S. Gurumurthy
“You come with the Bible in one hand and the conqueror’s sword in the other…… You trample on us and treat us like the dust beneath your feet. You destroy the precious life in animals. You insult our women. You scorn our religion.” This was not Guruji, with his characteristic frankness, telling some Christian priest. This was Swami Vivekananda thundering before the Christians religious leaders at the World Parliament of Religions on November 28, 1893.
The Indian Mirror newspaper, which described Swami Vivekananda as the ‘most popular’ monk, commented that he “denounced our bloody wars and our religious intolerance”.[1] This was just one of the several instances of Vivekananda taking on the detractors of Hinduism in their den in the US and at the World Parliament of Religions.[2] The organisers of the Parliament “had a subversive message kept hidden from invited speakers from non-Christian traditions: Christianity is the one true faith. They had assumed that, in a public debate among all faiths, Christianity would emerge superior. But things didn’t go as planned, as Swami Vivekananda from India stole the show, convincing everyone, that Hinduism was as valid as any other. With this began the era of intra faith.”[3]
Here at home, after Swami Vivekananda, Guruji began waging ideological war with the detractors of the idea of Hindu India. The expositions of Vivekananda and Guruji, read together, bring out how the Hindu spiritual vision of Vivekananda has shaped the Hindu national mission of Guruji. [4]
Guruji’s exposition that the inclusive Hindu nationalism treats all religions alike and therefore the adherents of Abrahamic religions intolerant of other religions need to develop greater tolerance towards other faiths, was an appeal to secure social and national harmony. It was a mirror reflection of Swami Vivekananda’s exposition that like Hindu religion accepted all faiths equally, the Abrahamic theologies, which tended to treat other religions contemptuously, needed to grow tolerant, was a plea for achieving religious and global harmony. Vivekananda called for the assimilation of another’s spirit by each religion, while retaining its own individuality, as necessary to achieve religious harmony. And Guruji commended the assimilation of the basic Hindu culture by adherents of Abrahamic religions, while retaining their individual faiths, as necessary for national co-existence. While Vivekananda’s exposition emphasised religious and global harmony, Guruji’s exposition centered on national and social harmony.
Vivekananda warned the Abrahamic religions against attempts to destroy other religions and counselled them assimilate the spirit of all religions.
In his address at the World Parliament of Religions on September 27, 1893, Swami Vivekananda proposed assimilation as an alternative to annihilation of other faiths. Pointing out that the Parliament of Religions had established that holiness was not the exclusive possession of any religion in the world; that every religion has produced men and women of the most exalted character; and so no one could think of survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, Vivekananda said that every religion should say, “help and not fight” “assimilation and not destruction,” “harmony and peace and not dissension”.[5] Even though Vivekananda spoke generally about harmony [unity] among religions, it was self-evident that his reference was only to the Abrahamic faiths [6] as each of them has a theological mandate to eliminate other faiths. Commending assimilation as the only alternative to destruction [mandated by Abrahamic faiths], Vivekananda said that assimilation did not mean conversion from one religion to another and that it meant that, preserving one’s own individuality, “each must assimilate the spirit of the others’ religion”.[7] Distinguishing assimilation from conversion, he equated conversion to destruction. It is the mandated belief that one’s religion is the true faith and that other faiths are false which justifies religious conversion. And that is what leads to violence.
Vivekananda contrasted the Hindu spirit of harmony among religions with the Abrahamic bigotry and intolerance for other religions.
