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THE INDIAN RENAISSANCE AND SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

SAIKAT DAS (C.N.M.V)

I am grateful to the organizers for providing me an opportunity to present a

speech on Swami Vivekananda and therefore at the outset I would like to pay my

respect and homage to them. I am also honoured to have such a distinguished andpatronizing audience before me and thankful to them for their attention.

It is indeed a matter of great pride for me to speak on a man who taught us to

be proud of our country. It was Swami Vivekananda, the Cyclonic monk of the

East, who, in his Chicago ectures, taught the world of the universal values

inherent in the Indian tradition and the inclusive spirit of !induism which, as it

flourished in the Indian soil, overcame its sectarian bounds and flowered into an all

encompassing womb mothering that spontaneous spirit of unity in all its diversemanifestations.

"his regeneration of the Indian spirit after ages of gloom was effected by what

is now known as the Indian #enaissance which first made its appearance in the

fertile soil of $engal. argely an offshoot of the $ritish con%uest of $engal and the

subse%uent introduction of the English language as the medium of instruction in

the &ovt. sponsored education system which opened the horizon of European

knowledge to the Indian mind, the rebirth of the Indian psyche went through a

comple' process of evolution to fully appreciate the historic role it was destined to

play in years to come culminating in the freedom of India from the yoke of the

foreign rule.

!ence it is very instructive and an intellectually and aesthetically

stimulating e'ercise to study the nature of the Indian #enaissance through the eyes

of one of its pioneers who at the same time was a product of it.

"he Indian #enaissance has two distinct dimensions. (ne is of social

reformation and cultural awakening and the other is of the growth of the national

political consciousness which in its turn gave birth to the Indian freedom

movement. It is worthwhile to note in this conte't that the socio)cultural and

political reawakening in the Indian conte't and especially in that of $engal did not

originate at the same time but one led to the other with the socio)cultural

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phenomenon preceding its political counterpart. !ence the needs to conte'tualize

Vivekananda in the landscape of the Indian renaissance in order to fully appreciate

his historical role and his views with reference to the Indian #enaissance.

Swami Vivekananda was the last great figure belonging e'clusively to thesocio)cultural domain of the #enaissance movement. Indeed he belonged to that

fateful hour of the Indian rebirth when the primary concern with the socio)cultural

reforms by the #enaissance *athers was slowly but surely tilting towards the

growth of political consciousness and its attendant activities. In &urudev

#abindranath "agore, India+s first obel laureate and a contemporary of the

Swami, we observe both these elements in full play.

Vivekananda is historically associated with the spiritual rebirth of India.!is religious reform movement under the aegis of his guru #amakrishna

-aramahansa was not only directed towards modernizing the Sanatan !indu

harma but also to endow it with a progressive spirit and an abiding character so

that our ancient religion could accommodate the spiritual need of the new Indian

society which was considerably anglicized at the intellectual level and

conse%uently imbued with the spirit of the Indian #enaissance.

Vivekananda was fully conscious of this historic role he was destined

to play. In his lectures in the /est we find an e'uberant e'pression of the

comprehensive scope of his spiritual appeal that was way beyond the dogma of any

sectarian order. !ence his !induism, more than having a religious connotation,

encapsulated those very universal values cherished by the 0odern 0an which has

to be traced to the #enaissance in Europe. In the garb of the !indu 0onk he was

the preacher of those very ideals that have their origin in very best of western

tradition. "his e'plains his euphoric acceptance in the /est especially in the

1nited States of 2merica and the rather unfortunate re3ection of him and his ideals

by the conservative section of his co)religionists. 2ll his subse%uent activitieswhether the founding of the $elur 0ath, the functioning of his order of monks or

his further missions to the /est bear testimony to this.

!owever, he was consciously unconscious of this fact.

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"his particular disposition on his part takes on a curious note as he

endeavoured to give a new lease of life to the ancient Indian tradition basing it on

the western precipice. !e called for the amalgamation of all that is of enduring

value in the (rient and the (ccident and constructed a new religion out of this

synthesis though he enveloped it with the Sanatan !indu harma. !owever, whenhis contemporaries tried to emulate the /estern political ideologies and wanted to

put them into practice he was very skeptical about it. !e would accept the /est not

at its face value but with an Indian dimension added to it.

"hese contradictions in his attitudes can be e'plained by the comple'

relationship that e'ists between the colonizer and the colonized. "he colonized

cannot accept the fact that he has to borrow from his colonial master for his rebirth.

#ather he would deceive himself into thinking of the borrowed item as his owninvention. "his proclivity of his originated from the acute identity crisis that he

suffered being the colonized.

!ence not by his pronouncements but by the course of his work that we

should make a proper assessment of his views on the Indian #enaissance. 2nd here

while appreciating the pioneering role that he played in the religious reform

movement we should not be oblivious of its limitations and negative implications.

"he emphasis on the religious reform movement originally intended to

create a strong nationalistic feeling was instrumental in churning up the !indu

revivalist movement. "his in its turn created tensions in this multi)cultural and

multi)religious fabric of the Indian society which were shrewdly e'ploited by the

$ritish rulers for their own advantage at crucial moments of Indian history leading

to the cleavage of the Indian nationhood. "he germs of -artition thus lay in the

e'ertions of the Swami though it was not possible for him to be aware of its later

day ramifications. In this sense 0r. 4innah is truly his offspring however unwanted

he may be.

2ll said and done the study of Vivekananda and his role in the Indian

#enaissance is truly revealing of the comple' dynamics of the Indian #enaissance

with all its glory and pitfalls since it shaped the course of South 2sian socio)

political and cultural history to a considerable e'tent.