Annie Besant was a 19th- and 20th-century British-born social reformer, political organizer, religious leader, and prolific writer whose career spanned England and India. After a deeply Christian youth, in the 1870s and 1880s she embraced and promoted atheism and advocated workers’ rights, women’s rights, and birth control access. In 1889 she joined the Theosophical Society, a religious organization based in Adyar, Madras (now Chennai), India. She moved to India in the 1890s and later became president of the Theosophical Society. In India she promoted Hindu cultural revival and education reform. In the early 20th century she became a prominent leader in the Indian Independence Movement and the first woman president of the Indian National Congress.
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