By John B Monteiro

Mangaluru, Oct 1: Besant educational institutions in Mangaluru are set to commence the centenary celebrations of their first school, on Sunday, October 1. The day also marks the birthday of Annie Besant after whom these educational centres are named.

The laying of the foundation for Besant Primary School in 1918, by Annie Besant, was a landmark in the history of education for girls in this city. Presently the Besant organisation imparts education from Balwadi to post-graduation. The institute mainly located at M G Road, Kodialbail, has an MBA college at Bondel.

Annie Besant

Incidentally, girls’ education in Mangaluru started in 1885 when, responding to the request of Hindus, Apostolic Carmel sisters started an elementary school adjoining the existing St Anne’s School near Rosario church. The institute moved to Dongarkeri in 1887 under the name Victoria Caste Girls’ School. In 1921, it moved to Urwa Junction with the title Ladyhill Victoria Girls’ High School.

The Besant Educational Organisation of today is a tribute to Annie Besant whose footprints are all over India, with roads being named after her, including Mumbai’s main artery at Worli. In this context, it is interesting to go back to the founding of theosophy movement, which Besant fronted, in Mangaluru in the first decade of the last century. Its mission was 'seeking the truth'.

Theosophical Society: Quest for Truth

The search for truth formally started in 1875 in New York when madam H P Blavatsky and col HJ Alcott founded The Theosophical Society. It was founded to turn people’s attention away from gross materialism, which was growing fast in the west, and towards spiritual values of life. It was soon felt that the most suitable place for international headquarters of the society was India. In 1879, the founders shifted the headquarters first to Bombay and then to Adyar in Madras in 1882.

The three declared objectives of the society were - to form a nucleus of universal brotherhood, encourage the study of comparative religions, and investigate unexplained laws of nature and powers latent in man.

Their collective motive was to remove religious antagonisms, their desire to study religious truths and share the results. They were bound by a common search and aspiration for truth. They saw every religion as an expression of the Divine Wisdom and prefered its study to its condemnation, and its practice to proselytism. Peace was their watchword. Truth was their aim.

City welcomes theosophy

That search for truth has been going on in Mangaluru since 1901 when the society’s chapter was established in the city.

When Blavatskey first came to India, a group of persons from Mangaluru greeted her on the high seas off Bunder and requested her to start a branch of the Society here. Thus the charter of the Mangalore Theosophical Society was obtained on August 13, 1901. But, it had no building of its own and its meetings were held in convenient places.

The first visit of Annie Besant, the second international president, in 1909, gave a boost to the activities here. The society acquired a five cents plot at Kodialbail at the PVS junction and constructed a modest building, consisting of a small hall, which was opened in 1923. All regular activities of the society were held in the mini-hall, renamed Besant Mandhir in 1947. There were ups and down in the society’s functioning until 1993 when regular discourses on Patanjali Yoga Suthras, Bhagavad Geetha, Prakarana Granthas and Bible began to be conducted four days a week.

Additionally, there were study group sessions on J Krishnamurthi. Special lectures were arranged almost once a week.

The resource persons that led the regular weekly meetings, the tireless discoursers, held forth on their chosen subjects irrespective of the audience, even if they were five in number. They used a microphone to cope with the noise from the adjoining main road. They also installed an additional glass barrier on the main door to shut out noise. The regular discoursers included Mizar Sadananda Pai, S R Mallya, K P Shenoy and Reuben Nazareth. In 2001, during the centenary celebration a tally was made of the number of their discourses, which normally lasted one hour 6 to 7 PM. Pai totaled 899; Shenoy, 420; Nazareth, 237 and Mallya, 221.

The highlight of its activities in early 2000s was the centenary celebration in 2001 which was held at the Woodland Hotel, with about 300 participants. Radha Bernier, the seventh international president of the Theosophical Society, did the honours. Post-centenary, the society tried to rope in younger persons through management programmes, among others. But, as Brinda P Rao, then treasurer, said in despair, philosophy cannot divert the attention of the youth from more mundane studies, exams and career advancement.

Mangaluru theosophists played a pioneering role in women’s education. The Besant Educational Institutions on MG Road, Kodialbail, were founded and nurtured by theosophists here. Annie Besant and her band of workers strived for rapid progress of female education by forming Balika Shikshana Sabha. Its school initially functioned from the ancestral bungalow of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Czarina of Indian culture, from June 1918.

The foundation for the present school structure was laid by Annie Besant in November 1918. From June 1927, Mangalore Theosophical Society took over the management of the school directly. But, financial exigencies compelled the society to hand over Besant National Girls School to the then newly formed Women’s National Education Society, with five representatives of the Theosophical Society on the governing council.

The Theosophical Society, Brinda Rao noted, “Has had a profound influence (on its members). It has been a great spiritual centre for them to share their ideas and imbibe the spirit of catholicity, of hospitality to new ideas and new ways of life.”

In this age of inter-religious conflicts the study of comparative religions has assumed greater relevance. But, the low profile functioning of the society and its philosophical bias has come in the way of attracting the younger generations.

Regardless, the theosophists continue to chase the truth.

Andre Gide says, “Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it”. May the theosophists never find the truth and, thus, live and strive for long.