Vivekananda held Hinduism in high esteem but the RSS and Sangh Parivar’s claim to him is misguided
Vivekananda was also a sharp and at times even harsh critic of contemporary Hinduism.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
The RSS and the Sangh Parivar claim Vivekananda as an inspiration; Vivekananda is most important in the Sangh’s pantheon of cultural figures. However, Vivekananda had no influence on the RSS in its formative years when it developed its political ideology of Hindutva, or in the years immediately following Independence. The Sangh’s public adulation of Vivekananda seems to have begun in the sixties. He was presented as both a patriot and a glorifier of Indian culture and Hinduism. The Sangh tried to create greater recognition for a more Hinduised, nationalistic Vivekananda.
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 build a movement out of the Vivekananda memorial, making it into a national cause. They distributed lakhs of leaflets with quotations from Vivekananda, in the process impressing on people’s minds an association between Vivekananda and the Sangh. Having garnered support from across India, the RSS eventually got the memorial as well as a Vivekananda Kendra built.
