BHU Marks Vivekananda's Chicago Address

VARANASI: Banaras Hindu University marked the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's Chicago address on Wednesday with a programme that moved from a student-hostel courtyard to a concert hall, pairing a youth dialogue with a statue unveiling, a cyber library launch and an evening of Kajri.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh attended the event, organised under BHU's year-long Bharat Vaibhav series. At Patel Hostel, he unveiled a statue of Vivekananda and opened a cyber library. The university also presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Award for 2020, an honour that had awaited a formal campus presentation.

Speaking as a BHU alumnus, Harivansh recalled the period of colonial subjugation in which Vivekananda's ideas restored a measure of national confidence. He argued that a country now advancing in technology, research and knowledge needs young people to take part with energy, talent and a constructive outlook. The useful question for students is how that appeal translates into campus life: rigorous study, public-minded research and disagreement conducted without contempt.

Professor Awadhesh Pradhan examined the Chicago address and its message of inter-faith accommodation, while Dean of Students Professor Ranjan Kumar Singh also spoke. Vivekananda's 1893 appearance is frequently remembered for its opening and reception, but its continuing relevance lies in the wider argument that religious conviction need not require hostility to another tradition.

The second half at Pandit Omkarnath Thakur Auditorium shifted the emphasis from speech to sound. Teachers and students of the Faculty of Performing Arts presented Kajri, the monsoon folk form closely identified with eastern Uttar Pradesh. Students from Thailand and Myanmar performed the invocation, giving the programme an international note without detaching it from Purvanchal's cultural vocabulary.

Bringing a cyber library and a folk-music festival into the same programme could have felt disconnected. On the BHU campus, however, the combination made a coherent point: national awakening is not only a matter of looking back. It also involves widening access to current knowledge while keeping local cultural forms alive through practice rather than nostalgia.

The value of the new digital facility will depend on access hours, reliable connectivity, subscriptions and support for students who do not already know how to use research databases. A ceremonial launch is the beginning of a service, not proof of its quality. Similarly, Kajri survives when young performers receive teaching, rehearsal space and audiences beyond a single anniversary.

Dr Dhirendra Kumar Rai conducted the programme and hostel patron Dr Shailendra Singh offered the vote of thanks. Wednesday's event worked best where it allowed students to see history as an assignment in the present: read more widely, create seriously and treat India's diversity as material for dialogue rather than division.