Chapter 4

THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION – ITS ORIGIN, ORGANISATIONAL

EVOLUTION AND NATURE OF WORK

Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, to realise his

unique idea of blending spiritual and moral ethos with an all-round development
agenda. Since then, the Mission has been involved in preaching as well as
implementing the Swami’s ideas throughout the world and particularly in
different parts of India. It would be useful to have an understanding of the origin,
evolution and the nature of work of the Mission as well as their approach towards
development concerns in order to see if Swami Vivekananda’s idea of
development can be of any help in the present age. An analysis of the Mission’s
activities should also bring to the fore some of the key aspects of the voluntary
initiatives for social change in modern India.

To this end, this chapter attempts a thorough review of the origin and evolution
of the Ramakrishna Mission as an organisation, both in terms of its institutional
set-up as well as the extent and nature of its work, along with the recent trends in
its development activities. The data for the study have been primarily collected
from the different volumes of “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math and
Ramakrishna Mission” published since 1912, and some insiders’ accounts of the
inner dynamics of the organisation.266 Apart from these, attention has also been
paid to interpretations and observations on the organisational framework and
ideological position of the Ramakrishna Mission or the ‘Ramakrishna Movement’,
forwarded by scholars not related to the Mission.267

266 These include: Gambhirananda 1957; Lokeswarananda et al. 2006; Atmapriyananda 2010.
267 Some of these works are: Gupta 1974; Pangborn 1976; Beckerlegge 2000, 2006.

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 Section – I: Background and Inception of the Ramakrishna Mission

The genesis:
On 1 May, 1897, Swami Vivekananda had convened a meeting of the devotees
and admirers of his Master Sri Ramakrishna at Balaram Bose’s (a lay disciple of
Sri Ramakrishna) house in Baghbazar, Calcutta. Vivekananda opened the meeting
by saying:
The conviction has grown in my mind after all my travels in various lands that no great
cause can succeed without an organisation. In a country like ours, however, it does not
seem quite practicable to me to start an organisation at once with a democratic basis or
work by general voting.…When with the spread of education the masses in our country
grow more sympathetic and liberal, when they learn to have their thoughts expanded
beyond the limits of sect or party, then it will be possible to work on the democratic
basis of organisation. For this reason it is necessary to have a dictator for this Society.
Everybody should obey him, and then in time we may work on the principle of general
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voting….

He further stated: “Let this Association be named after him, in whose name,
indeed, we have embraced the monastic life, with whom as your Ideal in life you
all toil on the field of work from your station in family life, within twenty years of
whose passing away a wonderful diffusion of his holy name and extraordinary life
has taken place both in the East and the West. We are the servants of the Lord.
Be you all helpers in this cause.”269 Playwright Girish Chandra Ghosh, who was
also a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, seconded the proposal and the house
approved that.

At a second meeting on 5 May, 1897, the society was formally named “the
Ramakrishna Mission”. Vivekananda himself became the “general president” of
the Mission and some other office bearers were also chosen. In this meeting,

268 CWSV, ‘From the Diary of a Disciple’ (1 May, 1897), Vol 6, p 476
269Ibid., Vol 6, p 477

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resolutions were passed to lay down the main principles by which the movement
should be guided and its “aims and objects” were also determined. As originally
drawn up, these are as follows:
This Association (Sangha) shall be known as the Ramakrishna Mission.
The aim of the Sangha is to preach those truths which Shri Ramakrishna has, for the
good of humanity, preached and demonstrated by practical application in his own life,
and to help others to put these truths into practice in their lives for their temporal,
mental, and spiritual advancement.
The duty of the Mission is to conduct in the right spirit the activities of the movement
inaugurated by Shri Ramakrishna for the establishment of fellowship among the
followers of different religions, knowing them all to be so many forms only of one
undying Eternal Religion.
Its Methods of Action are:
(a) To train men so as to make them competent to teach such knowledge or sciences as
are conducive to the material and spiritual welfare of the masses;
(b) to promote and encourage arts and industries; and
(c) to introduce and spread among the people in general Vedantic and other religious
ideas in the way in which they were elucidated in the life of Shri Ramakrishna.
Indian Work Department: The activities of the Mission should he directed to the
establishment of Maths and Ashramas in different parts of India for the training of
sannyasis and such of the householders as may be willing to devote their lives to educate
others, and to the finding of the means by which they would be enabled to educate the
people, by going about from one province to another.
Its work in the Foreign Department should be to send trained members of the Order to
countries outside India to start centres there for the preaching of Vedanta in order to
bring about a closer relation and better understanding between India and foreign
countries.
The aims and ideals of the Mission being purely spiritual and humanitarian, it shall have
no connection with politics.
Anyone who believes in the mission of Shri Ramakrishna, or who sympathises or is
willing to co-operate with the above-mentioned aims and objects of the Association, is
eligible for membership.270

270 Life, Vol II, Ch 34, pp 248-50

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Then, it was decided that the members would meet every Sunday at 4 pm at
Balaram Bose’s said house.

