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VIVEKANAND - Julie - Indian Political Thought - Political Ideas of Swami Vivekananda PDF
VIVEKANAND - Julie - Indian Political Thought - Political Ideas of Swami Vivekananda PDF
V i v e W formw that man wuuld fo& even the highest idah for
power and wealth and called for the mcessary moral and religious regeneration
through education, to prepare men for politics. The whole meaning of life and its
oneness and the unity of the nations and peoples had to be understood before. The
rights of the masses had to be understood and not thought of w a concession
granted to them by the magnanimity of the rich. most of all, the end of this life
had to be understood Without all these, politics would be a disaster, especially in
1ndia.l A spiritual upheaval is necessary if the political revolution were to truly
came h u t . And in its turn, the newly found political vigour ought k, open up
the gates for a new spiritual tide. They ought to produce each other and help
other.' It is for these reasons that he was not over enthusiastic about political
agitations against the British Without creating the necessary conditions in the
masses through education, no amount of political agitation will do g o d to the
country.
To him the alien imperialism seemed partly a blessing since it had for the
first time after the Pataliputra Empire brought the whole of India under one
governrnenf and making possible communication with the outside world. But
they were unable to determine what is truly good for the inhabitants of this
countryq6They helped to bring thus the ancient Hindu and the ancient Greek
come together again7 But they seemed to him to be more interested in their own
imperial glory (India was considered the biggest gem in the crown of England),
than in the well being of the Indian people.8
Vivekananda had a very interesting and original theory of how the world
is governed by various groups at various moments of history in which a precise
pattern of caste can be discerned. We have seen that in all thee societies thee four
fundamental castes exist, the castes being natural. Due to the games of evolution
the number and the strength of each of these castes vary, so that at given periods
one dominates over the others. A careful study of the history of humanity shows
Vivekananda that these four castes, one after another in succession have ruled the
world and given to political life their own specific stamp. Among the Chinese,
the Sumarins, the Babylonians, the Emans, the Chaldeans, the Aryas, the
Iranians, the Jews, the Arabs all have had these periods of caste rules.13
World political history can, therefore, be divided into four periods, ruled
respectively by Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras.
Thc ancient society was guided by mdea and laws inspired by the spiritual
Bcnilg of ishis. The priest was the mighty man of the land Knowingly or
unknowingly every society gives its priest abundant leisure-time and looh af€er
his material weds. Thw, he has the opportunity for meditation and higher
thoughts and philosophy. He becomes learned and wise and this is the origin of
his supremacy over the other castes." By the power of his mind he controls
ev-g in the country, beginning with the king down to the lowest subject
The forces of nature themselves seem to be under his control since he is the
knower of the spirit that is behind a1 creation. He knows the secret of the gods
and how to appease their anger and get their benediction by sa~rifices.'~And
hence the supreme power rested in his hands. The king was under his thumb. He
was also thee historian and without his sympathies no king would get a lasting
name in history.16
Selfishness made him lose all these, and, in order to perpetuate his hold on
society, he created endless rites, false mysticism, obscure ceremonies and
meaningless customs. Buddhism, Jainism and the Charvaka philosophy in India
were reactions against this caricature of priesthood in the ancient world,"
Ritualism spelt the death-knoll of the priestly power in the history of the world.
The is survival of the fittest. The stronger tends to replace the weaker. the
Khsatriya, who saw that behind the cereonialism of the priest there was nothing,
rose to replace the power of the priest. There began a strife between the priestly
and the military class. Budhdism is a typical example of this fight and the
Buddhists won the battle. It was the victory of liberty and reason over the
entangling knew of mustecism and cemonials. On the religious side the
Buddhist reformation represented fieedom from ceremonials and on the political
side, the overthrow of the priest by the ~ s h a s t i ~ a rAnd
. " with it also the political
ideology and the ideals of society changed emperor became the centre of all
power. C h a n m Ashoh and 0 t h great rulers of this period an shining
examples.
