The, 1886
Natural History of the Christian Devil, The, about 1885
Natural Religion versus Revealed Religion, 1874
On Eternal Torture, 1874
On Inspiration, about 1874
On Prayer, about 1875
On the Atonement, about 1874
On the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth, 1873
On the Mediation and Salvation of Ecclesiastical Chris-
tianity, about 1875
On the Nature and the Existence of God, 1875
On the Religious Education of Children, about 1874
Organs of Digestion, about 1882, (inc. in Physiology of
Home)
Physiology of Home, 1882, (lectures of 1881)
Political Essays, 1888, (collection of some pamphlets
listed here)
Political Status of Women, The, (her first lecture deliv-
ered in 1874)
Radicalism and Socialism, 1887
Redistribution of Political Power, The, 1885
Religion of Israel, The, about 1881, (trans. from French)
Respiration, (inc. in Physiology of Home)
Roots of Christianity, 1886
Secular Song and Hymn Books, The, about 1875, (edited
by AB)
Sin and Crime: Their Nature and Treatment, 1885
Sins of the Church, The, 1886, (inc. in Disestablish the
Church)
Social Aspects of Malthusianism, (Malthusian Tracts
No. 10)
Socialism versus Individualism, 1890. (debate with F.
Millar)
Socialist Movement, The, 1887
Story of Afghanistan, The, 1879
Story of the Soudan, The, 1885
Teachings of Christianity, The, 1887, (debate with G. F.
Handel Rowe)
Threatenings and Slaughters, (five volumes, inc. in Sins
of the Church)
Trades Union Movement, The, 1890
Transvaal, The, about 1881
True Basis of Morality, The, 1874
Two Secular Burial Services, (AB. A. Holyoake)
Vivisection, 1881
Vivisection in Excelsis
What Is Really Free Trade? 1881, (inc. in Free Trade vs.
Fair Trade)
Why I am a Socialist, about 1886
Why I do Not Believe in God, 1887
Why Should Atheists Be Persecuted? 1884
Woman’s Position according to the Bible, 1885
World and Its Gods, The, 1886
World without God, A, 1885

Biographical and Autobiographical

Annie Besant: an Autobiography, 1893

Autobiographical Sketches, 1885
Charles Bradlaugh, 1941, (article of 1983)
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott: His Life and Its Lesson,
1907
Fragment of Autobiography: 1875-91, A, 1891
Giordano Bruno: Theosophy’s Apostle in the Sixteenth
Century, 1913, (Sorbonne lecture of 1911, and story of
1877)
Theosophical

Address, 1931, (at Convention, 24-12-31, her last ad-

dress)
Address to Ommen Star Camp, 1925
Against Vivisection, 1903
Ancient Wisdom, The, 1897
Australian Lectures, 1908
Basis of Morality, The, 1915
Basis of the Theosophical Society, The, about 1910, (ar-
ticle of 1907)
Birth and Evolution of the Soul, The, 1895, (inc. in Evo-
lution & Occultism)
Brahmavidya, 1923
Building of the Kosmos, The, Convention Lectures of
1893
Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students,
The, 1909
Coming Generation and the Coming Christ, The, 1928,
(lecture of 1909)
Coming Race, The, 1917, (lecture of 1916)
Communication between Different Worlds, about 1909
Conferences du Congress Theosophique de 1900, (AB
and JC)
Creating Character (old articles of AB and CWL)
Culture of the Soul, The 1894
Death — and After, (Theosophical Manual III), 1893
Development of the Spiritual Life and the Life of a
Householder, 1907
Devotion and the Spiritual life, 1895, (inc. in The Spir-
itual Life)
Discipleship and Some Karmic Problems, 1935, (articles
of 1906, et seq)
Doctrine of the Heart, The, (edited by AB), 1899
Do We Live on Earth Again? 1913
Duties of the Theosophist, Convention Lectures of 1916
Education in the Light of Theosophy, 1912
Elementary Lessons on Karma, 1912
Emergence of a World Religion, The, 1911, (inc. in Im-
mediate Future)
Emotion, Intellect and Spirituality, 1898, (inc. in Psy-
chology)
Essays and Addresses (4 Vols.: I. Psychology; II. The
Spiritual Life; III. Evolution and Occultism; IV. India)
Evolution and Occultism, (Essays and Addresses, Vol.
III), 1913
Evolution of Life and Form, The, Convention Lectures
of 1898
Exposition of Theosophy, An, 1893, (a New York inter-
view)
Future of the Theosophical Society, The, Convention
Lecture I of 1930, (also inc. in the book of same title)
Future Socialism, The 1912, (article of 1908)
Future that Awaits Us, The, 1896, (inc. in The Spiritual
Life)
God-Idea, The, 1914, (inc. in Mysticism)
Great Plan, The, Convention Lectures of 1920
Growth of the Soul, The, 1912
Guardians of Humanity, The, 1908
Gurus and Chelas, 1912, (Lucifer articles of 1893 by
AB., and E. T. Sturdy)
Happy Valley Foundation, The, 1927
HPB, by her Pupils (inc. AB), 1891
HPB and the Masters of the Wisdom, 1907
Hypnotism and Mesmerism, 1935, (article of 1889, inc.
in Psychology)
Ideals of Theosophy, The, Convention Lectures of 1911
Immediate Future, The, (pamphlet), 1910
In Defence of Theosophy, lecture of 1891
Individuality, 1898, (inc. in Psychology)
Influence of Alcohol, The, about 1892
Initiation, the Perfecting of Man, 1912
Inner Government of the World, The, 1920
Inner Purpose of the Theosophical Society, The, 1900,
(lecture of 1898)
Interview with Mrs Besant, 1909
In the Outer Court, 1895
Introduction to Theosophy, An, 1894
Introduction to the Science of Peace, An, 1912, (lectures
of 1904)
Introduction to Yoga, An, Convention Lectures of 1907
Investigations into the Superphysical, 1913
Is Belief in the Masters Superstitious or Harmful? 1919,
(article of 1913)
Karma, (Theosophical Manual IV), 1895
Karma and Social Improvement, 1921, (Lucifer article
of 1889)
Karma Once More, 1910
Ladder of Lives, The, 1912 (inc. in Popular Lectures on
Theosophy)
Last Days of the President-Founder, and Mrs Besant’s
Presidential Address, (AB and others), 1907
Law of Action and Reaction, The, 1912, (inc. in Popular
Lectures on Theosophy)
Law of Sacrifice, The, (lecture of 1896)
Laws of the Higher Life, The, 1903, (lectures of 1902)
Lectures in Ceylon, 1907
Letter to the Members of the TS., A, (by PTS and Vice-
PTS), 1908
Letter to TS on L. C. C., 1920
Life after Death, The, 1919, (lecture of 1908)
Life after Death, The, 1912, (AB and CWL)
Life, and Life after Death, 1904
Lives of Alcyone, The, 1924, (AB and CWL)
Lodges of the Theosophical Society, A, 1902
London Lectures of 1907
Man and His Bodies, (Theosophical Manual VII), 1896
Man’s Life in the Three Worlds, 1912, (inc. in Popular
Lectures on Theosophy)
Man’s Life in This and Other Worlds, 1912; (also in
three volumes)
Man’s Life in Three Worlds, 1919
Man’s Place and Functions in Nature, 1897, (article of
1895)
Man, the Master of His Destiny, 1896
Manual of Theosophy, A, 1891, [?]
Man: Whence, How and Whither, 1913, (AB and CWL)
Masters, The, 1912
Master and the Way to Them, The, 1912
Masters as Facts and Ideals, The, 1895, (inc. in The Mas-
ters)
Materialism Undermined by Science, 1895, (inc. in Evo-
lution and Occultism)
Meaning & Method of the Spiritual Life, The, 1911, (in-
cluded, in Spiritual Life)
Meaning and the Use of Pain, The, (lecture of 1894)
Memories of Past Lives, 1918, (lecture of 1912)
Memory, 1919, (Lucifer article of 1889; inc. in Psychol-
ogy)
Memory and Its Nature, 1935, (Lucifer articles of AB
and HPB)
Messages (of 1913-31), 1931
Message to the Maharashtra Theosophists, 1913
Modern Science and the Higher Self, 1904, (inc. in Evo-
lution and Occultism)
Mrs Annie Besant and Theosophy, lecture of 1891
Mysteries, The, 1917, (article of 1913)
Mysticism, 1912, (pamphlet)
Mysticism, 1914, (five lectures)
Nature of Theosophical Proofs, The, 1921
Nature’s Finer Forces, 1918
Necessity for Reincarnation, The, 1904
November 17 Every Year, 1943, (lecture of 1918)
Occult Chemistry, 1905, (Lucifer article of 1895)
Occult Chemistry, 1908, revised 1919, (AB and CWL)
Occult Hierarchy, The, 1915, (lecture of 1894)
Occultism, 1919, (article of 1914)
Occultism, Semi-Occultism, and Pseudo-Occultism,
1898 (inc. in Evolution and Occultism)
On Karma, 1921
On Moods, 1906, (article of 1904 inc. in Psychology)
On Some Difficulties of the Inner Life, 1899, (inc. in
The Spiritual Life)
Opening of a New Cycle, The, 1911, (lecture of 1910)
Path of Discipleship, The, Convention Lectures of 1895
Path of the Initiated, The, 1911, (Sorbonne address in
French, trans. by S. E. F. of N. Z.)
Pedigree of Man, The, Convention Lectures of 1903
Perfect Man, The, 1906, (inc. in the Masters; also in The
Spiritual Life)
Pilgrimage of the Soul, The, 1895
Place of Peace, The, 1892, (inc. in The Spiritual Life)
Popular Lectures on Theosophy, 1910
Presidential Address, 1907
Principle of Freethought, The, 1904
Problems of Reconstruction, Convention Lectures of
1918
Progress of the Order of the Star in the East, 1912
Progress of the Theosophical Society, Presidential Ad-
dress, 1924
Proofs of the Existence of the Soul, 1903, (inc. in Psy-
chology)
Psychic and Spiritual Development, 1916, (article of
1913)
Psychology, 1911, (Essays and Addresses, Vol. I)
Public Spirit, Ideal and practical, 1908
Real and the Unreal, The, Convention Lectures of 1922,
(AB and others)
Real and the Unreal in a Nation’s Life, The, Conv. Lect.
of 1924
Reality of the Invisible and the Actuality of the Unseen
Worlds, The, 1914, (article of 1905)
Reception at Bombay, 1912
Reincarnation, (Theosophical Manual II), 1892
Reincarnation: Its Answers to Life’s Problems, 1912,
(inc. in Pop. Lects.)
Reincarnation: Its Necessity, 1915, (inc. in Popular Lec-
tures)
Riddle of Life, The, 1911
Rough Outline of Theosophy, A, 1892
Search for Happiness, The, 1918, (article of 1908)
Secret Doctrine, The, 1893, (Third Edition ed. by AB
and G. R. S. Mead)
Secret Doctrine, The, Vol. III, 1897, (ed. by AB)
Secret of Evolution, The, 1904, (article of 1900)
Self and Its Sheaths, The, Convention Lectures of 1894
Seven Principles of Man, The, (Theosophical Manual I),
1892, revised 1897
Short Glossary of Theosophical Terms, A, 1891, (AB
and H. Burrows).
Sketch of Theosophy, A, 1911
Social Problems: The Message of Theosophy, 1912
Some American Lectures, 1927, (delivered 1926)
Some Problems of Life, 1900
Sphinx of Theosophy, The, about 1891, (Lucifer article)
Spirit of the Age, The, 1908
Spiritual Life, The, (Essays and Addresses, Vol. II) 1912
Spiritual Life for the Man of the World, 1907, (inc. in
The Spiritual Life)
Spirit Who Is Man and the Spiritual Life, The, 1913
Study and Practice, 1919
Study in Consciousness, a, 1904
Study in Karma, A, 1912
Superhuman Men in History and Religion, 1913
Talks on the Path of Occultism, 1926, (AB and CWL)
Talks with a Class, 1921
Theosophical Essays, 1895,
Theosophical Ideals and the Immediate Future, 1914,
(AB and others)
Theosophical Lectures and Answers, (Chicago), 1907
Theosophical Society and HPB, The, about 1891, (Luci-
fer articles of 1890 by AB, and H. T. Patterson)
Theosophical Society and the Occult Hierarchy, The,
1925
Theosophical Society: The First Fifty Years, The, 1925,
(AB and others)
Theosophical Student, The, 1909, (inc. in The Changing
World)
‘Theosophy,’ 1892, (Melbourne)
Theosophy, 1912, (people’s Books)
Theosophy: a Manual, 1932, (old articles)
Theosophy and Its Evidences, 1891
Theosophy and Its Practical Application, 1892, (Chi-
cago article)
Theosophy and Its Teachings, 1895
Theosophy and Life’s Deeper Problems, Convention
Lectures of 1915
Theosophy and the Law of Population, 1891
Theosophy and the New Psychology, 1904
Theosophy and the Society of Jesus, 1892
Theosophy and the Theosophical society, Convention
Lectures of 1912
Theosophy and World Problems, Conv. Lect. of 1921,
(AB, and others)
Theosophy as the Basic Unity of National Life, Conv.
Lect. of 1924, (AB and others)
Theosophy in Question and Answers, 1893, (a New
York interview)
Theosophy in Relation to Human Life, Convention Lec-
tures of 1904
Theosophy: Its Meaning and Value, 1909
Theosophy: Its Meaning and Value and Work in the
World, 1935, (includes the above)
Theosophy Past and Future, Conv. Lect. of 1929, (AB
and others)
Theosophy, the Interpreter, Conv. Lect. of 1923, (AB
and others)
There Are No Dead
Thought-Forms, 1905, (AB and CWL)
Thought-Power: Its Control and Culture, 1901
Three Paths to Union with God, The, 1897, (lectures of
1896)
Three World Movements, The, Conv. Lect. of 1925,
(AB and others)
Truth though Theosophy, The, (inc. in Theosophy: a
Manual)
TS Order of Service, The, (no date)
Two Disciples, (Chicago souvenir), 1910
Two Great Theosophists, (Chicago souvenir), 1911
Use of Evil, The, 1895
Value of Devotion, The, 1911, (article of 1900; inc. in
The Spiritual Life)
Vegetarianism in the Light of Theosophy, 1894
What Is Theosophy? 1891, (inc. in Evolution and Oc-
cultism)
What Is Theosophy? 1912 (inc. in Popular Lectures on
Theosophy)
What the Mystic Means by the ‘Eternal Now,’ 1921,
(talk of 1905)
What Theosophy Is About 1892
‘When a Man Dies Shall He Live Again?’ 1904
White Lodge and Its Messengers, The, 1911
White Lotus Day, 1929
Why I Am a Food Reformer, (old article)
Why I Became a Theosophist, 1889
Why We Believe in the Coming of a World Teacher,
about 1912
Why You Should be a Theosophist, 1892
Wider Outlook, The, 1925, (article of 1916)
Word on Man, His Nature and His Powers, A, 1914,
(lecture of 1893 inc. in Psychology)
Work of the Pioneer, The, 1942, (inc. in November 17th
Every Year)
Work of the Ruler and the Teacher, The, 1930
World Religion, A, 1916
Yoga, 1935, (Convention Lecture II of 1893, and article
from Evolution and Occultism)
You Create Your Own Future, 1930, (inc. in Disciple-
ship, etc.)
Your World and Ours, Convention lectures I, II of 1922

On the Religions
Annie Besant in Ceylon, 1893, (on Buddhism)
Aspects of the Christ, 1912
Atonement and the Law of Sacrifice, The, 1898, (inc. in
Esot. Christianity)
Avataras, The, Convention Lectures of 1899
Beauties of Islam, 1944, (new ed. of Islam in the Light
of Theosophy)
Bhagavad Gita, The, 1895, (translated from Sanskrit)
Bhagavad Gita, The, 1905, (another translation jointly
with Bhagavan Das)
Brotherhood of Religions, The, 1913, (article of 1907)
Buddhist Popular Lectures of 1907
Dharma, 1899. (lectures of 1898)
Esoteric Christianity, 1898; enlarged and entitled Eso-
teric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries, 1901
Five Sermonettes (of 1927), 1929
Four Great Religions, Convention Lectures of 1896;
later published in four parts, entitled: Hinduism, Zoroas-
trianism, Buddhism, and Christianity
Hidden Side of Religions, The, 1898, (inc. in Esoteric
Christianity)
Hints of the Study of the Bhagavad Gita, Convention
Lectures of 1905
In Defence of Hinduism, 1908
Islam, 1903, (inc. in The Life and Teachings of Muham-
mad)
Islam in the Light of Theosophy, 1912 (inc. in The Birth
of New India)
Life and Teachings of Muhammad, The, 1932
Natural and Spiritual Bodies, 1898, (inc. in Esoteric
Christianity)
Noble Eightfold Path, The, about 1907
Protestant Spirit, The, 1920, (article of 1905)
Questions on Hinduism with Answers, 1909
Reincarnation a Christian Doctrine, 1904
Relativity of Hindu Ethics, The, 1914
Religious Problem in India, The, Convention Lectures
of 1901 (later published in four parts, entitled: Islam,
Jainism, Sikhism, Theosophy)
Sacraments and Revelation, 1898, (inc. in Esoteric
Christianity)
Theosophical Christianity, 1922
Theosophy and Christianity, about 1892
Trinity: Divine Incarnation, The, 1898, (inc. in Esoteric
Christianity)
Universal Textbook of Religion and Morals, The, Part I,
1910; Part II, 1911; Part III, 1915
Wisdom of the Upanishads, The, Convention Lectures
of 1906
Queen’s Hall Lectures

