The Central Hindu College and Theosophical religious education

Record summary

Annie Besant helped establish the Central Hindu College in Benares in 1898, combining modern education with Hindu religious instruction and Theosophical universalism. Although slightly later than the main nineteenth-century occult revival, its founding reflects the institutional consequences of earlier occult-religious encounters in India. It matters for comparison because esoteric claims were translated into curricula, civic projects, and reformist education rather than remaining private visions. The college’s history is well documented, but its exact relationship to occult practice varied among founders, teachers, and students.