Home
People
Organizations
Events
Themes
Oral Histories
Learning Resources
Mohini Chatterjee
Member of the Theosophical Society
Other names
Mohini Chatterji
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
About
Mohini Chatterjee was an Indian Theosophist who was sent to London in 1884 with Colonel Olcott. He was a favourite among Theosophical circles in London. Mohini Chatterjee visited Dublin in 1885 and was a deep influence on W. B. Yeats, who wrote a poem entitled 'Mohini Chatterjee'.
In late 1885 Mohini Chatterjee was involved in a scandal with female Theosophists. Letters from H. P. Blavatsky to the Sinnetts reveal her impression that European ladies were intent on seducing the Indian. The case came to public attention when one of the women, in response to Blavatsky's criticisms, intended to publicize letters written to her by Mohini Chatterjee. A truce between the woman and Blavatsky was arranged by 1887.
Although he lost touch with Yeats and George Russell (AE) upon his return to India, they believed he was a lawyer in Bombay at the turn of the century. According to Harbans Rai Bachchan, the last heard of Mohini Chatterjee was that he was a blind old man, living in London with his daughter, in the early 1930s.
Annie Besant, H. P. Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, George Russell (AE), A. P. Sinnett, W. B. Yeats.
History as a Science (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1927)
Theories in Comparative Mythology and Questions and Answers (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1935)
Bachchan, Harbans Rai, W. B. Yeats and Occultism: A Study of His Works in Relation to Indian Lore, the Cabbala, Swedenborg, Boehme and Theosophy (London: Books from India, 1976)
The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett and Other Miscellaneous Letters, transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London T. Fisher Unwin, 1925)
The Mahatma Letters: To A. P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M & K. H., transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923)
Sri, P. S., 'Yeats and Mohini Chatterjee', in Warwick Gould (ed.) Yeats Annual No. 11 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 61–76
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
