With a determined frame of mind Nivedita returned to India in February 1902 along with Mrs Bull and R.C. Dutt. In Madras, she gave such a rousing lecture titled ‘India has no apology to make’ that the Government began to take notice of her movements. In this lecture she publicly, and perhaps for the first time, alluded to herself as Vivekananda’s daughter. She returned to Calcutta and met her Master in March as the latter himself had gone to Gaya and Varanasi at that time. Even though she and others knew that the Swami’s health was continuously failing Nivedita could not have anticipated that she now had only for months to spend in his company.
During these months Nivedita also met Japanese art scholar and archaeologist Okakura whose gifts had been recognised by Josephine Macleod during her visit to Japan earlier. Okakura had met Vivekananda and had also travelled with him to Bodh Gaya and Varanasi in early part of the year. Nivedita was deeply impressed by Okakura’s vision of Pan-Asia. She helped edit his book ‘Ideals of the East with Special Reference to Art in Japan.’ Okakura belonging to the lineage of Samurai, had great revolutionary zeal, and Nivedita introduced him to revolutionary-minded persons like Surendranath Tagore (the Poet’s nephew) and others. Okakura then made visits to several parts of India trying to network with Indians who wanted to overthrow the British rule. At the same time he, as an art scholar and archaeologist, was interested in visiting several places that aligned with his interests in those fields.
However, an ailing Vivekananda with his characteristic insight was quick to see that Okakura’s efforts were not likely to make much headway as far as any national awakening went, as he firmly believed that Indians only had to awaken themselves and struggle for the fulfilment of their goals. He also saw that Okakura, though having a great aesthetic and historical sense, did not quite have the spiritual depth that was necessary for inspiring people to work for causes that demanded selfless service and sacrifice.
During the last week of the Swami’s stay, Nivedita met him for long hours on 29th of June and 2nd of July. She voiced some plans like starting a university for women but Vivekananda who knew his time was running out did not quite interest himself in such discussions. On 2nd June he served Nivedita with his meal and washed her hands. It was much like the Last Supper in which. Jesus had served his disciples.
Nivedita’s diary on 4th of July 1902 had just two words ‘Swami died’.
The one, banking on whom, she had left her home, family, future, and her country to live in a culture vastly different from hers, was no more. Only a person made of immense grit could have continued to live under such changed circumstances. And Nivedita was doubtless made of such stuff.
Re-gathering herself after the passing away of the Swami, she began to give shape to the future direction of her work – translating her Master’s ideas of ‘Man-Making into ‘Nation-building’. Her involvement with those in the field of nationalist politics was increasing. In the rules of the Ramakrishna Order it was clearly mentioned that the members will not have any involvement with politics in any way. Since Nivedita was increasingly involved with the National Movement it was decided between her and the President of the Order – Swami Brahmananda – that she would officially declare her dissociation with the Order and that thenceforth all her activities would be independent. She issued a statement in the newspapers about her new position. But this in no way changed the affection and guidance of the brother-disciples of Vivekananda like Brahmananda, Saradananda, and of course the continuous showering of love and blessings of the Holy Mother. Vivekananda’s disciple Sadananda also continuously accompanied her on her travels and stood by her in all other matters she needed help on.
She felt the presence of her Master, to an even greater extent, after he passed away. This sentiment she described in a letter to her friend and a close associate of Vivekananda Josephine Macleod:
He went out – as one drops a loose garment. Without a struggle. “Conqueror of death”. But He has not left us. For my part, He has been with me far more since that night than 2 years before – and I trust and pray that this may not cease to be – for, Oh! I have only one desire really, and that is to act so that, were He back again in the toils of human ignorance He would have no right to feel anxiety or distress. But I do not know – I feel so much power inside. But I do nothing. Bless me that He may indeed be pleased with us all ! One must so live that one justifies Him.
For some time after Swami’s passing away, Nivedita kept her association with Okakura but soon realised that she should distance herself with him. Some persons have hinted that for a while Okakura had romantic feelings for Nivedita and that she, on account of her effervescent nature was also enamoured by the man’s gifts and overestimated his worth for the benefit of Indian national awakening. What is most significant in this matter is that with the character-force Nivedita possessed, she did not let herself down any path that went against the vows she had taken before her Guru. She should only be respected for this and for her resoluteness in seeing through this episode through without a blemish. She had the discernment to see that Okakura was far from what Vivekananda had been, whose affection for his disciples was impersonal in nature and rooted in seeing divinity within them, and who always interacted with them, particularly women, on a spiritual plane, even so far as hardly even taking cognizance of their femininity. Nivedita must have sensed a palpable risk in the association with Okakura and acted most judiciously thereafter.
Okakura soon left for Japan, married, and later relocated to America where in due course he became the Curator of the Japanese and Chinese Department of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He later wrote another acclaimed book ‘The Book of Tea’ and died at the age of 50 in 1913. Nivedita never saw him again even though she had occasion to do so during her two subsequent visits to America in later years and also staying in Boston as a guest of Mrs Bull.