The conquest of India by the English was an event of great surprise for
Vivekananda, not because it was a foreign power, but because it was the Vaishm
power. India had been ruled by foreigners so many times before. In fact the
previous rulers, the Moguls were Muslims from the Middle East. But it was
unheard of before that a band of traders should uproot kings and take up their
power, and later call forth the services of their own kingdom (English Crown) to
rule what they had acquired19
The "natural caste duty" of the Vaishya is the equal distribution of wealth.
He is the breadwinner of the community. Instead the English were interested
winning the bread only for their own families and not for the community in
which they lived Hence, the downfall of the Vaishyas, was imminent. India
would soon be independent, and the common masses, the Shudras will come to
power. And they had to be prepared for this task, lest they too fail in their natural
caste duty of senice to the community. It is for this that Vivekananda worried so
much about preparing the masses for their future, about their education, and about
their manliness and their religious education. Preparation of the masses is the only
way to speed up the revolution of the working classes. Vivekananda was quite a
revolutionary in that sense. The Shudra rule had not yet come in most of the
world according to Vivekananda, except in America .." But the ferment was
already there, for the towering economic injustices of the Vaishyas cannot last
forever.
In the past it has happened oflen that the Shudras have come to pow.
But they did it by changing their caste, by acquiring the qualities of Brahmins or
KJhariyas or Vaishyas. .n It has also happened that the higher castes loss their
qualities and become Shudras. The fail of the Roman Empire was a case of the
Shudras (slaves) becoming Kshatriyas an4 overthrowing the original Kshatriyas.
The present Europe is on the whole an old population of Shudras now become
Kshatiryas and Vaishyas. Instead, china, a great Kshatriya nation is now going
down to Shudrahood, as also India. He once severely reprimanded the Hindus
for fast becoming Shudras. .23 The small Japan is throwing off its Shudrahood
and fast becoming Vaishya and Kshatriya. Greece and Italy are coming up while
the Turkish and the Spanish powers are going down in the ladder of castes. .24
But the time is coming "whm there will be rising of the Shudra class with
their Shudrahood, that is to say, not like that as at present when the Shudras are
becoming great by acquiring the characteristic qualities of the Vaishya or the
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Kshatriya, but with their inborn Shudra nature and habits and not becoming in
essence Vaishya or Kshatriya, but remaining as Shudras - will g i n absolute
supremacy in every society.
The failure to be faithful to their call had been their ruin. But such things
are only to bc e-d since history itself, following natural evolution, develops
by rise and hll,just like thee waves in the aaa Cutc mlutioas are neassuy
for the gradual development of society and in g e d they are gradual and not
violent and destructive. But they are durable since they take place steadily and on
a wide scale. Besides being natural, the changes of caste rules are also beneficial
to the society. They make political nnewal possible, introduce new idem and
usher in growth and wens for the new situations in life. ?6
-
The urnasses* the source of political power
Vivekananda holds that the masses are the basis or the source of political
power. The logic is simple enough. It is the individuals who make up the society.
Hence the power of the society is the collectivity of the power of the individuals.
And since, the masses constitute the most numerous group in society, they are the
"reservoir of all powers ", the "back bo~ie28 in the social structure. And the
government is only a social structure created for the common good of all in the
society.
Now, if the masses are the source of power, how is it that they have
always been slaves to p t s or small ruling groups. The reason is that they
themselves are not aware of their power. And hence there is no attempt to
org& this p o w Again the w o n for this is the lack of education, a lack of
education that is artificially produced by the selfishness of the higher classes. 'I
The only way to raise the power of thee masses is to educate them. It is
for this motive that in India Vivekananda wanted thee diehard orthodox upper
chsses to go, so that a "renascent India" may be born from the masses. 32 He
exhorted the social reformers of India not to waste time on reforming the society
from above but fiom below, by giving education to the people, because the
masses were the "lenislative body who are quite capable of solving their own
problems. "The new order of things is the salvation of the people by the people. 'I
V i v e h d a hoped that the rich would initiate the reform movements to uplift the
Poor.