The prelude:
Even before the foundation of the Ramakrishna Mission Association there was a
monastic order named after Sri Ramakrishna since 1886. A group of more than
hundred men and women of different age and background started evolving
around Sri Ramakrishna’s charming personality during his days in Dakshineswar
since early 1880s. In January 1886, during his last days at a garden-house in
Cossipore in north Calcutta, Sri Ramakrishna distributed ochre clothes, a
symbolic attire of Hindu monks to a few of his young male followers. After a
couple of months of his demise in1886, these young men took the formal vow of
monastic life. Since September 1886, they started living together first at a
dilapidated house in Baranagar, then since 1891, in a house at Alambazar. Both
are situated in the northern fringes of Calcutta. In February 1898, they shifted to
a rented accommodation at Nilambar Mukherjee’s garden-house situated at Belur
in the western bank of the Ganges in Howrah district. By that time more young
men had joined the monastery out of spiritual quest. They used to lead a very
austere life completely focussed on the spiritual objectives. Studying Indian and
Western philosophical texts and scriptures of different religions, worshipping Sri
Ramakrishna as the incarnation of God and practising spiritual hardships or
sadhana – constituted the essence of their lifestyle during the time. Many of them
used to undertake frequent pilgrimage throughout India as mendicant monks.
The expenses of the monastery were borne mostly by some lay devotees of Sri
Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda, who was known by his household name
Narendrantah till then, was entrusted by Sri Ramakrishna during his final days in
Cossipore to look-after the band of young disciples and guide them in their
spiritual quest. Following his Master’s instructions Vivekananda motivated the
young disciples of Sri Ramakrishna to get organised, stay together, and dedicate

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their lives for spiritual ideals. However, he himself left the monastery twice – in
1887 and 1890 – to wander across India, for a total span of more than five years.
Then, in 1893, he left for the United States of America to attend the ‘World
Parliament of Religions’ held in Chicago and returned back to India in 1897. The
experience he gathered during his travels around India and abroad, left a
profound impact on his mind. It enabled him to compare the conditions of the
Indian society vis-à-vis others in the East and the West. He was desperate to
search for some way out and use Sri Ramakrishna’s ideas in this regard by
situating them into broader socio-cultural contexts. In this situation, he strongly
felt the necessity of an organisation. So he kept on motivating and instructing his
fellow monks in Calcutta through letters from abroad for organising the
monastery in a systematic way. The most significant of them was the letter dated
27 April, 1896, written from England in Bengali addressing the young monks at
the Alambazar monastery, where Vivekananda had worked out the minute details
of his vision of the organisational structure, management and the fundamental
271
ethos of the emerging movement. This letter is considered as the “Magna
Charta” of the Ramakrishna movement (Gambhirananda 1957: 113).

Thus, by the middle of 1890s, under the insistence and guidance of Swami
Vivekananda, there gradually emerged a new monastic order with around twenty
members, named as the “Ramakrishna Math”. But, in spite of Vivekananda’s
meticulous instructions the young band of monks at the Alambazar monastery
was not really able to form an organisational set up, rules of conduct or legal
authority for themselves. The affairs of the monastery were conducted by the
direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna on their personal capacity and the
inmates were bonded together on the basis of their admiration of and dedication
to the ideas and ideals of Sri Ramakrishna. Moreover, this was a purely spiritual

271 CWSV, Latter to the members of Alambazar Math from UK (original in Bengali, 27 April, 1896), Vol 7,
pp 491-98

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outfit whose members were primarily concerned with their individual spiritual
quest.

Vivekananda wanted to transform this loose band of reclusive monks into an

organised workforce dedicated to the cause of ‘regeneration’ of Indian society in
particular and humanity as a whole. To carry out this uphill task, he had to face
many formidable challenges. First, he had to fight the internal battle. The inmates
of the monastery were reluctant to engage themselves into any planned social
service as it would have required them to interact more with the lay people,
collect funds and invest time and energy to these worldly activities. They believed
that these activities were opposed to the traditional ideals of Hindu monastic life.
Some of them even raised the question that the idea of organised social service
had nothing to do with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna; it was rather sought to
be inculcated by Vivekananda himself due to his interactions with the Western
ideas of philanthropy.272 Even many householder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna
were sceptical about Vivekananda’s vision of ‘new monasticism’.273 The society at
large, particularly the orthodox Hindu community, could not think of any thing
stranger than a monk nursing a patient or cleaning the dirt. Besides, there was
acute shortage of funds and trained personnel to put the scheme of Swami
Vivekananda into practice. In this backdrop, interestingly, Vivekananda set up the
‘Ramakrishna Mission Association’.

272 On the very day the Ramakrishna Mission was founded, Swami Yogananda, one of Sri Ramakrishna’s
monastic disciples raised the question before Vivekananda: “You are doing these things with Western
methods. Should you say Shri Ramakrishna left us any such instructions?” – Quoted in CWSV, ‘From the
Diary of a Disciple’ (1 May, 1897), Vol 6, p 477
273 “The Ramakrishna Math and Mission also illustrate a fusion of social service with the ancient institution of
monastic order. These accumulative movements created new forms of Hinduism that met the social and
psychological needs of an educated elite caught between two opposing poles of civilisation, the indigenous
Hindu and the intrusive Western.” (Jones 2003: III: 46-47).

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 Section – II: The Initial Years of the Ramakrishna Mission

The Ramakrishna Mission under the leadership of Vivekananda:

The Life of Swami Vivekananda reports that for the first three years since its
inception weekly meetings of the Ramakrishna Mission were usually held on
Sundays at Balaram Bose’s residence in Baghbazar. Swami Vivekananda used to
attend those meetings if he was in Calcutta. And the Mission conducted
“preaching and philanthropic work” during those days.274 Within two weeks of its
inception the first major social service initiative was taken up by the Mission with
famine relief works in Mahula, Murshidabad under the leadership of Swami
Akhandananda, a monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. That was followed by the
plague relief work in Calcutta, led by Swami Sadananda and Sister Nivedita.
Vivekananda sent two of his fellow-monks, Swami Ramakrishnananda and
Swami Shivananda to open new centres in Madras and Varanasi, respectively. On
his insistence one of his British admirers Captain Savier with the help of Swami
Swarupananda, a disciple of the Swami, founded the ‘Advaita Ashrama’ in
Mayavati, situated in the Kumaun range of the Himalayan Mountains.
Vivekananda started three magazines in India during his lifetime: Brahmavadin
(renamed as Vedanta Kesari in 1914) and Prabuddha Bharata (both in 1896) in
English, and Udbodhan (in 1899) in Bengali. In December 1899, Vivekananda
shifted the monastery from its rented accommodation at the garden-house of
Nilambar Mukherjee to its own sprawling new campus measuring over seven
acres at Belur, on the western bank of the Ganges. Vivekananda declared it to be
the global headquarters of the twin organisations – the Ramakrishna Math and
Ramakrishna Mission. In 1901, with the inspiration of Vivekananda, Sister
Nivedita started a girls’ school in Baghbazar, north Calcutta. Vivekananda himself
had convened a meeting at Balaram Bose’s house to announce the foundation of
the school and took personal initiatives to enrol students for the school and

