The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita

558 Pages·2013·13.47 MB·English

by  Sister Nivedita

THE
COMPLETE WORKS
OF
SISTER NIVEDITA
BIRTH CENTENARY PUBLICATION
VOLUME
IV
OP
SISTER NIVEDITA GIRLS' SCHOOL
Published by The Secretary
Ramakrishna Sarada Mission
Sister Nivedita Girls' School
5 Nivedita Lane
Calcutta 3
Printed by P. C. Ray
Sri Gouranga Press Private Ltd.
5 Chintamani Das Lane
Calcutta 9
RAMAKRISHNA SARADA MISSION
SISTER NIVEDITA GIRLS' SCHOOL
.First Edition October 1955
Price Rs. 1200
—
"Fourth Five Year Plan Development of Modern Indian Langu-
ages. The popular price of the book has been made possible through
a subvention received from the Government of West Bengal."
SOLE DISTRIBUTORS
ANANDA PUBLISHERS.PRIVATE LTD.
CHINTAMANI DAS LANE
5
CALCUTTA
9
CONTENTS
Editor's Preface ... vii
Chronological Tabic xiii
Footfalls of Indian History
The History of Man as Determined by Place
1
The History of India and its Study 5
The Cities of Buddhism 20
Rajgir: An Ancient Babylon 28
Bihar 40
...
The Ancient Abbey of Ajanta 45
.
Fa-Hian 103
Elephanta, the Synthesis of Hinduism 113
Some Problems of Indian Research 122
. .
The Final Recension of the Mahabharata 133
The Relation between Buddhism.sand Hinduism 144
The Rise of Vaishna\ism under the Guptas 154
The Old Brahminical Learning 163
A Studv of Benares 178
Bodh-Gaya 193
Appendix I 199
Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality
A
Daily Aspiration for the Nationalist 205
A
Prayer for Freedom 206
The Civic Ideal 207
Civic Symbolism in Mediaeval Europe 215
—
Civic Ideal in Classical City Pompeii 222
., Civic Elements in Indian Life ... 230
V
I
IT
Pace
The Present Position of Woman 235
The Modern Epoch and the National Idea 257
Unity of Life and Type in India 263
. .
The Task of the National Movement in India 271
The Swadeshi Movement 276
The Principle of Nationality 286
Indian Nationality, a Mode of Thought 288
The Call to Nationality 295
Race of the Vcdas 297
The Unity of India 299
On the Influence of History in the Development of
Modern India 301
The New Hinduism 312
A
Theory of Freedom ... 316
Hints on National Education in India
A
Primary Education Call for Pioneers 329
: —
Papers on Education 333
—
Papers on Education II ... 338
—
Papers on Education III 344
—
Papers on Education IV 347
—
Papers on Education 350
The Place of Foreign Culture in a True Education 354
. .
The Future Education of the Indian Women 362
The Project of the Ramakrishna School for Girls 370
Suggestions for the Indian Vivekananda Societies ... 380
A
Note on Historical Research 389
The Place of the Kindergarten in Indian Schools 400
...
Manual Training as a Part of General Education in India 415
—
Manual Training in Education Supplementary Note 435
Appendix 443
Glimpses of Famine and Flood in East Bengal in 1906
I. The Land of the Water-Ways ... 447
What We Saw 454
II.
III. Barisal ... 461
IV. Matibhanga ... .467
V. The Commonwealth Based on Rice 473
. .
.
Page
VI. The Progress of Poverty 480
.
VII. The Tragedy of Jute 486
Vin. The Greatest Thing Ever Done in Bengal 491
IX. Famine Prevention 499
Lambs among Wolves 509
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facinc Pace
SISTER NIVEDITA
1
SARANATH BUDDHA
66
AJANTA FACADE
67
THE FIRST SCHOOL BUILDING 376
THE PRESENT SCHOOL BUILDING 377

