Annie Besant

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2012

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the prominent 19th-century social reformer Annie Besant. Born in 1847, Annie Besant espoused a range of causes including secularism, women's rights, Socialism, Irish Home Rule, birth control and better conditions for workers. Described by Beatrice Webb as having "the voice of a beautiful soul", Besant became an eloquent public speaker as well as writing numerous campaigning articles and pamphlets. She is perhaps most famous for the key role she played in the successful strike by female workers at the Bryant and May match factory in East London in 1888, which brought the appalling working conditions of many factory workers to greater public attention.

Later in life she became a follower of theosophy, a belief system bringing together elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions. She moved to India, its main base, and took on a leading role in the Indian self-rule movement, being appointed the first female president of the Indian National Congress in 1917.

With:

Lawrence Goldman Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, University of Oxford

David Stack Reader in History at the University of Reading

Yasmin Khan Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You don't need us to tell you there's a general election coming.
0:04.6	So what does it mean for you?
0:06.4	Every day on newscast we dissect the big talking points,
0:10.1	the ones that you want to know more about.
0:12.3	With our book of contacts, we talk directly to the people you want to hear from.
0:16.8	And with help from some of the best BBC journalists,
0:19.4	we'll untangle the stories that matter to you.
0:23.0	Join me, Laura Kunsberg, Adam Fleming, Chris Mason and Patty O'Connell for our daily
0:28.3	podcast.
0:29.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Science.
0:35.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use,
0:38.0	please go to BBC.co.uk,
0:41.0	UK forward slash radio4.
0:42.0	I hope you enjoy the program
0:45.4	Hello in the summer of 1873 of vicar in Lincolnshire the Reverend Frank Bessant
0:50.2	issued an ultimatum to his wife. she must either take Holy Communion regularly at his church or leave him.
0:57.0	His wife would be gone to doubt her Christian faith later wrote,
1:00.0	hypocrisy or expulsion, I chose the letter. The woman's name was Anibescent and she went on to become
1:05.4	one of the most prominent social reformers of the late 19th century. The causes she fought
1:09.8	for included not only secularism and women's rights but also freedom of speech
1:14.1	socialism Irish home rule and better conditions for workers. She spearheaded the
1:19.2	celebrated strike by match goals at the Bryanon-Mai factory in Bea, East London in 1888, and was put on trial for obscenity
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.