![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
The growth of seva activities (organised service to humanity) in Hindu movements since the nineteenth century has been the subject of debate among both Hindus and scholarly observers. This article examines popular iconographic images within two movements that claim to have developed modern forms of service rooted in long-standing Hindu principles. Through a consideration of popular depictions of the inspirational figures most associated with the creation of each of these movements, it will be shown that the iconographic representations reveal an unresolved tension between symbolism designed to inculcate social activism and constant allusions to an ideal of renunciation pre-eminently associated with the role of the sannyasi.
Notes
‘Social activism’ refers here to philanthropic initiatives designed to improve the material and social conditions of individuals and communities, as distinct from initiatives undertaken as a part of organised political activity. In studies of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ‘activism’ more commonly refers to the latter category and specifically to work undertaken within the sangh parivar (sangh, ‘family’ of affiliates) designed to forward the political cause of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
This image is used widely within in-house publications of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission to refer to Vivekananda's determination to use the religious resources of ancient India to address her contemporary social and spiritual condition.
Hedgewar, like Vivekananda, believed that Hindus had become demoralised and emasculated as a result of centuries of foreign rule. Consequently, both emphasised the need for physical culture and the reassertion of Hindu values. Seva was a practical expression of the dynamism they wished to generate, moulding the character of the performer while benefiting individual recipients and society more generally. See, for example, Jones, 1998 and Beckerlegge, 2003; Beckerlegge, forthcoming.
See, for example, Sewa International (http://www.sewainternational.org/ined.html) and the VK Yogas programme run under the auspices of Vivekananda Kendra (http://www.vkyogas.org.in/index.html).
Compare, for example, Basu et al., 1993: 7–8 and Bose, 1998. For a detailed discussion of the appropriation of Vivekananda by the RSS, see Beckerlegge, 2003.
Popular iconographic representations of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are discussed in detail in Beckerlegge, 1996 (reprinted in Beckerlegge, 2000b).
A comprehensive account of the provenance of extant photographs of Vivekananda is provided by Pravrajika Virajaprana (1995/96), on which this article draws.
The development of seva activity within the RSS is discussed in Beckerlegge, forthcoming. The appropriation by the RSS, in accounts of its commitment to seva, of key personalities from the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, specifically Swamis Vivekananda and Akhandananda, is examined in Beckerlegge, 2003.
This article has benefited from comments made by participants of the British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group Conference (April 2001) and of the annual Sanskrit Tradition in the Modern World Seminar, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (May 2001). Pravrajika Vrajaprana of the Sarada Convent of the Vedanta Society of Southern California commented on an earlier draft and Pravrajika Virajaprana of the Sarada Convent of the Vedanta Society of Northern California generously provided access to her work on the photographs of Swami Vivekananda (see footnote 7). Her study is soon to be published by the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. The final revision of the article was greatly assisted by the detailed comments offered by one of the anonymous readers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion. Responsibility for the argument and conclusions advanced in this article rests, of course, solely with the author. Claire White (Religious Studies Departmental Co-ordinator) kindly prepared the illustrations for publication.