The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893 1

This chapter focuses upon Vivekananda’s performance at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, 1893. Although a key part of the mythology of Vivekananda, there has been to date no close analysis of his speeches, even in recent academic biographies. This chapter corrects that and deconstructs the myth of Vivekananda as a pioneer of interfaith dialogue, or a representative of Hinduism, and instead argues that Vivekananda promoted a form of hierarchical inclusivism, in direct opposition to the Christian colonialism of the Parliament organisers, which argued for advaitic primacy. Vivekananda’s speeches are contexualised with an analysis of other Hindu voices, in addition to other speakers who called for religious unity.