No reading of India’s struggle for freedom can be complete without knowing the role of Sister Nivedita, the Irish revolutionary who took up the cause of India’s independence. Highly religious-minded, she was drawn to Swami Vivekananda and the teachings of the Ramakrishna Mission and gave up the land of her birth to become a Brahmacharin—a full fledged follower of the Swami. However, she gave this up too, as the rules of the mission prohibited political activity and her urge to fight for the freedom of the country got the better of her. Despite being a foreigner in an alien land, she pleaded vigorously for the maintenance of Indian traditions and customs and believed that the emancipation of women was necessary if India was to attain freedom and become a sovereign entity in the comity of nations. Her transformation from a ‘Britisher’ to an Indian was complete. This book brings forth the variety and multi-faceted character of Sister Nivedita and her vigorous role in the freedom struggle. It delineates how a woman, from a foreign land, crossed the ocean to take up permanent residence in this country and imbibed the rich heritage of India. How she was moved by the plight of her sisters and attempted to bring them out of the darkness of superstition and ignorance into the mainstream of modern society. Academicians, students and teachers of history and political science will find this book of immense interest as also the general reader interested in knowing about the people who participated in the country’s fight for freedom.
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