Britain’s Place in the Great Plan, 1921

Changing World, The, 1909
Civilization’s Deadlocks and the Keys, 1924
Education for the New Era, 1919
Future of Europe, The, 1927
How a World Teacher Comes, 1926
Immediate Future, The, 1911
India and the Empire, 1914
Is Theosophy Anti-Christian? 1904
London Lectures of 1907
New Civilization, The, 1927
Theosophy and Imperialism, 1902
United States of Europe, The, 1928
War and its Lessons, The, 1919 (also in four parts enti-
tled):
 1. The War and the Builders of the Commonwealth
2. The War and Its Lessons on Fraternity
3. The War and Its Lessons on Equality
4. The War and Its Lessons on Liberty
Women and Politics, the Way Out of the present Diffi-
culty, 1914
Work of Theosophy in the World, The, 1905
World Problems of Today, 1925

On Indian Culture, Education, Social Reform

Ancient Ideals in Modern Life, Convention Lectures of

1900
Ancient Indian Ideal of Duty, The, 1917, (lecture of
1910; inc. in The Birth of New India)
Bearing of Religious Ideals on Social Reconstruction,
The, 1916, (article of 1912; inc. in The Birth of New In-
dia)
Children of the Motherland, (AB and others)
Crisis in National Education, The, 1914
Disunion of Friends, 1919
Eastern Castes and Western Classes, 1895, (inc. in India;
also in The Birth of New India)
Education as a National Duty, 1903, (inc. in The Birth
of New India)
Education as the Basis of National Life, 1908
Education of Indian Girls, The, 1904, (inc. in India; also
in The Birth . . .)
Fables from the Hitopadesha, 1918
Future of Young India, The, 1915
Hindu Ideals, 1904
Hindu Reform on National Lines, 1932, (lecture of
1904)
Higher Education in India, Past and Present, 1924
Indian Education and the Trust, 1917
Indian Ideals, 1930
Indian Ideals in Education, Religion and Philosophy,
and Art, 1925
Indian Methods of Spiritual Self-Culture, 1894
Letters to a Young Indian Prince
Means of India’s Regeneration, The, 1895, (inc. in India:
also in For India’s Uplift)
National Education, 1918
Necessity for Religion Education, The, 1908, (inc. in
The Birth. . .)
On the Education of the Depressed Classes, 1909, (inc.
in The Birth of New India)
On the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1910, (inc. in
The Birth of New India)
Our Elder Brethren, 1904, (AB and others)
Place of Religion in National Life, The, 1918
Preparation for Citizenship, 1916
Principles of Education, 1918
Protection of Animals, The, (inc. in For India’s Uplift)
Protection of Children, The, 1913
Religion and music, 1908
Sanatana Dharma, Elementary Textbook, and Advance
Textbook, 1903
Schoolboy as Citizen, The, 1942, (lecture of 1923)
Shri Rama and Sita Devi, 1919
Shri Ramachandra the Ideal King, 1901
Social and Political Reform, 1911
Social Reform, 1923
Social Service, 1916
Stories for Indian Children
Story of the Great War, The, 1899
Theosophical Educational Trust, 1917, revised 1925
Transactions of the Education Conference of 1910
Value of Friendship, The, 1918
Value of Theosophy in the Raising of India, The, 1904,
(inc. in The Birth. . .)
Value of the Upanishads to Young India, The
Wake Up, India! 1913
Work of the Theosophical Society in India, The, (lecture
of 1909; inc. in The Birth of New India)

Pertaining to Indian Politics

A Bird’s Eye View of India’s Past, 1915, (enlarged four

times)
Apart or Together, about 1917
Birth of New India, The, 1917, (similar to For India’s
Uplift)
Case for India, The, Presidential Address to Indian Na-
tional Congress, 1917 (pub. as Charter of a Nation’s
Liberty, A, 1939)
Causes of the New Spirit in India, about 1923
Citizenship of Coloured Races in the Empire, 1913
Coercion and Resistance in India, 1919
Colonial Executive Councils and Cabinets, 1916
Commonwealth of India Act, The, 1916
Commonwealth of India Bill, The, 1925, (AB and
others)
Congress League Reform Proposals, 1918
Congress Speeches of 1914-1917
Congress Work, 1916
Criticisms of the Montagu-Chelmsford Proposals, 1918,
(AB and others)
District Work, 1916
Dominion Home Rule for India, about 1915
East and the West, The, 1908
East and West and the Destinies of Nations, 1906
England and India, 1903 (inc. in India; also in for India’s
Uplift)
England and India, (a Press interview), 1924
Farewell to My Brothers and Sisters in India, 1917
First Reform Conference, The, (Presidential Address,
Malabar), 1921
For India’s Uplift, about 1914
Fourfold Path, The, 1913
Future of Indian Politics, The, 1922
Gandhian Non-Co-operation, 1920, (AB and others)
Grievances Before Supply, 1923
Guild System, The, 1922, (address of 1921)
Home Rule, 1916
Home Rule and the Empire, 1917
Home Rule League, The, 1916
How India Wrought for Freedom, 1915
India, 1913, (Essays and Addresses, Vol. IV)
India: a Nation, 1915; enl. 1923
India and the Empire, 1914
India as She Was and as She Is, 1923
India: Bond or Free, 1926
Indian Government, The, 1917
India Nation, The, 1905, (inc. in India; also in The Birth
of New India)
India Political Parties.
India Village System, The, 1923, (AB and A. Raga-
natham)
India, Present and Future, 1896
India’s Awakening, 1906, (inc. in India; also in The
Birth of New India)
India’s Hour of Destiny, 1918, (address of 1913)
India’s Struggle to Achieve Dominion Status, 1932
Industry under Socialism, 1931
Law, 1919
Lectures on Political Science, 1919
Memorandum and Evidence before the Press Act Com-
mittee, 1921
Memorandum for Fiscal Commission, 1925
Memorandum on Racial Distinction, 1923
National Home Rule League, 1919
Nation-Building, 1908
Nation’s Right, A, 1917
Necessity for Home Rule, The, 1917
New Era, The, 1919
Notes on the Proposed Reforms, 1918
Organize! Organize! 1923
Our Secretary of State, 1924
Place of Politics in the Life of a Nation, The, 1895, (inc.
in India)
Political Outlook, The, 1915
Present Crisis, The, 1915
Presidential Address to the U. P. Provincial Conference,
1915
Problem of Indian Self-Government, The, 1919
Reaction of Autocracy in England, 1923
Retrospect and a Decision, A, 1923
Self-Determination and Self-Government, 1922, (inc. in
The Future Indian Politics)
Self- Government for India, 1915
Self- Government: Let Us Reason Together
Shall India Live or Die? 1925
Speeches and Writings of A. Besant, 1921, (enl. ed. of
For India’s Uplift)
To Great Britain
Under the Congress Flag, 1916
What Is the National Conference? 1923
Why India Wants Home Rule, 1919
Why Should Not Indians Volunteer, 1916
Winning Home Rule, 1921
Winning of Swaraj or Opposing the Ordinance, Which
Comes First? 1925
Work of the Indian Legislature, 1923, (edited by AB)

Compiled from Her Works

Annie Besant Calendar, The, by Theodore Besterman,

1927
Annie Besant on Theosophy, 1903, (Preface by HSO)
Besant Spirit Series, The, (Forewords by G. S. Arun-
dale):
1. The Besant Spirit, 1938
2. Ideals in Education, 1939
3. Indian Problems, 1939; (Nos. 4, 5 are reprints of
books)
6. The High Purpose of War, 1940
7. The India That Shall Be, 1940
8. Essentials of an Indian Education, 1942
9. Annie Besant: Builder of New India, 1942
10. Guide and Index to No. 9, 1943
11. A Woman World-Honoured, 1943
12. The Great Vision: Her Plan for the New World,
1944
Coming of the World-Teacher, War and Evolution, The,
1917
Daily Meditations, by E. G. Cooper, 1922
Day by Day Books, by Mary T. Dunbar
Evolution and Man’s Destiny, by Mrs Stevenson How-
ell, 1924
Few Helpful Thoughts, A, 1897
Mind of Annie Besant, The, by Theodore Besterman,
1924
Morning Thoughts for the Year, 1902
Origin and History of Reincarnation, The, by S. George,
1921
Path to the Masters of Wisdom, The, 1905
Selections from Mrs Besant’s Writings, 1897
Three Great Truths Series: 1. The Law of Rebirth, 2. The
Garment of God,
3. Whatsoever a Man Soweth
War Articles and Notes, 1915

* * *

[This list does not claim to be exhaustive.]

 Appendix 3

Annie Besant and the Judge Case

William Quan Judge was one of the Founders of the Theo-
sophical Society in 1875 in New York. He worked tirelessly for it
together with Col. Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavat-
sky. Both Col. Olcott as well as Madame Blavatsky regarded him as
the leader of the TS work in the United States. The latter considered
him as a Chela [Disciple] of thirteen years standing. All his books
are still in print and continue to be promoted and studied around the
world. He inspired the formation of a number of Theosophical or-
ganizations which emphasize the original Theosophical literature
contained in the writings of Madame Blavatsky as well as in The
Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.
Below is some brief biographical information about Mr.
Judge:

William Quan Judge was born in Dublin in 1851. He was

brought up a Methodist, but early showed strong occult tendencies.
The family migrated to New York in 1864. Judge became a natu-
ralized American citizen at 21. At the time of the formation of The
Society he was a law clerk in the office of the U.S. Attorney for
the South District of New York. He was later admitted to the Bar,
and made a speciality of Commercial Law. He was modest, unas-
suming, eager for occult instruction and ready to work. Though at
first H.P.B. objected to Judge becoming a Councillor, yet he won
her friendly regard and kept it. He developed leadership, and be-
came one of the most important figures in The Society. Then
difficulties arose, and he led the secession of the majority of Amer-
ican Lodges, in 1895. He passed away 1896.
 (Source: A Short History of the Theosophical Society
by Josephine Ransom, Theosophical Publishing
House, Adyar, Madras, 1938)

What was known as the Judge Case originated in the ques-

tioning, by some TS members, of certain messages and letters shared
by Mr. Judge and purporting to come from the Mahatmas. The Case
involved both individual and organizational reactions to such mes-
sages and came to a head at the meeting of the Judicial Committee
of the TS in London, in July 1894, in which Mr. Judge was present
and made a statement.
In this Appendix we include some relevant passages from A
Short History of the Theosophical Society by Josephine Ransom,
based on original documents and correspondence; Minutes of the Ju-
dicial Committee of the TS (July 1894); excerpts of separate
Circulars by William Judge and Annie Besant from 1894 to members
of the Eastern School of Theosophy; the part of the Presidential Ad-
dress by Col. Henry Steel Olcott at the December 1894 Convention
of the TS, held at Adyar, Madras, India, that dealt specifically with
the Judge Case; an address by Mrs. Besant, ‘Action on the Judge
Case’, followed by several statements by members of the Society
who were present at that Convention; plus a quote from Old Diary
Leaves by Col. Olcott regarding the secession of the American Sec-
tion of the TS.
In an article entitled ‘An Interesting Letter’, published in Lu-
cifer, April 1893, Mr. Judge speaks about his knowledge and
experience of the Masters. The editors of the above-mentioned jour-
nal at that time were Annie Besant and G. R. S. Mead:

I belong to that class of persons in the T. S. who out of their

own experience know that the Masters exist and actually help the
T. S. You belong to a class which—as I read your letters and those
of others who write similarly—express a doubt on this, that, or the
other, seeming to question the expediency, propriety and wisdom of
a man’s boldly asserting confidence and belief in Beings who are un-
provable for many, although you say (as in your present letter) that
you believe in and revere the same Masters as I do. What, then, must
I conclude? Am I not forced to the conclusion that inasmuch as you
say you believe in these Beings, you think it unwise in me to assert
publicly and boldly my belief? Well, then, if this is a correct state-
ment of the case, why cannot you go on your way of belief and
concealment of it, and let me proceed with my proclamations? I will
take the Karma of my own beliefs. I force no man to accept my as-
sertions.
But I am not acting impulsively in my many public statements as
to the existence of Masters and help from Them. It is done upon an
old order of Theirs and under a law of mind. The existence of the
Masters being a fact, the assertion of that fact made so often in Amer-
ica has opened up channels in men’s minds which would have
remained closed had silence been observed about the existence of
those Beings. The giving out of names is another matter; that, I do
not sanction nor practise. Experience has shown that a springing up
of interest in Theosophy has followed declaration, and men’s minds
are more and more powerfully drawn away from the blank Material-
ism which is rooted in English, French, and German teaching. And
the Masters have said “It is easier to help in America than Europe
because in the former our existence has been persistently declared by
so many.” You may, perhaps, call this a commonplace remark, as
you do some others, but for me it has a deep significance and contains
a high endorsement. A very truism when uttered by a Mahatma has a
deeper meaning for which the student must seek, but which he will
lose if he stops to criticize and weigh the words in mere ordinary
scales.

Josephine Ransom, in the book above mentioned (pp. 298-

299), describes a relevant meeting which took place at Adyar
regarding the decision to refer the Judge Case to a Judicial
Committee:

The problems arising in connection with Mr. Judge were

growing acute. When Mrs. Besant arrived in Adyar, 20 December,
1893, she was called by the President into consultation with him-
self, Countess Wachtmeister, Sturdy, Edge, Old, and Judge
Khandalavala. After many anxious talks, and at the President’s re-
quest, Mrs. Besant undertook to formulate demands that the
accusations against Judge “with reference to certain letters and in
the alleged writings of the Mahatmas should be dealt with by a
Committee, as provided by the Rules which had been specially al-
tered at the Convention (1893), to meet this or any similar case.
They provided for a Judicial Committee “which, by a three-fourths
majority vote,” could deprive the President or Vice-President “of
office at any time for cause shown.”
A copy of the demand for investigation was posted 7 Feb-
ruary, to Mr. Judge. Mrs. Besant also sent him copies of all the
papers upon which she based her statements, an action to which
the President strongly objected. In an additional letter he gave
Judge the option of retiring from office and leaving him as Presi-
dent to make public explanation, or of having a Judicial
Committee, and making the proceedings public. This Presidential
notice was taken exception to by Judge, Mead, and others. They
thought it precipitate.
Mr. Judge denied all the statements and decided upon London as
the meeting place of the Judicial Committee.

SUPPLEMENT TO THEOSOPHIST.
SEPTEMBER 1894.
EXECUTIVE NOTICE.
 THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
PRESIDENT'S OFFICE,
LONDON, 21st , July 1894.

The following documents are published for the information of the

concerned:

MINUTES OF A JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
HELD AT 19, AVENUE ROAD, LONDON, ON JULY
10TH, 1894:
To enquire into certain charges against the Vice-President.

PRESENT: Colonel Olcott, President-Founder, in the chair; the

General Secretaries of the Indian and European Sections (Mr. B.
Keightley and Mr. G. R. S. Mead); delegates of the Indian Section
(Mr. A. P. Sinnott [sic] and Mr. Sturdy); delegates of the European
Section (Mr. H. Burrows and Mr. Kingsland); delegates of the
American Section (Dr. Buck and Dr. Archibald Keightley); special
delegates of Mr. Judge (Mr. Oliver Firth and Mr. E. T. Hargrove).
Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge were also present.
A letter was read by the Chairman from the General Secretary
of the American Section, stating that the Executive Committee of
that Section claims that one of the delegates of that Section should
have an additional vote on the Committee, in view of the fact that
the General Secretary himself would not vote, or that an extra dele-
gate be appointed.
Resolved: that a substitute be admitted to sit on the Committee
in the place of the General Secretary.
Mr. James M. Pryse was nominated by the other American del-
egates and took his seat.
 The Chairman then declared the Committee to be duly
constituted and read the following address:

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT-FOUNDER.

