Vivekananda's 1893 address still relevant today: Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday said Swami Vivekananda’s call against sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism during his historic 1893 Chicago speech is still relevant today and that his slogan of oneness “should be the Magna Carta for the way forward in today’s atmosphere of intolerance and hate”.

“While promoting the idea of oneness of all religions, Swamiji promoted with equal zeal the idea of the equality of all human beings.

Today, more than ever, we are engulfed with the same challenges of prejudices which Swamiji spoke about,” Gandhi said in a statement issued to commemorate Vivekananda’s address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

Gandhi said Vivekananda went to attend the world parliament as a representative of Hinduism and India, and eloquently quoted from the Bhagavad Gita saying, “Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation, and sent whole nations to despair”.