ABSTRACT
The activities of Annie Besant show that the contingencies of the Great War all but dictated the courses of action available to both Indian nationalist factions and British imperial officials. She became convinced that another such cycle was approaching, one that would lead to an unprecedented breakdown in British-Indian relations and impede the peaceful advance of Asian nationalism in general and of India in particular, and a key component of the Theosophy's 'World Plan'. Besant became the Act's severest critic. Her newly established daily newspaper and her weekly journal routinely addressed what they deemed the most egregious prosecutions under the Act, and ran a running count of its victims, famous or not. Besant pulled no punches when criticizing the shortcomings of the Montague-Chelmsford Report when it was published in July 1918. However, with future course of Home Rule and her related hopes of a British and Indian rapprochement at stake, Besant laboured to shape a progressive consensus to the reform proposals.
