Google doodle celebrates Annie Besant’s 168th Birthday

Drawn to theosophical beliefs in India, Annie Besant visited India first in 1883. She ran a newspaper New India, which had vehemently criticised the British rule.

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Drawn to theosophical beliefs in India, Annie Besant visited India first in 1983. She ran a newspaper New India, which had vehemently criticised the British rule.

On Annie Besant’s 168th birth anniversary, Google honoured the social reformer with a google doodle on its homepage.

A TIME’s report said that the doodle was drawn by Lydia Nichols on a blue background. Besant is seen sitting on a chair, clad in a saree, holding a copy of New India, the Indian newspaper which she had edited in 1914. The newspaper had vehemently criticised the British rule.

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Being a leading member of the Indian National Congress, she played a significant role in advocating women’s rights in the country and had earlier fought for birth control in the UK. She was also an active member of the Indian National Movement.

Drawn to theosophical beliefs in India, Besant visited the country first in 1883, according to the BBC , and later converted into a theosophist; propagated the beliefs around the globe. She considered her adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, an incarnation of Lord Buddha.

Besant passed away in India on 20 September 1933.