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. 5 CHINTAMANI DAS LANE 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 VI 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 Primary Education : A 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 II. What We Saw ... 454 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.