Swami Vivekananda's Rhetoric of Spiritual Masculinity: Transforming Effeminate Bengalis into Virile Men

Abstract

We explain how Swami [Master] Vivekananda's rhetoric used cultural stereotypes to create a binary division between India as a center of spiritual power as compared to the West as a seat of material progress and martial power. We also argue that this emphasis on spiritual power contributed to Vivekananda's efforts to resist the British colonial representation of Hindus as effete by constructing a version of Hindu manhood that is a unique combination of Western manliness and Hindu ideals of spiritual power. Notably, this rhetoric of remasculinization was not without its internal tensions and apparent contradictions, particularly with regard to the role of violence in nationalist politics as seen in Vivekananda's rejection of absolute nonviolence. Finally, Vivekananda's emphasis on Hindu masculinity is examined in relation not only to Western masculinity but also to Indian femininity. Vivekananda's position on the role of women in Hindu nationalism also was marked by contradictions and ambivalence and ultimately reified traditional gendered hierarchies that elevated the masculine over the feminine.