GENTLEMEN AND BROTHERS,

We have met together today as a Judicial Committee, under the

provisions of Section 3 of Article VI of the Revised Rules, to con-
sider and dispose of certain charges of misconduct, preferred by
Mrs. Besant against the Vice-President of the Society, and dated
March 24th, 1894.
Section 2 of Article VI says that “the President may be deprived
of office at any time, for cause shown, by a three-fourths vote of
Judicial Committee hereinafter provided for [in Section 3], before
which he shall be given full opportunity to disprove any charges
brought against him”; Section 3 provides that the Judicial Commit-
tees shall be composed of (a) members of the General Council ex
officio, (b) two additional members nominated by each Section of
the Society, and (c) two members chosen by the accused. Under the
present organization of the Society, this Committee will, therefore,
comprise the President-Founder, the General Secretaries of the In-
dian and European Sections, two additional delegates each from
the Indian, European and American Sections, and two nominees of
Mr. Judge; eleven in all—the accused, of course, being debarred
from sitting as a judge, either as General Secretary of the American
Section or as Vice-President.
Section 4 of Article VI declares that the same procedure shall ap-
ply, mutatis mutandis, to the cases of the Vice-President and
President; thus making the former, as well as the latter, amenable to
the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee for offences charged
against him. Under this clause, the Vice-President is now arraigned.
 In compliance with the Revised Rules, copies of the charges
brought by the accuser have been duly supplied to the accused, and
the members of the General Council, and the Sections and the ac-
cused have nominated their delegates respectively. I also suspended
the Vice-President from office pending the disposal of the charges
by this Committee.
Upon receipt of a preliminary letter from myself, of date Febru-
ary 7th, 1894, from Agra, India, Mr. Judge, erroneously taking it to
be the first step in the official enquiry into the charges, from my
omission to mark the letter “Private,” naturally misconceived it to be
a breach of the Constitution, and vehemently protested in a public
circular addressed to “the members of the Theosophical Society,”
and of which 5,000 copies were distributed to them, to all parts of
the world. The name of the accuser not being mentioned, the wrong
impression prevailed that I was the author of the charges, and at the
same time intended to sit as Chairman of the tribunal that was to
investigate them. I regret this circumstance as having caused bad
feeling throughout the Society against its Chief Executive, who has
been the personal friend of the accused for many years, has ever ap-
preciated as they deserved his eminent services and unflagging
devotion to the Society and the whole movement, and whose con-
stant motive has been to be brotherly and act justly to all his
colleagues, of every race, religion and sex.
Three very important protests have been made by the accused
and submitted to me, to wit:
1. That he was never legally Vice-President of the T. S. That an
election to said office of Vice-President has always been neces-
sary, and is so yet.
That he has never been elected to the office.
That the title has been conferred on him by courtesy, and has
been tacitly assumed to be legal by himself and others, in ignorance
of the facts of the case.
The legitimate inference from which would be:
 That not being Vice-President, de jure, he is not amenable to the
jurisdiction of a Judicial Committee, which can only try the highest
two of the Society.
2. That, even if he were Vice-President, this tribunal could only
try charges which imply on his part acts of misfeasance or malfea-
sance as such official; the pending charges accuse him of acts which
are not those of an official, but of a simple member hence only tria-
ble by his own Branch or Lodge (vide Section 3 of Article XIII), at
a special meeting called to consider the facts.
3. That the principal charge against him cannot be tried without
breach of the constitutional neutrality of the Society in matters of
private belief as to religious and other questions, and especially as to
belief in the “existence, names, powers, functions or methods of Ma-
hatmas or Masters”: that to deliberate and decide, either pro or con,
in this matter would be to violate the law, affirm a dogma, and “of-
fend the religious feelings” of Fellows of the Society, who, to the
number of many hundreds, hold decided opinions concerning the ex-
istence of Mahatmas and their interest in our work.
These points will presently be considered seriatim.
At the recent (eighth) annual meeting of the American Section
T. S., at San Francisco, in the first session of April 22nd, the follow-
ing, with other resolutions, was unanimously adopted, to wit:
Resolved: that this Convention, after careful deliberation, finds
that [the] suspension of the Vice-President is without the slightest
warrant in the Constitution, and altogether transcends the discre-
tionary power given the President by the Constitution, and is
therefore null and void.
I now return to Mr. Judge’s protests.
That he practised deception in sending false messages, orders
and letters, as if sent and written by “Masters”; and in statements to
me about a certain Rosicrucian jewel of H.P.B.’s.
That he was untruthful in various other instances enumerated.
 Are these solely acts done in his private capacity; or may they
or either of them be laid against him as wrong-doing (sic) by the
Vice-President? This is a grave question, both in its present bear-
ings and as establishing a precedent for future contingencies. We
must not make a mistake in coming to a decision.
In summoning Mr. Judge before this tribunal, I was moved by
the thought that the alleged evil acts might be separated into (a)
strictly private acts, viz., the alleged untruthfulness and deception,
and (b) the alleged circulation of deceptive imitations of what are
supposed to be Mahatmic writings, with intent to deceive; which
communications, owing to his high official mark among us, carried
a weight they would not have had if given out by a simple member.
This seemed to me a far more heinous offence than simple falsehood
or any other act of an individual, and to amount to a debasement of
his office, if proven. The minutes of the General Council meeting
of July 7th, which will presently be read for your information, will
show you how this question was discussed by us, and what conclu-
sion was reached. To make this document complete in itself,
however, I will say that, in the Council’s opinion, the point raised
by Mr. Judge appeared valid, and that the charges are not cognizable
by this Judicial Committee. The issue is now open to your consid-
eration, and you must decide as to your judicial competency.
1. As to his legal status as Vice-President. At the Adyar Con-
vention of the whole Society in December, 1888, exercising the full
executive power I then held, I appointed Mr. Judge Vice-President
in open Convention, the choice was approved by the Delegates as-
sembled, and the name inserted in the published Official List of
officers, since which time it has been withdrawn. At the Conven-
tion of 1890, a new set of Rules having come into force and an
election for Vice-President being in order, Mr. Bertram Keightley
moved and I supported the nomination of Mr. Judge, and he was
duly elected. It now appears that official notice was not sent him to
this effect, but nevertheless his name was duly published in the
 Official List, as it had been previously. You all know that he at-
tended the Chicago Parliament of Religions as Vice-President and
my accredited representative and substitute; his name is so printed
in his Report of the Theosophical Congress, and the Official Report
of the San Francisco Convention of our American Section contains
the Financial Statement of the Theosophic Congress Fund, which
is signed by him as Vice-President, Theosophical Society.
From the above facts it is evident that W. Q. Judge is, and since
December, 1888, has continuously been, de jure as well as de facto,
Vice-President of the Theosophical Society. The facts having been
laid before the General Council in its session of the 7th inst., my
ruling has been ratified; and is now also concurred in by Mr. Judge.
He is, therefore, triable by this tribunal for “cause shown.”
2. The second point raised by the accused is more important. If
the acts alleged were done by him at all—which remains as yet sub
judice—and he did them as a private person, he cannot be tried by
any other tribunal than the Aryan Lodge, T. S., of which he is a
Fellow and the President. Nothing can possibly be clearer than that.
Now, what are the alleged offences?
3. Does our proposed enquiry into the alleged circulation of
fictitious writings of those known to us as “Mahatmas” carry with
it a breach of the religious neutrality guaranteed us in the T. S. Con-
stitution, and would a decision of the charge, in either way, hurt the
feelings of members? The affirmative view has been taken and
warmly advocated by the Convention of the American Section, by
individual branches and groups of “Theosophical Workers,” by the
General Secretaries of the European and Indian Sections in a re-
cently issued joint circular, by many private members of the
Society, and by the accused. As I conceived it, the present issue is
not at all whether Mahatmas exist or the contrary, or whether they
have or have not recognizible handwritings, and have or have not
authorized Mr. Judge to put forth documents in their name. I be-
lieved, when issuing the call, that the question might be discussed
without entering into investigations that would compromise our cor-
porate neutrality. The charges as formulated and laid before me by
Mrs. Besant could, in my opinion, have been tried without doing
this. And I must refer to my official record to prove that I would
have been the last to help in violating a Constitution of which I am,
it may be said, the father, and which I have continually defended at
all times and in all circumstances. On now meeting Mr. Judge in
London, however, and being made acquainted with his intended line
of defence, I find that by beginning the enquiry we should be placed
in this dilemma, Viz., we should either have to deny him the com-
mon justice of listening to his statements and examining his proofs
(which would be monstrous in even a common court of law, much
more in a Brotherhood like ours, based on lines of ideal justice), or
be plunged into the very abyss we wish to escape from. Mr. Judge’s
defence is that he is not guilty of the acts charged; that Mahatmas
exist, are related to our Society, and in personal connection with
himself; and he avers his readiness to bring many witnesses and
documentary proofs to support his statements. You will at once see
whither this would lead us. The moment we entered into these ques-
tions we should violate the most vital spirit of our federal compact,
its neutrality in matters of belief. Nobody, for example, knows bet-
ter than myself the fact of the existence of the Masters, yet I would
resign my office unhesitatingly if the Constitution were amended so
as to erect such a belief into a dogma: every one in our membership
is as free to disbelieve and deny their existence as I am to believe
and affirm it. For the above reason, then, I declare as my opinion
that this enquiry must go no farther; we may not break our own laws
for any consideration whatsoever. It is furthermore my opinion that
such an enquiry, begun by whatsoever official body within our
membership, cannot proceed if a similar line of defence be declared.
If, perchance, a guilty person should at any time go scot-free in con-
sequence of this ruling, we cannot help it; the Constitution is our
palladium, and we must make it the Symbol of justice or expect our
Society to disintegrate.
Candour compels me to add that, despite what I thought some
preliminary quibbling and unfair tactics, Mr. Judge has travelled
hither from America to meet his accusers before this Committee, and
announced his readiness to have the charges investigated and de-
cided on their merits by any competent tribunal.
Having disposed of the several protests of Mr. Judge, I shall now
briefly refer to the condemnatory Resolutions of the San Francisco
Convention, and merely to say that there was no warrant for their
hasty declaration that my suspension of the Vice-President, pending
the disposal of the charges, was unconstitutional, null and void. As
above noted, Section 4 of Article VI of our Constitution provides
that the same rules of procedure shall apply to the case of the Vice-
President as to that of the President; and, inasmuch as my functions
vest in the Vice-President, and I am suspended from office until any
charges against my official character are disposed of, so, likewise,
must the Vice-President be suspended from his official status until
the charges against him are disposed of; reinstatement to follow ac-
quittal or the abandonment of the prosecution.
It having been made evident to me that Mr. Judge cannot be tried
on the present accusations without breaking through the lines of our
Constitution, I have no right to keep him further suspended, and so I
hereby cancel my notice of suspension, dated February 7th, 1894,
and restore him to the rank of Vice-President.
In conclusion, Gentlemen and Brothers, it remains for me to ex-
press my regret for any inconvenience I may have caused you by the
convocation of this Judicial Committee, and to cordially thank Mr.
Sturdy, who has come from India, Dr. Buck, who has come from Cin-
cinnati, and the rest of you who have come from distant points in the
United Kingdom, to render this loyal service. I had no means of an-
ticipating this present issue, since the line of defence was not within
my knowledge. The meeting was worth holding for several reasons.
In the first place, because we have come to the point of an official
declaration that it is not lawful to affirm that belief in Mahatmas is a
dogma of the Society, or communications really, or presumably, from
them, authoritative and infallible. Equally clear is it that the circula-
tion of fictitious communications from them is not an act for which,
under our rules, an officer or member can be impeached and tried.
The inference, then, is that testimony as to intercourse with Mahat-
mas, and writings alleged to come from them, must be judged upon
their intrinsic merits alone; and that the witnesses are solely respon-
sible for their statements. Thirdly, the successorship to the Presidency
is again open (vide Gen. Council Report of July 7th, 1894), and at my
death or at any time sooner, liberty of choice may be exercised in
favour of the best available member of the Society.
I now bring my remarks to a close by giving voice to the senti-
ment which I believe to actuate the true Theosophist, viz., that the
same justice should be given and the same mercy shown to every man
and woman on our membership registers. There must be no distinc-
tions of persons, no paraded self-righteousness, no seeking for
revenge. We are all—as I personally believe—equally under the op-
eration of Karma, which punishes and rewards; all equally need the
loving forbearance of those who have mounted higher than ourselves
in the scale of human perfectibility.
H. S. OLCOTT, P.T.S.
Mr. G. R. S. Mead reported that certain Minutes of Proceedings
by the General Council of the Theosophical Society were communi-
cated to the present Committee for its information, and they were
read accordingly, as follows:

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL MEETING,

HELD AT 19, AVENUE ROAD, LONDON, JULY 7TH, 1894
 “Present: President Colonel H. S. Olcott, Bertram Keightley,
George R. S. Mead, and William Q. Judge.
“Colonel Olcott called the meeting to order, and Bertram Keight-
ley, was appointed Secretary.
“Council was informed that the meeting was called to consider
certain points brought up by William Q. Judge, and other matters, to
wit:
“The President read a letter from William Q. Judge stating that
in his opinion he was never elected Vice-President of the T. S.; and
was not, therefore, Vice-President of the T.S.; whereupon the Presi-
dent informed the Council that at the General Convention at Adyar,
in 1888, he then, exercising the prerogatives which he then held, ap-
pointed William Q. Judge as Vice-President of the T. S.; and the
name was then announced in the official list of officers of that year.
That subsequently, at the General Convention in 1890, the last one
of such General Conventions, said nomination was unanimously
confirmed by vote on motion of Bertram Keightley, supported by H.
S. Olcott; hence, that although the official report of the Convention
seems to be defective in that it did not record the fact and that Mr.
Judge was thereby misled, the truth is as stated. The President then
declared that W. Q. Judge was and is Vice-President de facto and de
jure of the Theosophical Society.
“Another point then raised by Mr. Judge was then taken into con-
sideration, to wit: That even if Vice-President, he, Mr. Judge, was
not amenable to an enquiry by the Judicial Committee into certain
alleged offences with respect to the misuse of the Mahatmas’ names
and handwriting, since if guilty the offence would be one by him as
a private individual, and not in his official capacity; he contended
that, under our Constitution, the President and Vice-President could
only be tried as such by such Committee for official misconduct—
that is misfeasances and malfeasances. An opinion of council in New
York which he had taken from Mr. M. H. Phelps, F. T. S., was then
read by him in support of this contention. The matter was then de-
bated. Bertram Keightley moved and G. R. S. Mead seconded:
“That the Council, having heard the arguments on the point
raised by William Q. Judge, it declares that the point is well taken;
that the acts alleged concern him as an individual; and that conse-
quently the Judicial Committee has no jurisdiction in the premises to
try him as Vice-President upon the charges as alleged.
“The President concurred. Mr. Judge did not vote. The motion
was declared carried.
“On Mr. Mead’s motion, it was then voted that above record
shall be laid before the Judicial Committee. Mr. Judge did not vote.
“The President then laid before the Council another question
mooted by Mr. Judge, to wit: That his election as successor to the
President, which was made upon the announcement of the Presi-
dent’s resignation, became ipso facto annulled upon the President’s
resumption of his office as President. On motion, the Council de-
clared the point well taken, and ordered the decision to be entered on
the minutes. Mr. Judge did not vote.
“The President called attention to the resolution of the American
Convention of 1894, declaring that his action in suspending the Vice-
President, pending the settlement of the charges against him was
‘without the slightest warrant in the Constitution and altogether trans-
cends the discretionary power given the President by the
Constitution, and is therefore null and void.’ Upon deliberation and
consideration of Sections 3 and 4, Article VI, of the General Rules,
the Council decided (Mr. Judge not voting) that the President’s action
was warranted under the then existing circumstances, and that the
said resolutions of protest are without force.
“On motion (Mr. Judge not voting) the Council then requested
the President to convene the Judicial Committee at the London Head-
quarters, on Tuesday, July 10th, 1894, at 10 A.M.
“The Council then adjourned at call of President.”
 The following Resolutions were then adopted by the Judicial
Committee:
Resolved: that the President be requested to lay be-
fore the Committee the charges against Mr. Judge referred
to in his address.
The charges were laid before the Committee accordingly.
After deliberation, it was
Resolved: that although it has ascertained that the member bring-
ing the charges and Mr. Judge are both ready to go on with the
enquiry, the Committee considers, nevertheless, that the charges are
not such as relate to the conduct of the Vice-President in his official
capacity, and therefore are not subject to its jurisdiction.
On the question whether the charges did or did not involve a dec-
laration of the existence and power of the Mahatmas, the Committee
deliberated, and it was
Resolved: that this Committee is also of opinion that a statement
by them as to the truth or otherwise of at least one of the charges as
formulated against Mr. Judge would involve a declaration on their
part as to the existence or non-existence of the Mahatmas, and it
would be a violation of the spirit of neutrality and the unsectarian
nature and Constitution of the Society.
Four members abstained from voting on this resolution.
It was also further
Resolved: that the President’s address be adopted.
Resolved: that the General Council be requested to print and
circulate the Minutes of the Proceedings.
A question being raised as to whether the charges should be
included in the printed report,
Mr. Burrows moved and Mr. Sturdy seconded a resolution that
if the Proceedings were printed at all the charges should be in-
cluded; but on being put to the vote the resolution was not carried.
The Minutes having been read and confirmed, the Committee
 dissolved. H. S. Olcott, P.T.S., President of the Council

APPENDIX.

STATEMENT BY ANNIE BESANT.

Read for the Information of Members at the Third Session
of the European Convention of the T. S., July 12th, 1894.

