Remembering Swami Vivekananda: The True Message from Chicago, 1893
- Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Fight to Reform Hindu Society
- Exclusion as a Political Strategy: The Rise of Communal Polarisation
- The Weaponisation of Religion: From Gujarat Riots to Kashmir Files
- A Saffron Robe and a Stolen Legacy: Misappropriation of Vivekananda
- Caste, Conversion, and the Broken Tower: Revisiting Ambedkar’s Words
- From Belgaum to Burari: An All-India Picture of Exclusion and Suppression
- ‘Sabka Saath’ or Selective Suppression? Reality Under the Ruling Regime
- Partition Day and the Politics of Fear
A Wake-Up Call for the Nation
On the 123rd death anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and 132 years after his historic speech in Chicago, this article by Dr Suresh Khairnar explores the distortion of his inclusive vision by modern Hindutva forces, drawing parallels with Dr Ambedkar’s battle against casteism and exclusion. A hard-hitting critique of communal politics and its dangerous trajectory.
On the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's 123rd death anniversary!
I am trying to write the following text by paying my humble homage to the collective memory of Swami Vivekananda to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, who made immense efforts to improve Hinduism.
This year marks 132 years since Swami Vivekananda's speech at the American Conference of All Religions! At that time, Dr. Ambedkar was two years and five months old!
On September 11, 1893, the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's arrival in America was completed, and in 1893, America organized a huge industrial exhibition and a year-long exhibition on cultural, social, economic, art, literature, philosophy, culture, etc. Along with it, Professor Wright, a professor and scholar of three subjects, linguistics, history, and Greek history, from Harvard University, insisted on organizing a parliament of all religions. And because of his recommendation, Swami Vivekananda got the opportunity to speak on the platform for the first time from a global level.
The essence of Swami Vivekananda's speech at the All Religions Conference in America is, "This world has been bathed in human blood many times due to the hatred of religions, sects, and sects. Due to this, human culture has been destroyed and many prosperous nations have become extinct. Note that in the richest language of the world, Sanskrit, there is no word for complete exclusion. It should not exist in any language, culture, or religion." Where is Vivekananda, who made such a fundamental speech regarding religions, and today, by making him a mere saint of Hinduism, showing him as a fierce Hindutva supporter, and blackening Swami Vivekananda's speech in America. Currently, the Hindutva community has all the thoughts of Vivekananda. Even with such radical thoughts as "Islam and Christianity have come to India sitting on the shoulders of the caste system. If it had been done by the fear of the sword or the gun, then not a single Hindu would have been left. Even today, 80% of the population in India is Hindu," where is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who confines Vivekananda within a narrow Hindutva framework?
While inaugurating the conference in the morning, ten huge bells were rung to commemorate the ten major religions of the world. Referring to them, Vivekananda said, "Understand the meaning of the bells rung in the morning. The Conference of All Religions is the death knell of religious fanaticism. The final moment of all the persecution of people with the help of the sword and pen is near." Vivekananda spoke for only five minutes. The audience applauded every sentence! And when the speech ended, there was another two minutes of thunderous applause. - With that one speech, Vivekananda became known everywhere in America and India. Not only was he known, but an aura of wonder was created around him!
I have written all this from page number 41 of the book Vivekananda: A Great Man written by Dattaprasad Dabholkar. Just because someone's name is Narendra and because of his saffron shroud, some Hindutva groups have been attacking Hinduism for the last few years and most violently after 27 February 2002 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The idea of exclusion was first introduced in Gujarat during the state-sponsored riots in Gujarat. It is being used as the Gujarat model for propaganda all over the country and has started to be implemented in the entire country. So, did these groups not understand the warning given by Swami so many years ago? So, just by wearing saffron clothes and erecting his photos or statues. How much damage are they doing to the country by spreading hatred in religion and burning their political bonfire? That is, the warning given in the Council of All Religions "Due to the hatred of religions, sects and sects, this world has been bathed in human blood many times till now. Due to this, human culture was destroyed and many prosperous nations became extinct - note that in the richest language of the world, Sanskrit, exclusion is not the word for complete exclusion. It should not exist in any language, culture or religion" and this is exactly what has been started in India at present. And that too is being done by creating a nationalist rift. And exactly the so-called Hindutva groups who are bragging in the name of Swami Vivekananda are now very crazy and talking about the minority community in a language that spreads violence. Are they acting and speaking the opposite without taking any lessons from Swami Vivekananda's speech in America?
