SABYASACHI BHATTACHARYA

IN FOCUS: INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

Swami Vivekananda and the Indian Freedom Struggle

SABYASACHI BHATTACHARYA

et us consider a few statements made by our national leaders about Swami Vivekananda before we get into our subject proper. Netaji Subhas Bose says, . . .With him religion was the inspirer of nationalism. . . .(The Indian Struggle) Jawaharlal Nehru writes in the Discovery of India . . .He was no politician in the ordinary sense of the word and yet he was, I think, one of the great foundersif you like, you may use any other wordof the national modern movement of India, and a great number of people who took more or less an active part in that movement in a later date drew their inspiration from Swami Vivekananda. . . . The famous Maharashtrian extremist nationalist leader, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, wrote in his journal Kesari in 1902: . . .But it is an undisputed fact that it was Swami Vivekananda who first held aloft the banner of Hinduism as a challenge against the material science of the West. . . . And Chakravarti Rajagopalachari did not hesitate in the least to say, . . . .But for him we would have lost our religion and would not have gained our freedom. . . .! And what did Sri Aurobindo say? He pointed out that Swamijis way was the true way of awakening sympathy,by showing ourselves to the nations as a people with a great past and ancient civilization who still possess something of the genius and character of our forefathers, have still something to give the world and therefore deserve freedom by proof of our manliness

and fitness, not by mendicancy. As we study the statements mentioned above, we notice there are certain differences in the approaches of our national leaders. Tilak, for instance, emphasized the Hindu element. On the other hand, Sri Aurobindo underlined the cultural element. He laid emphasis on civilization. These differences notwithstanding, all the great nationalist leaders of our country paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda. Let us see now what inspired them to pay such homage to Swamiji.
Three major features

There are three major features of Vivekanandas thoughts which merit attention. First, his writings form a part of the nationalist response to the imperialist critique of Indian civilization and history. Secondly, within the national school he rejected an exclusively spiritual point of view and welcomed modernization. In this he differed from many other national leaders as well as spiritual thinkers. Thirdly, not only did he resuscitate Indias pride in her civilization, not only did he try to combine a spiritual view with an urge for modernization, but also very often he spoke in favour of religious pluralism, condemned casteism, and upheld an ideal of what he called practical Vedantism.
Indian civilization

