Margaret Noble: An Irish Rebel in India

WITH MALACHI O’DOHERTY

Why does someone important disappear from the historical record?

Margaret Noble, born in Dungannon in 1867, is revered in India as a major player in the nationalist movement and also as a Hindu saint. She is remembered as Sister Nivedita, the name given to her by her more famous guru, Swami Vivekananda. Her former home in Kolkata is a museum in her honour, while a university and a bridge in the city are named after her and several schools around India are dedicated to her memory.

Noble was a campaigner for educational reform in England before she went to India. Her letters include correspondence with some of the great intellectuals of her time, including William James and Rabindranath Tagore. She was active in promoting Indian Home Rule, involved herself in revolutionary politics and wrote several books promoting Indian culture and Hindu religious ideas.

So why don’t we know about her here? Malachi O’Doherty first heard about Sr Nivedita when, like her, he followed an Indian guru in the 1970s. He argues that Noble’s political ideas resonated with the events in Ireland at the time, seeking to define Ireland or India as a separate nation, entitled to independence by virtue of a distinctive native and religious culture.

Join Malachi as he explores Margaret Noble’s life and legacy and how her reputation differs in India and in Ireland.