274 Life, Vol II, Ch 34, p 255

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raised funds for it. He sent monks to the US and UK for preaching and
continuing the work started by him there. He himself went to the West for the
second time in 1900, mainly to raise funds for the activities of the Mission in
India and to consolidate the work set off by him during 1893–97. Besides, he
travelled all over India spreading the message of ‘Practical Vedanta’ through
lectures and personal interactions till he breathed his last on 4 July, 1902. This
way, in a short span of five years, from May 1897 to July 1902, Vivekananda had
succeeded in initiating a new movement to realise his scheme for the
‘regeneration’ of India.

Convergence of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission into a

‘movement’:
In January 1901, Swami Vivekananda executed a Trust Deed under the Indian
Trust Act of 1882 for the Ramakrishna Math whereby he relinquished himself
from all legal attachments with the organisation and made eleven of his ‘brother-
disciples’ (direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna numbering a total of
sixteen, who are regarded by the Order as its ‘founding fathers’) like Swami
Brahmananda, Swami Premananda, Swami Shivananda, Swami Saradananda and
others the Trustees of the body. The Trustees were to elect a President from
among themselves for a tenure of two years. The primary duties of the Trustees
were to oversee the “admission and maintenance of the monks of the Order
staying at the Math” and act for the “propagation and advancement of the cult”
(Gambhirananda 1957: 144). The Math was a purely spiritual organisation, as it
has been marked out in the biography of Vivekananda, “The main objects of the
Math were the training of monks for Self-realisation and for service of the world
in all possible ways.” After the establishment of the Belur Math in its own
campus the Math was at the centre of attention for all concerned. And “Soon
after this, the Ramakrishna Mission Association ceased to function as an

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independent organisation, and the Math authorities carried on the activities
conducted by it.”275

In the course of time, Math authorities felt it necessary to separate the task of
spiritual training of the monastic members from its service oriented works to
facilitate effective management of the latter. Thus on 4 May, 1909, the
Ramakrishna Mission was formally registered as an association. While registering
as an association under the Act XXI of 1860 of the Governor General of India in
Council (later known as the Societies Registration Act), the Mission had adopted
a Memorandum of Association and a constitution for itself in tune with the
original aims, objects and methods of work suggested by Swami Vivekananda in
1897.276 This way, the separate legal identities of the Ramakrishna Math and
Ramakrishna Mission were established. The Ramakrishna Math being primarily
engaged in spiritual activities having only male monastic members and the
Ramakrishna Mission doing mainly social services with primarily monastic along
with lay members.277 At the time of registration of the Mission, it was decided
that the monastic Trustees of the Ramakrishna Math will be the ex-officio

275 Life, Vol II, Ch 34, pp 255-6

276 The official ‘Memorandum of Association’ declares the following as the objects of the Ramakrishna
Mission: “(a) To impart and promote the study of the Vedanta and its principles as propounded by Sri
Ramakrishna and practically illustrated by his own life, and of Comparative Theology in its widest form. (b)
To impart and promote the study of the arts, science and industries. (c) To train teachers in all branches of
knowledge above mentioned and enable them to reach the masses. (d) To carry on educational work
among the masses. (e) To establish, maintain, carry on and assist schools, colleges, universities, orphanages,
workshops, laboratories, hospitals, dispensaries, houses for the infirm, the invalid and the afflicted, famine-
relief works, and other education and/or charitable works and institutions of a like nature. (f) To print and
publish and to sell or distribute, gratuitously or otherwise, journals, periodicals, books or leaflets that the
Association may think desirable for the promotion of its objects. (g) To carry on any other work which
may seem to the Association capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with and calculated
directly or indirectly to promote any of the before mentioned objects.” – The General Secretary, 1912,
“The First General Report of Ramakrishna Mission”, Belur Math, p 39
277 As per the rules and regulations of the Ramakrishna Mission any person “irrespective of colour, creed or
caste” who looks upon “Sri Ramakrishna as an illustration and embodiment of the Religion Eternal”, who
pledges to “live in peace and fellowship with the followers of all religions” and who has full sympathy to all
the objects of the Mission may apply for membership of the association. – The General Secretary, 1936,
“The Eighth General Report of Ramakrishna Mission (1934-35)”, Belur Math, pp 89-90

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members of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission. Clarifying the
relations between the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission the “First
General Report” of the Mission states:
The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission are the twin institutions to
embody respectively, Renunciation and Service, which according to Swami Vivekananda
“are the two national ideals of India.” ... the Math with its various ramifications in the
different parts of the country is purely concerned with the Ramakrishna Order of
Sannyasins and Brahmacharins ... when this monastic order steps out of the isolation of
individual spiritual pursuits and associates with the public in sphere of service to
humanity, it becomes the Ramakrishna Mission..278

So, in spite of being two distinct legal entities having separate books of accounts,
for all practical purposes the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
remained almost synonymous.279 Both of them are governed by the same group
of persons at the top from the same headquarters situated at Belur Math, both
having same ideological foundations and the same emblem and motto prepared
by Vivekananda himself, and both having the same set of monks as their main
workforce. So, any attempt to study the role of Ramakrishna Mission would be
incomplete without an understanding of the role of the Ramakrishna Math at the
same time. Thus the major developments of both the organisations over a
century put together would be dealt with in the following sections, treating them
as two complementary aspects of the same ‘Ramakrishna Movement’.