You find three lines of writing in his exposition of the idea of civilization. One is
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an exhortation to Indians to be proud of their past civilization. Second, along with this consciousness about ones civilization, he recommended that we should also learn from the Western civilization. Third, he recommended a balanced middle course between a servile surrender to the West and a blind admiration of Indias past. The political struggle for freedom had evidently within it a cultural struggle which Swami Vivekananda addressed to because he felt that the recovery of Indians confidence in their own culture and civilization was immensely important. He was therefore one of those who forcefully presented Indias civilization as something her people could be proud of. Secondly, talk about Indias ancient culture and civilization in the nationalist discourse often led to a blind glorification of the past. Vivekananda was keenly aware that to be proud of the past is one thing, and to live in the past is quite another. That awareness was the door to modernity without losing the Indian identity. Thirdly, Vivekanandas emphasis on the unity of the Indian people despite differences in religion, caste, status, classheirarchy, language and culture struck a chord common to all nationalist thought. Finally, Vivekananda cast a spell on nationalist minds in recommending to the youth in particular a fearless engagement in action. This message of abhih or fearlessness was connected with his message of practical Vedantisma philosophy of Karma-Yoga. It appealed to almost all the nationalists though they were, in terms of doctrine, divided. As regards the first of these ideas, let us recall the circumstances which required an affirmation of Indian civilization. The 19th century was an era characterized by an increase in distance between the advanced
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West and the backward East. The denigration of Indian civilization by the British authors like Mill and others, the demoralizing defeat of the Uprising of 1857, the abject dependence of the Bengali middle class on jobs the British alone could offer, the devaluation of indigenous knowledge and culture, on the one hand, and a growing hegemony of European civilization on the other, were some of the factors which destroyed the Indian peoples confidence in their civilization. The selfesteem, especially of the Indian educated middle class, was at its lowest level by the end of the 19th century when Vivekananda appeared and affirmed the greatness of Indias ancient civilization. So it was a turning point, it was a giant step towards recovering Indians self-confidence. Vivekananda struck that note of cultural self-assertion right from 1893, the year he addressed the Chicago Parliament. The Parliament of Religions was held to promote the Christian religion. It was dominated by the leaders of the Christian Church. Nevertheless, Vivekananda asserted the equality of all religions and said that holiness, purity and charity were not exclusive possessions of any Church in the world. This utterance was seen by his Indian contemporaries as not only an assertion of protest against the presumptuousness of the upholders of Christianity, but also as a cultural assertion that Indians should be proud of their own Hindu past. We see in Vivekananda an effort to instil in us a pride in Indias civilization as much as a readiness to embrace modernity. He has emphasized this combination repeatedly. Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery of India states that Vivekananda was careful to warn his people against dwelling too much on the past but to look to the future. This looking back to the past and finding comfort
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and sustenance was helped by a renewed study of ancient literature and history. But Vivekananda, unlike many of his contemporaries, saw in the past a means of establishing Indias claims to be one of the civilized people who deserved freedom. There is a passage in Modern India where Swamiji expands on this idea and says that we must learn from the West. He has known very well the positive and negative aspects of the West during his long stay in America and England. What India needs, he says, is to combine the awareness of modernity with an awareness of her own traditional civilization. Vivekananda upholds the tradition in his emphasis on Indias civilizational past. At the same time he also breaks away from that tradition in some ways. How does he do so is an important point to bear in mind. First, the idea of religious pluralism was not supported by all of his contemporary, nationalistic-minded intellectuals. For instance, Tilak and many of those in the extremist faction were far from being inclusive in their approach to the Muslim community. Vivekananda, however, believed that the greatest treasure of wisdom that he obtained from his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, was the idea that was encapsulated in the wordsJata mat tata path. He did not have a vision of India being developed without the combination of all religious culture in some form or the other. He underlined this point in his speeches in Chicago in 1893 and said that he did not believe that there will a fusion of all the different religions, but we have to look at the convergence of the different paths leading to the same goal. It is only in that light that one has to aim at achieving unity. This is an idea that was developed also by his great contemporary, Rabindranath Tagore. In 1902 he wrote a very famous
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essay called Bhratvarsher Itihs, and Bhratvarsher Itihser Dhra. There Rabindranath developed the same idea and said that unity in diversity was the central lesson of Indias history.
Missionary work

The second point on which Vivekananda differed from the traditional Hindu intellectuals was that he believed in proselytization. That is to say, he believed in missionary work to spread the message of Hinduism. [However, the fact is, Swamiji never believed in conversion or proselytization as he was against all religious bigotry and fanaticism. He said emphatically at the Parliament of Religions on 27 September 1893: Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.Editor] Hinduism was never propagated in that manner. I think Vivekananda must have observed in America and England the enterprise of the Christian missionaries. He believed that in order to answer the challenge of such effort to convert Indians to other religions, India too must develop its own mission with a Hindu spirit. This was something most unusual. The third point is that Vivekananda spoke of the need to combat caste oppression. He had said much on this theme which is particularly referred to in the last paragraph of Vartamn Bhrat. There is another statement where he regretted that religion of the Indians seemed to have entered into the kitchen. He believed that unless caste oppression was removed there was no possibility of uniting the Indian people in taking up the national cause. Another element, new in Vivekanandas thinking, was his views about practical Vedantism. By Practical Vedanta he, of
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course, meant the concept of renunciation. But in marked contrast to many traditional Hindu thinkers, Vivekananda pointed out that outward renunciation was not the only ideal of gaining moksha (liberation). Instead, he laid stress on Karma-Yoga. Like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vivekananda emphasized the need to get out of the mood of passive renunciation and follow an agenda of action that India needed. This idea appealed very much initially to one section of the nationalists. I think it would be historically correct to say that initially Vivekanandas appeal was by and large limited to the militant nationalists. Later it influenced the whole nationalist movement.
New evidence

