The Role of South India in the Freedom Movement

A Short Note on Annie Besant

Annie Besant who was of predominantly Irish lineage was a renowned theosophist. In 1889, she enrolled as a member of the Theosophical Society. Devoted and diligent, she was chosen president of the Society after the death of Col. Olcott. Her interest in theosophy and Hinduism brought her to India in 1893. She lectured on Hinduism and glorified it as the fount of all religions and the cradle of civilisation.

Soon after becoming a member of the Theosophical Society she visited India for the first time in 1893. The Society was then led by Henry Steel Olcott and Besant and is today based in Chennai, and is known as the Theosophical Society, Adyar. Thereafter, she devoted much of her energy not only to the Society, but also to India's freedom and progress. Besant Nagar, a neighbourhood near the Theosophical Society in Chennai, is named in her honor.

Annie Besant entered the political scene in 1913 when she publicly recommended that the House of Commons set up a Standing Committee for Indian affairs. She pleaded that India be recognised as a nation and be given self-government. She started two papers:

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the weekly Commonwealth and the daily New India. In 1915, at Bombay she enunciated her plan to organise a Home Rule League. This was established in September 1916 after she failed to persuade Tilak to allow her to combine the League he had already established. Tilak who wanted to join the Congress found it difficult because of the distrust of the Congress leaders. It was Annie Besant who finally persuaded them to to a reconciliation with him; the death of Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta made things easier. Along with Tilak she played no small role in bringing about some kind of Hindu-Muslim unity in the Lucknow Congress in 1916.

The Lucknow Pact made in December 1916 was an agreement made by the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League and adopted by the Congress at its Lucknow session on December 29 and by the League on 31 December 1916. The meeting at Lucknow marked the reunion of the moderate and radical wings of the Congress and was dominated by Tilak. The pact dealt both with the structure of the government of India and with the relation of the Hindu and Muslim communities. Four-fifths of the provincial and central legislatures were to be elected on a broad franchise, and half the executive council members, including those of the central executive council, were to be Indians elected by the councils themselves. Except for the provision for the central executive, these proposals were largely embodied in the Government of India Act of 1919. The Congress also agreed to separate electorates for Muslims in provincial council elections. Apparently, this pact paved the way for Hindu-Muslim cooperation and unity. However, there are many who feel that this was a wrong step and was in fact the first step in creating a permanent division between the Hindus and Muslims. The later history of India amply proves this. Sri Aurobindo had been repeatedly warning of the dangers of communal representation. He wrote in 1909: 'The question of separate representation for the Mohammedan community is one of those momentous issues raised in haste by a statesman unable to appreciate the forces with which he is dealing, which bear fruit no man expected and least of all the ill-advised Frankenstein who was responsible for its creation.... We will not for a moment accept separate electorates or separate representation, not because we are opposed to a large Mohammedan influence in popular assemblies when they come but because we will be no party to a distinction which recognizes Hindu and Mohammedan as permanently separate political units and thus precludes the growth of single and indivisible Indian nation. We oppose any such attempt at division whether it comes from an embarrassed Government seeking for political support or from an embittered Hindu community allowing the passions of the moment to obscure their vision of the future.'2

Much later Sri Aurobindo wrote: 'What has created the Hindu-Muslim split was not Swadeshi, but the acceptance of the communal principle by the Congress, (here Tilak made his great blunder), and the further attempt by the Khilafat movement to conciliate them and bring them in on wrong lines. The recognition of that communal principle at Lucknow made them permanently a separate political entity in India which ought never to have happened.'3

At about the same time, most ironically, Mohammed Ali Jinnah too opposed the idea of a separate electorate for the Muslims. In the words of Krishna Iyer: 'He opposed the Muslim League's stand of favouring separate electorate for the Muslims and described it as a poisonous dose to divide the nation against itself. He collaborated with the Congress and actively worked against the Muslim communalists, calling them enemies of the nation. He had been much influenced by the speeches of Naoroji, Mehta and Gokhale whom he adored. Naoroji as Congress President had emphasised the need for a thorough union of all the people and pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to 'sink or swim together'. 'Without this union, all efforts will be in vain', he added. Jinnah was in full

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Annie Besant with Henry Olcott (left) and Charles Leadbeater (right) in Adyar in December 1905

Annie set up a new school for boys at Varanasi: the Central Hindu College. Its aim was to build a new leadership for India. The boys lived like monks. They spent 90 minutes a day in prayer and studied the Hindu scriptures, but they also studied modern science. It took 3 years to raise the money for the CHC. Most of the money came from Indian princes. In April 1911, Annie and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya met and decided to unite their forces and work for a common Hindu University at Varanasi. Annie and fellow trustees of the Central Hindu College also agreed to Government of India's precondition that the college should become a part of the new University. The Banaras Hindu University started functioning from 1 October 1917 with the Central Hindu College as its first constituent college.

Besant received many tributes during her lifetime. Perhaps the most beautiful one came from Sarojini Naidu: 'Mrs. Annie Besant was a great woman, a warrior, a patriot and a priestess. Many creeds were reconciled in her. Her essential qualities were her unquenchable thirst for freedom.'

She inspired the people through her patriotic ideas. She delivered many of her speeches at Marina and Luz in Chennai. Her writings and speeches helped freedom fighters achieve their goals. S. Subramaniya Iyer, Thiru V. Kalyana Sundaranar and Dr. Varadarajulu Naidu and E. V.Ramasamy Naicker helped her to promote the Home Rule ideas.

C. Vijayaraghavachariyar, Thiru V. Kalyana Sundaranar, Varadharajulu Naidu, E. V. Ramasamy Naickear, S. Srinivasa Iyangar, Sathyamurthy and K. Kamaraj were the agreement with this view. He deprecated the contrary separatist policy advocated by the League. leaders of the Moderates. They played a vital role in the Freedom Movement in South India. 4

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