Vivekananda Rock Memorial - The Beginnings

The Beginnings

In January 1962, the people of Kanyakumari thought that as Swami Vivekananda’s birth centenary was being celebrated, it would be wise if they put up some memorial on the rock where he had meditated and discovered the mission of his life. They also naturally concluded that there must be access to the rock from the shore.

A few people in Kanyakumari came together for this purpose and formed the Kanyakumari Committee whose objective was to put up a memorial on the rock and a pedestrian bridge leading to the rock. Almost simultaneously, the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras had similar thoughts.

When the Kanyakumari Committee and the Madras people joined together, the whole atmosphere in Kanyakumari was surcharged with the idea of the memorial. However, this news was not taken in good taste, by a sizable population of the local Catholic fishermen. They put up a big Cross on the Rock, visible from the shore.

This led to protests by the Hindu population who said the Rock was a place of worship for Hindus. A judicial probe ordered by the Madras (now Tamil Nadu) government stated in unequivocal terms that the rock was Vivekananda Rock, and that the Cross was a trespass. Amid all this acrimony, the Cross was removed secretly in the night. The situation turned volatile and the Rock was declared a prohibited area with armed guards patrolling it.

The Government realised that the Rock was turning into an area of dispute with Hindus claiming it to be the Vivekananda Rock and Christians that it was St. Xavier’s Rock. It decreed that although the rock was Vivekananda Rock, there would be no memorial constructed on it. The then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri M. Bhaktavatsalam, said that only a tablet declaring that the rock was associated with Swami Vivekananda could be put up, and nothing else.

With government permission, the tablet was installed on the Rock on 17 January 1963. But the voices clamouring for a full-fledged Memorial on the Rock did not die. In May that year, those seeking vengeance for the removal of the Cross, demolished and threw away the tablet into the sea.

The Kanyakumari Committee, realising its limitations as a mere District Committee in dealing with the Government, formed an All India Committee consisting of prominent persons in the country. But they felt the need of an important person at the helm of affairs, who could approach and wield his influence in both the Central and State governments.

At the behest of Guruji Golwalkar, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shri Eknath Ranade—having just stepped down as the General Secretary of RSS—agreed to fill in the required role.