When, through this process of resistance the masses would come to power,
they would have to safeguard all the values for which they were fighting -
&OQm equality and unity, This rule of the masses is what Vivekananda called
udemcnq" or "socialism".
The fundamental values of man, freedom, equality and unity - when lived
in the political society becomes democracy. Hence democracy is based on those
values and is meant to propagate these values. The reason for the existence of
democracy is man-making. The foundation of democracy is Advaita Vedanta,
6n is the best philosophy of man-making. " A monotheistic religion,
Vivekananda, would demand monarchy, rather than democracy, and in this
sew,the duelists cannot truly be democratic.
Both spiritual and political freedoms are needed. "The Greek sought
political liberty. The Hindu has always sought spiritual liberty. Both are one-
sided.... To care only for spiritual liberty is a defect, but the opposite is still
greater defect. Liberty of both soul and body is to be striven for. '' The political
is the means, and the spiritual freedom, is the end. Social and political freedoms
are necessary conditions of growth into the spiritual and individual freedom.
What is social liberty? "Liberty does not certainly mean the absence of
obstacles in the path of misappropriation of wealth etc., by you and me, but it is
our natural right to be allowed to use our own body, intelligence, or wealth
according to our will, without doing harm to others; and all the members of a
society ought to have the same opportunity for obtaining wealth, education, or
privilege. That, then is Vivekananda's definition of in social and political
freedom.
Hence, first of all "Liberty of thought and action is the only condition of
life, of growth and well-being. "Caste or no caste, creed or no creed, any man, or
class, or caste or nation, or institution which bars the power of frrr thought and
mion of an individual - even so long as that power does not injure others is -
devilish and must go down. .59 Freedom is the sacrosanct value of an individual. "
Freedom with but one meal a day and tattered rags on is a million times better
than slavery in gold chains. The primacy of the individual is almost in the mind
of Vivekanandda. Political and social structures are only subservient to him.
Realization being the final end of man, it cannot be otherwise. Thee individual is
to be assisted and not lorded over by the society, much less hindered in his task of
liberation. Hence there can be no political law that can go against the natural
rights of the individual or violate the sacredness of his conscience. 61
Nevertheless, "the individual 's life is in the life of the whole, and the
individual's happiness is in the happiness of the whole. " An individual truly
becomes universal only when he sees the whole society in himself and himself in
the whole society. "To move slowly towards the infinite whole, bearing a constant
feeling of intense sympathy and sameness with it,... is the individual's sole duty.
Not only is it his duty but in its transgression is his death, while compliance with
this great truth leads to life immortal. " Hence, individual freedom leads to social
duty. There is no conflict between the interests of the individual and of the
society. Vivekananda explicitly introduces the problem of individual-society
conflict and says that in reality there is no conflict. The society is not to a
b4marter"to the individual, and the individual is not to be an egoist. "
Even though the individual's freedom is primary in the social sphere it is
not to be measured by the standards of "me" and 'mine", but from the point of
view of all. Hence the concept of social freedom naturally leads to the concept of
equality,
Libmy in society implies rights and opport&ities for the "making of
one's own fortune". By equality Vivekananda does not mean that all equal,
becaw they are not, but he means that all should be given equal rights and
opportunities. In the mind of Vivekananda, privilege is the bane of any society .6'
' T h e work of ethics is not destruction of variety in the world, but the destruction
of privilege. Every privilege forges a chain for other men in society. We have
seen this while spealung of caste. Hence 'Liberty is not only based upon equality,
but is fully identical with it." for there is no fkedom without equality and no
equality without freedom.
But he did not advise attachment to material wealth because owner is only
an administrator, not the master. Besides the fact that the goods of this world
produce more desire and prolong the Maya existence, wealth in itself belongs to
God alone and has a Universal destination. "Not that you should not have things
which are necessary and things which are even luxuries. have all that you want,
and more, only know the truth and realise it Wealth does not belong to anybody.
