A collection of Sister Nivedita’s unpublished letters and writings in Bengali, titled Bhogini Nibeditar Aprakashito Potraboli ebong Ananyo Aprakashito Rochona was released at the Kolkata International Book Fair. The book has been penned by Sarada Sarkar, a teacher settled in the United Kingdom.
She took the initiative to instal a statue of the Sister in putting up a Blue Plaque in the house, where Sister had opened a school in Wimbledon.
Advertisement
She got in touch with the relatives of Sister Nivedita, who stay in different countries. She brought Selendra Margot Giardin, great granddaughter of Richmond Noble, Nivedita’s brother. Nivedita had a brother and a sister. It is interesting to note that the descendents of Richmond write ‘Margot’ as the middle name while the descendents of May Wilson write ‘Bose’, after Jagadish Chandra Bose as the middle name.
Nivedita died in Darjeeling on 13 October, 1911 and after her death, Lady Abala Bosu, wife of Jagadish Chandra Bose wrote a letter to Mrs Wilson on 4 January, 1912. She wrote: “How can we live without her? Before we went to Darjeeling, we often would discuss who would die first but I never thought she would go so soon. Lady Minto has written a beautiful letter to Christine, which I want to send to you. Christine has at last come to Calcutta and means to take up the work.”
In an unpublished account of Nivedita’s niece Grancy Wilson, we get an account of how Swamiji came to the life of Margaret Elizabeth Noble. She writes: “The house in Wimbledon became a haven for advanced thinkers of the 1890s. Yeats (Willliam Butler), (Samuel Taylor) Coleridge, (George Bernard) Shaw, (Aldous) Huxley, William Morris, (Henry Wadsworth) Longfellow, WT Stead were a few of these. They were settled and established, and a brilliant career foreseen for Margaret in the journalistic world of free thinking, when a certain Indian walked into their drawing room, a gentleman called Naren Dutt. From that moment Margaret knew that she had at last met someone whose vision was enormous, whose intellect was greater than anything she had yet encountered or was likely to encounter, a person of such gift, religious uplifting that Margaret was on her way to her future.”
An unpublished letter by Nivedita to Grancy written on 21 April, 1910 goes like this: “My darling Grancy, I am going to town to post this letter to you. I have put kisses into it. When you open it, they will all fly out of it to you. Kisses have wings. They fly home to your heart. Do you know these little birds? Your own loving ah – oh!”
There is a letter written by George G Harrap Company, London who requested Nivedita to write on Indian religion and philosophy. The letter dated 22 December, 1910, reads: “Your name has been mentioned to us by Mr E.E. Havell in a very complimentary way, as being extremely well qualified to write such a book as we want and so we are inviting you to undertake the task if your other engagements permit.”
