Chapter 2.1e - Social Reforms: Uplift of the Masses

[Summary: Social Reforms of Swami Vivekananda (e): Uplift of the Masses]

Vivekananda described India’s neglect of the masses as a national sin. He praised the Indian masses. He says our masses are awfully poor and they are very ignorant about secular things. Indian masses are not violent. They are not slow. Vivekananda says “Experience teaches me that they are not slow, that they are as eager and thirsty for information as any race under the sun!”^[1] The lower classes of India-the peasants and weavers and the rest who have been conquered by foreigners and are looked down upon by their own people have contributed in every aspect of Indian social development. From time immemorial they have been working silently, without even getting the remuneration of their labours. Vivekananda says that the peasant, the shoemaker, the sweeper and such other lower classes of India have much greater capacity for work and self-reliance than others. They have been silently working through long ages and producing the entire wealth of India without a word of complaint. These lower classes though uneducated are said to be the backbone of India by Vivekananda. He says “If these lower classes stop work from where will you get your food and clothing? If the sweepers of Calcutta stop work for a day; it creates a panic; and if they strike for three days the whole town will be depopulated by the outbreak of epidemics. If the labourers stop work, your supply of food and cloths also stops. And you regard them as low class people and vaunt your own culture.”^[2] In India the labouring classes are being neglected. But as a result of the silent and constant labours of the Indian labouring classes cities like Babylon, Persia, Alexandria, Rome, Venice and Countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Denmark etc. have successfully attained supremacy and eminence.

His extensive journey gave him the opportunity to understand the cause of the difference between the Indian labouring classes and the labouring classes of America. In America there is possibility, opportunities for every individual. A labourer in America is poor, but may become rich and learned and respected. It is because in America everyone is anxious to help the poor. But in India no one, no association have come forward to help them.

In solving almost all the social problems he used ‘Education’ as the supreme tool. In the upliftment of the Indian masses also he used education as the only tool. He says, “Travelling through many cities of Europe and observing in them the comforts and education of even the poor people there was brought to my mind the state of our own people, and I used to shed tears. What made the difference? Education was the answer I got. Through education comes faith in one’s own Self, and through faith in one’s own Self the inherent Brahman is waking up in them, while the Brahman in us is gradually becoming dormant.”^[3] Thus in his views it is education which makes the difference between the masses of the developed countries with that of the Indian masses. But it does not mean that there was no education system in India. But it was concentrated among a handful of man. Vivekananda says that the chief causes of India’s ruin has been the monopolizing of the whole education and intelligence of the land, among a handful of man. Therefore, according to him, if India has to rise again, education has to be spread among the masses.

Vivekananda appeals to the educated to give the masses secular education. He says we have to follow the plan laid down by our ancestors that is to bring all the ideals slowly down among the masses. They should be raised up slowly to equality. According to Vivekananda our duty at present lies in going from one part of the country to another, from village to village and in making people understand that mere sitting idly cannot do any help to the lower masses. The educated and the moneyed class have to tell them how to improve their own condition.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda] VOL.3, p-147.

[2]:

Nirvedananda, Swami, Swami Vivekananda-On India and Her Problems, p-54.

[3]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda] VOL.4, p-483.