Broken Friendship and the History of South Asian Religious Modernisms: The Case of Svāmī Vivekānanda and Anagārika Dharmapāla

This article sets the lives of Svāmī Vivekānanda (1863–1902) and Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933) side-by-side. The two men first met during the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, and thereafter became well known for their respective contributions to what has been called “Hindu Universalism” and “Buddhist Modernism.” It details their many shared aspects of upbringing and attitude, while exploring why their initial friendship fell apart after 1897. By analyzing Vivekānanda’s disappointment with his visit to Ceylon and its “agnostic” and overly “Europeanized” Buddhism, this article explores why he then began to attack the history of “degraded Buddhism” in India. Moreover, it contends that underlying tensions over theosophy, race, and the shrine at Bodh Gaya, which Dharmapāla sought to transfer to Buddhists, all played their part in breaking the friendship.