Annie Besant was born of Irish parents in the city of London, in the year 1847. At the very early age of sixteen, she had a keen desire to wage war against sin and misery. By the time she was of the age of eighteen she became a well known leader of militant atheism.
In the year 1855 she left home to be educated at the feet of Ellen Marryat and after her education she returned home after a long spell of eight years. In 1867, she married a clergyman of the name of Frank Besant.
She also joined the Theosophical Society and became its leader for Europe and India, in 1891. In the year 1893, Annie Besant came on a visit to India and she never looked back. India became her home, as; she loved the country of India and its inhabitants, the Indians.
As the President of the Theosophical Society Annie Besant founded several schools in India it was she who started the Central Hindu College. This same college, in later years became the very well known Hindu University of Banares. Education was not the only interest of Annie Besant.
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She also had a keen interest in politics of the times, and she joined the National Movement of Indian., against the British regime in India, by joining the erstwhile party, the Indian National Congress.
As a member of the Commonwealth, she demanded full and complete freedom for India, from the bondage of the British. In the year 1917, she became the President of the Indian National Congress but, later on she had to resign from the Congress due to her differences with Mahatma Gandhi.
Inspite of being an Irish by birth, Annie Besant loved India so much that, once she came here she never looked back to her country. It is not only that she married an Indian to show her love for the country and its people; she also actively participated in activities of the countrymen.
She adopted India as her motherland and worked with devotion for the country, in all important spheres of its existence. She worked for education, for society, and for politics.
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Thus it may be said that, though Annie Besant was a foreigner, she did a lot of work for the Indians she loved, and so earned a name for herself in this country, by sheer hard work and complete participation in the local affairs of the country. She lived in India, worked for Indians, and died here in the year 1933.