Like a drunkard, someone is being arrested for this and a film is being made and the entire country is being infuriated with his arrogance. I was inspired to write the above text after seeing the clipping of the speeches given in the Hindu Mahapanchayat organized at the Burari Maidan in Delhi. Who is Narasimhanand, a man dressed in saffron, gave an inflammatory speech. And this man has recently come out of jail on bail because of such inflammatory speeches. The most surprising thing is that this panchayat was held without permission from the Delhi Police and even though more than a hundred Delhi Police were present there, the panchayat was allowed to take place and on the contrary, the journalists who went there were arrested. And the logo of the Delhi Police is 'Satyamev Jayate'
In Uttar Pradesh, during the Kumbh Mela held in Prayagraj and now during Mahashivratri, the police administration of the state of Uttar Pradesh has announced that shopkeepers on both sides of the road on the way to the Kavad Yatra should write their name and religion and caste on the boards in front of their shops. Also, a Muslim employee working in a temple in Etah was arrested by the police for offering prayers in a corner of the temple premises. Targeting the people of the minority community in the majority state where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power, interfering in everything they do for the sustenance of their families, from selling meat to making a living, is making it difficult for the people of the minority community to live. There are already a large number of educated unemployed among them, and now they are deliberately being left out of government jobs, and now they are being hindered in other small and trivial private jobs, and their hopes of living are being dashed for the last 11 years. Is this what we call "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas"?
Also, the picture I saw when I went to some villages of Belgaum and Ajubaju in Karnataka state two years ago is very worrying. Most of these villages are Marathi-speaking villages on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border. From where some MLAs of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti were elected at one time. Now BJP is getting elected from there. And the same thing is because the supporters of the so-called Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti have also joined it. In the same Karnataka state, Muslims should not be given shops in the area of Hindu temples and should not buy goods from the existing shops. Such fatwas are being issued. Earlier in November, a church in a village called Belur in Hassan district was forcibly closed for Sunday prayers. After that, a massive campaign was launched in Udupi, Mangrul, Bhatkal etc. in Coastal Karnataka on the issue of hijab. As if that had diminished, the film on Kashmir called 'Kashmir Files' and the advertisement of that film, from the Prime Minister to the street Hindutva organizations, have literally started spreading hatred for Muslims. So I was reminded of the world-famous speech given by Swami in Chicago 132 years ago. He has used the word death knell of religious fanaticism by inciting conflict between religions. The final moment of all kinds of torture of people with the help of sword and pen (now through digital means) is near. This is Swami Vivekananda, who fought Chicago on the world stage 132 years ago today. What else have Hindutva organizations done in this country in the last hundred years in his name? I mean, which Swami Vivekananda did they remember?
People who have come to watch the 'Kashmir Files' movie are being stopped outside the cinema hall and asked with a microphone in their hands, "Why are you going home just after watching the movie? You want to take revenge!" And this is the same propaganda that the Prime Minister, the BJP Chief Minister and their followers have started to promote the movie Kashmir Files. It is further pushing the entire minority community into a state of insecurity. And if this continues like this, chaos can spread throughout the country.
Surprisingly, all this is being done on behalf of the ruling party. The party whose people have taken an oath when coming to power "that from now on we will rule the country without any discrimination".
And from the Prime Minister, the so-called Hindu Panchayat and street activists are currently only doing politics of Muslim hatred. How is it right for Hindus to hold weapons in their hands and kill Muslims? The real language is used by a so-called Sadhvi. And this program took place in the presence of Shimoga police. And the police say that permission was not taken for this program. Then the police are far from stopping the program. On the contrary, what the speakers were saying in that program were very objectionable and speeches were made that damaged the harmony between the two communities. On the contrary, there was a fight with the journalists who went to cover the program and their cameras and other belongings were destroyed and all this in the presence of the police. And the police arrested the journalists themselves.
BJP has got temporary power! But what are the real issues of 140 crore people? For the past eight years, polarization has been going on in the entire country on the basis of religion alone. And that too when the period after seventy-five years of Indian independence has been likened to Amritkal, then is this Amritkal a poisonous period for the people of the minority community? And if so, then why?
Keeping minority communities in constant fear is a game changer for Indian society and national unity, and could lead to a terrible disaster that could lead the country towards another partition. What if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that August 14 should be observed as 'Partition Day' comes to pass once again?
BJP or its parent organization is constantly using Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar as a part of its propaganda. But they are using it while avoiding what all these people have said about the Indian people.
Despite the warning given in Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religions, the opposite behaviour is going on. I have deliberately started my article with Swami Vivekananda's speech in America. In it, I have taken due notice of the English word exclusion. This word does not exist in the oldest and most civilized language of the world. And it should not exist in any language because exclusion means exclusion. Which is completely against human Sanskrit. Which does not exist in any society. What happened to the Sangh congregations engaged in performing Aarti by Vivekananda, who spoke with passion? For the last hundred years, these congregations have only and only excluded. And that too, Dalits, tribals, our own women and minority communities and recently, people who oppose this wrong path of theirs, even if they are from the Hindu religion, Mahatma Gandhi was the first to fall victim to the politics of exclusion. Later, in the seventy-five years, millions of people fell victim. In which the famous name Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Professor Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and Comrade Govind Pansareji and the minority communities excluded from Bhagalpur, Gujarat, North Eastern region and the entire Red Corridor, Dalits, Tribals, Jammu and Kashmir. Now once again, the program of exclusion is going on by showing movies like 'Kashmir Files'. And if this continues like this, then it should not be surprising if a civil war breaks out in India. That is why Swami Vivekananda, 132 years ago, said the word exclusion should not be in any language of the world. He said this in strong words at the global level, that is why the thousands of people gathered there liked it so much. After that speech, Swami Vivekananda is the first Indian to be recognized at the international level.