:
EDITOR'S PREFACE
The Fourth Volume of the present edition of the Com-
plete Works of Sister Nivedita includes the following works
Footfalls of Indian History
Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality (Civic and National
Ideals)
Hints on National Education in India
Famine and Flood in East Bengal in 1906
Lambs among Wolves.
The first three works are posthumous publications, in
which the publishers have collected some valuable writings
of abiding national interest on the subject dearest to Sister
—
Nivedita's heart INDIA. Her Master, Swami Vivcka-
nanda, had said in 1897: "For the next fifty years this
—
alone shall be our key-note this, our great Mother India."
And true to her Master's words Sister Nivedita has sung
with love and devotion, thought and concern, about India
and India alone, for the rest of her life.
Her writings bring forth her inner convictions her
:
stvie is brilliant and vigourous, and even the most hack-
neyed topics and common-place themes are invested by her
pen with new power and grace. From her rough notes it
becomes evident that she herself had planned to bring out
these books. But unfortunately during her life-time they
were not published.
Footfalls of Indian History was first published in 1915
by Messrs Longmans Green & Co., London. It is a beauti-
ful edition with six coloured plates by well-known artists
like Abanindra Nath Tagorc, Gaganendra Nath Tagorc and
Nanda Lai Bose. Besides these there are 22 photo-plates.
A
new edition of the same was brought out by the Advaita
.
Vlll
Ashrama in 1956. It has been reprinted—here with the
same title but with the following changes :
1. The Chinese Pilgrim' was originally published in
The Modern Review in March, 1911, as 'Fa-hian'. This
title has been retained here.
2. In The Modern Review of 1907 the writing entitled
'Some Problems of Indian Research' was published in three
instalments the second and the third instalments having
;
the sub-titles The Final Recension of the Mahabharata'
and 'Relation between Buddhism and Hinduism' respec-
tively. Hence these three articles are published serially
in this edition
3. The Historical Significance of the Northern Pil-
grimage' has been omitted as it has already been included
in the book Kedar Nath and Badri Narayan printed in the
First Volume of the Complete Works.
4. The City in Classical Europe: A Visit to
Pompeii' has been omitted because it forms part of a
series of articles on civic ideal included in the next book.
5. To aid the Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service
in Varanasi, Sister Nivedita wrote an appeal which was
published in The Brahmavadin of March, 1907, as 'Benares
and the Home of Service'. In the same month it was also
published in The Modern Review as 'A Study of Benares',
in which the concluding paragraphs referring to the Home
of Service were omitted. But as these form an integral
part of the original appeal they have been given in
Appendix I on p. 199.
The article on 'Bodh-Gaya' was first published in The
Brahmavadin in August, 1904. As it is akin in subject-
matter to some of the articles in this book, it is included
here.
In 1911 the Udbodhan Office published a book called
Civic and National Ideals containing thirteen articles of
Sister Nivedita. Since then it has gone into five editions.
With the permission of the publishers seven writings on
Indian Art were included in the Third Volume of the
IX
Complete Works. The remaining six articles are printed
in this volume. To these are added eleven more articles
which have been hitherto unpublished in book-form. It is
due to these vast changes in the contents that it was thought
proper not to retain the original title of the book, but to
change it to Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality.
It is essential to add a few words about some of the
writings included in this book. In The Modern Review
of 1908, four articles on civic ideal of the east and west
were published serially between January and April. Of
these the first and the fourth were included in the Civic
and National Ideals, and the third was included in the
Footfalls of Indian History. Here all the four articles are
published serially as was originally done, though the titles
of the second and the third articles, namely, 'Evolution
of the European City' and 'A City of Classical Europe:
Visit to Pomeii' have been changed to 'Civic Symbolism in
Mediaeval Europe* and 'Civic Ideal in Classical City:
Pompeii' respectively. The reason for this change is that
these titles are more expressive of the subject-matter and
have also been suggested in her rough notes.
'The Task of the National Movement in India' was
first published in The Indian Review in 1906. Its title has
been changed to 'The Indian National Congress' in the
Civic and National Ideals. Here, however, the original
title has been retained.
The sources of the other articles are mentioned in the
Chronological Table and hence are not mentioned here.
Hints on National Education in India was first pub-
lished by the Udbodhan Office in 1914. It has since gone
into five editions. It has been reprinted here as it is, except
that some of the portions omitted in 'The Project of the
Ramakrishna School for Girls' have been restored.
Glimpses of Famine and Flood in East Bengal in 1906
was serially published in The Modern Review in 1907.
Chapters I—III are dated Sept. 12,1906 Chapters IV—VII
;
are dated Sept. 26, 1906 and Chapters VIII—IX are dated
;
March 1, 1907. The Indian Press at Allahabad published
the book in the same year. It has long since been out of
print. This deeply moving narrative excels in style and
sentiments all other smaller writings of Sister Nivedita.
—
Lambs among Wolves Missionaries in India was
written to counteract the prejudicial activities and propa-
ganda of the Christian Missionaries in India. In February,
1901, Sister Nivedita was invited to Edinburgh, Scotland, to
give lectures. Her lectures were a challenge to the false
accounts of India presented by the missionaries. The
following letter of Sister Nivedita written to Miss MacLeod
on 7.3.1901 is interestingly revealing: "We had a tremen-
dous challenge from missionaries in Edinburgh. They
. . .
gave a terrible account of India and her ways and I had
only time to fling defiance at one of them and leave. Then
—
of course they had their own way till they asked a young
—
Indian Christian man to speak and he got up and said
I had been right and that he didnot since reaching Europe,
care to call himself a Christian Did you ever hear any-
!
thing more manly? He was a Madrasi. Now the Club
is trying to restrain me from right to reply. They must
be afraid. I suppose they do not want the material used
in India as 'missionary statements'. However some deli-
berate grappling with missionary opinion I shall do before
How
I stir, in one form or another. . . . Blessed India!
infinitely much I owe her. Have I anything worth having
that I donot directly or indirectly owe to her?"
By July her reply to the missionaries was ready and it
was published in The Westminister Review in the same
year. It was reprinted by R. B. Brimley Johnson, London,
in 1903. The Udbodhan Office printed it again in 1928,
and it has been out of print since a long time.
The authorities of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission
Sister Nivedita Girls' School had contemplated to bring
out Sister Nivedita's Complete Works in Four Volumes
4uring her birth centenary year (1967-68). Three Volumes