THEOSOPHY AND POLITICS
Neo-Hinduism and Theosophy
In Prof. Bevir's opinion, noticeable similarity between the teachings of the Theosophical Society (TS) and the movements of Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, and Dayananda Sarasvati allows you to consider them as variations of neo-Hinduism. He wrote that they constitute a "coherent and related set of religious ideas and movements constructed in a particular social and cultural context." In fact, these were attempts to form a "new spirituality" to decide the dilemmas associated with British colonial rule and modern scientific discoveries. (Bevir, 2000, p. 163)
After the TS founders' moving into India in 1879, educated Indians were particularly impressed that Blavatsky and Olcott began to defend their ancient religion and philosophy, contributing to the growth of people's self-consciousness against the foundations of colonial power. Ranbir Singh, the Maharajah of Kashmir and a Vedanta scholar, sponsored Blavatsky and Olcott's travels in India. Sirdar Thakar Singh Sandhanwalia, founder of the Singh Sabha, became a master ally of the Theosophists. In 1915, Annie Besant stated that the British were the first foreigners to come to India, with no intention of "learning from her culture," but solely for the purpose of money-grubbing. They had even conquered India by the "fraudulent ways of the tradesmans."
"England," Besant said, "did not 'conquer her [India] by the sword' but by the help of her own swords, by bribery, intrigue, and most quiet diplomacy, fomenting of divisions, and playing of one party against another." (Besant, 1915)
Like other neo-Hinduists, the Theosophists tried to convince the Indians of the value of their own civilization, to pride in their past, creating self-respect in the present, and self confidence in the future. In her countless speeches and lectures, Besant invariably emphasized the wisdom and morality of Hindu ideals, the magnificence of India's past, and encouraged Indians to restore the glory of their civilization which they lost during the period of British colonial rule.
Bevir noted that in India Theosophy became an "integral part" of a wider movement of neo-Hinduism, which gave Indian nationalists a "legitimating ideology, a new-found confidence, and experience of organisation." He stated the Theosophists, like Dayananda Sarasvati, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo, eulogised the Hindu tradition, however simultaneously calling forth to deliverance from the vestiges of the past. Theosophists and neo-Hinduists were urging nationalists to view the country as a whole, as having a common heritage and facing a set of problems requiring an all-Indian answer. They managed to make popular the belief in the "golden age" when India was free from spiritual and social problems like modern ones. They suggested that even now India continues to possess that spirituality that is not in the West and without which the West cannot do. (Bevir, 2000, pp. 166, 169)
Allan Hume as a politician
Allan Octavian Hume, a British colonial official in India, together with Alfred Percy Sinnett participated in a correspondence with the Theosophical mahatmas organized by Blavatsky.
He joined the TS in 1880 and already in 1881 became the head of its section in Simla. Even before the meeting with the Theosophists, Hume had the opportunity to read secret reports from many places in India (it was in 1878), which convinced him that most of the native population was unhappy with British rule and was ready to oppose the colonialists even in arms. Since the opinion of the mahatmas on the situation in the country confirmed the reports of 1878, Hume concluded that they decided to warn him of an impending catastrophe in order that he, using his authority and connections in the British administration, help prevent this catastrophe.
First of all, Hume tried to persuade Lord Ripon, the Viceroy of India, to reform the administration of India so as to make it more responsive to the Indian people. In addition, he decided to promote the idea of a pan-Indian organization, through which the native people could express their concerns and aspirations. He believed that the future organization should be called the Indian National Union. In 1885, this idea obtained support of Poona Sarvajanik Sabha as well as the Bombay group for an all-India political conference to be held in Poona during December 1885. By visiting Madras and Calcutta, Hume persuaded local leaders to agree with his plans to create an Indian National Union. The first session of the organization was held in Bombay in December 1885, and its members immediately called for renaming it into Indian National Congress (INC). Hume became its general secretary. (Bevir, 2000, p. 172)
In Bevir's opinion, Hume was able to carry out his plans, largely due to the fact that he worked with people whom he repeatedly met at the annual conventions of the TS. Theosophy had a specific impact on Indian nationalism. Hume and some Indians who obtained Western education used it for political purposes, in particular, to provide the conditions for the formation of the nationalist movement. (Bevir, 2000, p. 173) It should also be noted that no Indian could become the founder of INC and, as Gopal Krishna Gokhale wrote,
"if the founder of the Congress had not been a great Englishman and a distinguished ex-official, such was the distrust of political agitation in those days that the authorities would have at once found some way or other to suppress the movement." (Wedderburn, 1913, p. 64)
Annie Besant as a politician
Besant, who replaced Olcott as president in 1907, reaffirmed the role of the TS as "a religious and cultural" organization, but not political one. However, 1913 was a turning point in the activities of Besant herself. At the end of this year, she gave a series of lectures under the general title "Wake Up, India." The experience of the nationwide political agitation acquired by her in England included public speeches, the publication of newspapers and brochures, and participation in lawsuits. In 1914, Besant started off publication of two political newspapers, a weekly The Commonwealth, and a daily New India. During the year, she published in New India articles that discussed the role that INC should play. Many of the most significant publications confirming her views belonged not only to Theosophists, such as Krishna Rao and Srinivasa Aiyar, but also to other nationalists. Thus, Besant tried to impose onto INC a more radical political programme. She required self-government for India in the near future, and she wanted INC to put forward this demand, leading a propaganda campaign using methods known to her to work in England. In her opinion, INC should have "formulate, proclaim, and promote" the views of enlightened India on all problems of public importance. She wrote that "politics should become a permanent feature of the life of the Indian people," and not a three-day event, limited by the annual session. (Besant, 17 October 1914)
In September 1916, Besant established in Madras the All-India Home Rule League (HRL) which numbered a year later 27,000 members. The Council of the League entered: A. Besant, G. Arundale (third president of the TS from 1934 to 1945), R. Aiyar, S. Aiyar, B. P. Wadia (a founder of the first Indian trade union), A. Rasul, and P. Telang, only Ramaswami Aiyar was not a Theosophist, and even he was a sympathiser. Additionally, although the number of the League members was about five times the size of the Indian section of the TS, the members of the TS were often leading followers in the affiliates of the League, for example, in Tanjore, Srinivasa Aiyar headed the local sections of the TS and the League; in Calicut, Manjeri Ramier owned an office in both organisations; 68 out of 70 people in the Bombay City section of the League were members of the TS. The League called its immediate task to set up campaigning among the delegates of the upcoming session of INC in order to make the politics of Home Rule its dominant one. Bevir claimed as follows: