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Besant Annie : (1847-1933) born in London to Mr William Page Wood: educated privately in England, Germany & France: married Rev. Frank Besant, 1867, divorced 1872: became a free-thinker & for the next eleven years she worked in close association with Charles Bradlaugh in Labour & Socialist movements: joined National Secular Society 1874: worked co-editor of National Reformer, member Fabian Society & Social Democratic Federation: but a breach occurred between them in 1889 when she turned to Blavatsky’s philosophy [Buckland]. ― Mrs Besant was member of London School Board 1887-90, & in India evince a keen interest in national education, & in 1898, she founded the Central Hindu College Benares which later merged into the Benares Hindu University. She threw in her lot with the Indian National Congress which she joined (says Sitāramayyā) in 1914. In 1916 she founded the Indian Home Rule League which proposed a different programme & goal than the Home Rule League one already formed by Tilak, resulting inevitable clashes of their ideologies based on their vastly different knowledge & experience of Indian politics. Ultimately Gandhi’s juggernaut crushed both movements (see Khilafat Agitation) & put Besant practically out of the Congress. In her How India Wrought Freedom, she called India her ‘motherland’. She joined Theosophical Society in 1880, became a devoted pupil of Mme Blavatsky & President of Theosophical Society 1907 until her death.