Bartaman Bharat

After returning from the West in 1897, Vivekananda visited many Indian states. In January 1899, he started the Bengali magazine Udbodhan, a publication of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. He wrote Bengali essays Bhabbar Kotha, Bartaman Bharat, Parvrajak and Prachya o Paschatya for Udbodhan. The Bengali essay Bartaman Bharat was first published in the Udbodhan in March 1899. == Synopsis ==

In this essay Vivekananda briefly recounted and analyzed the entire history of India, from the time when Vedic priests used to be rulers of the society to the occupation of the country by the British. But, his main focus was on his contemporary India. He tried to describe how the society was first ruled by Vedic priests (Brahmin), who were followed by the mighty rulers, who had powers in their hands for thousands of years and were finally succeeded by Vaishya power. Then the author predicted that following this cyclical rule, the Vaishya's too will lose their glory one day and the lowermost class of the Indian society Shudras will rise to power and the whole society will be ruled by them. == Publication ==

The essay was first published in the March 1899 issue of Udbodhan. In 1905 the essay was re-printed and published as a book from the same publication. The preface of the book was written by Swami Saradananda. == Significance ==

According to Swami Murlidharananda, in this essay, Vivekananda expressed his desire to see the regeneration of India. Srivastava, the writer of Teacher in Emerging Indian Society wrote in this essay Vivekananda felt that a purpose of our education should be providing service to the humanity too. ==References==