The Nilgiri Documentation Center (NDC), along with members of the public paid homage to freedom fighter Dr. Annie Besant on the centenary of the house arrest of Dr. Besant and her supporters in Udhagamandalam in June of 1917.
Dr, Annie Besant and Bal Gangadar Tilak launched the home rule movement in 1917, and unable to silence her, the British arrested her on June 15, 1917. Along with her two supporters, G S Arundale and BP Wadia, Dr. Besant was kept in house arrest in Udhagamandalam.
Venugopal Dharmalin gam, honorary director of the NDC, said that Dr. Besant choose to stay at Gulistan at Pudumand which was built in 1890 by H.S. Olcott, the founder president of the Theosophical Society. The property now renamed Stokebridge Birla House is the property of Gwalior Rayons. A plaque commemorating the historic connection of the building to the event is displayed in front of the house.
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Dr. Besant also designed and unfurled a Home Rule Flag at Gulistan, and started a local branch of the Home Rule League in Ooty.