Known by many but understood by few Swami Vivekananda is a figure shrouded in mystery. In recent years there has been a concerted effort by the Hindu right to appropriate his legacy. In Vivekananda: The Philosopher of Freedom Govind Krishnan V. contests the Hindu right’s appropriation of Swami Vivekananda and shows readers that Vivekananda’s religious philosophy social thought and ideology make the monk the Sangh Parivar’s arch nemesis. Cogently argued the book demonstrates that Vivekananda’s interpretation of Hinduism is not only the antithesis of Hindutva but negates the very possibility of the Hindutva project.

Divided into three sections the book brings into focus multiple facets of Vivekananda’s deeply original thought and the complex and contested times he lived in. It explores Vivekananda’s views on themes relevant to the Hindutva project: Indian civilization society and culture; the nature of the caste system and Brahminism; the history of Islam in India; Hindu mythology belief and rituals; individual liberty; attitudes towards the West; and so on. It details Vivekananda’s understanding of and relationship with Islam and Christianity. It also examines how the RSS and the Sangh have used Hindu symbols motifs and issues like Ram Janmabhoomi and contrasts this usage with Vivekananda’s Hinduism.

A critical intellectual biography it focuses on Vivekananda the philosopher rather than the spiritual figure. Vivekananda’s thought is approached through contemporary intellectual concerns and its implications drawn out for debates around secularism democracy and religious pluralism. The book dispels popular misunderstandings of Vivekananda by situating his writings and speeches in its proper historical context. By exploring the historical and sociocultural conditions of fin de siècle America and Europe the reader is introduced to the proper framework to understand Vivekananda’s social and political ideology. Recent readings of Vivekananda by several academics view Vivekananda’s thought as problematic in relation to Hindu nationalism gender caste and minority rights. The book repudiates these critiques and reinstates Vivekananda as a progressive thinker and a universalist.

The reader is introduced to Vivekananda’s philosophy with chapters on his metaphysics epistemology and ethics. The book forges a set of conceptual tools with which the reader can approach and understand Vivekananda’s work. Above all it shows that the central thread that runs through the multifarious elements of his philosophical social and political thought is the idea of radical freedom.