Annie Besant was:
- 1.Responsible for starting the Home Rule Movement
- 2.The founder of the Theosophical Society
- 3.Once the President of the Indian National Congress
Select the correct statement/statements using the codes given below.
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only
Annie Besant launched her Home Rule League in 1916 and presided over the Congress session at Calcutta in 1917, so statements 1 and 3 are correct. She did not found the Theosophical Society. Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott founded it in 1875; Besant joined in 1889 and led it later.
- ✓ 1. Besant, together with Tilak, launched the Home Rule Movement in 1916. Tilak started his League in April 1916, and Besant's All India Home Rule League followed in September 1916.
- ✗ 2. The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott. Besant joined it only in 1889 and later became its President, so she was not its founder.
- ✓ 3. She was President of the Indian National Congress at the Calcutta session of 1917. She was the first woman to hold the post.
- ✗ (d) This option includes statement 2, which is wrong. Leading the Society is not the same as founding it.
- ✗ (b) This option wrongly accepts statement 2 and drops statement 1, which is correct.
Remember · Theosophical Society: founded 1875 by Blavatsky and Olcott. Besant was its President (from 1907), started the Home Rule League (1916) and was Congress President (1917).
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 8 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Chapter 2 “together with Annie Besant, an Irish philosopher, reformer and political activist who became a passionate supporter of Indian self-government, Tilak launched the Home Rule Movement”
- Annie Besant – Past Party Presidents, Indian National Congress ↗ · reference work “First female President of Indian National Congress: 1847-1933 (Calcutta, 1917)”
- Theosophical Society – Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗ · reference work “Founded in New York City in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky of Russia, it was originally inspired by Kabbala (Jewish esoteric mysticism), gnosticism”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2013, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