278 The General Secretary, 1912, “The First General Report of the Ramakrishna Mission”, Belur Math, pp 65-
66
279 In its website the Mission declares: “Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are worldwide, non-
political, non-sectarian spiritual organizations which have been engaged in various forms of humanitarian,
social service activities for more than a century. ... Although Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
are legally and financially separate, they are closely inter-related in several ways and are regarded as twin
organizations.” – Belur Math, The Headquarters of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, 2014:
“Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission: What they are”
(http://www.belurmath.org/whattheyare.htm), last viewed on 17.06.2014

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The critical formative stage of the movement:
The untimely demise of Swami Vivekananda at the age of thirty-nine years only in
1902, created a huge void in the nascent Ramakrishna movement. A series of
crises emerged before the infant organisation. He was the sole motivating force in
transforming a band of reclusive spiritual seekers into a dedicated workforce for
the ‘regeneration’ of Indian society and the humanity at large. Now the
responsibility fell on the shoulders of his fellow monks to carry out his mission,
some of whom were themselves initially reluctant to accept whole-heartedly
Vivekananda’s idea of organised social service by monks. None of them had the
expertise, stature and charisma of Swami Vivekananda. So the challenges before
Swami Brahmananda, Swami Shivananda, Swami Saradananda and other Trustees
of the Ramakrishna Math were multi-prong. First, they had to establish their
authority within the organisation. Then, they had to put up the public image of
the movement within and outside India in such a credible fashion so as to sustain
its acceptability. Consolidating the work already initiated in India as well as
abroad and expanding them were the other major concerns. The first major
contentious decision of the new leadership of the movement was to sever all
formal relations with the most prominent disciple of Vivekananda, Sister
Nivedita, on the ground of her direct involvement in politics. The political
scenario in Bengal during the first two decades of the twentieth century
complicated the situation even more for the new leadership of the organisation.
The Swadeshi and boycott movements created euphoria among the educated
middle class in Bengal and the Ramakrishna movement was criticised by certain
sections of the society for not lending active support to these movements. On the
other hand, many of the revolutionary nationalist leaders regarded Swami
Vivekananda as the source of their inspiration. After the decline of the first phase
of the extremist movements in Bengal some of its past associates found shelter in
the Ramakrishna Mission. These incidents drew unsolicited negative attention of
the British colonial rulers to the activities of the movement.

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The situation was quite complicated for the authorities of the movement. The
leaders of the Mission, like Vivekananda himself, were fully aware of the
exploitative nature of the colonial rule in India. But they were also deeply anxious
about the sustainability of the young movement in the backdrop of expressed
negative remarks by the highest governmental authorities and persistent vigilance
by the intelligence agencies on the members and activities of the Ramakrishna
Math and Mission. To tackle this precarious situation the leadership took several
steps. Out of compulsion, the Governing Body of the Mission publicly notified in
1914, that they had nothing to do with politics; the sole object of the association
was “to serve man as God in a spiritual pursuit”. They had also submitted a
memorandum stating their position to the Governor of Bengal in 1917. Swami
Saradananda, then General Secretary of the Mission personally met the Governor
to satisfy his queries about the organisation. While at the same time the Swami
continued to admit former associates of the revolutionary nationalist movement
into the folds of the movement by transforming them as monks of the
Ramakrishna Order. Swami Brahmananda, the then President of the Math and
Mission personally met a group of revolutionary leaders at Belur Math to dispel
their misunderstanding about the ideals and activities of the organisation. And the
Mission never stopped rendering humanitarian services to the victims of torture
and extortions inflicted by the foreign rulers and their native agents. Moreover,
they continued to publish and preach Vivekananda’s ideas expressed through his
letters and speeches, inspiring men and women to break free from the bondage
of foreign rule (Tripathi 1968: 19-30).

The colonial government lacked the will as well as adequate infrastructure to

manage the emergency situations of catastrophes and calamities. So it had to
depend on the Mission for its services in such occasions as there was scarcely any
voluntary organisation with the capacity to reach out to the far-flung places of the
country and to win over the confidence of the people. But the Ramakrishna

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Mission made it a point not to accept any recurring grants from the colonial
government, except for the relief and rehabilitation work, to avoid any form of
undue interference into its affairs by the authorities of the day. Thus they
preferred to depend entirely upon private donations for running the permanent
centres till the closing days of the British rule in India. As a result of this policy,
the growth and expansion of the movement was slow, yet it had helped them
maintain their ‘autonomy’ to a great extent.

Even in this turbulent period during the first two decades of its existence, the
organisation was able to continue as well as expand its activity. The “First
General Report” of the Mission published in 1912, noted about seven Math
centres and six Mission centres spread all over undivided India. Among them
there were three hospitals and one orphanage. Apart from these there were some
educational institutions run by the Mission at that time, like the Nivedita Girls’
School in Calcutta and the Ramakrishna Mission Students’ Home in Madras.