I speak to you tonight as the representative of the T. S. in Eu-

rope, and as the matter I have to lay before you concerns the deepest
interests of the Society, I pray you to lay aside all prejudice and feel-
ing, to judge by Theosophical standards and not by the lower
standards of the world, and to give your help now in one of the grav-
est crises in which our movement has found itself. There has been
much talk of Committees and Juries of Honour. We come to you, our
brothers, to tell you what is in our hearts.
I am going to put before you the exact position of affairs on
the matter which has been filling our hearts all day. Mr. Judge and I
have agreed to lay two statements before you, and to ask your counsel
upon them.
For some years past persons inspired largely by personal ha-
tred for Mr. Judge, and persons inspired by hatred for the
Theosophical Society and for all that it represents, have circulated a
mass of accusations against him, ranging from simple untruthfulness
to deliberate and systematic forgery of the handwritings of Those
Who to some of us are most sacred. The charges were not in a form
that it was possible to meet, a general denial could not stop them, and
explanation to irresponsible accusers was at once futile and undigni-
fied.
Mr. Judge’s election as the future President of the Society in-
creased the difficulties of the situation, and the charges themselves
were repeated with growing definiteness and insistence, until they
found expression in an article in The Theosophist signed by Messrs.
Old and Edge. At last, the situation became so strained that it was
declared by many of the most earnest members of the Indian Section
that, if Mr. Judge became President with those charges hanging over
him unexplained, the Indian Section would secede from the T. S.
Representation to this effect was made to me, and I was asked, as
well-known in the world and the T. S., and as a close friend and col-
league of Mr. Judge, to intervene in the matter.
I hold strongly that, whatever may be the faults of a private
member, they are no concern of mine, and it is no part of my duty, as
a humble servant of the Lords of Compassion, to drag my brother’s
faults into public view, nor to arraign him before any tribunal. His
faults and mine will find their inevitable harvest of suffering, and I
am content to leave them to the Great Law, which judges unerringly
and knits to every wrong its necessary sequence of pain.
But where the honour of the Society was concerned, in the
person of its now second official and (as he then was thought to be)
its President-Elect, it was right to do what I could to put an end to the
growing friction and suspicion, both for the sake of the Society and
for that of Mr. Judge; and I agreed to intervene, privately, believing
that many of the charges were false, dictated and circulated malevo-
lently, that others were much exaggerated and were largely
susceptible of explanation, and that what might remain of valid com-
plaint might be put an end to without public controversy. Under the
promise that nothing should be done further in the matter until my
intervention had failed, I wrote to Mr. Judge. The promise of silence
was broken by persons who knew some of the things complained of,
and before any answer could be received by me from Mr. Judge, dis-
torted versions of what had occurred were circulated far and wide.
This placed Mr. Judge in a most unfair position, and he found my
name used against him in connection with charges which he knew to
be grossly exaggerated where not entirely untrue.
 Not only so, but I found that a public Committee of Enquiry
was to be insisted on, and I saw that the proceedings would be di-
rected in a spirit of animosity, and that the aim was to inflict
punishment for wrongs believed to have been done, rather than to
prevent future harm to the Society. I did my utmost to prevent a pub-
lic Committee of Enquiry of an official character. I failed, and the
Committee was decided on. And then I made what many of Mr.
Judge’s friends think was a mistake. I offered to take on myself the
onus of formulating the charges against him. I am not concerned to
defend myself on this, nor to trouble you with my reasons for taking
so painful a decision; in this decision, for which I alone am responsi-
ble, I meant to act for the best, but it is very possible I made a
mistake—for I have made many mistakes in judgment in my life, and
my vision is not always clear in these matters of strife and contro-
versy which are abhorrent to me.
In due course I formulated the charges, and drew up the writ-
ten statement of evidence in support of them. They came in due
course before the Judicial Committee, as you heard this morning.
That Committee decided that they alleged private, not official,
wrongdoing, and therefore could not be tried by a Committee that
could deal only with a President and Vice-President as such. I was
admitted to the General Council of the T. S. when this point was ar-
gued, and I was convinced by that argument that the point was rightly
taken. I so stated when asked by the General Council, and again when
asked by the Judicial Committee. And this put an end to the charges
so far as that Committee was concerned.
As this left the main issue undecided, and left Mr. Judge un-
der the stigma of unproved and unrebutted charges, it was suggested
by Mr. Herbert Burrows that the charges should be laid before a
Committee of Honour. At the moment this was rejected by Mr.
Judge, but he wrote to me on the following day, asking me to agree
with him in nominating such a Committee. I have agreed to this, but
with very great reluctance, for the reason mentioned above: that I
feel it no part of my duty to attack any private member of the T. S.,
and I think such an attack would prove a most unfortunate precedent.
But as the proceedings which were commenced against Mr. Judge as
an official have proved abortive, it does not seem fair that I—respon-
sible for those proceedings by taking part in them—should refuse
him the Committee he asks for.
But there is another way, which I now take, and which, if you
approve it, will put an end to this matter; and as no Theosophist
should desire to inflict penalty for the past—even if he thinks wrong
has been done—but only to help forward right in the future, it may,
I venture to hope, be accepted.
And now I must reduce these charges to their proper propor-
tions, as they have been enormously exaggerated, and it is due to Mr.
Judge that I should say publicly what from the beginning I have said
privately. The President stated them very accurately in his address to
the Judicial Committee: the vital charge is that Mr. Judge has issued
letters and messages in the script recognizable as that adopted by a
Master with whom H. P. B. was closely connected, and that these
letters and messages were neither written nor precipitated directly by
the Master in whose writing they appear; as leading up to this there
are subsidiary charges of deception, but these would certainly never
have been made the basis of any action save for their connection with
the main point.
Further, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not
charge and have not charged Mr. Judge with forgery in the ordinary
sense of the term, but with giving a misleading material form to mes-
sages received psychically from the Master in various ways, without
acquainting the recipients with this fact.
I regard Mr. Judge as an Occultist, possessed of considerable
knowledge and animated by a deep and unswerving devotion to the
Theosophical Society. I believe that he has often received direct
messages from the Masters and from Their chelas, guiding and help-
ing him in his work. I believe that he has sometimes received
messages for other people in one or other of the ways that I will
mention in a moment, but not by direct writing by the Master nor by
His direct precipitation; and that Mr. Judge has then believed himself
to be justified in writing down in the script adopted by H. P. B. for
communications from the Master, the message psychically received,
and in giving it to the person for whom it was intended, leaving that
person to wrongly assume that it was a direct precipitation or writing
by the Master Himself—that is, that it was done through Mr. Judge,
but done by the Master.
Now personally I hold that this method is illegitimate and
that no one should simulate a recognized writing which is regarded
as authoritative when it is authentic. And by authentic I mean di-
rectly written or precipitated by the Master Himself. If a message is
consciously written, it should be so stated: if automatically written,
it should be so stated. At least so it seems to me. It is important that
the very small part generally played by the Masters in these phenom-
ena should be understood, so that people may not receive messages
as authoritative merely on the ground of their being in a particular
script. Except in the very rarest instances, the Masters do not person-
ally write letters or directly precipitate communications. Messages
may be sent by Them to those with whom They can communicate
by external voice, or astral vision, or psychic word, or mental im-
pression or in other ways. If a person gets a message which he
believes to be from the Master, for communication to anyone else,
he is bound in honour not to add to that message any extraneous cir-
cumstances which will add weight to it in the recipient’s eyes. I
believe that Mr. Judge wrote with his own hand, consciously or au-
tomatically I do not know, in the script adopted as that of the Master,
messages which he received from the Master or from chelas; and I
know that, in my own case, I believed that the messages he gave me
in the well-known script were messages directly precipitated or di-
rectly written by the Master. When I publicly said that I have
received H. P. Blavatsky’s death letters in the writing H. P.Blavatsky
had been accused of forging, I referred to letters given to me by Mr.
Judge, and as they were in the well-known script I never dreamt of
challenging their source. I know now that they were not written or
precipitated by the Master, and that they were done by Mr. Judge,
but I also believe that the gist of these messages was psychically re-
ceived, and that Mr. Judge’s error lay in giving them to me in a script
written by himself and not saying that he had done so. I feel bound
to refer to these letters thus explicitly, because having been myself
mistaken, I in turn misled the public.
It should be generally understood inside and outside the The-
osophical Society, that letters and messages may be written or may
be precipitated in any script, without thereby gaining any valid au-
thority. Scripts may be produced by automatic or deliberate
writing with the hand, or by precipitation, by many agencies from
the White and Black Adepts down to semi-conscious Elementals,
and those who afford the necessary conditions can be thus used.
The source of messages can only be decided by direct spiritual
knowledge or, intellectually, by the nature of their contents, and
each person must use his own powers and act on his own respon-
sibility, in accepting or rejecting them. Thus I rejected a number
of letters, real precipitations, brought me by an American, not an
F. T. S., as substantiating his claim to be H.P.B.’s successor. Any
good medium may be used for precipitating messages by any of
the varied entities in the Occult world; and the outcome of these
proceedings will be, I hope, to put an end to the craze for receiving
letters and messages, which are more likely to be subhuman or
human in their origin than superhuman, and to throw people back
on the evolution of their own spiritual nature, by which alone they
can be safely guided through the mazes of the super-physical
world.
If you, representatives of the T. S., consider that the publication
of this statement followed by that which Mr. Judge will make,
would put an end to this distressing business, and by making a
clear understanding, get rid at least of the mass of seething suspi-
cions in which we have been living, and if you can accept it, I
propose that this should take the place of the Committee of Hon-
our, putting you, our brothers, in the place of the Committee. I
have made the frankest explanation I can; I know how enwrapped
in difficulty are these phenomena which are connected with forces
obscure in their working to most; therefore, how few are able to
judge of them accurately, while those through whom they play are
always able to control them. And I trust that these explanations
may put an end to some at least of the troubles of the last two years,
and leave us to go on with our work for the world, each in his own
way. For any pain that I have given my brother, in trying to do a
most repellent task, I ask his pardon, as also for any mistakes that
I may have made.
ANNIE BESANT.

[The above statements as to precipitated, written and other

communications have been long ago made by both H. P. Blavat-
sky and Mr. Judge, in Lucifer, The Path, and elsewhere, both
publicly and privately. A.B.].

[Note by Col. Olcott. I cannot allow Mrs. Besant to take upon

herself the entire responsibility for formulating the charges
against Mr. Judge, since I myself requested her to do it. The tacit
endorsement of the charges by persistence in a policy of silence,
was an injustice to the Vice-President, since it gave him no
chance to make his defence; while, at the same time, the widely
current suspicions were thereby augmented, to the injury of the
Society. So, to bring the whole matter to light, I, with others,
asked Mrs. Besant to assume the task of drafting and signing the
charges. H. S. O.]
 STATEMENT BY MR. JUDGE.

Since March last, charges have been going round the world
against me, to which the name of Annie Besant has been attached,
without her consent as she now says, that I have been guilty of forg-
ing the names and handwritings of the Mahatmas and of misusing
the said names and handwritings. The charge has also arisen that I
suppressed the name of Annie Besant as mover in the matter from
fear of the same. All this has been causing great trouble and working
injury to all concerned, that is, to all our members. It is now time that
this should be put an end to once for all if possible.
I now state as follows:
1. I left the name of Annie Besant out of my published circular
by request of my friends in the T. S. then near me so as to
save her and leave it to others to put her name to the charge.
It now appears that if I had so put her name it would have run
counter to her present statement.
2. I repeat my denial of the said rumoured charges of forging
the said names and handwritings of the Mahatmas or of
misusing the same.
3. I admit that I have received and delivered messages from
the Mahatmas and assert their genuineness.
4. I say that I have heard and do hear from the Mahatmas, and
that I am an agent of the Mahatmas; but I deny that I have
ever sought to induce that belief in others, and this is the first
time to my knowledge that I have ever made the claim now
made. I am pressed into the place where I must make it. My
desire and effort have been to distract attention from such an
idea as related to me. But I have no desire to make the claim,
which I repudiate, that I am the only channel for communi-
cation with Masters; and it is my opinion that such
communication is open to any human being who, by endeav-
ouring to serve mankind, affords the necessary conditions.
5. Whatever messages from the Mahatmas have been delivered
by me as such—and they are extremely few—I now declare
were and are genuine messages from the Mahatmas so far as
my knowledge extends; they were obtained through me, but
as to how they were obtained or produced I cannot state. But
I can now again say, as I have said publicly before, and as
was said by H. P. Blavatsky so often that I have always
thought it common knowledge among studious Theoso-
phists, that precipitation of words or messages is of no
consequence and constitutes no proof of connection with Ma-
hatmas; it is only phenomenal and not of the slightest value.
6. So far as methods are concerned for the reception and deliv-
ery of messages from the Masters, they are many. My own
methods may disagree from the views of others, and I
acknowledge their right to criticize them if they choose; but
I deny the right of any one to say that they know or can prove
the non-genuineness of such messages to or through me un-
less they are able to see on that plane. I can only say that I
have done my best to report — in the few instances when I
have done it at all—correctly and truthfully such messages
as I think I have received for transmission, and never to my
knowledge have I tried therewith to deceive any person or
persons whatever.
7. And I say that in 1893 the Master sent me a message in which
he thanked me for all my work and exertions in the Theo-
sophical field, and expressed satisfaction therewith, ending
with sage advice to guard me against the failings and follies
of my lower nature; that message Mrs. Besant unreservedly
admits.
8. Lastly, and only because of absurd statements made and cir-
culated, I willingly say that which I never denied, that I am a
human being, full of error, liable to mistake, not infallible,
but just the same as any other human being like to myself, or
 of the class of human beings like to myself, or of the class of
human beings to which I belong. And I freely, fully and sin-
cerely forgive anyone who may be thought to have injured or
tried to injure me.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
__________

Having heard the above statements, the following resolution was

moved by Mr. Bertram Keightley, seconded by Dr. Buck and carried
nem. con.
Resolved: that this meeting accepts the adjustment arrived at by An-
nie Besant and William Judge as a final settlement of matters
pending hitherto between them as prosecutor and defendant with the
hope that it may be thus buried and forgotten, and
Resolved: That we will join hands with them to further the cause of
genuine Brotherhood in which we all believe.
_________

The following important results have come out of the above in-
quiry: (a) The absolute neutrality of the Theosophical Society in all
matters of personal belief, and the perfect right of private judgment
in religious, mystical and other questions have been authoritatively
and permanently declared by Executive affirmation, endorsement by
the General Council, and confirmation by a Judicial Committee or-
ganized under the provisions of the Society’s Revised Rules, and
composed of Delegates chosen by the existing three Sections as pos-
sessing their respect and confidence; (b) The authoritative and
dogmatic value of statements as to the existence of Mahatmas, their
relations with and messages to private persons, or through them to
third parties, the Society or the general public, is denied; all such
statements, messages or teachings are to be taken at their intrinsic
value and the recipients left to form and declare, if they choose, their
own opinions with respect to their genuineness: the Society, as a
body, maintaining its constitutional neutrality in the premises.
As to the disposal of the charges against the Vice-President, the
report of the Judicial Committee gives all necessary information: the
public statements of Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge contained in the Ap-
pendix showing how the case stands. No final decision has been
reached, since the defence of Mr. Judge precluded an inquiry into the
facts, and it would not be constitutional for one to be made by any
Committee, Council or Branch of the Society. To undertake it would
be a dangerous precedent, one which would furnish an excuse to try
a member for holding to the dogmas of the sect to which he might
belong. Generally speaking, the elementary principles of tolerance
and brotherliness which are professed by all true Theosophists, teach
us to exercise towards each other a generous charity and forgiveness
for displays of those human imperfections which we all equally
share.
H. S. OLCOTT, P. T. S.

William Q. Judge’s and Annie Besant’s

E.S.T. Circulars of 1894

William Q. Judge issued a Circular Letter to the members of

the E.S.T. (Eastern School of Theosophy, founded by Madame Bla-
vatsky in London, 1888) in November 1894, entitled ‘By Master’s
Direction’, announcing among other things that Annie Besant’s
Headship of the E.S.T. had been terminated.
Annie Besant replied to the above-mentioned Circular with
one of her own, issued in December 1894 from Colombo, Ceylon
(now Sri Lanka), as she was on an extended lecture tour, which in-
cluded New Zealand and Australia.

