British Government: Vivekananda's influence on Indian Revolutionaries

The British Reaction

In relevant historical accounts, secret Government papers, published reports and reminiscences of revolutionary leaders, we find the tremendous influence exerted by Vivekananda on the revolutionary movement. His writings were widely read by the militants. Those were practically their textbooks; recruitments to revolutionary parties were made from the members of the Ramakrishna Mission, and the magic name of Vivekananda was used for this purpose. The government, noticing that many portions of Vivekananda’s writings could be used for radical politics, thought of prohibiting the publication of Swamiji’s letters and banning the Ramakrishna Mission. This was not surprising, as Vivekananda himself was in his lifetime regarded a suspicious character and was closely watched and harassed. The British Criminal Investigation Department complained at the time that whenever they went to search a revolutionary’s house, they found the books of Vivekananda.

Here are two extracts from the secret police reports:

“... The teachings of the Vedanta Society tend towards Nationalism in politics. Swami Vivekananda himself generally avoided the political side of the case, but by many Hindu Nationalists he is regarded as the Guru of the movement. ... It is obvious that with very little distortion this teaching [of Vivekananda] was a powerful weapon in the hands of an idealist revolutionary like Aurobindo Ghosh.… Several passages of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda are pregnant with sedition, that their potentialities for evil have been fully realized and taken advantage of by the revolutionary party, that the various recognized maths are resorted to by political refugees, and that bogus ashramas, which are nothing but centres for the dissemination of revolutionary doctrines, have sprung up with alarming rapidity in eastern Bengal.”

Subhas Chandra Bose, whom the British considered the most dangerous man in India, and who embodied the entire militant revolutionary spirit of India, wrote time and again that his life was molded under Vivekanandas influence and urged the youth to follow Swamiji’s ideal. He said of Vivekananda: “Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, merciless in his attacks, but yet simple as a child.”