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The Theosophical Society – USA, 1875
Founders:
- Lady Madame Blavatsky (Russian) and Colonel Henry.S.Olcott (USA) started the organisation to preach about God and Wisdom (Theos means God and Sophos means wisdom).
- The main principles of the Theosophical Society were to develop the feeling of fraternity, to study ancient religions, philosophy and science, to find out the laws of Nature and development of divine power in man.
- Shifted to India at Adyar, Chennai in 1886.
- Theosophical Society stimulated a study of the Hindu classics, especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.
- The Theosophical Society also played an important role in the revival of Buddhism in India.
- With the death of H. S. Olcott in 1907, Besant succeeded him as the international president of the Theosophical Society.
- She founded the Central Hindu College in Benaras (later upgraded as Benaras Hindu University by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916).
- She involved herself in politics and founded the Home Rule Movement in 1916.
Annie Besant started newspapers
- Commonweal – 1914
- New India – 1915