“Women Missionaries of the Ramakrishna Order”:
A Research and Resource Centre
The Research and Resource Centre on “The Women Missionaries of the Ramakrishna Order” is a unique consortium of published books and periodicals, e-resources and digital copies of archival materials for instance, letters, manuscripts, photographs, paintings (https://youtu.be/Zv54ZHsEflI?si=dRagoxLd51IIPab7 ) and films.
The Centre aims to fill a gap in the history of Indian missionary work by attracting academic attention to the vast field of work carried out by the women missionaries of the Ramakrishna order in India and abroad. Compared to the critical research work existing in the corresponding fields of women missionaries, for instance for that of the Christian women missionaries or the Brahmo reformation and the women associated with it, critical research on the women missionaries of the Ramakrishna Movement has remained a comparatively less investigated area of study. In this context, and in the context of the ever growing demand of digital archiving in every field of study today, our initiative has a two-fold focus – on building a collaborative resource center that would in turn encourage and generate academic research in the area.
THE RESOURCE CENTRE
The Resource Centre brings together all primary and secondary work relevant to this area under a single umbrella. The Research Centre is planned as an inclusive one and is not only limited to the college faculty and students. Outside participants are welcome to be part of the project as collaborators in building the contents and as researchers using its resources for academic purposes. The future plans of the Centre include large-scale resource gathering and digitizing of archival materials.
At present, its COLLECTION consists of –
English Books (Hard Copies) – 85
Bengali Books (Hard Copies) – 169
Books (Soft Copies) – 13
Bengali and English Articles (Scanned & Soft Copies) – 66
Letters (Soft Copies) – 396
Original Diaries (Soft & Hard) – 4
Dissertation (Soft Copy) – 1
Old Newspaper Collection (Soft copies) – 11
Old Photos (Soft Copies) – 1764
Paintings (Soft Copies) – 18
RESEARCH
The Research Centre will be utilized and enriched by the research initiatives of participants and scholars – both from within and from outside the institution.
The Centre organizes and hosts talks/lectures on its core themes by esteemed and renowned authors and scholars like on –
2 December 2022 – by Sri Harsh Dutta – Author and Ex-Editor, Desh Magazine.
(https://youtu.be/fsRcvBfjqoo?si=JXUFzANo2cjxDV2c )
The Centre shares the origin, development and history of various women missionaries on virtual platform through Youtube videos like –
The inauguration of the Centre on 30 September 2015 was marked by an enriching lecture delivered by Pravrajika Jnanadaprana Mataji, Revered Assistant General Secretary of Sri Sarada Math and RKSM. She talked about the historical context and circumstances leading to the formal establishment of Sri Sarada Math as a unique women missionaries’ monastic order under the guiding ideals of Sri Ramakrishna. (https://youtu.be/VWx9rQMlb3w?si=WB6pFKE5koGFa3EU )
PERMANENT ARCHIVAL EXHIBITION
A permanent archival exhibition on Women Missionaries of the Ramakrishna Order: Our Heritage is a unique initiative towards converging gender and tradition. Spread in eight boards, it is the journey of Sri Sarada Math from Sri Ramakrishna to RKSMVV Girls’ College.
The Research and Resource centre runs a You-tube channel for propagation of these ideas in the global village–
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBh7VjS559rY8C7k0a8pPUw