Have no idea of proprietorship. You are nobody, nor am I, nor anybody else. All
belongs to the Lord 70 We ignore this sublime mcth,...with our short-sighted vision
we think ministering to the self at any cost is the be-all and end-all of life.
Wisdom, knowledge, men strength, prowess, and whatever else nature gathers and
provides us with, are only for diffusion 'I When the moment of need is at hand,
We often forget this fact, puts the stamp of ''mine only" upon the entrusted
deposits, and p
i WSU,we sow the see of our own ruin '*
Man should thus realise that his social living is meant to realise his
innermost self, in which dl his brothers too are included. Freedom, the birth-right
of every individual leads to unity. Its concrete expression in society is equality -
the equal opportunity for all to make one's own fortune.
But his anarchism is not nihilism. In the famous lecture on the "Real
nature of man", Vivekananda held that nihilism was not possible for any man. " I
have never seen a man who could become a nihilist for one minute.80 He
explained how, because of its nihilistic leanings, Buddhism was thrown out of
India by the ~indus." A nihilist wants to destroy society for the sake of
destroying it, for he has not absolute value. But Vivekananda wants to destroy
society in order to safeguard that which is true in the society itself, the individual.
Hence in his thinking there is only subordination of government and society to the
Individual, not the individual that the Western society thinks of when it speaks of
freedom of the individual in a democratic society. That is only a phase, not the
The production of "supermen", men without frontiers, whose frontier will
Y h
O ~ their b t y itself, not ony State or "religion" of race or colour or culture
Or COde of morality, is the god of society and all the political life.
"If the Brahmin is who has killed all selfishness and who lives and works
-
to acquire and propagate wisdom and the power of love if a cotmhy is altogether
inhabited by such Brahmins, by men and women who are spiritual and moral and
g d , is it strange to think of that country as being above and beyond all law?
What police, what military are necessary to govern them? Why should anyone
govern them at all? Why should they live under a government? They are good
and noble, and they are men of
It is this ideal that unites a nation. A nation becomes such not because of
territory, language or physical descent, but because of this particular mission.
Just like the individuality of a man, the individuality of a nation too is only a
means to finally realise its oneness with the rest of humankind.
The term "nationalism" has various meanings. It first of all means love of
one's own country and people and the search for its independence, prosperity and
prestige in the community of the nations. Besides all this, it could also mean a
theory by which the individuals are seen only in function of the nation, or the
superiority of one nation over the rest that justifies an aggressive attitude.
Vivekananda is a nationalist in the first sense of the term. Vivekananda has been
acclaimed as a nationalist in India by mon of the scholars, for his great love of his
mnherland and the prestige that he gave her in the midst of the community of
nations.
Glory of India
His role in giving the Indians the price of their own nation in a time when
the nation was prostrate in the dust of ignorance and poverty cannot be
overestimated All those who knew him have been unanimous on this point. He
took upon himself the life mission of routing the sleeping leviathan of India. He
wanted to show Indians that they can do something, and that they have a great
He tenned India the most moral nation in the
treasure to give to the wor~d.~'
"head and shoulders above all the other nations."93He told his people that
the name Hindu was their most glorious possession, that they were children of
immortals of gods and sages, and that their nation was an undying one.94
Indians should throw off the feeling of inferiority and the slavish mentality
of thnking that everything good came from the West. As a principle
Vivekananda defended everything Indian in front of the foreigners, and pointed
out the ori@ goodness of Indian laws and customs to the Indians themselves.
