page_title: Sister Nivedita
section_title: Contribution towards Indian nationalism
hierarchical_section_title: Sister Nivedita / Works of Sister Nivedita / Contribution towards Indian nationalism
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a manuscript of an English poetry written by Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). The full poetry is: The mother's heart, the hero's will, The sweetness of the southern breeze, The sacred charm and strength that dwell On Aryan altars, flaming, free; All these be yours, and many more No ancient soul could dream before -- Be thou to India's future son The mistress, servant, friend in one. With the blessings of Vivekananda
context_page_description: Sister Nivedita was an Irish teacher, author, social activist, school founder and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She spent her childhood and early youth in Ireland. From her father, a college professor, she learned the ideal of service to mankind as the true service to God. She worked as a school teacher and later also opened a school. She was engaged to marry a Welsh youth, but he died soon after their engagement.
  Sister Nivedita met Swami Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on 25 March 1898. In November 1898, she opened a girls' school in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She wanted to educate girls who were deprived of even basic education. During the plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899, Nivedita nursed and took care of the poor patients.
  Nivedita had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. Because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president Swami Brahmananda.
context_section_description: Nivedita was a prolific writer and extensively toured India to deliver lectures, especially on India's culture and religion. She appealed to the Indian youth to work selflessly for the cause of the motherland along the ideals of Swami Vivekananda. Initially, Nivedita, like contemporary intellectuals from Europe, was optimistic about British rule in India and believed that it was possible for India and England to love each other. However, in the course of her stay, she came to witness the brutal side of the British rule, the repression and oppression and the division between the ruling elite and the ruled; she concluded that it was necessary for India to gain independence to prosper. Therefore, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the cause of opposing the British rule. In February 1902, Mahatma Gandhi, or Mr.M.K.Gandhi as he was known then, visited Nivedita in Calcutta.
  After Vivekananda's death, being acutely aware of the inconvenience of the newly formed Ramakrishna Mission on account of her political activities, she publicly dissociated herself from it. However, until her last days, she had a very cordial relationship with the brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda like Swami Brahmananda, Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda) and Swami Saradananda, who helped her in her charitable and educational activities in every possible way; she was very close to the holy mother, Sarada Devi.
  Nivedita had initially worked with Okakura of Japan and Sarala Ghoshal who was related to the Tagore family.
  She later started working on her own and maintained a direct relationship with many of the young revolutionaries of Bengal, including those of Anushilan Samity, a secret organization. She inspired many youths in taking up the cause of freeing India through her lectures. She also exposed Lord Curzon after his speech at the University of Calcutta in 1905 where he mentioned that truth was given a higher place in the moral codes of the West, than in East. She undertook her own research and made it public that in the book Problems of The Far East by Curzon she had proudly described how he had given false statements about his age and marriage to the president of the Korean Foreign Office to win his favour. This statement when published in newspapers like Amrita Bazar Patrika and The Statesman caused a furore and forced Curzon to apologize.
  In 1905 the British Government under Curzon initiated the partition of Bengal which was a major turning point in the Indian independence movement. Nivedita played a pioneering role in organizing the movement. She provided financial and logistical support and leveraged her contacts to get information from government agencies and forewarn the revolutionaries.
  She met Indian artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Havell and inspired them to develop pure Indian school of art. She always inspired and guided the talented students of the Calcutta Art School to move along the forgotten tracks of ancient Indian art like Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar and Surendranath Gangopadhyay. She exerted great influence on famous Tamil poet, Subrahmanya Bharati, who met her only briefly in 1906. She influenced Bharathi to work for the freedom of women in the country, which he did all through his life Nivedita designed the national flag of India with the thunderbolt as the emblem against a red background.
  Nivedita tried her utmost to inculcate the nationalist spirit in the minds of her students through all their daily activities. She introduced singing of the song Vande Màtaram in her school as a prayer.
  Nivedita provided guarded support to Annie Besant and was very close to Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo), one of the major contributors towards the early nationalist movement. She edited Karma Yogin, the nationalist newspaper of Aurobindo.
  The following piece is from an editorial in Karma Yogin, written by Nivedita, which depicts her intense respect for India:
  The whole history of the world shows that the Indian intellect is second to none. This must be proved by the performance of a task beyond the po
caption: Manuscript of "Blessings to Nivedita" a poem written by Swami Vivekananda in his own handwriting[47]
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