B. P. Wadia
Indian trade unionist nd theosophist (1881–1958)
Bahman Pestonji Wadia or Bomanji Pestonji Wadia (BP Wadia, B.P. Wadia or BPW) (* 8 October 1881 in Mumbai, India; † 20 August 1958 in Bangalore, India) was an Indian theosophist and labour activist.
In 1903 he joined the Theosophical Society in Mumbai and moved to Madras in 1908 to be part of Theosophical Society Adyar. He worked for the journal The Theosophist. He become part of United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT).
On 13 April 1918, along with V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar, Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union, one of India's first organised labour unions. He became president of the Madras Textile Workers' Union and engaged himself for workers' rights.
In 1919 he visited the ULT in Los Angeles and was very impressed. When he returned to Adyar in 1919, he tried to work for a change of direction in the TS Adyar, based on the ideals of the ULT, but did not succeed. He became disappointed and left the TS Adyar to work for the ULT in Los Angeles.
In 1923 he founded several lodges on the east coast of the States.
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This entry incorporates text from “B. P. Wadia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.