FAKIR HASSEN
South African members of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa have marked the 150th birth anniversary of Sister Nivedita, a keen disciple of Swami Vivekananda with a public address by leaders from the Kolkota headquarters of the organisation at the University of the Witwatersrand here.
Keynote speaker Swami Suhitanandaji Maharaj, General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission Belur Math, explained that the decision by Scottish-Irish social worker and teacher Margaret Elizabeth Nobleto join Swami Vivekananda in India was a difficult and painful one for her, but she persevered to become a respected leader through her social work and prolific writing.
“Vivekananda wanted a lioness to work among the women folk in India, and he found that lioness in Nivedita.
“It was not easy at that time for menfolk, especially with India’s political, social, cultural conditions at that time, for menfolk to work amongst the women.
“The woman who was required was one with the purity and chastity of the East and the vitality of the West, and he found that Nivedita could take on this responsibility.”
The Swami outlined that the challenges included how the white woman born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble in 1867 could align herself to the fact that the Indian people she would work with were subjugated under the British colonial rulers.
“But she was steady to face any challenge and agreed to compromise with whatever Vivekananda wanted her to do.
“Initially believing that the British had come to India to do good for the local people, her actual experience was the opposite., as she found them exploiting and torturing the Indians.”
Renamed Nivedita, meaning ‘dedicated to God’ by Vivekananda, the new disciple set about establishing schools for girls, one of which bearing her name still exists today as a renowned institution of learning in Kolkota.
She also faced opposition from the British rulers and came into frequent conflict with them, especially when Nivedita protested proposed control of Indian universities by the British, which she took up further in England, resulting in the plan being abandoned.
Nivedita also secured international assurance during the plague in Kolkota in 1898, as well as during the devastating floods in East Bengal which led to widespread famine.
Before her passing in 1911, Nivedita had written widely on Indian culture, philosophy, art and history as well.
