Annie Besant was- 1. Responsible for starting the Home Rule Movement 2. The founder of the Theosophical Society 3. Once the President of the Indian National Congress Select the correct statement, statements using the codes given below.

The correct answer is C (1 and 3 only). Besant was a co-founder of the Home Rule movement, and she was President of the Indian National Congress in 1917 (Calcutta session).

• Statement 1 is correct. In 1916 she founded the Indian Home Rule League at Madras, on the model of Dominion self-government. It worked alongside Tilak's league in Poona. Her internment in 1917 and the Montagu declaration that followed made the movement a national issue.
• Statement 2 is wrong. The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 in New York by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott. Besant joined later and served as its President from 1907. Leading an organisation is not the same as founding it.
• Statement 3 is correct. She presided over the 1917 Congress session at Calcutta, the first woman to do so.

The core concept here is the difference between the Home Rule movement and the Theosophical movement, and the Congress presidency. For Mains, her role links to the rise of mass politics after 1915 and to the debate on self-government.

Trap: Aspirants see that Besant led the Theosophical Society and assume she founded it, so they wrongly mark statement 2 as correct.