The role of Sarada Devi in the Ramakrishna movement:

Without occupying any formal position in the organisation, Sarada Devi (1854–
1920), the wife of Sri Ramakrishna, and the “Sanghajanani” or “Holy Mother” to
the followers, played a crucial role in guiding the Ramakrishna movement during
its formative stage. 280 Sarada Devi did not receive any formal education. But she
had personally encouraged setting up two schools for the girls in Calcutta and
herself inaugurated one of them. One, founded by one of her close associates and
a nun, Gouri Ma, in 1895, and the other, by Sister Nivedita, in 1898. She proved
her liberal outlook through many of her conducts.281

280 Commenting on this Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak writes: “This remarkable woman outlived her husband
by thirty-four years. In the course of time, his [Sri Ramakrishna’s] ... young male disciples established her as
the advisory head of an organisation that became a monastic order devoted to social work. She performed
her role with tact and wisdom, always remaining in the background.” (Spivak 2001: 155-56).
281 Sarada Devi sent her niece Radhu to a Christian Missionary school. When Swami Vivekananda returned
from the West, a host of American and European admirers accompanied him. Among them were Sister

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As it has been mentioned earlier, Swami Vivekananda had envisioned a scheme
of empowering Indian women. He considered that the task of elevating women
should be led by the women themselves. Here he projected Sarada Devi as an
iconic figure before the Indian women. He insisted the lady disciples of Sri
Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi as well as his own disciples like Sister Nivedita,
Sister Christine and Sister Devamata to work for empowering the Indian women,
mainly through imparting spiritual and secular education. Besides the monastery
for men at Belur, Vivekananda dreamt of founding a monastery exclusively for
the women centring upon Sarada Devi. The dream saw the light of the day in
1954, through the founding of ‘Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission’
in Dakshineswar as an independent sister organisation of the Ramakrishna Math
and Mission, exclusively run by the nuns.

Section – III: The RKM in pre-Independence Era: Major Trends

The transitional phase:

Another wave of political onslaught plunged upon the organisation during the
Non-cooperation Movement in early 1920s. A section of the society was critical
of the political inactivity of the Mission. Even some of the monks of the Order
demanded that the Mission should actively support the Movement and they be
allowed to take part in the mass agitation. The authorities of the Mission took a
middle path. They supported the ‘Constructive Programmes’ as far as these were
commensurate with the development projects being conducted by the Mission.
However, they refused to endorse any political ideology and forbade the monks
from taking any active role in the Movement.

Nivedita, Ole Bull, Sister Christine and Sister Devamata. Not only did Sarada Devi meet them, she took
food with them and even allowed them to sit on her bed! It was nothing short of a revolution by the
standards of those days (Tapasyananda 1977: 231-37).

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If severing legal ties with Sister Nivedita in 1902 was the first major instance of
desertion in the Ramakrishna movement, then the another blow came from a
disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and a founding Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math,
Swami Abhedananda. He had some differences of opinion with the other
Trustees of the Math regarding his method of work. In 1923, he founded the
‘Vedanta Society’ in Calcutta. Some of his disciples and admirers belonging to the
Ramakrishna Order deserted the Mission and joined him. However, the members
of both the organisations maintained a mutually respectful relation; even Swami
Abhedananda continued to be a Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math till his demise.

By the mid-1920s, most of the direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna had
passed away, and Swami Abhedananda had started his own organisation. The
activities of the Math and Mission had “grown complex and multifarious”. In this
context Saradananda, the General Secretary or the chief executive of the twin
organisations since their inception, felt it imminent to prepare the grounds for a
smooth hand-over. But a section of the younger monks was not satisfied with the
pace of this process. One of them, even went to the extent of asking for
resignation of the aged monks holding responsible posts and “replace” them by
“men of character, trust and executive capacity” belonging to the age-group of 35
to 45 years to carry on the work with “amity and efficiency” (Gambhirananda
1957: 290). Though his views were rejected by the majority of the members and
later it was described as the “most sorrowful chapter in the whole history” (Ibid.
289) of the Ramakrishna movement, yet the authorities of the day got the signal.
In this backdrop in 1925, it was decided to hold a Convention of the monastic
and lay members at Belur Math to “meet together to take stock of the situation,
to compare notes with each other and to lay down broad principles for future
guidance” (Ibid. 289).

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The first Convention of the movement in 1926:
The Convention was held at Belur Math from 1 to 8 April, 1926, and was
attended by around 350 guests and representatives from over 100 institutions
bearing the names of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda; some of them
were formally affiliated to the Math and Mission (Ibid. 291). In his welcome
address to the Convention Swami Saradananda stated that an organisation had to
pass through the stages of “opposition, indifference and acceptance”. He showed
with evidence from the history of the Ramakrishna movement that it had passed
through the first two stages and had entered the stage of appreciation. And he
described the Convention as “a rare privilege” for its participants to meet many
of their senior “co-workers” together and profit by their experience in “settling
future plans of work” as well as “warding off the dangers and evils” that
threatened to overtake all institutions at the “critical stage of their acceptance by
the public” (Ibid. 291-92).

The Convention had adopted a host of Resolutions for conducting the future
course of work of the organisation. These included, formulation of definite
schemes for educational works, fixing conditions such as the availability of
competent monastic workers while deciding upon a proposal for opening new
centres, initiating a system of verification of accounts of the branch centres by the
headquarters, advising the monks to learn local languages, introducing a training
schedule for the monastic workers, organising regular meetings between different
departments of the organisation for better coordination, preparing certain general
norms regarding the posting and transfer of monks, etc. (Ibid. 292-94). Another
outcome of the Convention was the formation of a Working Committee in April
1926, consisting of twelve monks from the younger generation to assist the
Trustees and members of the Governing Body in discharging their
responsibilities more effectively and expediently (Ibid. 299). However, in course of

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time the powers and structure of the Working Committee was thoroughly
modified and all the Trustees were made its ex-officio members.

The phase of legal reforms:

A series of internal crises surfaced after the demise of Swami Saradananda, who
was considered as “the most balanced man in the whole Order” (Ibid. 156), in
1927. During the late 1920s and early 1930s the authorities of the Ramakrishna
Math and Mission had to take resort to the court and police to mitigate the acts
of indiscipline, misappropriation of funds and property, and defection and ‘revolt’
by a section of their monastic members led Brahmachari Ganendrananth and
Swami Nirmalananda (Ibid. 312). These incidents seemed to have “tore the
Mission to pieces” (Ibid. 308). But the lessons they left behind were crucial for an
expanding organisation. And the authorities of the Math and Mission shrugged
off their habitual lacunae towards the nitty-gritty of legal frameworks of both the
organisations, and seriously engaged themselves in fixing the loopholes,
particularly in matters regarding the relations between the headquarters and the
branch centres.