He was often aggressive in arguments when it came to defending his land of
Nothing Man, h a w , needed apology or caused shame. He made it one
of the p$~iples of his life not to be ashamed of his own ancestors and tbeir
inheritance." "Let us not curse and abuse the weather-beaten and work-worn
Even institutions and modes of life
institutions of our thricsholy m~thertand.~
that today seem useless have had their purpose in the past. "This national ship has
been fenying millions and millions of souls across the waters of life. But today,
perhaps througb your own fault, this boat has become a little damaged, has sprung
a I& Let us to and stop the holes. Let us gladly do it without heart's blood, and
if we cannot then let us die."98Words like these had fire in them and memorized
his listeners. He provoked their racial pride by calling them all Aryans what ever
be their colour and language and culture. "If the Europeans do not like us, Aryas,
-
because we are dark, let them take another name for themselves what is that to
us?a99For him the Indians were the handsomest race with the finest f ~ e sand
,
this was not a vain pride in his own nation but a truth he learned from his
trave~s.'"~
The Indians are to stand on their own feet, since they are next to none in
intelligence and power."'0'The strength of their race is proven by being the only
race in the world to survive for 3000 years, unlike the Romans, the Greeks, the
Egyptians and many other ancient cultures. He traced the reason of this to the
strength of their spirituality and their W a s t n e s s in it. Hence, it was an
indestructible He worked indefatigably to arouse the national
consciousness of the Indians, by preaching Vedanta, the most original discovery
of the hd~ans.'~'
He hammered repeatedly on their lethargy and their sense of
inferiority in front of the colonizing nations of the world, and thus, was the great
pncursor of the tidal wave that inundated the whole length and breadth of the
land in the bqpnning of this century under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi.
. Vivekananda spoke not so much of the woes of India due its own rulers,
though he did not spare them too, but mostly of her owes because of the faults of
her sons themselves. His flagellation of his own for their inaction and
superstrtions was merciless.
Jealousy of each other was pointed out as one of the main defects of the
Indians.'ol He compared the Indians to the Negroes of Texas, in the United States.
Compelled to live as slaves, they would tolerate the wealth and greatness of the
whites, but whenever a fellow Negro came up in life, their jealousy never
tolerated that and tried all their best to pull him down. Indians too, having lived
under foreign rule for long centuries had acquired this mentality typical of
s l a v ~ .lalousy
'~ was the national sin of India, in his opinionlo9when writing a
his own intimate Friends and disciples he used such terms as "honid" and
"diabolical" to describe the evils of Indian society."0 "Why should the Hindu
nation, with all its wonderful intelligence and other things, has gone to pieces? I
would answer you, jealous1. ''I
Lose of self-respect and will power was another blemish on the Indian
character. They had become a "nation of mendicants" and have thrown all self-
esteem to the winds. Even the so-called respectable middle class citizens
crouched before the foreigner for a job and to eater into his servitude. "hduhas
become as a whale a Shudra class today," he lamented. Her Brahmins are the
foreign professors, her Kshativas are the ruling Englishmen and Vaishvas too the
English in whose narrow itself is the instinct of trade so that only Shudraness is
left with tbe ~ndians."' The constant tyranny of the higher castes had reduced the
masses to he "professional beggars" who had lost their most coveted treasure,
"manlint9sn. 115
The real force that can make all the races and languages and cultures of
India stick together is only their religion. That is the om: common thing they have
in all their diversity. Religion, therefore, should be accepted as the foundation of
the national unity of india."' Though in general Vivekananda speaks of
Hinduism, he really now means Advaita Vedanta, which for him is the core of all
religions in India and in the world. Hence from this exhortation of his, the other
religionists were not exc~udcd"~
All were Indians and hence their dcstlny hangs
together.lm~ewrote in a letter to a Muslim friend appreciating Islam as the only
religion that approached nearest to the Advaitist ideal of equality and
brotbethood, the special contribution of Prophet Mohammed The Hindus had
betrayed this with their degenerated caste system.'2'
Thus in malung Vedanta the pmcbcal base of unity for India, the help and
the contribution of other religions was needed. Islam contributed the wonderful
idea of brotherhood. Christianity taught service to the poor and the masses. " I
am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of
Vcdantism, however fine and wonderful they may be, are entirely valueless to the
vast mass of mankind . We want to lead mankind to the place where there is
neither Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by
hmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran. Uankind ought to be taught that
religions are but the various expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness,
so that each may choose that path suits him best. For our own motherland a
junction of the two great systems, Nnduism and Islam - Vedanta Brain and Islam
body - is the only bope. I see in my mind's eye the hture perfect India rising out
of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam
bodY."'*
Hence, anyone who wants to work for the future of India and her unity
must start with the unification of religion. It is a unity that recognises the
diversity of cach religion as the "way" of each man.'21 Unity was a must if India
wen to survive, for unity is power and division is weakness. Vivekananda
pointed out how compact little nations like a pan and England managed to rule
huge unwisely and divided and Divided nations like China and lndial*' The
semt was that they wm able to bring all their ideas and power a day in India
Indin should be "a nation of those whose hearts beat the sarne spiritual ~ u n e . " ' ~ ~
Even when he said that the true vitality of the Indian nation is in religion,
he does not put it above the people. He only recognise a fact. "We have seen that
ow vigour.. . is in our religion. I am not going to discuss now whether it is right
or not, whether it is Beneficial or not in the long nm,to have vitality in religion,
but for good or evil it is there; you cannot get out of it, you have it now and for
ever, and you have to stand by it, even if have not the sarne faith that I have in our
religion."'27The primacy of man over religious creeds is clear.
