12/11/2017
'Real Lioness' Sister Nivedita commemorated with English Heritage Blue Plaque
- Staunch campaigner for women’s education and Indian Independence celebrated at her former London home 150 years after her birth and 70 years after independence
- Mayor of London Sadiq Khan pays tribute to her lasting legacy
English Heritage unveiled today (12 November 2017) a new blue plaque to Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble, 1867-1911), an educationalist and campaigner for Indian Independence, at her former residence at 21A High Street, Wimbledon, Greater London. The plaque was unveiled by Madame Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan welcomed the new plaque, describing it as the “first public recognition of Sister Nivedita in London.”
Born Margaret Elizabeth Noble in Dungannon, County Tyrone (now in Northern Ireland), Sister Nivedita devoted herself to the support of women’s education and philanthropic work among the poor in India, and also campaigned strongly for Indian independence. Revered within Indian communities in Britain and beyond, Sister Nivedita’s English Heritage blue plaque is at 21A High Street, Wimbledon, a three-storey, late Victorian property of yellow stock brick, now with a shop front, which remained her family’s lodgings whilst she travelled around England, India and France.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m delighted that English Heritage is honouring Sister Nivedita with a blue plaque at her former home in Wimbledon on the 150th anniversary year of her birth.
“Devoting herself to philanthropic work and the promotion of women’s education in India, Sister Nivedita also campaigned tirelessly for Indian independence. This first public recognition of Sister Nivedita in London is a fitting tribute to her lasting legacy, particularly on the 70th anniversary year of India’s independence, and I’m sure it will prove a popular addition to the iconic London Blue Plaques Scheme.”
Anna Eavis, English Heritage Curatorial Director, said: “Sister Nivedita fought unstintingly to improve the education of women in India and the conditions of the poor. An eye witness to the state of the country under British rule, she became an outspoken critic of the Empire. Although her opinions were unpopular with some at the time, she was fearless in her efforts to promote the cause for Indian independence, believing it would improve the lives of the poor, and of women in particular.
“Sister Nivedita is widely celebrated in India but less well known in the UK – our blue plaque at her family home is a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman and we hope will make more people aware of her story.”
In November 1895, a few years after Margaret Noble opened her own kindergarten, the Ruskin School in Wimbledon, she met Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, an Indian mystic and yogi. Drawn by his message of religious universalism and philanthropy, she helped organise the Vedanta Movement in London until she persuaded Vivekananda to let her join him in India in 1898. This proved to be a turning point in her life and a move that led her to dedicate the rest of her life to India and its people. Vivekananda himself wrote of her devotion: ‘I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man but a woman; a real lioness, to work for the Indians, women especially’. He named her Sister Nivedita or ‘The Dedicated’, when he initiated her as a brahmacharini (a female disciple).
The blue plaque was celebrated in partnership with The Followers of Sister Nivedita and included a dedication by Swami Dayatmananda.
The English Heritage London Blue Plaques scheme is generously supported by David Pearl and members of the public.
Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble, 1867-1911)
Born on 28 October 1867, Margaret Elizabeth Noble was the eldest of three children in Northern Ireland. When her father went to train for the Nonconformist ministry in Manchester, Noble was left in Ireland with her grandparents, who were strong supporters of Home Rule. Following their father's death at the age of thirty-four, Noble and her sister Mary were sent to the Crossley Orphan Home and School in Halifax and in 1884 Noble took up her first teaching post in Keswick.
Time spent teaching at an orphanage in Rugby, and from 1886 at a school in the mining town of Wrexham, intensified her interest in social issues and welfare work. In about 1891 she was invited to become co-head of a new school in Wimbledon, before opening her own kindergarten in the area a few years later, followed by another that she called the Ruskin School. This was also open to adults who wished to study new methods of education, and in 1895 Noble was one of the founders of the Sesame Club, a meeting place for teachers and parents interested in 'New Education'.
In November that year Noble met Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, an Indian mystic and yogi. Vivekananda was a key figure in the introduction of the philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the West, and is credited with bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late-nineteenth century. Drawn by his message of religious universalism and philanthropy, Noble helped organise the Vedanta Movement in London until she persuaded Vivekananda to let her join him in India in 1898. He named her Sister Nivedita or 'The Dedicated', when he initiated her as a brahmacharini (a female disciple).
Nivedita opened a girls' school in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and assisted in relief work organised by the Ramakrishna Movement (particularly during the bubonic plague epidemic in 1899), and began to lecture on Hindu culture. In 1900 she returned to the West with Vivekananda, partly to raise money to be able to continue to run and develop her school. Within months of Nivedita's return to India in 1902 Vivekananda died, and she severed her connection with the Ramakrishna Movement, which banned involvement in political activity, turning her efforts to promoting the cause of Indian independence. She also re-launched her school, which was expanded to include classes for married women, and promoted traditional Indian art and architecture. She also collected Indian myths and stories, and was one of the first to propose a design for a national flag, which was presented at the Indian National Congress meeting in 1906.
Weakened by previous attacks of malaria and meningitis, which she contracted while working in the famine and flood-stricken parts of East Bengal in 1906, Nivedita died of dysentery in Darjeeling on 13 October 1911.