Banaras Hindu University, formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, which had been founded by theosophist and future Indian Home Rule leader Annie Besant in 1898. By 1911 Besant wa…
Banaras Hindu University, formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, which had been founded by theosophist and future Indian Home Rule leader Annie Besant in 1898. By 1911 Besant was marginalised on the governing board of the College by Madan Mohan Malviya who preferred a more traditional Hinduism with its hereditary caste system to Besant's more theosophical one. Five years later Malaviya established the university with the support of the maharaja of Darbhanga Rameshwar Singh, the maharaja of Benares Prabhu Narayan Singh, and the lawyer Sunder Lal.