OUTLOOK OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON WOMEN AND THEIR EDUCATION: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Swami Vivekananda was a great believer in education as an appliance for human betterment. His speeches, writings, and letters are full of reference to the degradation in which the masses had fallen because of the denial of literacy and education to them. He pleaded for the universalization of literacy development, and of mass education i.e. for all men and women. Calling himself a Tyagi monk in a letter written on October 27 1894, he decried the confining of religion to rituals, books, dogmas, and philosophy and declared “I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth. He expressed his self-reliance that women will work out their own destinies once they get an education and it will not be for men to shape the destiny of women. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the perceptions of Swami Vivekananda on women's empowerment with special reference to their education as expressed by Swami Vivekananda in his letters, writings, and speeches.