KOCHI: A proposal to confer Annie Besant (1847-1933) with ‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest civilian award of India, was recently referred by the Committee on Petitions of Lok Sabha to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The proposal, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was submitted by Alappuzha-based A Sivasubramanian, a perfumer by profession. He is also the treasurer of the Theosophical Society, Alleppey (established 1903 ) and a trustee of Sanathana Dharma Vidya Sala (established 1905), both founded under the inspiration from Annie Besant.
“If the award is conferred on Besant, it will serve as a motivation for the coming generation to know about her contributions to the country,” said Sivasubramanian. One of the major contributions of Besant, was the starting of schools and colleges through Theosophical Society across the country, which provided value-based education in both vernacular and western languages, he said.“The move was a counter to the British who encouraged only missionary schools that taught only English to sustain their rule and propagate their culture in the country. Besant established these institutions at a time when the country had only a six per cent literacy rate,” he added.
“She played a leading role in the home rule movement which trained people in lessons of democracy and also founded the newspaper ‘Madras Standard’ in 1914 (which was rechristened as New India) to provide news regarding the freedom struggle,” Sivasubramanian said. “Annie also mentored Mahatma Gandhi, who admired and respected her for her efforts in preserving the Indian culture and also for laying a strong and systematic foundation for the Indian freedom movement,” he said.
He also believes that a ‘freedom corridor’, which exhibits details about freedom fighters with their photographs from Mangal Pandey (1857) to Mahatma Gandhi (1948) also needs to be placed acros s Collectorate offices in the country to make people aware about the sacrifices made by these freedom fighters.