Sister Nivedita & her contributions to India

‘Sister Nivedita & her contributions to India’ a book with ISBN, published by the College was released on 10th January, 2018 by Hon’ble Consul General of Japan in Kolkata, Mr. Masayuki Taga.

Publishers Note

Sister Nivedita remains one of the most influential female figures of India. In 2010, the Office of the Board of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education in Salt Lake, Kolkata was named after Sister Nivedita. The Sister Nivedita Academy, an institution dedicated to her memory has been established in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Several schools and colleges have been named after her. In 1968, the Indian Government issued a postal stamp in her memory. The Nivedita bridge near Dakshineswer, Kolkata is named in her honour. In 2015, a new Government Degree College at Hastings House, Alipur, Kolkata was named after Sister Nivedita.

On 13th November 1898 Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi came to open Nivedita Girls’ school in Bagh Bazar, Kolkata. Nivedita travelled to many places in India especially - Almora, Kashmir and Amarnath with Swamiji which helped her to understand India and the masses at large. Her love for India knew no bounds. Her magnetic personality and feeling heart and sincere love for the masses made her endearing to all classes of people. Some eminent contemporaries who came close to her were statesmen, poets, artists, scientists, historians and journalists. Ramesh Chandra Dutta, G.K. Gokhale, Bipin Chandra Pal, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rabindranath Tagore, Jadunath Sarkar and Ramananda Chatterjee are a few in the list. Her contribution to India cannot be evaluated easily due to the cause that she had dedicated her entirety for the cause of India. Dr. Rashbehari Ghosh rightly said about her – If sister fell under the spell of India we in our turn fell under her spell, and her bewitching personality attracted thousands of our young men to her. Considering Sister Nivedita’s contribution to India Tagore mentioned -- I have not noticed in any other human being the wonderful power that was hers of absolute dedication of herself. There was no defrauding of us on her part, that is, she gave herself up fully for the service of India. She did not keep anything back for her own use. She was in fact a Mother of People. When she uttered the word “Our People” the tone of absolute kinship which struck the ear was not heard from any other among us. To study her contribution to India the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara is publishing 'Sister Nivedita and Her Contribution to India' –a book to promote, analyse and understand her contribution to India in different domains.

A portion of this book consists of contributions from eminent thinkers on Sister Nivedita, who spoke at a National Seminar on ‘Sister Nivedita and Her Contribution to India : A Historical Perspective' organized in the College on 9th & 10th December, 2016. We are highly grateful to Dr. Debanjan Sengupta, Doctor, Prof. (Dr.) Bishnupada Nanda, Professor & HOD, Department of Education, Jadavpur University, Prof. Nirmal Kumar Maity, Associate Professor, Bidhannagar College, Dr.Ratnabali Banerjee, Former Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission for enriching the content of the book with their pearls of wisdom.

We are thankful to Shri Manas Moulic, Asst. Professor in English of our college for helping us in giving shape to this book.

Rahara, Kolkata

10th January, 2018