I intend to mention here some new evidence available from police reports published very recently by the intelligence department. Few years ago the DirectorGeneral, IB, obtained permission from the government to publish a large number of these documents. A report of 1914 prepared by the then IB chief Charles Tegart, seeks to presume Vivekanandas links with the biplabis (revolutionaries). The IB reports point out the following: 1) The Ramakrishna Missions establishments were sometimes the nodal points in the organization of conspiracies leading to political crimes by the nationalists in different parts of India. 2) Many militants or the so-called terrorists were individuals associated with the RK Mission Ashramas. 3) The published works of Swami Vivekananda and his message to the youth formed part of their syllabus for training militants. As regards the big Conspiracy cases we might mention the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Rashbehari Bose as well as the
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accused five Bengali youths were allegedly members of the Ramakrishna Mission branch at Hardwar (Kankhal). Similarly, the Police reports claimed that the Barishal Conspiracy of 1913 was hatched under the cover of the Ramakrishna Mission. The report also pointed out that the members of the Dacca Anushilan Samiti regularly visited the Ramakrishna Mission. In fact, they used Mission as a code-name for the Anushilan Samiti. Of the Maniktala Conspiracy Case, in which Aurobindo Ghosh was implicated, at least one accused, Prajnanananda (also known as Devabrata Basu), was connected with the Mayavati Ashrama of the Ramakrishna Mission at Almora. So this is the kind of evidence the police gathered to show that Vivekananda inspired the militants who used the ashramas for their work. The second point regarding individuals seeking shelters in the Mission, we have some instances. There were some like Jatin Mukherji, known famously as Bagha Jatin, or Pulin Das, who occasionally visited the ashramas. Those who visited the ashramas more regularly belonged to two categories the probationers who left the ashrama having been won over by the militants, and the former militants who joined the Mission later in life. Tegarts report is somewhat incomplete in this regard because he had little data about the ashramas located at distant places outside Bengal such as Madras, Bangalore, Benaras, Allahabad and so on. His reports on these ashramas are rather speculative or sketchy, but on Bengal is very thorough. The police reports say further that members of the revolutionary parties seized upon the teachings of Vivekananda and adopted them to suit their own ends. In fact, by the time the Chittagong Armoury Raid
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took place, the police regarded the possession of books written by Vivekananda as sufficent evidence of militant tendency among the people they arrested. The possession of Ananda Math and the song Vandemtaram were as much proofs of guilt as the possession of Swamijis books. The nationalists in general were influenced by Vivekanandas writings. The reasons, I think, were that he imparted in them a sense of pride in the past and, secondly, he gave a cultural confidence to people who had lost their self-esteem. These two things were needed to build up a nationalist movement.
Indian identity and modernization

Swamiji upheld the Indian identity but kept the door open for modernization. Thus, many of the Moderates were somewhat more modernist in their outlook and more open to the West than the militants. Moreover, he had emphasized religious and cultural unity despite many apparent diversities. This was soon to become the main plank of Indian Congress political thinking. Finally, I do not know how many of the nationalists actually reached that high spiritual point from where they could appreciate Vivekanandas concept of Practical Vedanta, his attack on the idea of renunciation as the only way of spiritual advancement, his strong message of fearless engagement in action. All these nevertheless endeared him to the younger sections of the nationalists in particular who took great pride in upholding the flag of Vivekananda. Needless to say, Subhas Chandra Bose was one of them.

I will now quickly touch upon a few historical facts. When I have said that he developed Indias pride in the past, what I meant was that his triumph in Chicago at the Parliament of Religions is usually regarded as an assertion of Indias spiritual superiority. Actually if you look at the newspapers of those times and records of his reception in various parts of the country, you will find that he was received with wild adulation and admiration by the citizens of the cities that he passed through. He was not looked upon only as a spiritual leader, he was looked upon as the flag-bearer of India, as someone who restored Indias place of pride in the world. It also contained a political message. What was that? It was that Indians must recover the pride in themselves. The other thing that is striking in Vivekanandas writings, particularly after he came back to India, was that he repeatedly warned his people against being vainglorious about the past. He condemned that kind of pride which is blind to the present and the future. This aspect has also been mentioned particularly by Nehru in his Discovery of India. He says, here was a man who was proud of the past but did not want to live in the past. The other aspect of Vivekanandas writings which one should pay more attention to in future is his openness to modernity. He emphasized that we have to learn many things such as science and technology from the West, but at the same time he was aware of the negative sides of the West. Hence he exhorted us to strike a healthy balance between the Western and the Eastern elements of human civilization.

This article is based on the transcript of a speech delivered by Dr Sabyasachi Bhattacharya at the Institute on 30 September 2011. Professor Bhattacharya is Chairman, Indian Council of Historical Research and Vivekananda Professor of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.

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