Below are some excerpts from Mr Judge’s Circular and Mrs

Besant’s replies.
 An Inner Group was later on formed by H.P.B. at London,
so that she might give out teachings to be recorded by the
members, and, if possible, teach them practical occultism. Of this
Mrs. Besant, with George Mead to help her, was made the
Secretary, because she had great ability in a literary way, was
wholly devoted, and perfectly fit for the task. But this did not make
her a Teacher. And even when she bid adieu to H.P.B. on her
leaving Europe for America in April, 1891, the very last thing
H.P.B. put into her hands as she left her presence, into which
she never again entered, was the sealed statement that made
her Recorder of the teachings. H.P.B. knew that she would not
live to see Annie Besant again, and if she were to have been
constituted a “Teacher”, that would have been the time to give her
the position. But she did not. The death of H.P.B. destroyed of
course any further value in the office of “Recorder.” I am a
member of the Inner Group, and have been since 1891. It was
needless to speak of this before now.
WQJ

The statements as to the I.G. and myself are misleading,

because incomplete. I complete them. H.P.B. did, when I left her,
give me a sealed statement, constituting me Chief Secretary of the
I.G. and Recorder of the Teachings. She also wrote to Mr. Judge
stating that I was her “Successor,” when she had to leave us, and
Mr. Judge read that extract to our little group at Avenue Road
when he came over after her death, as constituting – with her
statements as to himself – the basis for the future arrangements.
(On this matter of H.P.B.’s wishes as to the work I may be able to
tell you more presently, but I cannot delay this circular.) Her dying
gift to me was the ring she always wore – of which she had given
me a duplicate in 1889. Ere leaving for America I asked her if I
might discuss the I.G. Instructions with Mr. Judge; she answered:
No, not unless he took the I.G. pledge. When he came to London
after her death I told him this, and the first of the spurious
“messages” was the assent to his question if he might enter the I.G.
without taking the pledge. It seemed to all of us natural and right
that he should come in, and we joyfully welcomed him. The
Instructions of H.P.B. to the I.G. were written down by each
member, and these notes were handed to George Mead and myself,
we always writing them down promptly, and H.P.B. often looking
over the completed version, so as to ensure accuracy. There are
other papers of teaching left in my hands by H.P.B. and in her own
writing.
AB

Mrs. Annie Besant has been but five years in this work, and
not all of that time engaged in occult study and practice. Her
abilities as a writer and speaker are rare and high for either man or
woman, her devotion and sincerity of purpose cannot be doubted.
She gave many years of her life to the cause of the oppressed as
she understood it: against the dread blight of materialistic belief in
herself, she worked thus without hope in a future life and in every
way proved her altruistic purpose and aim. Since 1889 she has
done great service to the T.S. and devoted herself to it. But all this
does not prevent a sincere person from making errors in Occultism,
especially when he, as Mrs. Besant did, tries to force himself along
the path of practical work in that field. Sincerity does not confer of
itself knowledge, much less wisdom. H.P.B. and all the history
of occultism say that seven years of training and trial at the very
least are needed. Mrs. Besant has had but five. Mistakes made by
such a disciple will ultimately be turned to the advantage of the
movement, and their immediate results will be mitigated to the
person making them, provided they are not inspired by an evil
intention on the person’s part. And I wish it to be clearly
understood that Mrs. Besant has had herself no conscious evil
intention; she has simply gone for a while outside the line of her
Guru (H.P.B.), begun work with others, and fallen under their
influence. We should not push her further down, but neither will
the true sympathy we have blind our eyes so as to let her go on, to
the detriment of the movement. I could easily retire from the whole
T.S., but my conceptions of duty are different, although the
personal cost to myself in this work is heavy, and as I am ordered
to stay I will stay and try my best to aid her and everyone else as
much as possible. And the same authority tells me that “could she
open her eyes and see her real line of work, and correct the present
condition in herself as well as the one she has helped to make in
the T.S. and E.S.T., she would find herself in mental, physical and
spiritual conditions of a kind much better than ever before, for her
present state is due to the attacks of the dark powers,
unconsciously to her.”
WQJ

On my own value or worthlessness (pp 3, 4) I have naught to

say, beyond what I was bidden by H.P.B. to assert (else would I be
silent) that I am a disciple of her Master, and know him inde-
pendently of her, I add, without her permission, that her blessed
hand opened to me the path to His Feet.
AB

The plot exists among the Black Magicians, whoever war

against the White, and against those Black ones we are constantly
warned by H.P.B. This is no fiction, but a very substantial fact.
I have seen and also been shown the chief entity among those who
thus work against us and who desire to destroy the whole move-
ment and especially to nullify the great work which H.P.B.
began for the Western nations. These Black Magicians have
succeeded in influencing certain Brahmans in India through race-
pride and ambition, so that these, for their own advantage, desire
to control and manage the T.S. through some agent and also
through the E.S.T. They of course have sought, if possible, to use
one of our body, and have picked out Mrs. Besant as a possible
vehicle. One object of the plot is to stop the current of information
and influence started by H.P.B. by deflecting thought back to
modern India. To accomplish this it is absolutely necessary to tear
down the tradition clustering around the work of H.P.B.; her pow-
ers and knowledge have to be derogated from; her right to speak
for the Masters has to be impugned; those Masters have to be made
a cold abstraction; her staunch friends who wish to see the real
work and objects carried on have to be put in such a position as to
be tied hand and foot so as not to be able to interfere with the plans
of the plotters; it has to be shown that H.P.B. was a fraud and
forger also. These men are not the Chelas of our Masters.
The name of the person who was worked upon so as to, if possi-
ble, use him as a minor agent of the Black Magicians and for the
influencing of Mrs. Besant is Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, a Brah-
man of Allahabad, India, who came to America on our invitation
to the Religious Parliament in 1893. At the first sincerely desirous
of helping the race by bringing to the American people the old
truths of his forefathers, he nevertheless, like so many before him,
permitted ambition to take subtle root in his heart. Fired with the
ambition of taking position in the world as a Guru, though doubt-
less believing himself still a follower of the White Brotherhood,
he is no longer in our lines; on the contrary, his mediumship and
weakness leave him a vehicle for other influences also.
WQJ

The “plot,” so far as I know, is the purest delusion. What is

said of Mr. Chakravati I know to be false, and I can but feel the
profoundest pity and sorrow for him who uses the holy name of
the Master to cover such a charge. Believing in Karma as I do,
compassion renders anger impossible. The statements about
myself are untrue, but they matter but little.
The statement on p. 9 as to “inside facts” is to me a little surpris-
ing. At the beginning of February, 1894, Mr. Judge wrote to me,
saying the time had come for me to be the sole head of the E.S.T.
and rejoicing in my closer touch with the Masters; a little later, on
the 12th February, I had a peremptory telegram from Mr. Judge,
sent to me through Mr. Chakravati, bidding me issue notice to the
School that I took it over. I did not act on either letter or telegram,
and shortly after Mr. Judge, having meanwhile received my letter
telling him that I knew he had deceived me, telegraphed again,
cancelling the telegram I had received on February 12th.
AB
A distinct object H.P.B. had in view I will now on the
authority of the Master tell you. The work of the dark powers and
their conscious and unconscious agents is against this object. They
wish to defeat it. It is an object of the highest value and of the
greatest scope, unrevealed before by H.P.B. to anyone else that
I know of, though possibly there are those to whom she hinted it.
All her vast work in the West, with western people, upon western
religions and modern science, was toward this end, so that when
she comes again as Messenger – as hinted at in the Key to
Theosophy – much of the preparatory work should have been done
by us and our successors. It is, the establishment in the West of a
great seat of learning where shall be taught and explained and
demonstrated the great theories of man and nature which she
brought forward to us, where western occultism, as the essence
combined out of all others, shall be taught. This stupendous object
the Black Lodge would prevent. And even the exoteric theological
Brahman would also prevent it, because it will in the end obliterate
that form of caste which depends alone on birth, for there will be
developed those whose inner vision will see the real caste of the
inner man and put him down in a lower one for his discipline if he
is not truly in his place. Today the four natural castes are all
 confused, and those who are black within strut about as keepers of
the key to the shrine of truth, when in fact they should be lower
down, as learners. Shall her great object be worked against by us
and its foundations overthrown? Never, if the vast powers of the
Masters can be drawn to its support; never, if we are faithful to our
pledges and to our trust.
WQJ

As to East and West, I follow H.P.B. Her Master is an Indian,

Master K.H. is an Indian, her writings show her love for India, she
named her School the Eastern School. Ere she died, she approved
my seeking in India the help of which I was to be deprived by her
approaching death, and that help came to me as she said. The
importance put by the Masters on India may be seen in what
Master K.H. writes on it in the letters quoted in The Occult World.
The Eastern Occultism that was good enough for her is good
enough for me. But I will be no party to setting West against East,
nor East against West; the Great Lodge works for Humanity;
IT seeks to bind men together, not to stir up racial passions;
IT includes Masters of different nationalities. What to us are these
battle cries of divided hosts? From the Supreme Self flow all
human souls; the Egos are embodied wherever their Karma leads
them; not for us the heresy of separateness; from the Diamond Soul
all colours flash.
AB

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

By Col. Henry Steel Olcott

(Source: ‘General Report of the Nineteenth Anniversary of the Theo-

sophical Society, at the Headquarters, Adyar, Madras, December 25th,
26th, 27th and 28th 1894’, pp. 8-11, included in the January 1895 issue of
The Theosophist.)

THE JUDGE CASE. We are at a crisis that is the most serious

within our history since that of 1884. The unavoidable failure to dis-
pose of the charges against Mr. Judge last July, has set in motion
most powerful opposing currents of feeling. By some he is enthusi-
astically supported, by others as unreservedly condemned. Petitions
from Branches, Committees and lists of members have been sent in,
asking that the Vice-President be called upon to publish a defence or
resign; other Branches and individual members, even more numer-
ous, recommend him to make no defence, as their confidence in his
truthfulness and integrity is unshaken and unshakeable. From what
reaches me I think that the opinions of our members may be classi-
fied thus:

1. The American Section, with the exception of some individu-

als of the best class
and some of lesser importance, stands solidly in his favour. I
have even had it intimated that if Mr. Judge should be forced to
resign, the Section will secede in a body, form an American The-
osophical independently, and elect him President.

2. The Dublin, Brixton, and some other European lodges have

passed votes of confidence; copies of a draft of Resolutions in his
favour are circulating in France, Belgium, and Holland, and being
sent me numerously signed; and I should not be surprised if a
large number of excellent people in the European Section should
unite with the Americans to form the new Section in the event of
a split. The Bournemouth and some other British Lodges and a
large number of English Theosophists call on him to explain or
retire. German opinion is reported to me as being adverse to him.
Spain is against him, France divided, Holland divided.
 3. Australasia, so far as I have any direct intimations, is
on the side opposed to Mr. Judge.

4. India has, to my knowledge, sent in no protest in his

favour, although many members recognizing his immense ser-
vices and his tireless activity in official work, deprecate any
hasty action based on exparte newspaper charges. The Poona T.
S., through its President, “demands his expulsion from the Soci-
ety.” The above facts prove the existence of the strong
antagonistic currents of feeling above noted.
What courses are open to us and which should we choose? I
offer the thoughts which occur to me with the hope that I may be
judicially impartial, regardless of all personal feeling or bias.
Firstly. The Constitution of the Society must be rigidly ad-
hered to at whatsoever cost. Not to save or to expel one man or
twenty, will I swerve a hair’s breadth from the strict letter of the
law. In July last, both the General Council and Judicial Commit-
tee voted to quash the proceedings against the accused on a point
which, although technical was nevertheless irrefutable. What-
ever is now or may hereafter be done in this affair, therefore,
must be constitutionally done. As we cannot legally try Mr.
Judge, Vice-President, for alleged misdemeanours committed by
W. Q. Judge, individual; and as the individual cannot be tried for
his private opinions, we have to fall back upon the moral aspect
of the case, and see how an individual accused of the immoral
act of deception usually behaves. We have the familiar precedent
of H. P. B. who, before leaving India—for the last time, as it
proved—placed her resignation in my hands in order to relieve
the Society from the burden of defending her against the charges
of the Coulombs and the Missionaries. The Convention subse-
quently passed a vote of confidence, which I officially conveyed
to her, and this restored her to her former status in the Society.
State Cabinets invariably resign office upon the passage of a
legislative vote of lack of confidence. This is the unwritten,
sometimes the written, law of honour. Frequently, the resigning
official offers himself for re-election or again accepts office, if
so requested. From the fact that I had to overrule the point made
by him that he was not and had never been Vice-President de
jure, I was led to believe that Mr. Judge was disposed to follow
the same course as far as relinquishing that office was concerned.
But, however that case may be, I should, if the case were mine,
do as I have more than once before, both within and without the
Theosophical Society, offer my resignation but be ready to re-
sume office if my superiors or colleagues showed that I
possessed their confidence, that there was a necessity for my so
doing, and circumstances permitted. While the Society cannot
compel Mr. Judge to resign and offer himself for re-election, and
a very large body of our members advise him not to do so, he has
it in his power to relieve the present strain by so doing and to
thus enable the whole Society to say whether it still wishes to be
represented by him before the world, or the contrary. Such a
course would not affect his relations with the American Section
or the Aryan T. S., those concerning only the Section and Branch
and, having no Federal character, not coming under the purview
of other Sections nor being open to their criticism. International
action is only called for in Federal questions.
It is proper for me as a student of Practical Psychology of very
long experience, to draw attention to the important fact that, even
if the charges of forged writing and false messages brought
against Mr. Judge were made good before a jury, under the exo-
teric rules of Evidence, still this might not be proof of guilty
knowledge and intent. This must not be overlooked, for it bears
distinctly up on the question of moral responsibility. Every stu-
dent of Modern Spiritualism and Eastern Occultism knows that
a medium, or psychic, if you prefer the word, is often irresistibly
impelled by an extraneous force to do acts of turpitude of which
he is incapable in his normal state of consciousness. Only a few
days ago, I read in the learned Dr. Gibier’s “Analyse des
Choses,” a solemn statement of this fact accompanied with strik-
ing examples in his own practice. And the eminent Prof.
Bernheim also proved to me this dreadful fact by hypnotic ex-
periments on patients in the Hopital Civil, at Nancy. Equally well
known is it that persons, otherwise accounted sane, are liable to
hallucinations which make them sometimes mistake their own
fancies for spiritual revelations and a vulgar earth-bound spirit
for an exalted historical personage. At this moment, I have
knowledge of at least seven different psychics in our Society who
believe themselves to be in communication with the same Ma-
hatmas and doing their work, who have each a knot of disciples
or adherents about them, and whose supposed teachers give or-
ders which conflict with each others’! I cannot impugn the good
faith of either of these sensitives, while, on the other hand, I can-
not see my way to accepting any of their mandates in the absence
of satisfactory proof of their genuineness. So I go on my way,
doing my public duty as well as I can see it, and leaving to time
the solving of all these mysteries. My objective intercourse with
the Great Teachers ceased almost entirely on the death of H. P.
B., while any subjective relations I may have with them is evi-
dence only to myself and would carry no weight with third
parties. I think this rule applies in all such cases, and no amount
of mediumistic phenomena, or of clearest visions of physically
unseen Teachers by psychics who have not passed through a long
course of training in Raja Yoga, would convince me of my duty
to accept blindly the mandates of even well-meaning advisers.
All professed teachings of Mahatmas must be judged by their
intrinsic merit; if they are wise they become no better by reason
of their alleged high source; if foolish, their worthlessness is not
nullified by ascribing to them the claim of authority.
In conclusion, then, I beg you to realise that, after proving that
a certain writing is forged and calculated to deceive, you must
then prove that the writer was a free agent before you can fasten
upon him the stigma of moral obliquity. To come back to the case
in point, it being impossible for any third party to know what Mr.
Judge may have believed with respect to the Mahatmic writings
emanating from him, and what subjective facts he had to go
upon, the proof cannot be said to be conclusive of his bad faith
however suspicious the available evidence may seem.
The way out of the difficulty lies with him, and with him
alone. If he should decide to neither give any satisfactory expla-
nations nor to resign his Federal office, the consequence will
undoubtedly be that a large number of our best people of the class
of Mr. Herbert Burrows will withdraw from the Society; while if
he should, his numerous friends will stand by him all the more
loyally throughout. I do not presume to judge, the case not being
before me on its merits.
I must, however, express my profound regret that Mr. Judge
should have circulated accusations of resort to Black Magic,
against Mrs. Besant and Mr. Chakravarti; neither of whom have
ever, so far as I have been able to judge in years of personal in-
tercourse, done the least thing to deserve such a suspicion. As for
Mrs. Besant, I can conscientiously affirm that in all my life I
never met a more noble, unselfish and upright woman, nor one
whose heart was filled with greater love for mankind. The The-
osophical Society owes her a debt it can never repay.
_______

The President wishes it known that his Address being a

Presidential document, in the drafting of which the obligation of
strict impartiality rested upon him, his private views with re-
spect to the case of Mr. Judge were withheld. When the right
time came, he should know how to act for the best interests of
the Society.
 ACTION ON THE JUDGE CASE.

(Source: Excerpts from the ‘General Report of the Nineteenth Anni-

versary of the Theosophical Society, at the Headquarters, Adyar, Madras,
December 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th 1894’, pp. 39-61, included in the January
1895 issue of The Theosophist.)

