Vivekananda beyond Hindutva assumptions

Govind Krishnan's book argues the liberal intelligentsia's tendency to treat everything Hindu as suspect results in Vivekananda's appropriation by the Sangh Parivar

Vivekananda: The Philosopher of Freedom

Author: Govind Krishnan V

Publisher: Aleph

Pages: 485+xviii

Price: Rs 999

Typically, the very mention of Vivekananda produces the mental image of a heroic sanyasi, challengingly proud of his Hindu heritage.

This image has an element of truth, but only a half-truth, which, as the cliche goes, is more harmful than a whole lie. Vivekananda was certainly proud of his cultural heritage, but his pride neither excluded critical reflection on this issue nor did it come in the way of the articulation of universal human concerns. As Govind Krishnan V rightly notes, “…the difference between ideal and practice is essential to understanding Vivekananda’s views on Indian civilisation.” That is why he did not put the blame for all the evils of “self” at the door of the “other”. Nor did he see Indian or world history through the lens of the enduring “clash of civilisations”, as Savarkar and other Hindutva ideologues did.

His proud insistence on heritage was a necessary response to colonial derision, and it also worked as an antidote to the diffidence internalised by many in his own society. Importantly, he never sought to prove the existence of modern technological marvels in the Vedas or the Hindu epics, as he had a clear understanding of the way human societies acquire technology in historical progression. His idea of Indian culture was inclusive and his ideal of life was defined by a search for human emancipation from misery and degradation. To him, teaching religion to a hungry man was like insulting him. Following the teachings of his “master” Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda worked lifelong to rework the idea of Moksha by transforming it into a search for human freedom from misery, instead of just a quest for individual liberation.

Having been fascinated with Vivekananda since adolescence and having acquired a sense of his ideas and works later, I have always been struck by the ease with which totalitarian Hindutva ideology has been able to appropriate such a “philosopher of freedom” (as the subtitle of the book under review describes him aptly). Mr Krishnan explains “Vivekananda had no influence on the RSS in its formative years when it developed its political ideology of Hindutva. The Sangh’s public adulation of Vivekananda seem to have begun in the sixties…A watershed was the movement led by the RSS and the VHP to install a Vivekananda memorial in Kanyakumari. The Tamil Nadu government was not keen, so the RSS was able to make a movement out of the Vivekananda memorial, making it into a national cause.”

 Unfortunately, there has been a tendency among influential sections of our liberal intelligentsia to treat everything Hindu as suspect, giving credence to terms such as “pseudo secularism”. This tendency, coupled with the RSS’ persistence and the widespread accumulated ignorance of Vivekananda’s concerns and thought process, has virtually transformed him into the Sangh Parivar’s greatest icon, while in reality he is its “arch nemesis”. In the very first sentence of this book, Mr Krishnan writes, “The best antidote to the Sangh’s misappropriation of Vivekananda is for more people to read Vivekananda’s work”. To this end, he provides a convincing template to properly “read” Vivekananda. He offers a systematic analysis of the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical aspects of “Vivekananda’s philosophy of freedom” and contrasts it with the Sangh Parivar’s totalitarian idea of Hinduism.

Mr Krishnan rightly sums up Vivekananda’s understanding of religion and spirituality as “a progression towards universal spirituality where individual differences of theology, mythology, ritual and social practices would be considered secondary, non-essential matters.”   

 Starting with the “life, ideology and historical context” of Vivekananda, Mr Krishnan gives us a sense of his personality along with a feel of the intellectual fermentation in Kolkata during his formative years. He undertakes a thought-provoking analysis of Vivekananda’s “philosophy of freedom” and his reinterpretation, in fact rediscovery, of the Advaita Vedanta as a departure point of ethics of democracy. Naturally enough, at this point in his argument, the author engages with Vivekananda’s position on “political” (i.e. related to the structure and discourse of power) questions of caste and gender. On the caste question, he offers a brief but insightful comparison of Vivekananda’s views with those of Ambedkar and Narayan Guru.

It is in Mr Krishnan’s analysis of Vivekananda’s views on the “political”, that the author handles with remarkable vigour the woke attempts to replace a sense of history with the nonsense of cancel culture. One cannot but fully endorse him when he writes, “Ours is an age which seems to have completely set aside historical consciousness, and from intellectually fashionable academicians to purveyors of cancel culture on the internet, there is a tendency to treat texts without either historical or hermeneutic context.”

Govind Krishnan deserves our gratitude for this thought-provoking intellectual biography of one of the most iconic Indians. This book has come at an opportune moment and will certainly stand the test of time as well.

The reviewer is writer, critic and historian of ideas