In 1893, Swami Vivekananda travelled to Chicago to attend the Parliament ofWorld Religions. There, amidst representatives of the various religions of theworld, Vivekananda-who grew up in an affluent Bengali household in Calcutta,studied to be a lawyer, only to give it up to become a wandering monk-spokeof Universal Religion-'a religion which will have no place for persecutionor intolerance in its polity, which will recognize the divinity in every man andwoman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be created in aidinghumanity to realize its own true divine nature'.

Although a devout Hindu, he hadalways been someone who felt a deep sense of belonging to the plural heritage ofthe Indian sub-continent. Through his learnings and travels he sought to galvanizesociety on the basis of love.

Comprising three insightful essays, Vivekananda and Our Times situates theSwami in today's world. Rajni Bakshi's endeavour-which began a centuryafter the Chicago address, when the country was reeling from the shockof the Ramjanmabhoomi campaign and the consequent demolition of theBabri Masjid-attempts to seek a space for reflection and shows us, throughVivekananda's ideologies, the need to reconcile with the 'other' in a 'shared questfor freedom from fear'.

. .