Also, these groups have raised the issue of forced conversion. Swami Vivekananda himself has said that this is a lie. "The real reason for the conversion in India is the caste system in Hinduism. The clear proof of which is. From the speech given by Vivekananda in America. On September 11, 1893, forty-three years have not passed, which Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar declared in a meeting in Yeola in 1936. "That even if I was born in Hinduism, I will have renounced Hinduism before I die"!
The reasons for going to such an extreme and making this announcement, when did the so-called Hindutva community consider this and what did they do to dissuade Baba Saheb Ambedkar from this decision? And almost twenty years later, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar organized a conversion program in Nagpur on 14 October 1956 along with lakhs of his followers. Which Swami Vivekananda himself had said seventy years ago. That the real reason for Indian conversion is untouchability.
This is the reason why for thousands of years Dalits and other castes have been oppressed simply because they are born lower castes. They are not allowed to acquire knowledge and are not allowed to enter temples, and have no share in power and wealth. Yet they "keep it as it is"? Baba Saheb Ambedkar started a newspaper named Muknayak on 31 January 1920. In its very first issue, Baba Saheb Ambedkar wrote, "Hindu society is a tower and each floor of the tower is the name of one caste. But the thing to remember is that there are no stairs to go up all these floors of this tower. Therefore, there is no way to go from one floor to another. He must die on the same floor on which he was born. No matter how worthy the person on the lower floor is, he cannot enter the upper floor. And no matter how worthless the person on the upper floor is, no one has the courage to throw him down. "Then even if they are those who chant the mantra of Chhapan - Chhapan. No one has ever depicted such a devastating truth about the Hindu social system. In the next section, Baba Saheb writes that those who look at this entire system with a sense of perspective cannot escape the ill effects of this system, Baba Saheb was saying.
In the very first issue of Muknayak, he writes, "If a caste is degraded, the mark of its degradation will not remain without being borne by other castes. Society is a boat, just like a boatman who travels in a fireboat intentionally harms others or to see how the other passengers are confused and confused, or because of his destructive nature, if he makes a hole in the room of others, then he too, along with all the boats, will have to go underwater, not first but later. The current Hindutva organizations have started doing what Baba Saheb Ambedkar said and have done for the last few years. And the entire country is suffering the consequences of this madness."
Baba Saheb Ambedkar's 135th birth anniversary is coming. So Bhima, born on April 14, 1891, in the Mahar caste, was treated with contempt by the so-called upper caste people during her childhood while playing and studying. She grew up enduring extremely humiliating treatment. From sitting outside the classroom to studying to drinking water, and keeping her lunch box separate. So after coming with foreign education, she worked as an employee of the Baroda State. When she came to know that she was from the Mahar caste, she was given a Parsi lodge to stay in. The other residents objected and Baba Saheb Ambedkar left that lodge and could not find a place anywhere. So she left Baroda. She became the Minister of Labour of India. But the soldier who brought the files was throwing those files away without giving them politely. Doctorates from two foreign universities, barrister. Perhaps no minister of the cabinet at that time had such education. But Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkarji was born according to the Manusmriti. Born from the toe of a Shudra caste, born in the Mahar caste, this is the reason for this behaviour? No entry into temples, no water from public water sources, no barbers, no tea from a different cup or pot if you go to a hotel or to the so-called upper caste people. For thousands of years, all the untouchable castes have been treated in this way. Realizing that we are inferior, many people abandoned Hinduism fifteen hundred years ago. Some accepted Christianity, some Islam, while Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar accepted Buddhism with millions of his followers in 1956. This incident happened within nine years of Indian independence. And in the villages where the headquarters of the Hindutva organization is located, the incident in Nagpur is also the day of the establishment of the Sangh. Vijaya Dashami means Dussehra. 14 October 1956. Today, 69 years have passed. With such a glaring example in front of us, the Hindutva community is constantly focusing on minority communities. From Swami Vivekananda to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the reasons for leaving Hinduism and switching to other religions are clearly visible. What are they achieving by constantly putting the minority communities in a state of fear? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the 14th of August will be celebrated as the Partition Day. It is a good thing, I welcome it wholeheartedly. Because today, at this hour, Narendra Modi and his colleagues have reached Delhi on the mantra of Pakistan - Pakistan. If partition had not happened, there would have been no reason for the existence of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Only to polarize Hindus and Muslims, both the BJP here and the Muslim League in Pakistan are doing their politics by showing fear of each other. If Pakistan had not been created, there would have been no possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party coming into existence. All the strength of the BJP is because Pakistan has been created; the hypocrisy of Partition Day is for that. I have personally welcomed this announcement as this will enable us to examine the real reasons for partition and expose the hypocrisy of the Sangh!
Dr. Suresh Khairnar
4 July 2025, Nagpur.
