Today is 9/11, 2023. Normally, we remember 9/11 for the terrorist attack on America in 2001 by some fanatics who destroyed Twin Towers in New York and assaulted other places. 9/11 associated with India’s history is more sublime and constructive. On this day, on 9/11, 1893, Swami Vivekananda addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. On this day in 1906, Mahatma Gandhi started his first Satyagraha in South Africa.

Fanaticism manifested in majoritarianism

Swami Vivekananda’s short and profound 9/11 speech stirred the Americans, by casting a spell on them. Later, through his numerous lectures on spirituality and Vedanta, he made a deep impact on their minds. In that historic Chicago speech, he profoundly stated that “sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendent fanaticism drenched the earth with the blood of innocents”, and hoped that the bell that tolled to announce the commencement of the World Parliament of Religions would be the death knell of fanaticism.

Those were indeed very stirring words. Hundred and eight years after Swami Vivekananda uttered those words, America was attacked by some fanatics. Unfortunately, in 2023, the world, and especially India, is now confronting the combination of sectarianism, bigotry, and fanaticism in the form of majoritarianism and the polarisation process triggered by those controlling the state apparatus of our country.

Call for genocide and ethnic cleansing

Now, we are facing a relentless spread of hatred and violence in the name of religion. Calls for the genocide of minorities, and that too of Muslims, are being issued day in and day out from the so called Dharma Sansads, religious parliaments. They are also accompanied by sinister calls for comprehensive social and economic boycott of Muslims. Very recently, it happened in Nuh in Haryana where Muslims were targeted violently, they were asked to flee from their places of work, and their houses were bulldozed. The Punjab and Haryana high court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and asked in its order if it was an exercise in “ethnic cleansing“.

It is shocking that the orders of the Supreme Court to the states where such calls for genocide and social and economic boycott are being issued are being ignored. In the recent past, the Supreme Court wondered if the state of Maharashtra had become impotent to deal with hate speeches.

The unprecedented violence and bloodshed in Manipur on ethnic lines is sadly continuing. Unimaginable brutality suffered by women and the videos of brutal sexual violence against them on ethnic grounds bring out ghastly manifestations of sectarianism and bigotry which Swami Vivekananda flagged and cautioned about its horrible descendent fanaticism. He would have been deeply anguished to see that the words he uttered on 9/11, 1893 are being ignored in India, which he said, gave shelter to those persecuted on the basis of religion in other parts of the world.

Survival of a nation endangered by hatred

Swamiji had cautioned that the very sustenance of a nation would be endangered by spreading hatred against others. He traced India’s decline in history to hate generated within society and cutting off all communication with fellow Indians by showing contempt against them.

In a letter to his disciple Alasinga Perumal from the USA on October 27, 1894, he sensitively wrote, “No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live.” “India’s doom,” he added, “was sealed the very day they invented the word MLECHCHHA and stopped from communion with others.” This letter is available in Volume 5 of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and its contents are of immense significance in the context of India of 2023 where hatred in the name of faith is dividing Indians, and inter-faith communication and harmony are poisoned.

Supreme Court flagged the danger posed by fanaticism

Swami Vivekananda’s cautionary utterances of 9/11, 1893 that “sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendent fanaticism drenched the earth with the blood of innocents” can be ignored at our own peril.

Danger posed by fanaticism was flagged by the Supreme Court in its judgment of October 13, 2022, in its order in the Aishat Shifa Versus The State of Karnataka. While allowing Muslim girls to wear hijab anywhere in schools and colleges in Karnataka, the court relied upon S.B. Chavan Committee Report, 1999, which strongly recommended education about religions as an instrument of social cohesion and social and religious harmony. The court quoted its para which stated,

“Value-based education is likely to help the nation to fight against all kinds of prevailing fanaticism, ill will, violence, dishonesty, corruption, exploitation and drug abuse …………… Let knowledge, like the sun, shine for all and that there should not be any room for narrow-mindedness, blind faith and dogma. For this purpose also, if the basic tenets of all religions over the world are learnt, it cannot be said that secularism would not survive.”

Composite vision of India

More than a hundred years back Swami Vivekananda defined India in a very composite manner without relying on any one religion. He said that India needed a Vedantic brain and Islamic body.

Such an approach underlines a multi-faith approach to understand India in contrast to cultural nationalism which promotes uniformity and endangers multiculturalim. Those who swear by one nation, one culture, and one faith negate the vision of Swami Vivekananda whom they often hail as their icon.

Nehru and Ambedkar on Vedanta

It is fascinating to note that the Vedantic approach of Swami Vivekananda was mentioned by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he wrote in his famous paper Basic Approach that eventually a Vedantic outlook would provide solutions to many challenges of modern civilisation, which he said, caused mental exhaustion.

Dr. B.R.Ambedkar while bitterly criticising Hinduism and describing it as a religion based on graded social inequality wrote in his essay on Annihilation of Caste that India required a religion based on liberty, equality, and fraternity, and such a religion would derive sustenance from Upanishads.

In fact, the Upanishads constitute the Vedanta. It is instructive that both prime minister Nehru and Dr. Ambedkar, builders of modern India, stressed on Vedantic approach, which was prescribed by Swami Vivekananda along with the values of Islam to conjure up the vision of India. It is important to remain anchored in the vision articulated by Swami Vivekananda on 9/11, 1893, to defeat fanaticism threatening the very Idea of India.

(S. N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan. Courtesy: The Wire.)