At our own peril 1

Mary Louis Burke, also known as Sister Gargi, a nun of the Vedanta Society, who is better known for her painstaking labour of two decades on research and new discoveries on Swami Vivekananda in America and the consequent work in 6 volumes, once made a very important comment in her introduction to one of the editions of Swami Vivekananda, New Discoveries. She said that if India forgets the teachings of Vivekananda, she will do so at her own peril. 

Incidentally the warning bugle was sounded a hundred years back by a noted revolutionary, Jatindranath Mukherjee, popularly called Bhagha Jatin. Jatindranath was one of the architects of an international conspiracy to wage an armed revolution against Britishrule taking the advantage of the first world war. He was one of the most dangerous men sought by British, but his activities were unknown and his audacious plan would have succeeded in rattling the empire had it not been for a treachery of a Chek spy in America. Jatin and his men did not yield and their battle with a full force of British police and army on the shores of Buri Balam river in Balasore is a legend. Jatindranath was an ardent follower of Swami Vivekananda with whom he came in touch in his early youth and who fired him up to play a higher role in Indian independence. Said Jatindranath in a private conversation that if future India is to become great, its leadership and people must follow the ideals of Swami Vivekananda. Else more trouble is in store for the country.

During the movement of independence there seemed to be hardly a leader who did not embrace Vivekananda. During the early stage Aurobindo Ghosh was a direct follower, and Tilak was influenced by his ideals. Tilak met Vivekananda several times in Belur Math and even before he went to Chicago, as a penniless wandering monk Swamji stayed in Tilak's house in Pune. Gandhi was inspired by him even before he became a Mahatma. Subhas Chandra Bose was his mind born disciple and always remained so. Nehru was a bit skeptical as he was repelled by religion, but his wife Kamala Nehru was a staunch and devout follower of Ramakrishna ideology and was initiated by none other than Swami Shivananda (Mahapurush maharaj). Chittaranjan Das was an ardent follower of Ramakrishna Vivekananda ideology. Almost all major revolutionaries barring the communist ones, were devoted to Vivekananda. Patron of Bengal Volunteers Hemchandra Ghosh was inspired by Swamiji himself when he visited Dhaka in 1901. Jadugopal Mukherjee, Masterda Surya Sen of Chattagram and many other noted revolutionaries were fired by his ideals. In the early days when the movement was still in its infancy, Sister Nivedita played a very important role in mentoring the movement and in providing active support and often financial help. Swamiji's lectures from Colombo to Almora did indeed rouse the nation.

Sadly post independence much of these were forgotten. Marxist historians did not do justice to India's history by ignoring the contributions of Vivekananda and Nivedita and of almost all leaders and freedom fighters who were inspired by him. His teachings were excluded and all attempts were made to erase him from public memory. Some historians who wielded much influence tried to portray him as the father of militant Hinduism and therefore justified his exclusion from Secular India. The reasons are not too difficult to understand Post independence Indian leadership as well as academia was controlled by either erstwhile reformists like Brahmos or communists or Anglicists. None of these three groups had any love for either Vivekananda or his ideology or with people whom he inspired and influenced.So most of the architects of Indian independence were ignored barring a fee who had subscribed to certain ideologies. Vivekananda's legacy was the worst casualty and successive generations only knew about his speech in Chicago, that too not completely. His contributions were undermined, his speeches were devaluated and writings were made unavailable in school texts.