In 1903, Nivedita was joined by Sister Christine, a German-American disciple of Vivekananda. Christine’s presence relieved Nivedita of the burden of day-to-day running of the school. They then also started a Women’s Section where a number of unmarried girls and widows lived and were trained in different kinds of economic activities along with an intense daily routine of spiritual and devotional practices. Nivedita arranged occasional recitations of the Epics and Puranas, and discourses on Gita and Chandi in the courtyard of their house which would overflow with enthusiastic women. Sometimes Abala Bose and Jagadishchandra’s sister Lavanyaprabha also taught at the school and worked for the women.
Till the end of her life whenever Nivedita was asked about her vocation she simply said that she was a teacher. After Swami’s passing away Nivedita knew that within her there was taking shape a greater and wider message to be given out to the whole country. From teacher of a few she was stepping out to be the mouthpiece of her Master before the whole nation and an interpreter of India before the whole world.
Nivedita’s Project of ‘Nationality’
Throughout the years following 1902 Nivedita was formulating the different bases for Indian nationhood and eloquently expressing them in her writings. She knew this to be her chief task. In 1903 she wrote in a letter:
The whole task now is to give the word ‘nationality’ to India, in all its breadth and meaning. The rest will do itself. India must be obsessed with this great conception…..It means new views of history, of customs, and it means the assimilation of the whole Ramakrishna-Vivekananda idea in religion, the synthesis of all religious ideas. It means a final understanding of the fact that the political process and the economic disaster are only side issues – that the one essential fact is realization of its own nationality by the Nation.
She relentlessly attacked the idea that it were the British who had united India
“If India had no unity herself, no unity could have been given to her. The unity which undoubtedly belonged to India was self-born and had its own destiny, its own functions and its own vast powers; it was gift of no one.”
She thoroughly believed that India was a synthesis with great strands of unity. She in fact thought that the British were quick to understand the underlying unity of the country and thus could put it under a common administration.
The Motherland is indeed one, that north and south are inextricably knit together, and that no story of its analysed fragments, racial, lingual, or political, could ever be the story of India…The Indian people may be defective in the methods of mechanical organization, but they have been lacking, as a people, in none of the essentials of organic synthesis. No Indian province has lived unto itself, pursuing its own development, following its own path, going its way unchallenged and alone. On the contrary, the same tides have swept the land from end to end.
Lecturing, Mentoring and a Public Intellectual
An area of her work during these years was to inspire the youth in the ‘religion of nation-building’. She embarked on extensive lecture tours in different legs covering Bombay, Poona, Nagpur, Amravati, Baroda, Madras, Patna, Lucknow and several other places. When in Calcutta she used to visit and lecture in various youth and civil groups like the Dawn Society, Vivekananda Societies, Anushilan Samity etc. After the appointment of the Universities Commission (1902) by Lord Curzon (leading to the Universities Act in 1904) several leading men in Bengal’s public life embarked upon the course of a ‘National Education’.
The chief vehicle of this was, the Dawn Society, which was a meeting and moulding place for young intellectuals. It was founded by Satishchandra Mukherjee, an extremely dedicated national worker and a disciple of saint Bijoykrishna Goswami – who himself was initially active in Brahmo movement and had close interactions with Sri Ramakrishna whom he held in great reverence. Satishchandra lived like an ascetic life but had been advised by Guru to continue his work for the society. In later years Mahatma Gandhi too took guidance in spiritual matters from Satishchandra like techniques of Nama-Japa (chanting of Lord’s name) and held him in high esteem.
Nivedita was a frequent visitor to the Dawn Society and passionately addressed the youth. She engaged in discussions on what ingredients should an ideal National Education have and published extensively on the same – now compiled in her book, ‘Hints on National Education in India’. At that time a large number of nationalists in Bengal came together and applied their minds to set up a parallel institution for higher learning. Philanthropists like Subodhchabdra Mullick and eminent lawyer and nationalist politician Sir Rashbehari Ghose made munificent gifts for the project. All these efforts and ideas led to the founding of the National College in Calcutta with Aurobindo Ghosh, moving from Baroda to take the role of its Principal.
Guiding and inspiring young patriots
Aurobindo had been in touch with Nivedita ever since their first meeting in Baroda in 1902 when she had urged him to locate to Calcutta from Baroda where she thought his talents would be much more fruitfully employed for the nationalistic cause. Aurovindo had read her book ‘Kali the Mother’ which had made a favourable impression on him. During that time Aurobindo had been touch with several revolutionary societies that had come up in Bengal- particularly the large umbrella network called the Anushilan Samity. That Aurobindo was no moderate in his political views from clear from the series of articles he write for the Bombay journal under the title ‘Old Lamps for the New’. He was profoundly impressed by the ideas of Bankimchandra whose death in 1894 he deeply mourned and expressed in varuous writings in the journal. Later Vivekananda’s rousing call to the countrymen after his return from the West in 1897, in form of series of lectures throughout the country, unmistakably had a deep impress on Aurobindo’s mind.