After the reading of the foregoing official papers, general

business being in order, Mrs. Besant rose and addressed the Con-
vention as follows:

Mr. President-Founder, and Brothers, I bring you the greetings

of the European Section as its delegate. I should not so bring them
as a delegate, having in view the attacks that have been made upon
me, were it not that the delegation was signed after all these attacks,
so that I hold it from the European Section after the whole of the
attacks were before them, and the delegation carries with it therefore
an expression of confidence in me. Were it not for that, I should
have placed my resignation as delegate in the hands of the President;
and asked him to explain to you why it was I could not accept the
delegation; but as it was signed after these attacks, I feel myself jus-
tified in bolding that place before you.
I rise to move a resolution with respect to the very difficult posi-
tion in which the Society is placed in regard to the charges brought
against its Vice-President, Mr. William Q. Judge, charges which
have been now before the public in a more or less complete form
for a very considerable time. I shall be as brief as I can in what I
have to say, but I cannot sacrifice clearness to brevity, for I am
bound to give you just the facts that are wanted for the formation of
judgment, when many of you may not have seen the papers on
which this resolution is proposed, and therefore to some of you at
least, some of the facts may be new. For a long time past in different
parts of the world,—in India, America and Europe—vague
statements were made accusing Mr. Judge of fraudulently simulat-
ing writings ascribed to the teachers of H. P. B. Those attacks were
circulated very largely, and they were not worthy of being dealt with
because they were vague and indefinite. Gradually they became
more and more precise, and at last they reached a point so strong
that when I came here last year appeals were made to me from dif-
ferent parts of India, and from very many members of the Society,
asking me to look into the matter, and if, necessary take action upon
it, so that it might be cleared up one way or the other, in order that
Mr. Judge might have an opportunity of answering the charges that
were circulated against him, if answer were possible. I looked into
the mass of evidence which was in the hands of Col. Olcott but
which, taken by itself, while arousing the gravest suspicion, was not
sufficiently clear, definite and conclusive to justify Col. Olcott, or
Mr. Keightley, the Secretary of the Indian Section, in a taking action
which would commit the Society. But it happened that within my
knowledge there were other facts unknown both to Col. Olcott and
Mr. Keightley, which made the evidence which was in their hands
complete and so rendered it, to my mind at least, convincing. What
I knew by myself was not enough for public action, and what they
knew by themselves was not enough for certain action, though that
was stronger than mine; but all put together made so strong a body
of evidence that it became a duty to the Society that it should be
placed before it, and that Mr. Judge, as its Vice-President, should
be given an opportunity of definitely meeting the charges if he
could, so that an end might be put to a position so painful to all
concerned, and so dangerous to the reputation and the honor of the
Society. Under these circumstances, I wrote at first privately to Mr.
Judge, having in view his long services and his devotion to the
movement, and asked him to resign, but he refused by cable. That
was in January last, and the cable came in February on his receipt
of my letter. I then wrote a letter, which you will have seen in the
published proceedings, to Col. Olcott as, President, and asked him
as President of the Society under the clauses of the Constitution
which deal with charges against the Vice-President, to call together
a Committee, to arraign Mr. Judge before that Committee, and so
be the charges be dealt with by a body representing the Society. It
naturally, with our widespread membership, took a considerable
time before the communication could reach every part of the world,
the Sections could appoint their delegates, and they could gather
together in a place which should be settled for the adjudication.
Consequently the Committee did not meet until July, the earliest
date which was possible when all these communications had to be
made and properly carried out. Before that Committee objections
were raised by Mr. Judge as to its jurisdiction. Let me say I had
drawn up six charges to lay before the Committee. Under each of
these charges I had drawn up the evidence on which the charge de-
pended. I had made what would be called a brief; the charges were
the indictments: and the evidence was practically the speech of the
counsel stating what the charges were. My only deviation from the
legal action was this—that I sent a complete copy of the whole state-
ment that I proposed to make to Mr. Judge; that, I knew was outside
the legal duty, but I did it in order that the case might be met upon
its merit, that he might know everything I was going to say, every
document I was going to use, and every argument I was going to
employ. Although it was irregular for me to do so, standing as I did,
I thought that the Committee was to try a brother, and as we did not
desire any sort of triumph or any kind of advantage but only abso-
lute truth, every possible opportunity for explanation should be
placed in Mr. Judge’s hands. I thought it right to send the whole of
the documents to him, so that he knew every word that I should
speak before the Committee. As I say, when the Committee met Mr.
Judge raised technical objections—one that was overruled, was that
he was not legally Vice-President at all. That was one objection.
The other objection was that, although he was Vice-President, the
offence committed if an offence, was not committed by him as Vice-
President but as a private member. You will observe that that was
what in legal terminology is called a demurrer. He did not challenge
the facts of the case, but he challenged the jurisdiction of the Court
before which the indictment was to be laid: the objection was held
to be a good objection, and I agreed with the finding. I think the
objection was well taken from a legal standpoint, and I hold that Mr.
Judge had the right to take the legal objection if he preferred to rely
on a demurrer rather than meet the case upon its merits. Every ac-
cused person has such a right in Courts of Law, and we are bound
in dealing with members of our Society not to do anything which
would be less generous than the Court of Law would allow him, and
not to deprive an accused brother of peculiar right of defence which
he would have in the courts of his country and which he had a right
to use before ourselves. Regarding that action on Mr. Judge’s part
as fatal to his own dignity and reputation, I urged strongly upon him
not to shelter himself under the technical plea. I could do nothing
more than that. The technical plea was held, and I think rightly, to
be a good plea. The Committee decided that it had no jurisdiction
and therefore could not listen to the charges, much less of course to
any evidence in the matter. According to my view—that is my own
opinion—the Committee should have risen the very moment it had
arrived at that decision. Having decided that it had no jurisdiction,
its work was over, and it should have adjourned; but instead of
that—very likely I may be wrong in my opinion—it thought it right
to allow Mr. Judge to state what would have been his line of defence
if the matter had been laid before the Committee. And on the state-
ment of Mr. Judge that if he had defended himself it would have
involved the question of Mahatmas the Committee further decided
that it should not have tried the charges. Then the Committee rose
and Mr. Burrows proposed that a jury of Honor should be held. Mr.
Judge refused a Jury of Honor, on the ground that his witnesses were
in America and that it would take six months to get together his
evidence. The only importance of that is as having bearing on the
 resolution of the Committee, which was passed by the Committee
before this refusal was made: i. e., that it believed that Mr. Judge
was ready to go on with the case, and therefore that he did not try to
evade enquiry. The Committee said this on the statement of Mr.
Judge, that he was ready to go on: when the Jury of Honor was pro-
posed, and when it might have gone into the case, he withdrew the
statement that he was ready to go on, and said that his witnesses
were away and that it would take six months for him to collect the
evidence. On the following day, in consequence of the strong pres-
sure put upon Mr. Judge by his friends, he wrote and asked suddenly
for a Committee. Such a Committee though would never have been
in any sense representative, and I felt the difficulty at once of refus-
ing it or agreeing to appear before it—difficult to refuse because,
however late in the day, Mr. Judge asked for it; and difficult to ap-
pear before it, because some of the best members had left the place;
so that it would have been a Committee without authority and with-
out dignity, and the whole matter would have been hurried though
in a way not conducive to a proper investigation. Therefore, entirely
on my own responsibility—here you have a perfect right to judge
me if I was mistaken in the action I took on myself—I made a state-
ment in which I declared my own firm belief that these letters were
not genuine, that the writing was a simulated writing, and that it was
done by Mr. Judge. I read that statement before a meeting of Con-
vention delegates, and Mr. Judge followed it, with a statement
denying it, and then it was printed and sent out to the world.
Now comes the point as to the articles that appeared in the West-
minster Gazette. These articles were based on documents supplied
by Mr. Old, including the documents which I was prepared to lay
before the Committee, as well as certain other documents which be-
longed to the Esoteric Section, which I should not have laid before
the Committee. I was and am under a promise of secresy (sic) re-
garding those documents, and under no possible conditions would I
have broken the promise I made. But in addition to the evidence
which was published in the Westminster Gazette, there was a con-
siderable body of other evidence having an exceedingly strong
bearing on the case; so in judging of the value of the statements of
the Gazette, for the purpose of this movement, I take all the docu-
ments which deal with the exoteric and public matters. There were
others in addition, which would have been laid before the Commit-
tee, had I been allowed to lay them. I now pass on to those proposals
which I lay before you. Now it is said, and truly said, that the state-
ments are exparte statements; but while you admit that they are
exparte statements on the part of newspapers, you must remember
that they are statements which would have been laid before a Com-
mittee where Mr. Judge would have been present,—statements that
he might have answered if he desired to answer them, and therefore
they are not exparte statement in the ordinary sense of the term. If
statements are made when a person has had no opportunity of an-
swering them, it is right to demand an answer and to form no opinion
until the answer is made. If the statements have been placed in the
hands of the accused person, and he then, knowing the evidence in
support of them, elects to shelter himself under a technical demmurre
in order to prevent an open trial in regard to the statements made,
then he has no right to claim the advantage of sheltering himself un-
der the plea of the statements being exparte statements, when they
come before the world in the form in which they now appear. There-
fore I consider that that is not a legitimate plea, because the defence
and answer might have been made, and ought to have been made, at
the time. In addition to the statement of fraud against Mr. Judge,
there are statements against me for condoning the fraud, and against
Colonel Olcott and Mr. Keightley for similar condonation. We are
challenged to answer the accusation and I will deal with it in a mo-
ment. Let me say also that it is said that we had a conspiracy of
silence. Against this there is this fact, that I was bound under a legal
agreement of 1893, to be in Australia on the 1st September last for a
lecturing engagement. I was therefore obliged to leave London, and
I took the last ship which made me land in Australia the day before
that on which my first lecture was to be delivered. By sitting up all
night before I started for Australia, I managed by myself to direct a
copy of this inquiry, with my statement that I believed that these for-
geries had been made, to all the leading London papers. In addition
to that, I sent to all these papers a statement which I had drawn up
and submitted to certain well-known persons, with regard to the pol-
icy of concealing or evading truth, or considering that ordinary
morality was not binding on anyone who stood as an occultist. I drew
up that statement and took weighty names to sign it, because I con-
sidered the protest was necessary against the policy adopted by Mr.
Judge, and I desire that all the members of the Society should know
that the President-Founder, Mr. Sinnett, Mr. Keightley, Mr. Sturdy,
myself, Dr. Westcott (who has a peculiar following in Europe) and
Mr. Leadbeater (who is well-known in Ceylon)—these people, who
were known as eminent Theosophists, should be known to stand to
absolute truth against any sort of paltering with it or evasion, against
fraud of any kind; so that the Society might remain clear in the
world’s face. I sent that also to the London papers, and I sent it with
a private note from myself asking them to give full publicity. I placed
all these documents in the hands of my friend Miss Wilson, of the
London headquarters, and asked her to deliver them by hand at the
newspaper offices. The Westminster Gazette was one of the papers I
wrote to asking for publicity. So I do not think there was much hush-
ing up, as far as I was concerned. They say I “rushed” away. That is
true, under the circumstances I told you. But Col. Olcott was there
for over a month after I had left. He was there till the end of August,
he would have answered any question that was asked, and he is the
highest official in the Society. The papers did not say one word about
the whole thing. The Westminster Gazette kept absolute silence, and
three months after these facts were sent it by myself; when I was in
New Zealand and when it knew that I could not possibly answer it in
less than another three months, it then brought out all the
accusations, together with the accusations against myself for con-
doning fraud, and for endeavouring to hush the truth of the matter
for advantages, monetary and otherwise, that were obtained by be-
longing to the Society, and for the sake of the general position which
I hold as one of the leaders of the movement. A telegram came to
New Zealand stating that an exposure had been made, and a little
later another telegram saying that, in consequence of the exposure,
Mr. Judge had expelled me from the Society. I was not able to an-
swer them beyond saying there must be some mistake, not knowing
what had really occurred, and the papers met me in Ceylon when I
landed from Australia. I wrote at once to the Daily Chronicle to say
that an answer would be sent as soon as I landed in England. But on
reading the articles on my way to Madras, I saw no reason to delay
the answer, and I wrote that answer without delay after I arrived here
on Saturday evening, and took it yesterday down to the Madras Mail,
where it will appear tomorrow. I went to Reuter’s Agent and tele-
graphed to the Chronicle that the answer would come by the first
English mail. That answer is now being printed as a pamphlet, to the
number of 20,000 copies, and will be sent to every Branch of the
Society, in order that the full facts may be laid before them in every
part of the world. Now I say that to you, and you will see its bearing
in a moment, on one of the proposals I make. There is in Europe a
very strong feeling on this matter: I have received from the General
Secretary of the Section a list of names eminent in the European Sec-
tion, to whom have been sent out circulars asking those to whom
they were sent to sign the circulars if they approved of Mr. Judge
being called upon to make an explanation. Out of the eighty circulars
sent, 65 answers have been returned. These 65 unanimously demand
that explanation should be made. Out of these 65 signatories, 12 are
signatures of President of Lodges and Society in Europe. In addition
to that, there has been a kind of informal canvass which has been
placed in my hands, in which twelve Lodges and centres demand that
Mr. Judge shall explain or resign. One of them demands that he be
expelled and the rest only ask for explanation or resignation. There
are then seven centres and branches which take a somewhat indefi-
nite position. Three on his side; the others “counsel delay;” one looks
to the Adyar Convention to discuss the matter, and does not wish to
fan the flame. The President of one refuses to place the matter before
his Lodge at all, and one expresses no opinion, content to leave ac-
tion to Headquarters. A more definite expression than that it is not
possible at present to obtain, because there has not been time for the
General Secretary to get answers from all the Lodges. Mr. Mead
wrote to me—I received his letter yesterday—stating what had so far
been done and saying that he believed that an informal appeal had
been sent to Col. Olcott—and that is true—by Mr. Judge’s friends.
No official notice had been sent to him, and the appeal had been cir-
culated privately, so that he could only mention it as information for
me, and not as the Secretary of the Section. I fully agree with what
Colonel Olcott said. There is a strong feeling on both sides. Probably
America is nearly unanimous in Mr. Judge’s support; there are ex-
ceptions, but very few. Probably Australia is equally unanimous
against him, but you must discount that by the fact that I have been
lecturing there and exerting personal influence—not against Mr.
Judge, I did not mention his name—but gaining influence, and. you
should bear this in mind when you are weighing the evidence of feel-
ing. This is not a quarrel over individual opinions. No passion, no
anger should come in; but you should endeavour to do justice. There-
fore while Australasia may be unanimous against Mr. Judge, you
ought to discount it by the fact that I have been lecturing everywhere
with enormous success and that influenced many people; and there-
fore it may be a momentary rush and not a permanent resolution.
With regard to Europe the division is very great. I do not feel as a
European delegate that I have any right to vote as a delegate on this
matter. I lay before you exactly the facts of the division in Europe
and I tell you my own personal opinions. When I return, there will
be a very strong if not an overwhelming party in favour of the policy
of truth, of absolute honour and uprightness, and unless something
is done, some of our best people will immediately leave the Society
and public propaganda will be rendered well-nigh impossible. In
England, for a public man to be accused of dishonorable conduct and
for him to refuse to resign office or to meet the charges, is a practi-
cally unheard of procedure. I do not mean to leave the Society, and
I shall not resign even though Mr. Judge refuses to resign and is not
willing to give explanation. I shall go on with my work. But I am
bound to tell you that on every platform on which I shall stand, I
shall be met with this difficulty as to dishonor. I will bear it. I will
face it, and stand by the Society despite the difficulty. My own ap-
proval goes with those who challenge the action of Mr. Judge as
dishonorable, and regard the Society as most seriously compromised
by having for its Vice-President such an official second in com-
mand—and first in command when our President leaves us—and
another President has to take his place. Now this is the first opportu-
nity that we have had of speaking. Therefore it is that I move the
resolution, and let me say that I quite admit, what Col. Olcott said as
to the possibilities of unconscious fraud under mediumistic condi-
tions, of wrong acts being thus done. But that is not a point which an
official, such as the Vice-President of a Society that stands on a
moral ground before the world, should take in his defence of official
position. Mediumship is an excuse for the individual against moral
judgment. It is no excuse for an official who under mediumship com-
mits acts of moral turpitude, and has thereby shown that it is his duty
to at once resign his official position, inasmuch as he is not respon-
sible for his actions, and therefore must refuse to lead the Society
into a position so detrimental to its honour. I had better read the res-
olution and then you can follow the remaining argument:

“Seeing that a series of articles has appeared in the Westmin-

ster Gazette, London, containing charges of deception and fraud
against Mr. W. Q. Judge, now Vice-President of the Theosophical
Society; and
“Seeing that a strong body of evidence has been brought forward
against the accused, and
“Seeing that the attempt by the Society to bring the matter to an
issue last July was defeated by Mr. W. Q. Judge on a purely technical
objection to the jurisdiction of the committee; and
“Seeing that Mr. Judge, being Vice-President of the whole So-
ciety, has issued a quasi-privately-circulated attack against one Sec-
tion thereof, thus stirring up ill-feeling within the Society, and en-
deavouring to set the West against the East, contrary to the first
object of the T. S. generally, and to the 2nd object specifically and
“Seeing that this is the first occasion since July on which a repre-
sentative body of Theosophist has been gathered together; and
“Seeing that immemorial custom requires of every honourable man
holding representative office in any Society to at once tender his res-
ignation under such circumstances as are stated above.”
“Therefore the anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society
Resolves;
“That the President-Founder be and is hereby requested to at
once call upon Mr. W. Q. Judge, Vice-President, Theosophical So-
ciety, to resign the office of Vice-President; it being of course open
to Mr. Judge if he so wishes, to submit himself for re-election, so
that the Society may pass its judgment on his positions.”
Proposed by ANNIE BESANT
Seconded by BERTRAM KEIGHTLEY