The origins of the legal frameworks of the Ramakrishna Math can be traced back
to the 1890s, when Swami Vivekananda was insisting upon his fellow monks in
Alambazar to get organised through letters after letters from abroad. The first set
of codes of conduct for the inmates of the Alambazar monastery were
formulated by Vivekananda in his letter dated 27 April, 1896, written from
England to his fellow monks (Ibid. 120-23). Later on when he returned to India
and was staying at the garden-house of Nilambar Mukherjee in Belur in April
1897, one day a young monk pleaded him to chalk out some rules for “a
systematic training” of the new-comers to the monastery. He readily agreed to the
proposal and started dictating the rules. At the beginning Vivekananda pointed
out the underlying spirit of these rules by saying: “Look here, we are going to
make rules, no doubt; but we must remember the main object thereof. Our main

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object is to transcend all rules and regulations. We have naturally some bad
tendencies which are to he changed by observing good rules and regulations; and
finally we have to go beyond all these even, just as we remove one thorn by
another and throw both of them away.”282 In the end he instructed the monk
who was taking his dictations to “put all the rules in the positive form” while
making a fair copy of them. These rules and regulations, with slight
modifications, came to be known as “the Rules and Regulations of the
Ramakrishna Math, Belur” or the “Math Rules”.283 Unlike a typical rule-book for
a traditional monastic order, besides some spiritual guidelines, these rules spoke
of the “paramount duty” of the monks in spreading secular and spiritual
education and supplying food to the hungry mouth. These indicate how
Vivekananda wanted to transform the monks of this organisation into a dedicated
workforce for social change (Gambhirananda 1957: 135-39). Vivekananda
concluded the rules in a pragmatic note by saying: “These rules will admit of
being amended to and altered according to necessity.” (Ibid. 134). And the Math
authorities took advantage of this flexibility to supplement these rules from time
to time, without modifying its original contents which they considered as
“sacrosanct” (Ibid.).

Initially, these rules were meant for the young monastery at Belur. The monks of
the Ramakrishna Order working in different branch centres outside Belur used to
follow them in good faith. But there was no legal sanction behind this. In the
context of the crises originating from ‘within’, the Math authorities sought to
address this loophole with an effort to prepare a legally sound code of conduct
for the monastic members. With this objective a set of rules for the monks of the
Math were prepared in 1935. Soon after, some modifications were made into it.
Thus a new set of rules came up titled the “Rules and Regulations of the

282 Life, Vol II, Ch 34, pp 246-47

283 Ibid., p 247

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Ramakrishna Math, 1937” (Ibid. 337). Since then, these rules “almost wholly”
regulated the functioning of the Ramakrishna Order. In terms legal hierarchy the
Trust Deed of 1901 executed by Swami Vivekananda was at the top, followed by
the 1937 Rules. The 1937 Rules are amended from time to time by the Math
authorities; however, the Math Rules prepared by Vivekananda himself “still
remained supreme in matters of faith and belief” as well as a guiding principle in
approaching any critical situation within the organisation (Ibid. 337).

After refurbishing the rules for organising the Math, a fresh initiative to
reorganise the administrative machinery and to mend the “constitutional defects”
of he Ramakrishna Mission was undertaken by the authorities in 1937. By
amending the Mission’s constitution the powers of the Governing Body were
augmented and scope of their executive control was extended. The provision of
“affiliation” of branch centres was given up in favour of “outright integration” of
new institutions as branch centres of the Mission. Specific instructions were given
on keeping separate accounts for each branch centre and diverting money from
one to another was prohibited. The properties of all branch centres were
mandatorily vested in the Governing Body of the Association. The powers and
functions of the branch Secretary were defined more clearly and given preference
to the posts of the President, the Chief Supervisor and other members of a Local
Committee conducting the affairs of a branch. The tenure of a Local Committee
was made limited to two years and the Governing Body of the Mission was
authorised to appoint the members to the Local Committee (Ibid. 339).

This way, the legal frameworks, the constitutional provisions and administrative
mechanisms of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission were thoroughly revamped
during 1930s, to enable them to cope up with any future “spectre of disruption”
like the ones that stared on them in the late 1920s and early 1930s. But it seemed
these unwelcome experiences had left a permanent imprint on the minds of the
Math and Mission authorities. This was evident from their increased reliance on

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legal provisions rather than direct personal connections in resolving an issue as
well as from their eagerness to consolidate the powers of the central authority in
the following years.

The early steps towards planned growth:

A shift in the approach towards developmental works was also evident. During
the first three decades of its evolution the Ramakrishna movement depended
mainly on localised “personal effort(s) and initiative(s)” for a rapid expansion.
Most of the centres which sprang up during this initial stage were the outcome of
local aspirations and co-operations at the provincial, district or even village level.
Monks of the Order while moving around through places often played the role of
a catalyst to these local wants. Sometimes even a temporary relief work initiated
by the Mission gradually turned out to be a permanent centre. In most cases there
was no central planning or funding whatsoever. So these were rather spontaneous
initiatives catering to varied local needs, yet having an ideological bearing of the
Ramakrishna movement. By the 1930s, there were such “innumerable centres
that had grown up non-officially” (Ibid. 323). The “local enthusiasm” considered
much valuable in the early stage created much difficulties later. It resulted in “a
certain waste of energy, overlapping and undue concentration of centres in
particular districts or provinces” (Ibid.). The freedom that the pioneers of these
initiatives had enjoyed sometimes led to whimsical switchover from one type of
activity to another, which often prevented them from rendering effective and
specialised service. Moreover, the inaugurators “tended to become narrow and
self-satisfied” (Ibid. 296) in their outlook leaving little scope for the younger
generation of monks to take up the work and lead it into new directions. Thus
these personalised local initiatives went against the impersonal character
envisioned by Swami Vivekananda, which the Math and Mission were so keen to
develop in their organisational set up.

