Reminiscences

Nolini Kanta Gupta was born on January 13, 1889, in Faridpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Raised in Rangpur, he went for higher studies to Presidency College, Kolkata. When the province of Bengal was partitioned in 1906, Nolini became increasingly involved in the movement to free India from British rule. In his fourth year of college, he joined the Maniktola secret society, a revolutionary group, and in May 1908 was arrested for conspiracy. Along with Sri Aurobindo and others he spent one year in jail as an under trial prisoner. After his acquittal he joined the staffs of Dharma and Karmayogin, two newspapers founded and edited by Sri Aurobindo.

In November 1910, six months after Sri Aurobindo left Kolkata for Pondicherry in South India, Nolini went to join him. From time to time he returned to Kolkata, but from 1926, when the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was formed, he settled permanently in Pondicherry. For more than sixty years he served as the general secretary of the Ashram. In 1955 he was appointed as a trustee of the newly-formed Ashram Trust. For many years he also taught in the Ashram's school, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. An eminent writer and poet, his works have been published in an eight- volume set of Collected Works in both English and Bengali. He was the editor or editorial advisor of a number of English and Bengali journals. On February 7, 1984, he passed away at the age of ninety-five.