Annie Besant was a free thinker, socialist and a theosophist.She had Irish origin and supported the Irish struggle for self rule.She was in England from 1908 to 1914 and was very much impressed by the movement for “Home Rule” by the Irish people against the English. While in England she set up a Home Rule League and convened its first meeting in Queen’s Hall, London.
Her association with theosophical society brought her to India and she relentlessly worked for religious,educational and social reformation.Along with her theosophical activities, Besant continued to actively participate in political matters. She had joined the Indian National Congress. As editor of the New India newspaper, she attacked the colonial government of India and called for clear and decisive moves towards self-rule.
Annie Besant had a remarkably diverse and varied life. Brought up in a religious household and married to Revd Frank Besant. She divorced her husband and became involved in radical politics, atheism, socialism, theosophy and birth control amongst other campaigning issues. In imperial terms, her interest was connected to two causes; that of Ireland and then India.
Annie Besant’s participation in the 1877 Knowlton Trial initiated the debate around widening access to birth control information in the late nineteenth century , although rarely openly and publicly discussed, various forms of contraception and family planning were in widespread use across nineteenth-century British society. But the information was constrained, however, the high prices meant publications were more readily available to wealthier families.
In 1877, the birth control debate was placed firmly in the public eye when Freethinkers Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were tried for selling Fruits of Philosophy (1832) by Charles Knowlton, a pamphlet containing birth control information. Although it had been in circulation for decades, Fruits had recently been banned in Britain under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857.
With their defence of the pamphlet, Besant and Bradlaugh staged a public and highly performative protest based on the neo-Malthusian argument that working-class families should have access to birth control information in order to limit the size of their family according to their income. A Malthusian League was established, which is a British organisation which advocated the practice of contraception and the education of the public about the importance of family planning. It was established in 1877 and was dissolved in 1927. The organisation was secular, utilitarian, individualistic, and “above all malthusian.” The organisation maintained that it was concerned about the poverty of the British working class and held that over-population was the chief cause of poverty. The league was initially founded during the “Knowlton trial” of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh in July 1877.
They were prosecuted for publishing “fruits of Philosophy “ which explained various methods of birth control. The League was formed as a permanent body to advocate for the elimination of penalties for promoting birth control as well as to promote public education in matters of contraception. The trial demonstrated that the public was interested in the topic of contraception and sales of the book surged during the trial.
Besant’s role in the campaign was public and personalised, she spoke in her own defence in court and went on to publish her own birth control information pamphlet. A range of scholars have hailed the trial as “the beginning of democratisation of birth control knowledge”.Besant credited with causing a “mass revival” of the birth control debate , and many scholars describes the trial as “a victory for birth control” as well as “a personal triumph for Besant”
Annie Besant’s Feminism
There is a clear sense of gendered identification and solidarity across class lines in Besant’s recognition of the impact of repeated pregnancies on women’s health and wellbeing. There is also a feminist agenda implicit in making reproductive health a public issue rather than a private concern for women. However, like many nineteenth-century works of birth control advice, including Fruits as well as Place’s pamphlet, Besant represented family planning as the responsibility of both parents and showed that her campaign had wider social implications as well.
Besant argues throughout her feminist writings that women’s rights, autonomy and wellbeing affected society across divisions of class and gender, and therefore deserved public representation. Publications such as Besant’s 1874 pamphlet The Political Status of Women show that she considered the issue of women’s human rights to be an explicitly political matter,arguing for women’s right to vote.
Dr. Annie Besant in India
Dr. Annie Besant came to India in 1893 as a member of Theosophical Society having its headquarters at Madras. She very much loved the Indians. She also embraced Hinduism and devoted herself for the cause of social and educational upliftment of the Indian people. On her return to India in 1914, she propagated for the Home –rule movement’ and in no time, won the support of leaders like Jinnah and Lala Lajpat Rai.
For the sake of propagating her views, she also started periodicals with the titles ‘Common weal’ and ‘New India’ which formed the backbone of the Home Rule Movement. Mrs. Annie Besant who was arrested in June 1917 was subsequently freed by the British Government in view of the mounting national resentment. It was a time when the popularity of her personality and the Home Rule movement was at its zenith.
On 26 December 1917 she became the first woman president of the 32nd Indian National Congress meeting at Calcutta. This event marked the culmination of the Home Rule movement but the movement remains memorable for its two great contributions. First, it brought about unity in the ranks of the Congress. Mrs. Besant took much of the moderates and something of the extremists and fused them in such a way that the two wings of the Congress came closer. Secondly, it went a long way in changing the character of the Congress. It virtually forced the Congress to take apprenticeship in methods of ‘demand’ and ‘agitation’ abandoning its earlier methods of ‘petition’ and ‘prayer’.
Dr.Basant is a true inspiration to women across the globe for her contribution for the democratisation of birth control knowledge .
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