The following are my reasons for submitting that resolution to

you. I urge you to ask Mr. Judge to resign, because his office is an
office for life, or rather during the life of the President. If it were
only a yearly office, then at the end of the year you would have an
opportunity of pronouncing your judgment as to whether you agree
or disagree with having a man against whom certain charges had
been levelled as your officer. You have not the power of such an
election, because the tenure of Vice-Presidentship is practically
unique, save that of the President. The two stand apart. There is no
re-election; therefore it is the more necessary that if a man is chal-
lenged, if his honor is challenged, he shall give his office back to the
Society which has the right of saying either: “We will take you with
the charges against you,” or else, “We prefer to be represented before
the world by some one else.” I therefore call upon Mr. Judge to re-
sign, and I say that he ought to restore to the Society its liberty of
choice in this matter. Then I call on him to resign because that course
is always taken by honorable people when a challenge is made; not
that the challenge is necessarily true. H. P. B., as the President told
you, resigned the Corresponding Secretaryship the moment the Cou-
lomb charge was laid against her. She was there as the Secretary. She
resigned office the moment the charges were laid, in order that the
Society might not be compromised by the attack made upon herself;
by the vote of the Society confidence in her was declared, and then
she took back the office. Is not that the precedent for Mr. Judge to
follow, claiming, as he does, to be the pupil of H. P. B.,—leaving the
Society to put him back in his place, as it put her back, if on a review
of facts, it considers him innocent of the charges that are made
against him? I say it is always done. So strongly do I feel this that,
though I hold no office in the Society as a whole, though I am noth-
ing more than the President of a local Lodge, holding my office on a
yearly tenure, although I was re-elected President of the Blavatsky
Lodge in September last, yet, in that these charges had been made
against me in the following month, the same mail that takes my an-
swers to the newspapers charges, carries my resignation of the office
of President of the Blavatsky Lodge, and then I stand for reelection.
If they think my answer is sufficient, they will put me back as Pres-
ident. But I will not hold office, even a local office for a year or the
nine months remaining, unless by their free-will they give it back to
me, after my honor has been challenged and my good faith has been
impugned; and inasmuch as I am thus challenged—and challenged
also by Mr. Judge with the practice of black magic and with working
under black magicians, I say to the Lodge, the only body to which I
am responsible: “Here is the office you gave me before the charges
were made; I will take it back if you give it to me, having listened to
the charges made. But I will not drag you into the charges against
me, I will save your honor as the Blavatsky Lodge, and cut myself
away from you until you re-elect me.” Then there is another and a
serious point. I have in my hand a document that ought not in a pub-
lic meeting to be held by me. This document appears as an esoteric
document written by Mr. Judge, sent to a person in India expelled
from the Esoteric Section, published in the Westminster Gazette in
part and completely, I am told, in a newspaper in Bombay; so that
the whole of what is now thus published is public property. In that
certain statements are made. I see their force perhaps more than you
do, for the report of the American Section read to us just now, says
in a veiled way what this circular openly says. I have to draw your
serious attention to this as a matter affecting the future of the Society.
It is stated in the document now before you that there is a plot, and
in this which is circulated under the pledge of secrecy—but which is
circulated in such a manner that it reaches the public press, and eve-
rything in it, slanderous or otherwise, has its full public effect on
public mind—it is distinctly said that there is a plot amongst black
magicians,—influencing certain Brahmans in India through race-
pride and ambition, to control and manage the T. S. That these ma-
gicians have picked me out as their agent, and have used as an
intermediary my honoured friend, Mr. Chakravarti, chosen, you will
remember, by the Indian Section and some Brahmanical societies as
their Delegate to the parliament of Religions: that the Brahmans and
their agents engineered the charges against Mr. Judge, and I prac-
tised black magic on Mr. Judge and two others. Mr. Judge further
takes on himself to say that there are no true Initiates in India, and to
praise the West as against the East, asserts that a great seat of
Western Occultism is to be set up, and that this was the object of H.
P. B. I am ashamed to say that the holy name of the Master is at-
tached to this attack on the East, on the Brahman caste, and on
individuals. Now my reason for bringing this forward is that it is
being circulated all over India, and with what result? The Vice-Pres-
ident of our Society attacks the whole of the Indian Section, and all
its Brahman members. Charging one of them by name, and the whole
of them in this general vague way, with a desire to guide and control
the Society charging some of them with black magic; charging them
with using me as an agent and a practiser of black magic, in order to
bring about this plot; so that an officer of the Society secretly circu-
lates this kind of attack against one of the Sections, setting the East
against the West, stirring up disunion and unbrotherly feeling and
strife in our midst; contradicting the very first declared Object of the
Society, that we know no distinction between races; and contradict-
ing our second Object, viz., to familiarise the West with the
literature, philosophy and religions of the East, and to demonstrate
the importance of that study. I maintain that when an official takes
up such a position, he ought at least to resign, so that the Sections
may say if they desire to be thus represented in the face of the world;
so that the Indian Section may have the right to say whether it en-
dorses this slander, whether it considers that these attempts are being
made under the shelter of black magicians, whether it considers, as
it has the right to consider, that Mr. Chakravarti and myself are their
agents; if so, we most certainly ought to be expelled. I say, when an
official has to meet such charges, he is bound in the commonest
honor to resign the office that protects him, and to allow the Society
to re-elect him, if it endorses the statements he has made. These then
are the reasons why I ask for his resignation. Let me say he misrep-
resents the feeling in the West. There is no such feeling against you,
my Indian brothers; there is no such widespread belief in such a plot.
Take America, and see how your own delegates were welcomed
there. Take Europe, and see how Professor Chakravarti was
welcomed; and I may tell you from my own personal knowledge
that, so great has been the effect of the speeches which he made be-
fore the Chicago Convention, that some of the noblest of our people
in England look at the present time to him as one of the best repre-
sentatives of Eastern thought in the movement; and they will be
outraged and scandalised by such a charge, coming with all the au-
thority of the Vice-President, against him. Therefore I ask his
resignation, I do not ask his expulsion; to expel him would be to take
action too hurriedly, would be to take action that, I hold, you have
no right to take, until the very last effort has been made to deal with
the matter in gentler and kinder fashion. Myself and brother
Chakravarti are most hit at, both in public and in that circular. It is
he and I against whom the worst and the foulest of these accusations
come. I have had no opportunity of consulting with him; he is far
away; he has taken no part in the whole of this business; and there-
fore, I am unable to say to you what his opinion is. I am acting on
my own responsibility, without his judgment, and therefore I may
not commit him, not having asked his views; but I venture on my
knowledge of him, to say one thing in his name, as I say it in my
own, that we are the two that or most outraged by this attack,—and
we seek no revenge. I say to you, being thus charged, that I am not
willing to expel my brother; I am not willing to forget the work he
has done, and the services he has rendered. I have learnt that when
you are struck at, you may not strike back in anger, nor deal with the
matter with a personal bias, nor with passion, nor with wrath. I ask
him to resign; and then he can be re-elected if the Society thinks it
right. That, I hold to be the duty of any honorable man. That, there-
fore, I hold to be his duty. If I have any influence with you, if my
words can go for anything in pleading, if my desire has any weight
in any of your hearts, I ask you not to use bitter language, not to be
carried away by the insult to our beloved India or by any other rea-
son. Arjuna was told to strike; Arjuna was told to fight; but without
passion, unattached, separate from the outer action, and at peace
within. Let us take that as our model; let us ask our brother to resign,
and let him justify himself if he can. But do not prejudge him by
expulsion, which puts another stigma on him in the face of the world.
Ask him to take action which every honorable man may take, and
which every honorable man ought to take. Ask our President to re-
quest him to do it, so that it may preserve the peace of the Society.

MR. B. KEIGHTLEY:
Mr. President-Founder and Brothers:
In seconding the motion which Mrs. Besant has just read to you,
but very few words are needful on my part, after the admirably clear
and lucid statement of the whole circumstances and events in this
matter, and of the reasons which have led her to propose this step to
the present meeting. With regard to my own position in the matter,
my resignation will, in the course of today, be in the hands of the
Convention of the Indian Section in due course. I am a yearly officer
and it rests with my Section, charged as I have been with condoning
fraud, either to choose to re-elect me or otherwise. I have tried in
the matter to act honestly. When I thought we had a sufficiently well
considered and strong case, I urged the President-Founder to take
public action. When I return to Europe, I found that some links in
the chain of evidence utterly broke down; I therefore advised my
other colleagues here to proceed no further in the matter but to wait
for further evidence. That further evidence was supplied by Mrs.
Besant herself from her own knowledge. As soon as the case stood
complete, action was taken immediately. I was a party to the Judi-
cial Committee, I gave it as my opinion, that the technical objection
raised by Mr. Judge was a sound and good one. As a lawyer, I held
it was well taken, and hold it so even to this moment; and then find-
ing that the Committee was abortive, I signed a strongly-worded
protest against tampering with truth or deviation from honesty. It
was signed by Mrs. Besant and others, and sent with the copy of
judicial proceedings to every newspaper in London. If then you hold
with these facts before you, that I have condoned a fraud, it lies with
you to elect someone in the course of today as General Secretary to
the Indian Section in my place.
I hold that, be he guilty or be he innocent, Mr. Judge ought to
have taken that course long ago. His resignation ought now to be in
the hands of the Society. His resignation would neither have de-
clared his guilt nor would it have proved his innocence. It would
have been the course that any honorable man would have taken. I
am reminded of another case in point, in which Mrs. Besant played
a part; the famous case of the “Knowlton pamphlet.” She was then
Vice-President, while Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, Member of Parlia-
ment, was President, of the National Secular Society. They thought
it right to publish a certain pamphlet known as the “Knowlton pam-
phlet” which became the object of a criminal prosecution. The very
moment that these proceedings were commenced, both Mr. Brad-
laugh and Mrs. Besant tendered their resignations of their offices as
President and Vice-President in the National Secular Society. Sub-
sequently, they were triumphantly re-elected and re-instated. That
was the precedent which every honorable man ought to have fol-
lowed, a precedent which the creator of this movement, H. P. B., set
before you; this is the precedent which Mr. Judge as Vice-President
should have followed. His not having followed it, places him in my
estimation in a false position. It places the Society to which we all
belong, in a position which is absolutely untenable; and therefore I
hold, that it is our duty here today to formally move, the President-
Founder to request Mr. Judge to tender his resignation—not,
thereby in any way prejudging his guilt or innocence, but simply
reminding him of that duty which, as an honorable man and as an
officer of this Society, he should have long ago recognized and per-
formed. Therefore I second this resolution of Mrs. Besant’s and
endorse everything which she has said. Her statement of facts has
been accurate to the letter and I trust that this meeting, this anniver-
sary gathering of the Theosophical Society, will pass this resolution
without a single dissentient voice.

An amendment was moved by Captain Banon and seconded by

Miss Muller, calling on the President-Founder to take steps to expel
Mr. Judge from the Theosophical Society.

CAPTAIN BANON said: I beg to move the following amendment to

the last part of the resolution, and that is that the President-Founder
be and is hereby requested to take the necessary steps in accordance
with previous precedents to expel Mr. W. Q. Judge from the Theo-
sophical Society. I wish to say a few words. I have been a member
of the Theosophical Society for the last 13 years. Mr. Judge is a
perfect stranger to me: Mrs. Besant is a perfect stranger, and Mr.
Chakravarti is a mere acquaintance of mine; but my particular care
and my particular desire is for the welfare of the Society. I do not
care for any person in it. I desire everything to be for the good of
the Society, and I think public opinion expects us to take this course
of expelling Mr. Judge. He has thrown out his challenge to us that
we are afraid of expelling him. You may say I am pre-judging, but
in the Esoteric pamphlet Mr. Judge has given his answer and you
know what that answer is. It is not the first time a member has been
expelled from the Society. Dr. Elliot Coues was expelled for an of-
fence very much less than what Mr. Judge has done. We ought to
treat Mr. Judge in very much the same fashion.

Dewan Bahadur S. SUBRAMANIER (sic) said:

Mr. President and gentlemen, I wish to make an observation before

you come to a conclusion with reference to this resolution. I am not
going to speak either in support of the original resolution or in sup-
port of the amendment, because, so far as I am concerned, the point
I wish to suggest to be considered before you go to consider the
question of what step you shall eventually take, is whether you will
ask Mr. Judge to resign or you will ask him to be expelled. I only
wish to prevent our getting mixed, as appears to be the case. I would
rather that Mr. Judge be called upon to defend himself upon the
original charges of forgery which have been brought against him, I
don’t wish that further charge should be now added in this resolu-
tion. I think he should be called upon to defend himself on those
two charges for the reasons which have been so eloquently ex-
plained to you by Mrs. Besant. I think we should not place ourselves
in the position of judges. He has made an imputation upon Mrs.
Besant; he has made an imputation upon Professor Chakravarti.
And after the eloquent speech we have had from Mrs. Besant, it may
be said—as Mrs. Besant remarked with reference to the Australa-
sian Colonies – that we are under the spell of her eloquence, and we
have made up our minds to do this in regard to it. This charge, I
admit, is an extremely serious one. It is a charge, looking at it from
a lawyer’s point of view, which is rather difficult to establish. From
its moral point of view, it is extremely grave, and on that the general
public does not agree. As to the charges already brought against
him, we know a prima facie case has been made against him with
regard to forgeries, and with reference to those forgeries he was
called upon to defend himself in London. He evaded the defence.
Now, we should, therefore, confine our proceedings to the charges
of forgery brought against him. If you are going to mix up the
charges he brought against the Eastern Section; if you mix up with
it the imputations he made against Mrs. Besant and Mr. Chakravarti,
it would look as if we were actuated by some personal feelings. Now
the attempt to produce disruption between the East and the West is
an extremely discreditable one. To me, it appears, it is perfectly in-
capable of doing any harm or injury. The point is: Has the Vice-
President been guilty of those charges of forging Mahatmas’ letters,
as it had been alleged? We should call upon him to defend himself
against it. And if he fails to do it, other courses could be taken. I
would, therefore, suggest to you that one small clause in Mrs.
Besant’s resolution dealing with new imputations, should be left
out, and that the rest of the resolution should stand as it does, and
then in fact the ground would be absolutely clear. I can assure, you
have a very astute man in Mr. Judge to deal with. This addition of a
new charge will give him technical ground for another evasion. We
must try to fix him at the point. He has been charged in Europe; and
has not given any explanation. I think the Society is bound to call
upon him to defend himself, and if he does not afford proper expla-
nation, we will mete to him the condignest punishment he deserves.
Whether we should come to the conclusion that he should resign,
or, he should be expelled, it is somewhat premature. We are in a
Society in which he has a legal position as a member and as an of-
ficer, and before we actually pass any punishment or pronounce any
judgment he is entitled to be heard. I look at it purely as a lawyer,
as if the question would be looked by a judge when it comes before
the court. Undoubtedly, the guilt may be clear, and yet I think a most
guilty person is entitled to be heard before he is condemned.

THE PRESIDENT: The Constitution of the Society requires the man

to be heard.

Mr. SUBRAMANIER continuing: I do not know if the Constitution

does not contain these rules. The court will impose these rules. If
you catch a man red-handed at the scene of murder, he is entitled to
bring his witnesses. He may be a monomaniac. I think therefore,
gentlemen, Mr. Judge is entitled to say what he has to say before
you condemn him. Therefore the resolution I would suggest is, that
of Mrs. Besant with the exclusion of that clause in regard to the
punishment, after we have received the explanation. I am extremely
sorry that this matter has to be postponed. I know what discredit has
been brought against the Society from the time the charges of for-
gery have been brought against us, I can assure you that for many
years I found it difficult to own that I belonged to this Society. The
time has come, as Mr. Banon has said, when we are bound to go to
the very bottom of this matter, and if it is found that Mr. Judge is
guilty to have it proclaimed to the world that he has been guilty, and
that the Society has been imposed upon. However strongly you may
feel, we should not omit to take legal procedure. I, therefore, suggest
that the resolution proposed by Mrs. Besant with that clause omit-
ted, should in fact form the subject of the indictment that he should
be called upon to submit his explanation and upon that explana-
tion you should come to the determination as to what you
should do. I don’t think that the Society will suffer by the
course we suggest. All that the public will like to know.
Therefore, we may well delay, and call upon him to submit an
explanation. If he raises any technical objection, then we shall
arrogate to ourselves the deciding what we shall do.

THE PRESIDENT:
I may state that the argument of the honorable gentleman is entirely
irrelevant, because every right of the individual is protected by our
Constitution. No man would have any right to expel Mr. Judge, or
make him resign, without giving him the chance of defence. This is
nothing but an informal meeting of the Society to express its opin-
ion. The members have a perfect liberty to ask me to take action as
the Executive, subject to the approval of the General Council. The
Motion of Capt. Banon can only be accepted as the expression of
the opinion of those who will support his amendment. The time has
not come when we should expel Mr. Judge. We may ask him to
resign, but must, before expulsion, give him every opportunity of
answering charges made against him. I will now request Dr. Huebbe
Schleiden, as a renowned Doctor of Laws, to favour us with his
views on the subject.

