Articles
Four Foreign Women in Bharat (India)’s Public Life
Dt: 21/4/25
Four Foreign Women in Bharat (India)’s Public Life
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
India was profoundly affected by the invasions of Islamic tyrants and iconoclasts, followed by British imperial rue and loot, together lasting for over a thousand years. While imperial Britian was ruling Inda and after, four remarkable foreign women came to India and played a significant role in public life.
1. Dr Annie Besant ( 01-10-1847 - 20 -9- 1933) : Born Irish, cherished socialist ideas while in Britain. She came to India on 16 Nov 1893, two years before the founding of the Indian National Congress. She dedicated herself to India, was profoundly influenced by Hindu dharma and its noble ideals: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam; Ekam Satt; Viprah bahuda vadanti; tamasoma jyothirgamaya… She involved herself in India’s struggle for freedom and Hindu renaissance. She founded the Home Rule League , the Central Hindu College in Banaras in 1898 which flowered into Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Feb 1916. At the BHU’s inauguration Gandhiji was ranting against the large donor Maharaja Prabhu Narayan Singh of Banaras. Annie Besant interrupted and berated him for his unbecoming discourtesy to a benefactor. Such was her moral stature. She was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1917, the only woman to
adorn that post before India’s independence. She headed the Theosophical Society in India; (1847-1933 Sept 20) established a vast campus for it in Adayar, Chennai. She translated the Bhagavad Gita into English. She lived as an enlightened Hindu, as a noble Bharatiya. Her final, fervent message to Hindus was:
India and Hinduism are one
After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect none so scientific none so philosophical and none so spiritual than the great religion known by the name of Hinduism.
Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil into which India’s roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism, who shall save it? If India’s own children do not cling to her faith, who shall guard it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.
A Mumbai’s arterial road is known as Dr Annie Besant Road. A street in P&T Colony, Karkhana, Secunderabad is named after her.
2. Sister Nivedita: An Irish born ( 28-10-1867) Margaret Noble met Swami Vivekananda in England in 1895; became his disciple and came to India in 1898,settled in Calcutta; renamed herself as Nivedita ( dedicated) ; read Bharat’s classics Mahabharat, Ramayana, Bhagawata besides the speeches and writings of Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh and Tilak. She helped and involved in Swaraj and Swadesh movement of Lal-Bal-Pal’s 1905-11. She wrote copiously instructing and inspiring Bharatiyas’ struggle for freedom. She clandestinely helped Aurobindo to escape to Pondichéry to avoid imprisonment by the British. She established a school for children, instilling in them Hindu dharma ad patriotism. Her noble books are: Cradle Tales of Hinduism, Kali, the Mother ; Myths of the Hindus; The Master As I Saw Him (Vivekananda) . She saw the annulment of Bengal’s division for which she joined the Lal-Bal-Pal’s Swaraj-Swadesh movement. She passed away as a sister of India on 13 Oct, 1911.
3. Mother Teresa ( 26-08-1910 05-09-1997) : She was born in Albania. She came to India in Jan 1929 to convert abandoned an d distressed children mostly in Calcutta to Christianity. She founded the Missionaries of Charity and Loreto Convent School in Calcutta. She travelled extensively especially to the USA to raise funds for her Mission to sustain her work to convert orphans in Calcutta to Christianity. She was canonized as a Saint by the Pope Francis on 4 Sept 2016; she is alleged to have performed three miracles to qualify as a saint. She won Noble Peace Prize in 1979; Padma Sree in 1962; Bharat Ratna in 1980; official Biography was by Navin Chawla in 1992 .
The mendacity, lies and connection with rich criminals in the US and her false claims had been researched by one time admirer of her, Dr. Aroup Chatterjee of Calcutta in his book, “The Untold Story: Mother Teresa” published in 2016.
4. Sonia Maino Gandhi :
4.1 She is currently the most widely known and discussed foreign woman in India’s public life . She was born ( 9-12-1946) in a poor Italian family; went to make a living in UK ; took some lessons in English an d met Rajiv Gandhi ( then a pilot in Indian Airlines) in a hotel where she was working ; Rajiv Gandhi fell in love with her; they were married ( 1968) and the Italian lady entered the house hold of the ruling Nehru -Indira Gandhi’s family in Delhi. She saw the death of the politically active Sanjay Gandhi and the exit of his wife, Maneka Gandhi from India Gandhi’s house in sad circumstances.
4.2 After Sanjay’s death Indira Gandhi inducted Rajiv as Congress Party’s Secretary . After Indiraji’s assassination in October 1984, Rajiv got himself sworn as Prime Minister. Sonia Gandhi took Indian citizenship in 1983 , 15 years after living in the Prime Minister’s house.
4.3 Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. Sonia Gandhi kept aloof from politics but became Chair person of Rajiv Memorial Trust to which, Prime Minister’s PV Narasimha Rao’s government gifted Rs. 100 cr. She is widely believed to help the wheeler-dealer Italian Quattrocchi of Bofors scandal escape from India. While keeping quiet for seven years ( 1991-98), suddenly in March 1998 she was seated in the Chair of Congress President, Sitaram Kesari who was pushed into a bathroom and locked. Thus began her entry into politics as Congress Prescindent. The Congress since 1998 has become Sonia family’s possession. No Indian including Nehru or Indira has held the Presidentship or leadership of the 1885 born Indian National Congress as Sonia, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka (MSD), the Indo-Italian family. In Hem Barua’s words (Congress is Indira; Indira is Congress), since 1998; Congress is Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka.
4.4 Sonia Maino Gandhi staked her claim to be Prime Minister in 2004 but , President APJ Kalam thwarted it by asking weighty inconvenient questions about her citizenship. Her chance to rule India came in 2004 when she became Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) including the congenitally anti-Hindu communist parties, regional anti-BJP parties like DMK (TN), Samajwadi (UP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) . In 2004, the NDA led by Atal Behari Vajpayee was defeated. Sonia-led UPA put her nominee Manmohan Singh as PM. She created and headed the National Advisory Council to direct what the UPA government should do . Her advisers were Ahmed Patel, Antony, Harsh Mander… . all anti-Hindu people. S he got he UPA government to create the National Waqf Development Corporation in 2013-14 and the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2006. Her nominee Prime Minister launched the “Muslims First” development programs.
4.5 Her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka won election to the Lok Sabha from the Muslim majority Wayanad constituting in Kerala. The Sonia family -led Congress is virtually a Muslim-Christian-secular anti- Hindu coalition ( with CPI as its fawning partner in Telangana). The Mother-Son-Daughter (MSD ) party i.e Congress has not even one Congress MLA or MP in Andhra Pradesh. (1212 words)
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