The sign of the time today in the history of the world is that all nations an
turning into a global village. More than ever before, mankind has come to see
that the fate or the wellbeing of all men hang together, that they are all in the same
boat, and whether they move forward or sink to the bottom, they do it together.
Well, Vivekananda saw this point a hundred years ago. It is best to let his speak:
"E=n in politics and sociology, problems that were only national twenty years
ago can no longer be solved on national grounds only. They are assuming huge
proportions, gigantic shapes. They can only be solved when looked at in the
&b light of international grounds, international organisation, intcmational
combination; international laws an the ny of the day. Again, there cannot be any
progre~without the whole world following in the wake ... Every idea has to
become broad till it cover the whole world, evey aspiration must go on increasing
till it has engulf4 the whole of humanity; nay, the whole of life, within its
=p"'"
Tat shows beyond any doubt that the nationalism did not simply anti-
intemalism.ln "Intense as was his love for his country, his love was not confined
to his country alone. There was nothing chauvinistic about his j~triotisrn."'~~
He
wrote to his brothers: "I belong as much to India as to the world, no humbug
about As a matter of fact, from the time of Ram Mohan onwds, there
has been a certain universalism and internationalism in many of the Indian
philorophers.'32 He had two ideals and one was never sacrificed for the other,
they were never in contradiction - the nation-making and world-making. His
nationalism was not sectarianism."' He was truly "catholic".'34 None before him
has been so unconditionally universality as Vivekananda. Because of his broadest
philosophical basis he has the first true universalistic in India, to be followed by
Gandhi and others later.'35
In short, man can no more afford to build walls, but only bridges. Man
without frontiers is our only hope of survival. "Humankind cannot be saved
unless we reach the universal oneness."'" Solutions to any problem can never be
attained on racial or narrow grounds. Every idea has to become broad till it
covers the whole of his world, every aspiration must go on increasing till it has
engulfed the whole of humanity, nay, the whole of life, within its scope.""' He
said to his Indian brothers, that as long as they tried to build only their country
they were doomed to failure.'" nations is meant only to realix the divinity
within man Its scope is to promote humanity without frontiers in its widest
sew.
Mass Awakening
The basis for such a political message had already been created by the life
and works of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda's mentor. For Sri
Ramakrishna 'So many religions, are so many paths, to the temple of God.' He
uid: 'LC[ all mcn and womcn sincerely follow their own religions as true, but
never think that only their religions are true and all others are false. All religions
arc true, all lead to the same God.' Swami Vivekananda goes M e r than his
mentor and asserts that all these religions have their own missions to perform in
history. Ebch religion represents a p a t truth, each represents a parhcular
excellence-ssomething which is its soul. As he says: 'I accept all religions that
wen in the past and worship with them all. I worship God with everyone of
them, in whatem form they worship Him. Further, I shall kecp my heart open
for all that may come in the future, for God's book is still a continuous revelation,
going on.'
