Sister Nivedita

Sister Nivedita (born Margaret Elizabeth Noble) remains as debated a figure in the history of colonial Hinduism as her guru, Swami Vivekananda (b. 1863–d. 1902). In several ways, she represented the going forward and amplification of some of the most cherished desires and goals of the Swami himself. Arguably, her thoughts and deeds extended the early Orientalist interest in India, albeit with the difference that these were more apologetic in tone than marked by a sense of exciting discovery. In essence, Nivedita’s writings and speeches, as those of Vivekananda, represent a somewhat combative counter-aggression to the moral and intellectual challenges that the contemporary West had earlier thrown to the Hindu mind. “Nivedita,” literally meaning “the dedicated,” was a name conferred upon her by her guru and came to represent more a life committed to the service of India and Indians than some spiritual consecration. Swami Vivekananda thought poorly of her spiritual potentialities and declined to ordain her as a fully consecrated sanyasini. Nivedita herself had little to do with an ascetic life, plunging instead into invigorating social and secular work. An aesthetic rather than an ascetic temperament better defines her. The Sister took renunciation to combine self-control and a sense of civic responsibility and interpreted the Hindu term mukti not so much as the quest for personal salvation as celebrating the larger sense of human freedom. Beginning with 1895 when she first met Vivekananda, Nivedita served the Swami as a close companion and coworker, actively pursuing projects that he had launched, closely observing the unfolding of contemporary Indian life and its attendant problems. To her guru’s memory she remained intensely faithful, even as she carried within herself subdued elements of disagreement and defiance. Sister Nivedita saw herself as the rightful interpreter for the West in India and for India in the West. When in India, she worked tirelessly for the cause of Indian women, promoting India’s artistic and aesthetic traditions, creatively reinterpreting the substance of Hindu mythology and religion, and recovering India’s lost “manhood,” but above all, seeking to encourage a deep sense of bonding among Indians themselves. For Nivedita, India was quintessentially Hindu and yet conceptually indivisible. To this end she was even prepared to underplay obvious differences and divergences. Though sometimes accused of being impulsive, excessively idealistic, and intolerant, Nivedita was also self-effacing in character. In her time, few non-Indians were known to have loved and idealized India and Indians as much she did.