Dr. HUEBBE (sic) SCHLEIDEN :

Brothers and friends. Let me begin by saying that I agree with the
amendment which has now been made. I understand it to be this:
1. that we first of all call upon Mr. Judge to resign his office in
our Society;
2. that, secondly, we ask him to give a full explanation; and
3. that, in case Mr. Judge fails to comply with these requests
within the year 1895, the President-Founder be pleased to take the
necessary steps to remove Mr. Judge from his office of Vice-Presi-
dent of the Society.
I must say, that I think we ought to take no violent measures save
for the most urgent reasons. 1 endorse fully all that Mrs. Besant has
said. Mr. Judge has done a great deal for our Society and is doing
so now. I have been good friends with him and I have personally
nothing against him. But now at last the moment has come, that our
Society ought finally to be purified of all phenomenalism with its
unavoidable deception and fraud. Our principles ought to be
changed.
I do not know whether all of you realise the importance of this
move, whether you are aware that hundreds of our present and of
our late members, those who are now members of the Society and
many others who have sorrowfully left it, look—as it were—down
upon us here now at this moment, for which they and we all have
waited so long and which has now come at last.
Believe me, the reason why hundreds of good men—and some
of the very best men there are in the world, in every race, here in
India, in England, in Germany, in America and everywhere—be-
lieve me, the reason why these men have not joined our Society at
all or have sorrowfully left it, although they quite agree that our
movement embodies the greatest ideas that man can ever conceive,
is that these ideas have not been carried out in practice. Our objects
are the search after divine wisdom and its realization within us. But
hitherto the main attraction to it has been made the reference to phe-
nomena and the hunting after psychic powers, which have nothing
to do with the spiritual aspirations that are our final object. The au-
thority of “Masters” is brought into play, instead of everyone being
taught that there ought to be for no one any higher authority than his
own conscience, his own intuition, and his own impartial and im-
personal reasoning. All that playing at “Masters” and pretensions of
psychic powers, precipitating letters and all the rest of that tomfool-
ery, is absolutely hostile to really genuine aspiration and is
detrimental to all spiritual progress. And it is this which has brought
our Society into all its calamities, almost from the beginning—and
now again.
We must, therefore, now at last declare that we members who
are here present at the celebration of this Anniversary of our Soci-
ety, will not stand this nonsense any longer; that we will aspire to
the realisation of divine wisdom, but have nothing to do with psy-
chic phenomena, will not allow ourselves to be misguided and
obstructed by them, and will not be deluded by any secret authori-
ties or any other such sham pretensions.
Those who have left the Society because they could not wait for
this moment to come, because they could not bear to see the noble
aims of the Society dragged down into the mud, those cannot help
us now. They are not here and if they were they would have no voice
and no vote in the matter. But we who are here now, we have the
right, nay, we have the duty to stand up for that which we aspire to
as true and good and against all that we know is base and is per-
verted.
Truthfulness ought to be one of the first requirements for every
Theosophist. And the honour of truth ought to be given to everyone
to whom it is due. This is a particular reason why I recommend this
amendment to you. Mrs. Besant said that she would continue to
work for the Society, even if Mr. Judge did not give a satisfactory
explanation and should still remain Vice-President, but that she
would then have to stand on every platform under this shadow of
being somehow linked to fraud and to deceit. We dare not accept
this sacrifice from her; we must rid her of this dreadful spell; we
must force Mr. Judge to do what he is in honour bound to do, if he
will not do it voluntarily. Mrs. Besant has been defamed publicly
for things which were absolutely untrue. That is bad enough. But
being blamed for things which are true, which oneself despises but
still with some remote reason one is made responsible for, that is
unbearable. We ought not to expose Mrs. Besant to such a disgrace.
I do not know if any one of you would ever brave out such a posi-
tion.
If, therefore, Mr. Judge will not comply with our demand to re-
sign his Vice-Presidentship or to give a full explanation which will
be satisfactory to the leading members of our Society—we shall
then be obliged to remove him from his office. We ought not to
allow a prominent member like her, the beloved exponent of The-
osophy all over the world, to suffer under such a ban as she would
be obliged to face. These are my reasons, and I second the amend-
ment of the Honorable Subramanier.

MR. E. M. SASSEVILLE:
Brother Theosophists, I come from America. I am extremely
glad to be present here today. I have been a Theosophist for over ten
years. I little dreamt when I first joined, that this happy day of our
meeting would ever come. I never expected that I would ever have
the pleasure of looking at so many faces of my Hindu brethren. I
must say that, if I speak in that way I am sure that I also represent
the sentiment of probably ninety-nine per cent, or even a hundred
per cent of the American Theosophists. Our leader, Mr. Judge—for
I must still call him our leader—has been with us for years, and has
done grand and noble work. We all acknowledge it. All the Ameri-
cans would certainly stand by him, no matter what happened to him.
Mr. Judge probably has been guilty of something, I am afraid. What
it is I cannot say, because I have not heard his side of the case. But
I think that the motion brought by Mrs. Besant, requesting the Presi-
dent to ask Mr. Judge to resign, is a just and proper one. Yet I am
entirely against the amendment to the motion, which asks for his
expulsion from the Society. If you expel Mr. Judge before having
asked him to resign, before giving him a chance, as the honourable
gentleman put it, to say what he has to say in his explanation—I
think you will commit a hasty action, and it will charge heavily on
the whole Society. Please remember that the American Section of
the Theosophical Society is no very small branch. It would be a pity
to expel Mr. Judge in a hasty fashion, and thus injure the cause of
Theosophy in our country; and not only in our country, but all over
the world. Please remember that Mr. Judge, although he may be
guilty, still has done great work. He has been ever since the founda-
tion of the Society in the harness and has worked for the cause.
Please remember this, and do not act too hastily. I am happy to bring
you brotherly greetings from all the American Theosophists.

MR. KEIGHTLEY:
With the permission of the President, I would like to clear up
some misconceptions. We are getting confused in regard to the is-
sues before us. My friend, Mr. S. Subramanier has contributed
unwittingly to our confusion. He has endeavoured to make out that
the Resolution as moved by Mrs. Besant, and seconded by myself,
formulated a new and fresh charge against Mr. Judge, or in a way
condemns him, or passes judgment. It does nothing of the kind. It
recites a number of facts, none of which can be disputed. It recites,
first, the appearance of the articles in the Westminster Gazette; sec-
ondly, it recites the charges of fraud and deception, supported by a
large body of evidence. It then goes on to recite various other points,
including the point that his recent publications have tended to raise
strife in the Sections. It then shows that every honorable man, be he
guilty or innocent, under circumstances of this kind would naturally
tender his resignation of office in such a Society as ours, without
hesitation. And it only asks him, in conclusion, as a matter of
common honour and honesty, to place his resignation in the hands
of the President, and it asks the President to call upon Mr. Judge to
do so. That is a clear issue. It does not pronounce any opinion on
Mr. Judge. It does not expel him, it does not remove him from the
office of Vice-President; but it simply reminds him of a duty which
he ought to have long ago recognised on his own account. I wish to
say also that I am strongly opposed to such hasty action as would
be involved in the Resolution of expulsion. I fully agree with my
friend, Mr. Subramanier and with Mr. Sasseville, who has just spo-
ken. It would be a most untheosophical, most wrong, most injurious,
as well as most illegal proceeding to pass a resolution expelling any
member of this Society without first formally calling upon him for
an answer to the charges against him. That you must remember. The
Resolution of Mrs. Besant calls upon him to place the office of the
Vice-President back into the hands of the Society, so that when his
official answer is made, when his defence is before the Society, he
may then offer himself for re-election, and by submitting to that or-
deal, give an opportunity to the Society to pronounce its final
verdict; because, owing to his own course of raising technical ob-
jections, it is impossible for this Society to take any judicial action
against him, or bring him before any court before which he could
make his formal legal defence. The only way to give him an oppor-
tunity to make his defence, is by his placing the resignation in the
hands of the President-Founder, and then standing for re-election.

THE PRESIDENT:
There was an opportunity given Mr. Judge last July to make a
defence. He has not yet refused to make an explanation, as I under-
stand it, so far as I know, but I am in hopes that he will do so. I
cannot conceive of his doing otherwise, however many affectionate
friends may dissuade him. The tone of all his private letters to me is
that he is innocent of wrongdoing, and as one of his oldest and
staunchest friends I should deplore his shirking a full and precise
official explanation. It is for us to see whether he is disposed to meet
the wishes of the Society in this respect. Further action may be taken
later.

The COUNTESS WACHTMEISTER: An opportunity was given to

Mr. Judge last Summer at the European Convention of the T. S. to
give his defence on these charges, and he through a lawyer’s quibble
evaded that opportunity. Why should we come forward again to ask
him for an explanation (hear! hear!) It seems to me that the course
proposed by Mrs. Besant is the right one. I think that we should ask
him to resign the Vice-Presidentship, and when he has resigned let
him come forward as a gentleman and as an honourable man, and
clear himself of these charges. If he does so satisfactorily, we will
receive him with open arms as our brother. We have no enmity
against him. We appreciate his work for the T. S. We know what he
has done for the Society, and therefore if these charges of deceit and
fraud can be answered in an honest and satisfactory manner, we will
welcome him back most cordially. What strikes one as both heart-
less and cruel in Mr. Judge’s conduct is the mine he exploded on
Annie Besant when she was thousands of miles away in Australia,
giving out publicly, as he did, that she is not only a victim of black
magic, but that she herself has practised black magic. When this
bomb exploded, the misleading news reached Australia that she had
been expelled from the Society by Mr. Judge; the work was im-
peded; the public thought that she was in disgrace, and few people
came to her lectures.
Last year when we were here, Mr. Old and Mr. Edge wished to
bring forward all these charges before the Indian Section—but Mrs.
Besant objected, on the plea that it would be unfair to Mr. Judge to
bring these charges behind his back: honourable conduct on her
part, very different to the mean tricks played upon her by Mr. Judge.
The President-Founder in his Address deplored the conduct of Mr.
Judge in accusing Mrs. Besant of black magic. It is a very grave
charge, my friends, and I beg you to think of it seriously, and if you
will only endorse what the Colonel has so ably said in his Address,
disapproving entirely of Mr. Judge’s accusation against her, you
will then give to Annie Besant a vote of confidence.

THE PRESIDENT:
Let us close the matter by bringing it to a practical issue. This
meeting, although representative of several Sections, has no legal
power whatever to expel Mr. Judge. This meeting can only recom-
mend to the Executive of the Society, who represents the General
Council, to take certain action. It has been suggested here, first, by
Mrs. Besant, that Mr. Judge be requested to resign. In the second
place, it has been suggested by Capt. Banon that he be summarily
expelled; and in the third place, it has been suggested by Mr. S.
Subramanier that he be requested to explain and if he does not ex-
plain or resign, that steps be taken to remove him from the office of
Vice-President. Mrs. Besant has the floor for a rejoinder.

MRS. BESANT:
I need do nothing in reply except to sum up the points on which
your decision has to be made, and I do ask of you to preserve a quiet
dignity in so serious a matter. It is not a matter for laughter. It is not
a matter for passion. It is a matter involving the future of a great
spiritual movement, and you should, I think, show dignity and a
quiet spirit. In giving your vote for it, you will have to answer in the
future. The first amendment that will be put to you by the Chair is
that of the Honorable S. Subramanier. If his speech had been deliv-
ered a year ago, I should have agreed, but we have done exactly
what he now asks us to do again. We have asked Mr. Judge to ex-
plain. We have called him before the Judicial Committee, which is
the only constitutional and legal way of trying him. We asked him
there to meet the charges and he evaded the whole thing. To ask him
over again is to put yourselves in the absurd position of finding
yourselves next year exactly in the position where you were at the
commencement. He will probably go through the same succession
of excuses, prevarications and evasions. And, remember that all the
trouble of the best lawyers in your Society was taken last Spring to
find out the way in which he could be brought to book. There is no
other way in the Constitution except the one tried. and which failed;
so that if you pass that amendment you will practically tell your
President to do what he has already done—to waste another year in
doing what the past year has been wasted in doing—and at the end
you will be exactly where you are now. If Mr. Judge gives no ex-
planation and keeps his position in the face of the world, then there
comes the question, how are you going to force him to act. There is
no other way. You have a Constitution and you cannot break it; you
have laws and you must abide by them. There is no way of reaching
Mr. Judge except the way you have tried. Then comes the question
of expulsion; but you cannot expel him. You may start on lines
which ultimately, you hope, will lead you in that direction, but noth-
ing more. But remember that, supposing you pass the original
Resolution and through the President call on him to resign, that does
not deter the General Council from expelling him if he does not
choose to make his explanation. I can conceive nothing more un-
wise, more rash than to plunge into the act of expulsion, because
one gentleman says that my statement is true. That gives you no
reason to refuse to hear Mr. Judge. That is not judicial, to expel him.
To ask him to resign is to leave him absolutely free. To ask him to
do what an honourable man would have done a year ago, is the only
thing remaining to be done. I am seeking to clear the Society and
not to raise party spirit. Mr. Judge says one thing; Mrs. Besant says
another thing. Let them both look for one thing, that is the Society’s
welfare. Let the thing be fought out; but the Society should not be
compromised in the face of the world. So I ask you to say “No” to
both the amendments; that is, to keep your hands carefully at your
sides without raising them, until the original Resolution is put
before you, and then to vote upon it. Let me say one thing—that
mistake may not arise; one word with reference to the telegram
which the Countess Wachtmeister said was sent by Mr. Judge to
Australia. It was a newspaper telegram. I have no reason to believe
that Mr. Judge sent it. With this public statement I leave the question
in your hands.

At this stage a voice from the audience demanded an adjourn-

ment, but the motion fell through for want of a seconder.
The President then put the first amendment, that of Captain
Banon [that Mr Judge should be expelled], to the meeting and it was
lost.
Mr. S. Subramanier having withdrawn his amendment, the orig-
inal Resolution of Mrs. Besant was put to the vote and carried, nem.
con.

***

At the opening of Chapter XXIII of Old Diary Leaves, Fifth Se-

ries (The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, 1975, pp.
310-311), we find the following heading: ‘THE AMERICAN
SECTION SECEDES (1895)’. And this was Col. Olcott opening state-
ment:

I sailed from Bombay on the 10th of May in the French steamer “La
Seine” and at Suez was transferred to the “Australien,” and sailed in her
for Marseilles on the 21st. The reader may picture to himself my astonish-
ment when, on reaching Marseilles on the 30th of the month, among the
large number of letters awaiting me was one from Mr. Judge notifying me
of the secession of the American Section on the 28th of April, last past.
This was his first intimation to me of his intention, and his reward for my
judicial impartiality and undiminished friendliness up to that moment. If
this might not be called a crisis, what would? However, I lost no sleep
over it nor shed a tear; I simply regarded it as an act of moral suicide which
concerned only the individual himself: as for its destroying, or even per-
manently weakening the Society I did not entertain the thought. The fact
is that a dozen such “crises” would not make me pass a sleepless night or
lose a meal, for down to the very roots of my being I have the conviction
that those who are behind this movement are stronger than all adverse
forces which could be combined together. If the eyes of our timid mem-
bers could only be opened like those of Elisha’s servant, they, like him,
would see “the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about”—
the Society.

The emotional language used by Col. Olcott in this statement re-

flected, possibly, the serious gravity of the moment lived by the
Society. The fact is that the new Society, established under the Mr.
Judge’s leadership, attracted a considerable number of members and
generated a lineage of distinguished writers and exponents of The-
osophy, including Gottfried de Purucker, Boris de Zirkoff, Geoffrey
Barborka, Charles J. Ryan, H. J. Spierenburg, James A. Long and
Grace F. Knoche, among others.
With very few exceptions, the leaders of the several Theosophi-
cal organizations inspired by the work of William Q. Judge were
not excessively critical towards the TS with Headquarters at Adyar.
The latter, for example, cooperated significantly with the project of
publishing H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, edited by Boris de
Zirkoff. And more recently, Tim Boyd, international President of
the TS with Headquarters at Adyar, invited a number of speakers
from other Theosophical organizations to participate at the Interna-
tional Convention at Adyar. Also, the International Theosophical
Conferences have been attracting members from all Theosophical
groups in an atmosphere of harmony and serious study. Theosophy
is bound to remain the focus in all of them, in spite of their differ-
ences in approaching it. For as HPB wrote in her message to
American Theosophists in 1888:
 Many who have never heard of the Society are Theosophists without
knowing it themselves; for the essence of Theosophy is the perfect
harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his
god-like qualities and aspirations and their sway over the terrestrial or
animal passions in him. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or
selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as
to one’s self, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches
the gospel of goodwill; and the converse of this is true also,—he who
preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.
(http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/five_messages.htm)