Swami Vivekananda was well aware of the fact that any such action-plan
for awakening the masses should have a populist strategy. A well-thoughtat
and clearly spelt-out strategy for the purpose was made public by him in a letter
written to Alasinga (28 May 1894). This strategy contained, among other things,
the following aspects.
1. to raise some money;
2. to build a small lecture-hall in an area inhabited by poor and low-
caste people;
3. the hall would be used to arrange public lectures with magic lanterns
and other necessary aids on religion, geography, astronomy, etc.;
4. to raise and train a group of young men who would disseminate the
message of national awakening far and wide; and
5, the ultimate goal would be to awaken the common masses.
But comparatively greater emphasis was placed on the inner and real
message of religion as a catalyst for national unity and awakening. As Swami
Vivekananda drew attention to the Vedantic message 'no religion is destructive
for othcr religions'. If all the religions existing in India were not contrary to each
other, he exhorted the followers of each to forge a broader unity on the basis of
consciousness. He was convinced that the human mind was the real basis of
national unity and cohesion. In other words, the message was simple, loud, and
clear. if there was a meeting of minds, obstacles to national unity could be
overcome. With such a perspective of national unity in mind, Swami
Vivekananda could not see eye to eye with the administrative unity improvised by
the colonial administration. He was convinced that in the absence of a national
unity rooted deep in the human mind, the common working language (English),
the railway network, and the postal stamp could not bring about the desired
national integration.
Concluding Observations
I
Mtal has called Vivekananda a "political futurist". "'
bough Vivekananda never wanted to get mixed up in politics, he was a political
wrctician. His ideas were quite forward for the age in which he spoke and are
levant even today, nay, today more than ever before.
Of course, besides his roots in Hinduism and Advaitia philosophy,
Viveksnaada was certainly also influenced by Western political ideologies.
Rbddy maintains that his political thought is "Indian in orientation and European
in environment"'a This influence is clear from the k
tthat he at least criticised
the Westem party-based democracy and other related evi~s."~
Aurobindo himself
said that when Vivekananda held that everybody has to be a Brahmin, he was
influenced by European democratic ideas.'% We have also pointed out the
possible contact of Vivekananda with Marxist ideas. But in his socialism, the
infrastntchrrc is religion, not economy. For him the exclusive economic concern
is the opium of the people. There are, however, some words of Vivekananda that
might possibly betray his acquaintance with Marxist ideas. In the first place,
though he did not like economy to be the basis of the cultural and religious
phenomena, he recognised that "there runs an economic struggle through every
religious struggle. The animal called man has some religious influence, but he is
guided by economy. Individuals are guided by something else, but the mass of
mankind never made a move useless economy was involved"151 Again, he
condemned making the individual only a mean for society. "Every man should
know that he is a man and not simply a slave of the society."'52 These ideas may
prove his knowledge of the writing of h4am, though they need not necessarily.
While we could easily accept the notion that each race has a patxular
contribution to make to the human race, his quasicategorical division of the East
as spiritual and the West as material may be questionable. The West has had its
ghb in spirituality and mysticism and cannot be said to be totally, or almost
totally waiting for spirituality from the East. For hundreds of years the West has
lived virtually under the sway of religion. This idea is original of Vivekananda,
and not faught by his Master Ramakrishna. It sounds practically like the claim to
spiritual superiority over other nations. Though Vivekananda himself was not a
"nationalistn in the negative sense of the term, this subtle claim to spiritual
superiority has given to modern Hinduism a militant Hindu nationalistic
The present day aggressive Hindu movements like RSS, take their inspiration,
rightly or wrongly, from the fiery speeches of Vivekananda and his like.
But apart from other positive and negative observations that one could
make, it should be accepted that Vivekananda is true to his "ultimate conc;ernU
also in his political thinking. Above the castes, the nations, political and social
laws is man, the same brother man all over the world, with the inalienable
qualities of freedom, equality and unity. The two world wars have strongly
produced today the awareness of the truth that humanity stands or falls together.
V i v c b d a said this a hundred years ago.