January 14, 2026

How much Vivekananda differs from Sangh politics

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra 

I am pleased to announce a new book, 'Satyavan: The Golden Tower & The Future of the Earth'. While this is my first book focused directly on an interpretation of Savitri, I am glad to note that it is my 30th book in all. It is available on Amazon. - Pravir Malik  amazon.com/dp/B0GCWT4KJB

https://x.com/i/status/2006067053963129020

https://bsky.app/profile/savitriera.bsky.social/post/3mcelqceyz22l

Indian right is the incarnation of everything Vivekananda despised. And if they ever realise wat Vivekananda was saying or even wat his Hinduism means, they will abandon him like a hot potato. Hindu right appropriating Vivekananda = if MAGA were to appropriate Martin Luther King

https://x.com/i/status/2011313068484280510

Not really. H-tva, as defined by Savarkar, acknowledges that our indigenous faith system has great diversity and should be appreciated for it. But this is entirely possible because of Hinduness which defies my way or the highway. His object was to create a fence for H from such.

https://x.com/i/status/2011315357504716811

I dont want to debate Savarkar over Twitter, but that's not the way I understand his key text on Hindutva which I read a few times. His appeal to diversity and non-dogmatism sis undermined by his progamme in it. It is structurally contradictory.

https://x.com/i/status/2011316783974924627

Savarkar view of Hinduism was false 

He tried to make parallels with other pagan religions which was always isolated and inherent to a small group of people while Hinduism actually was beyond that

https://x.com/i/status/2011333359948218537

I havent read much of Aurobindo. But as far as Hinduism is concerned Aurobindo's mystical/philosophical claims go far beyond that tradition to something completely different. And he was shut up in his ashram unlike Vivekananda who was constantly travelling and mixing with people.

https://x.com/i/status/2011337127876051176

Actually Jyotirmaya Sharma castigated Swami Vivekananda for same actions as described by Apratim in a booklength polemical screed and seprately Aurobindo in some portions as well. Both Govind Krishnan and JS selectively read SV, A to reach their conclusions from opposite ends.

https://x.com/i/status/2011046912150159405

I wrote a 9000 word review of Sharma's book in 2014 showing he is an intellectual fraud. Such a bad hack jobs that it gave hack jobs a bad name. My conclusion was VK' reputation wud survive such attacks but whether Indian academia wud survive ppl like Sharma was the real worry.

https://x.com/i/status/2011309087376752865

Thanks for sharing the review sir, I will go through it. U r right. I read your book & I liked it, but i genuinely felt that u were too much invested in proving a particular point that is how much SV differs from today's Sangh politics, to the point that it seemed a bit laboured.

https://x.com/i/status/2011324073029353608

You are right that it was the main investment. But I do state it in my preface. In a certain sense that is a limitation of the book. But I believe it is an important thing to focus on both to preserve India as well as Hinduism. A book that systematically examines VK's thought is yet to be written. In the last part of the book I make a small beginning. But its something vast and important and I hope some day someone will explore his thought systematically. And thank you for liking my book. 

https://x.com/i/status/2011335580710523343

Excited to announce the publication of my book 'Vivekananda: The Philosopher of Freedom'. -- How the Sangh Parivar's greatest icon is its archnemesis.

https://x.com/i/status/1656393448293900288

एक दिन सूर्य उदय होगा और लेकर आयेगा विवेकानंद का हिंदू धर्म और सनातन धर्म। जब ये सब धर्म से खिलवाड़ बंद होंगे और मानवता ही धर्म होगा। वह दिन आयेगा जब जब सारा भारत बोलेगा “उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत" उठो, जागो और श्रेष्ठ लोगों के पास जाकर ज्ञान प्राप्त करो”-

https://x.com/i/status/2010579334072078831

This ignorant "review" of the debate itself is a classic example of dog-whistling. For me the pivotal point on which the entire debate hinged was J. Sai Deepak’s brilliant insight that it was after all Bengal which had initiated the wave of Hindu nationalism in modern India and Sri Aurobindo’s Uttarpara Speech in particular which reads like its manifesto. 

The clueless charlatans who ignored this central pivot to insist that Hindu nationalism is a modern political contrivance just revealed their intellectual bankruptcy and deliberate historical amnesia when they kept screeching the same old tired, hackneyed bogeys of "Hinduism is pluralism, Hinduism is Ahimsa, Hinduism is just a mishmash of tribal deities, Blah, Blah, Blah."

More than a century ago, not just Savarkar, but Sri Aurobindo himself had already shattered the artificial divide between Hindu religion and the Indian nation that today’s critics take for granted. In the Uttarapara Speech, he stated with uncompromising clarity that India does not merely practice Sanatan Dharma - India exists for it and by it.

https://x.com/i/status/2010956093896151053

Why am I tagged in this comment!?

The Uttarpara speech is the starting point of what became the life work of Rishi Aurobindo. He never wanted followers, but illiteracy of his life work and being tagged where he's mentioned as a passé is uncomfortable as hell.

https://x.com/i/status/2011273874143695132

On recent Hinduism/Hindutva debate, remember

Rajnarayan Basu. In 1861 he prepared Prospectus .. for Promotion of National feeling...

It proposed restoring Bengali youth's 'long-lost military prowess;', and Illuminating the 'glory of ancient India.'

Grandson Sri Aurobindo.

https://x.com/i/status/2011226898848948727

when his grandson, sri aurobindo, returned from england in 1893 after 14 yrs abroad, basu da was waiting for him in deoghar. family members expected aurobindo to arrive with trunks full of expensive european suits & luxury items. instead, the trunks were filled with nothing but books in greek, latin, & french. basu da embraced him ecstatically, seeing in his grandson the intellectual fulfillment of his 1861 vision: a man who had mastered the west only to return & dismantle it for the "glory of ancient india".

https://x.com/i/status/2011337886118133955

The Aurobindo Ashram Press also publishes an English translataion of the Cellular Jail memoirs of his brother, Shri Barindranath Ghosh. It is one of the most astonishing documents I have read. For what is going to be a retelling of inhumane torture, Shri Ghosh starts by quoting .

https://x.com/i/status/2011302644095336652

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