Sister Nivedita’s statue in UK

A bronze statue of Sister Nivedita will be installed in the United Kingdom on the 26th of May this year to commemorate her 150th birth anniversary celebrated in 2017. This is going to be her first statue to be installed in a public place in the UK. Ramakrishna Mission and the Government of West Bengal will be installing the bronze statue at the family cemetery of Sister Nivedita in Great Torrington, Devonshire. The bronze statue, four feet long have been sculpted by Nirjan Dey under the supervision of Swami Vishyamayananda. It is going to be installed at the cemetery by a monumental mason’s firm ‘J. Short and Sons’. The pedestal of the four feet long statue will have the poem ‘Benediction’ written by Swami Vivekananda inscribed on it. While on the other side of the pedestal, a biographical sketch of Sister Nivedita along with ‘Government of West Bengal’ will be inscribed. The state government has sponsored the cost of the statue. The installation of the statue in the UK could be made possible due to the initiative taken by the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Swami Suviranandaji and the state government. Ramakrishna Math and Mission have further plans of setting up another statue of Sister Nivedita at Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon. Sister Nivedita, born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble (28 October 1867 – 13 October 1911) had travelled to Kolkata in 1898 where she was vowed as a Brahmacharya by Swami Vivekananda in the same year. She wanted to educate girls deprived of basic education and thus had opened a girl’s school in Bagbazar. She nursed and took care of patients during the plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899. Nivedita was deeply associated with Ramakrishna Mission and was also very close to Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Ramakrishna. She passed away on 13 October 1911 at Roy Villa in Darjeeling, where she went to recover from her ill-health along with Jagadish Chandra Bose and his wife Abala. She was cremated there and her ashes were sent to England, which was received by her brother Richmond Noble, who buried it in their family cemetery. Sister Nivedita’s epitaph reads, "Here lies Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India".