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So a “new era of purposeful planning” was ushering in. And, by the late 1930s,
the rate of expansion was deliberately slowed down as an outcome of “a
conscious plan of balanced evolution”. Swami Gambhirananda sought to justify
this shift in policy this way: “If expansion was not totally banned at this stage, it
was not because the need for such a check was not felt, but because any such
sudden and peremptory stifling of the urge to extend would be tantamount to a
strangulation of the organisation, which had yet to learn that consolidation was a
necessary precursor of lasting growth, and that expansion per se was not a virtue.”
(Ibid. 324).

Some important administrative reforms:

To facilitate a smooth changeover of authorities a “partially democratic” process
was adopted by the Monks’ Conference of 1937, wherein the Trustees were
“advised” to “consult the senior monks” before appointing anyone to the post of
Secretary as well as new Trustees. Earlier this was mandatory for the post of the
President only. By the late 1930s, the Math and Mission authorities were able to
evolve a method of “effective separation” between “spiritual ministration and
executive work” in their administrative mechanism. The President continued to
enjoy certain constitutional rights and was venerable because of his seniority and
experience, yet he was made “chiefly a constitutional head”; while the Secretary
became the administrative head (Ibid. 355-56). The Secretary was supposed to
discharge his duties under the “general guidance” of the Board of Trustees and
the Governing Body as well as with the assistance of three or four Assistant
Secretaries elected by them. In 1946, the rules of the Mission were amended to
introduce some important administrative changes. First, the post of the Secretary
of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission was re-designated as “the General
Secretary” to distinguish him from the branch Secretaries and he was vested with
“more executive power”. Second, the Local Committees governing the branch
centres were recast as “Managing Committees” and the executive authority of the

162
branch Secretaries were enhanced. Third, the heading “Bye-laws” was dropped
from the Mission constitution and the concerned sections dealing with the
branch centres were directly brought under the same “Rules” that governed the
headquarters. Finally, provisions were made to allow branch centres to borrow
money, if required, from the headquarters as well as other branch centres with the
approval of the headquarters (Ibid. 365-66). These legal reforms were aimed at
increasing organisational integrity and at the same time administrative efficiency
to suit the changing pattern of activity of the twin organisations, both in terms of
quality and quantity.

Impact of the shift in policy on the growth trajectory of the movement:

The growth trajectory of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission in terms of the
numbers of branch centres during one of its most critical phases was no less
impressive. According to the “Fifth General Report”, at the end of 1927, in India
there were 27 Mission centres and 29 Math centres.284 A decade later, the
“General Report” of 1936-37, mentioned of 50 Mission centres and 58 Math
centres.285 But as an outcome of the change in policy focussed on integration
rather than mere expansion the growth rate slowed down in the following decade.
It was evident from the “General Report” covering the year 1946-47. The Report
stated: “there were altogether 65 Mission centres and 67 Math centres in 1947.”286

Between 1927 and 1937, the net increase in the number of branch centres was 42,
whereas in the next ten years, i.e. from 1937 to 1947, the number came down to
24, a slide of nearly 43 per cent. Even after more than five years the trend
continued to be the same, as the “General Report” of 1952-53, stated “there are

284 The General Secretary, 1929, “The Fifth General Report of Ramakrishna Mission (1925-27)”, Belur Math,
pp ii-iii
285 The General Secretary, 1938, “The Ninth General Report of Ramakrishna Mission (1936-37)”, Belur
Math, p 4
286 The General Secretary, 1948, “The Fourteenth General Report of Ramakrishna Mission (1946-47)”, Belur
Math, p 3

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altogether 69 Mission centres and 65 Math centres.”287 So at this stage, the
authorities seemed to be more cautious in their outlook and had fixed their
attention on “internal growth” rather than external in a more deliberate way
(Gambhirananda 1957: 376). However, the volume of work increased steadily
during this period. For instance, instead of having 9 hospitals treating 9, 320
patients and 43 dispensaries treating 13, 12, 614 patients in 1937, in 1953, the
Math and Mission operated 12 hospital treating 16, 530 patients and 61
dispensaries treating 21, 76, 940 patients. Again, compared to having 31 centres
accommodating students, 3 residential high schools, 9 other high schools, 5
industrial and agricultural schools, 5 middle English schools, 57 upper and lower
primary schools and 18 night schools serving around 10, 300 students in 1937, in
1953, the Math and Mission ran 44 students’ homes, 2 colleges, 31 high schools
and 85 lower grade schools serving more than 34, 000 boys and girls.288

The nineteen forties – a decade of hope and despair:

The 1940s was an eventful decade with far reaching consequences for the
Mission. There was the World War II at the global stage, and a series of mass
agitations against the British rule was organised at the national level, beginning
with the Quit India Movement, culminating in India’s Independence. The War
produced an unprecedented atmosphere of fear-psychosis, particularly, out of a
looming danger of attacks by the Japanese force. On the other hand, the
Independence brought along with it the scar of Partition, resulting in a spate of
communal riots and an exodus across the newly drawn national borders. The
Ramakrishna Math and Mission had to face the challenges posed by these events
like everyone else. Some of their foreign centres had to be shifted, suspended or
even closed down. As a fallout of the War, in the early 1940s, the centre in France

287 The General Secretary, 1954, “The 56th and 57thGeneral Reports of the Ramakrishna Mission (1952-53)”,
Belur Math, p 3
288 The General Secretary, 1937 and 1954, “The General Reports of the Ramakrishna Mission”, Belur Math

