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George Arundale
‐
President of the Theosophical Society who was involved with the All-India Home Rule League
Other names
George Sydney Arundale
Place of birth
Place of death
Adyar, India
About
George Arundale was a Theosophist. He was tutored by Charles Leadbeater and went to St John's College, Cambridge in 1895. In 1902 he moved to Benares and became principal of the Central Hindu College. Arundale became involved with the All-India Home Rule League and was imprisoned, with Annie Besant, in 1917, under the Defence of India Act, 1917.
In 1920 he married a Brahmin girl, Rukmini Devi, which caused some controversy in India. In 1926 he became Regionary Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church in India. In 1934 he became President of the Theosophical Society. He edited the Theosophist. He died in 1945 in Adyar at the Theosophist headquarters.
Annie Besant, C. R. Jinarajadasa, Jiddu Krishnamurti (Arundale tutored him), C. W. Leadbeater, Emily Lutyens, Jiddu Nityananda (Arundale tutored him).
Various works on theosophy include:
Bedrock of Education (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1924)
Thoughts of the Great (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1924)
You (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1935)
Gods in the Becoming (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1936)
Education for Happiness (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1938)
Adventures in Theosophy (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1941)
Dixon, Joy, Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England (London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)
Lutyens, Mary, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening (London: John Murray, 1975)
Lutyens, Mary, The Life and Death of Krishnamurti (London: John Murray, 1990)
Meduri, Avanthi (ed.) Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1968): A Visionary Architect of Indian Culture and the Performing Arts (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2005)
Theosophical Archives, Adyar, India
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
