Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tl00020)

> Subject:      Indian/Indonesian history and Theosophy
> From:         hermantl@stad.dsl.nl
> Date:         1998-01-04
> Message-ID:   <883941866.843776011@dejanews.com>

Recently, the University Press of the University of Nijmegen published
The Politics of Divine Wisdom. Theosophy and labour, national, and
women's movements in Indonesia and South Asia, 1875-1947; the Ph. D.
thesis by Herman de Tollenaere. ISBN 90 373 0330 7.

The Theosophical Society, an occult religious organization, widespread in
many countries, had more contacts, and different contacts, with the
histories of political movements than one might expect. Read in this book
about:

-  The ideas and history of the Theosophical Society, the inspiration of
many 'New Age'  movements of today -  Who were the Indian Brahmans, Dutch
planters, Javanese princes, and politicians, who  joined the Theosophical
Society? -  How support for conscription for Indonesians during World War
I brought theosophists  into conflict with socialists like Sneevliet and
Semaoen -  How Indonesians travelled around the world for the first time
in 1917 as members of  the Indië Weerbaar committee -  The first big
demonstrations of the twentieth century in Jakarta and Sulawesi -  Poems
and pictures in political controversies -  Theosophical Society president
Annie Besant, the most eloquent woman public speaker  of her time -  The
issues between Annie Besant and Gandhi and Nehru in the Indian National
Congress -  Contacts between India and Indonesia -  How both Sukarno and
his 1945-1949 opponent, Governor-General Van Mook, grew  up in
theosophical families -  The relationship between theosophists in the
Dutch East Indies and Hatta -  Women's movements and education in India,
Sri Lanka, and Indonesia -  and more!

The Politics of Divine Wisdom. Theosophy and labour, national, and women's
movements
in Indonesia and South Asia, 1875-1947 was published at the University
Press of the University of Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9102, 6500 HC Nijmegen, The
Netherlands.

See also http://stad.dsl.nl/~hermantl