In his famous opening address to the World Parliament of Religions on September 11, 1893,Vivekananda expounded the Hindu concept of harmony among religions. He said: I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who ….took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.” [8] This was how Swami Vivekananda introduced Hinduism to the Parliament of Religions. At the same venue, some three months later, on December 7, 1893, he had to, and he did, openly charge Christianity and Islam for their bigotry and intolerance. Titling ‘Hindu criticises Christianity. Says religion of the Vedas is religion of love and Christianity is intolerant’ The Indian Mirror newspaper reported Vivekananda’s speech thus:
We who come from the East have sat here on the platform day after day, and have been told in a patronising way that we ought to accept Christianity because Christian nations are the most prosperous. We look about us, and we see England, the most prosperous Christian nation in the world, with her foot on the neck of 250,000,000 of Asiatics. We look back into history, and see that the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain’s prosperity began with the invasion of Mexico. Christianity wins its prosperity by cutting the throats of its fellowmen. At such a price the Hindu will not have prosperity. I have sat here today, and I have heard the height of intolerance. I have heard the creed of the Moslem applauded, when today the Moslem sword is carrying destruction into India. Blood and the sword are not for the Hindu, whose religion is based on the law of love.[9]
It is because of the intolerant theologies of Islam and Christianity towards other faiths – Hinduism in the context of India – that he had bluntly to tell both on their faces that their intolerance breeds enmity and destruction.
Conversion breeds enmity, said Swami Vivekananda
And it was in this background later Swami Vivekananda said that conversion of a Hindu to Islam or Christianity did not mean just one Hinduless, but, an adversary more, because the convert himself begins to consider the Hindus as enemies – not the other way round. Vivekananda said: “And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more. Again, the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or the descendants of these……and the process is still going on.” [10]
It is because of the theological intolerance of Islam and Christianity towards other faiths, the Hindu converts to either of them turn intolerant towards their faith of birth. The psychology of the convert to Islam and Christianity which, according to Vivekananda, transforms into the pathology of hatred was later confirmed by the empirical work of VS Naipaul, the Nobel Prize winner in literature in the year 2001, after his travel across Islamic nations. He has described his experience thus: “Islam is in its origin an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert’s worldview alters. His holy places are in Arab lands. His sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own: he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance for societies is immense and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again. People develop fantasies about who and what they are; and in the Islam of converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily set on the boil”. [11] It is this intolerance continuously indoctrinated in the convert which grinds the converts into enemies of all faiths including his religion of birth – read Hinduism in India.
Abrahamic faithfuls must grow tolerant, counsel Vivekananda and Guruji
Vivekananda’s message of universal brotherhood on 11.9.1893 was founded on the Hindu world view accepting all, including Abrahamic, religions as valid for their followers. But his expositions on 28.11.1893 and 7.12.1893 were on the intolerance of the Abrahamic religions about Hinduism and about each other. Both read together complete his full exposition. But, the secular discourse that parrots what Vivekananda said on September 11, 1893 and suppresses what he said on November 28 and December 7, 1893 is only half truth. Swami Vivekananda’s counsel that Abrahamic faithfuls must grow tolerant for their co-existence with other religions was the foundation on which Guruji later built the concept of Hindu nationalism. The secular discourse suppresses the blunt truth that what Vivekananda told at Chicago on November, 28 and December 7, 1893 as necessary for religious co-existence, but parrots his opening speech on September 11, 1893 about universal brotherhood, without even acknowledging that even that was basically Hindu thought. They suppress half the truth, namely his lectures on November 28 and December 7, 1893 and repeat the other half of the truth, namely, his lecture on September 11, 1893. Why? Because, otherwise, they would have to either call Swami Vivekananda’s concept of universal brotherhood communal or accept Guruji’s concept of Hindu nationalism as secular.
References:
[1] http://www.vivekananda.net/NewspaperReports/28Nov93.html
[2] http://www.vivekananda.net/NewsReports.html
[3] Paul Knitter, the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary New York. Matthew Weiner, Program Director at the Interfaith Center of New York http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/12/08/guestview-faiths-meet-at-parliament-of-world-religions/]
[4] National Regeneration: The Vision of Swami Vivekananda and the Mission of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS] Compiler-Editor K. Suryanarayana Rao. Vijaya Bharatham Pathippagam
[5] http://hinduism.about.com/od/vivekananda/a/vivekananda_speeches_2.htm
[6] http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/extra/bl-sv2.htm
[7] Ibid
[8] http://www.vivekananda.net/NewspaperReports/11Sep93.html
[9] http://www.vivekananda.net/NewspaperReports/7Dec93.html
[10]http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/interviews/on_the_bounds_of_hinduism.htm Prabhudha Bharata April 1999
[11] VS Naipaul “Beyond Belief” Prologue p.xi]
