Religion and reform in nineteenth-century Bengal

This chapter contextualises Vivekananda within his social, political and religious context. It focuses specifically upon British Colonialism, Christian Missionary activity and ‘Western’ education, weaving Vivekananda’s early biography within the narrative. The chapter further explores Muslim identities within Bengal, and Hindu reform movements which shaped the religious and social conversation to which Vivekananda would so influentially contribute by the end of the nineteenth century.