The rock is turning 50. The famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, commemorates the spot where Swami Vivekananda meditated from December 25 to 27, 1892, and discovered the mission of his life and decided to dedicate his life towards restoring the glory of Bharat. The rock memorial was inaugurated on September 2, 1970.
Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari will launch a year-long sampark (contact) programme across the country, starting September 2, to remind Indians of Swami Vivekananda's ideals and what the memorial stands for. The memorial was commissioned in the centenary year of the Swami, 1963, and there are many beautiful stories attached with it. Nandita Bhide of the Vivekananda Kendra said that it is the only memorial in the country for which all the 323 Members of Parliament (at that time the Parliament strength) made an appeal for its construction, irrespective of their political affiliations.
“The central government contributed Rs 15 lakhs for the memorial and every state government, irrespective of the party ruling it, contributed Rs one lakh each. Also, one per cent of the adult population then contributed a token sum of one rupee each. Thus, the memorial is in true sense a national memorial,'' Bhide said.
In fact, the inauguration of the memorial was spread over two months. “In those days, Kanyakumari was not a very developed place, and could not host a big function. Since every state had contributed to its making, each state held a separate inauguration function, there was one event every week,'' said Bhide.
The sampark programme that the kendra will launch will be a person-to-person contact, starting with President Ramnath Kovind. “We will reach out to as many people as we can, the target is a minimum of 30 lakh, since that was the number involved in the memorial initially. Every state will establish sampark with the governor,'' said Bhide. They plan one grant event on September 2, 2020, the venue for which is not yet decided.
Bhide noted that the Kendra was not meant to be just a rock edifice, but a vibrant institution. The Vivekananda Kendra, thus, has 1,005 centres across India today, involved in a number of spheres like education, environment, rural development, social work, cultural activities and even strategic and policy planning. “We started schools in such remote areas that there were no roads or railways. In one place, children came to school on an elephant,'' recalled Bhide, adding that there are now schools from Arunachal to Andaman to Anantanag.
