Swami Vivekananda’s Economic Thought in Modern International Perspective: India as a Case Study

It is said that genius is the gold hidden in a mine, and talent is a miner who works to bring it out. Owing to Swami Vivekananda’s many talents, his genius left its mark in many places. Though he himself steered clear of politics, his thoughts on the subject have again and again been discussed and considered with great care. Likewise., though he himself was not an am economist, his stray thoughts on the subject have been studied and examined by scholars. He was, in fact, a notable thinker on the subject in nineteenth-century India. The question of economic development has assumed tremendous importance in the discussions on modern international relations. Established economic policies are yielding place to new types of economic reforms particularly after the dismemberment of the socialist world. From the 1990s the long-favored economic patterns in India started to change and we are still uncertain about the outcome of the new economic policies adopted by the government. We are experiencing a period of transition in India and that is probably why the doctrine propounded by Swami Vivekananda in the nineteenth century has acquired a new importance at this juncture. The main focus of the present dissertation is on the economic ideas of Vivekananda and the formulation of the Vivekananda doctrine as the culmination of his teaching has been sought to be studied in all its aspect. In the following discourse, we have tried to analyse the economic problems which have been recently faced by India in particular and developing countries in general. We have tried to re-evaluate the economic ideas of Swami Vivekananda because in our opinion his concepts have tried to offer remedies for many of the economic problems which India and other less developed countries are facing of late. We believe it will be pertinent to discuss the economic ideas of Swamiji from a scientific angle, if we wish to analyse the economic problems which our country if faced with in the new millennium.