Nirmal Nahar

Photo Collection

Information

(28.07.1922-03.09.2012), born to to Prithwi Singh Nahar (a noted disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother) and Suhag Kumari. Nirmal Nahar received his early education at Santiniketan where he stayed with his family from 1929 to 1935. On 29 May 1938 Prithwi Singh Nahar joined the Ashram at Pondicherry with his eldest daughter Sujata, then aged twelve. Gradually his other children too became inmates of the Ashram; his third son Noren Singh Nahar joined the Ashram in 1939 and was followed by Abhay Singh Nahar (Prithwi Singh’s youngest son) in 1940; his daughters Sumitra and Suprabha Nahar settled in the Ashram in 1941 along with the family of Dhir Singh Nahar, Prithwi Singh’s eldest son. Bir Singh Nahar, the second son of Prithwi Singh who was a pilot in the Royal Air Force joined the Ashram in 1945. And in 1943 Nirmal Nahar became an inmate of the Ashram. The Mother asked him to take up agricultural farming at the newly acquired “Cazanove” garden which was put under his charge. In 1946 when the garden was fully developed he requested the Mother to relieve him of the responsibility and eventually joined the Book Sales Department under Prithwi Singh.

In October 1947 Nirmal Nahar joined Reuters Associated Press of India and Press Trust of India as their special correspondent. In 1951, he was declared a persona non grata by the French Indian government and a warrant of arrest was issued for exposing French misrule in India as a journalist, but he was smuggled out of Pondicherry by the then Indian Consul General, Mr. R. K. Tandon. After his return to Calcutta he joined a Bengali daily Jana Sevak as its chief reporter.

Nirmal Singh was one of the founder-members of Sri Aurobindo Society of West Bengal at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan in Calcutta, nominated by the State Government in 1972. He was also a member of West Bengal State Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Celebration Committee set up by West Bengal State Government in 1971.

From 29 March 2010, when Overman Foundation was established, he became its Advisory Board Member.

Photos

Bibliography

Nahar, Nirmal Singh

On Satprem and Sujata

•   : An Interview By Anurag Banerjee