Schools For Sages And Scoundrels

Schools For Sages And Scoundrels

- R. Prasannan

Narendra Modi celebrated 9/11 with an address to campuses. Most listeners were in applause; some were in splits.

Rahul Gandhi, too, talked to students on the same day, across the globe. For a change, most listeners were in applause in his case, too, and some were in splits.

Don’t get me wrong. The 9/11 that Modi was ‘celebrating’ was the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago address, the one in which the great sage of Indian Renaissance told the world that the Hindu faith had bestowed on Indians an eclectic worldview. That speech, which changed how the world viewed India and how Indians viewed themselves, was made on September 11, 1893. These days pseudo-nationalists are circulating a fake audio-clip and claiming it to be a rare recording of the swami’s speech. They know not that phonographs in 1893 could not record for more than a few seconds.

Modi lectured to India’s campuses from Vigyan Bhavan. The University Grants Commission told the universities to broadcast the lecture on their campuses.