Like Aurobindo who was operating till 1905 chiefly from Baroda, Nivedita too had been very active among the small scattered revolutionary societies. She was a member of the committee which Aurobindo Ghosh organised for coordinating and integrating the efforts of all these groups. Nivedita’s lectures and personal mentorship influenced a large number of youth who later became prominent in revolutionary activities like Aurobindo’s younger brother Barindra Ghosh and Vivekananda’s younger brother Bhupendranath Dutta. There are records that state that wherever Nivedita she got heroic reception from the youth. In the district of Midnapore she gave a number of lectures at different places. It is quite understandable that the youth often might have found it difficult to comprehend her ideas but were surely swayed by her personal charisma.
On a later occasion in the aftermath of the partition of Bengal when Bhupendranath Datta had been imprisoned for his involvement in editing the fiery revolutionary journal Yugantar, Nivedita offered to arrange for his bail.
Before his incarceration he had requested Nivedita to look after his mother Bhubhaneswari Devi which she devotedly did. Bhupendranath was released after a serving a one-year term of rigorous imprisonment first in Calcutta and later in Bhagalpur.
She then arranged for his higher education in America which had suffered due to his involvement in the nationalist movement. She feared that Bhupen could be arrested anytime again on any pretext if he continued to stay in India. Bhupendranath stayed for 16 years in the West, first in America and later in Germany, and was deeply engrossed in the Wartime revolutionary work that was based out of Berlin known as the ‘Berlin Committee’.
After the War ended with Germany’s defeat and the hopes and plans of the revolutionaries were quashed, Bhuoendranath spent his time in enrolling for PhD In anthropology from Hamburg University in Germany. During this time he also became active in the international communist movement which had created great enthusiasm during that time after the Russian Revolution and the subsequent creation of the Soviet Union, which was a seen as the prototype of a model workers’ state.
Bhupendranath finally returned to India in 1924 as an intellectual and activist of Marxist persuasion, and immersed himself in organising peasants and marginal workers for the rest of his life. He, however, never became a formal member of the Communist Party, and also saw merit in the nationalist movement led by the Congress and was imprisoned during the Civil Disobedience Movement. Bhupen and his other brother Mahendranath remained bachelors and lived in their Calcutta home at Simla area in North Calcutta. This house is now a grand museum and called ‘Swami Vivekananda’s Birth Place and Ancestral House’. Bhupendranath wrote several scholarly books and published in 1953 his most important book ‘Swami Vivekananda – Patriot Prophet’ and passed away in 1961.
Besides youth having a more activist streak in them, Nivedita also inspired many other younger intellectuals to dedicate their lives for serving the country through their scholarship and intellectual practice, and gave them concrete guidance. Botanist and Agriculture Scientist Boshi Sen was one such person. She connected Boshi with scientist Jagadish Bose who took him under his wings as an apprentice. Sen later became a forerunner of the innovations in the agriculture, Food sufficiency and fodder sufficiency programs and operated for more than four decades from his Almora farm and laboratory. He made manifold contributions till his death in 1971 and was honoured with Padma Bhushan.
Another eminent young intellectual who had then come in touch with Nivedita was Benoy Sarkar, later an eminent social scientist. Nivedita was definitely a public intellectual of that time. Benoy Sarkar later said :
Nivedita was a humanist and a public worker in every field – patriotism, education, politics, nationalism, industry, history, moral reform, social service, feminism, and what not….During the glorious Bengali revolution (1905-1910), Nivedita was a name to conjure with in young Bengali. She was a colleague of almost everybody who was anybody in the movement of those days at Calcutta….If Vivekananda had not done anything but import Nivedita into the Indian sphere of activity his life-work would have still remained exceedingly epoch-making and fruitful. She was his discovery for India and grew into one of the profoundest treasures of the Indian people.
Radha Kumud Mukherjee, later an eminent historian was another youngster in whom Nivedita saw great intellectual potential. She imbued him with the vision of working in the field of Indian history which he did splendidly all his life. Besides she was a mentor to an entire young generation of artists that shall be discussed in a later section.
The long note that she wrote to Radha Kumud Mukherjee, when the latter was in his twenties and yet undecided on the nature of intellectual career he was to take, is an intellectual treat. This was published in the ‘Modern Review’ of 1912 and later incorporated in the booklet ‘Hints on National Education‘ published posthumously in 1914 and now included in the third volume of the ‘Complete Works of Sister Nivedita.’ Mukherjee’s future scholarship, like his acclaimed work ‘Fundamental Unity of India’ bore the mark of the seeds which Nivedita sowed in his young mind.
One is amazed at the sterling intellectual breadth that Nivedita possessed and the uncommon power she had in articulating her thoughts – sometimes of fairly abstract nature. Upon reading this letter, as also much of her body of work, it is difficult to believe that she had never attended a University. Also, one is amazed at the sheer enthusiasm and motive-force she possessed that drove to make such efforts for others – tasks which would hardly give her any credit or recognition. In fact this was a signal hallmark throughout her Indian work. To her no time and effort spent on even a single Indian in whom she saw potential was a sub-optimal use of her time and energies and her eye for details was simply stupendous.