164
was shifted from place to place;289 two centres in Burma was bombarded
‘mistakenly’ by the Japanese Army; and the Singapore centre was ransacked and
the head of the centre was taken into custody for a while by the British Army as it
was frequented by the Indian National Army (INA) leader Subhas Chandra Bose
during his stay there.290 Even provisions were made in anticipation of any
emergency evacuation in the headquarters at Belur Math. On the other hand, as
an impact of the Partition and communal riots the Lahore and the Karachi
centres had to be closed along with some other centres in the East Pakistan
during 1947-48.291

However, both the organisations could continue their services in a rapidly

changing socio-political scenario. During 1943-45, the Mission conducted
“Distress Relief” work for the famine in Bengal, largely credited to the World
War II. At its peak, the relief work covered 1, 169 villages and 22 towns through
75 centres spread over 19 districts of undivided Bengal.292 Again from October
1946 to December 1949, they had organised the East Bengal Riot Relief and
Rehabilitation work among the riot victims in Noakhali and other parts of East
Pakistan. With the insistence of the governments at the national and the state
levels the Mission organised several refugee camps, first in Kurukshetra, near
Delhi, then in West Bengal, from 1947 to 1949 (Gambhirananda 1957: 367-70).
This was followed by the large scale ‘East Bengal Refugee Relief and

289 The General Secretary, 1946, “The Thirteenth General Report of the Ramakrishna Mission (1944-45)”,
Belur Math, p 52
290 Gambhirananda 1957: 360; Cf. “The Thirteenth General Report of the Ramakrishna Mission (1944-45)”
published in 1946, reported: “The two centres in Burma remained suspended, and there was no news
about the centre at Singapore.” (p 3)
291 “The Fourteenth General Report of the Ramakrishna Mission (1946-47)” stated with despair: “The Lahore
centre had to be closed immediately after the partition. The Karachi centre struggled on with skeleton
activities under very adverse circumstances, but had ultimately to be closed in August of this year. In
Eastern Pakistan, the financial position of our centres is alarming, and unless help from friends be
forthcoming, their very existence, even in their present curtailed form, is at stake.” (pp 2-3)
292 The General Secretary, 1946, “The Thirteenth General Report of the Ramakrishna Mission (1944-45)”,
Belur Math, p 8

165
Rehabilitation Work’ in parts of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam during 1950-51
(Ibid. 386-88).

Section – IV: The RKM in post-Independence Era: Major Trends

The phase of expansion with the state support:

By successfully conducting the relief operations during the 1940s, the
Ramakrishna Math and Mission were able to win the confidence of the new
nationalist governments at the Centre as well as in the states. And that brought
about a significant change in the volume as well as nature of developmental
works done by these organisations. It has already been mentioned that the Math
and Mission did not accept any non-recurring grant from the colonial rulers as a
matter of principle. They started accepting such grants in a creeping manner since
the last phase of the British rule in India, when national leaders were in some way
or the other becoming parts of the decision-making process at different levels of
the government. After Independence, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the
Math and Mission authorities decided to thoroughly revise their policy in this
regard and began approaching the government and its various agencies for
substantial support in their projects, particularly those run by the Mission.
Working together with a democratic and welfarist government for serving the
people was much acceptable to them than to ask for support from the foreign
rulers. The national government on the other hand found a helping hand in the
Mission in accomplishing the huge task of development before them. Not only
did the government extend their support to the various projects run by the two
organisations, but also in some cases they approached the Math and Mission to
undertake fresh projects. Besides, the national government had also decided to
provide income tax exemptions on a certain amount of private contribution made
to the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Thus a new era of active cooperation
between the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and various state agencies had
begun. And at this crucial juncture the twin organisations reiterated one of their

166
basic principles once again: the policy of non-interference into politics. During
the British rule they had decided not to “stand or vote in any election, municipal,
provincial, or Indian.” (Ibid. 384). The same policy was revoked in 1952, to ensure
their political ‘neutrality’ in the context of national independence as well as the
new approach of receiving state support in a substantial way. The authorities of
the Math and Mission did not want to associate the organisations with any
particular political outfit or ideology. This policy was also considered vital because
of the growing cosmopolitan character of the movement. Referring to this,
Swami Gambhirananda pointed out: “In the same monastery, there lived monks
hailing from different parts of India and even outside India, who could be called
upon any moment to proceed to any part of the world for service irrespective of
provincial or national boundaries.” So emphasis was given on cultivating a
‘‘universal’’ outlook among the members of the movement, “without being
apathetic to national progress” (Ibid. 384).

Impact of government grants on the works of the RKM:

The increasing flow of government grants had facilitated the growth of the
development work of the Mission to a great extent, particularly in the educational
field. It is evident from the chart below how the amount of government funds
had exceeded the amount of public donations collected by the Mission during the
first decade after Independence (Table: 4.1, p 168). Within a matter of five years,
between 1953 and 1958, the government grants to the educational work of the
Mission increased around six fold and in 1959, the government funding was
nearly eight times higher than the amount of private contribution to the Mission
in this field. However, in the filed of health services these two amounts remained
more or less same till the end of 1950s. And, in case of general funding, the
private contribution was always higher than government assistance throughout
the decade. This has been reflected in the pattern of work of the Mission during
the decade as well.

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The “General Report” of 1960 mentions of 74 Mission centres and 66 Math
centres.293 According to this report, compared to around 31, 000 students in
1953294, the Mission had served more than 57, 000 students in 1959; which was an
increase of nearly 84 per cent in six years. In the field of health services, there was
a modest increase of around 7, 000 patients treated in both the indoor and
outdoor health care facilities run by the Mission compared to the figures of
1953.295
Table: 4.1: Amounts of Government Grant and Private Donation Received by RKM during 1948-59: A Comparison
Field of Activity (All figures in INR)
Report Educational & Cultural Medical General
Year Government Private Government Private Government Private
Grant* Donation Grant* Donation Grant* Donation
1948 7,63,108 7,11,533 2,15,491 5,72,538 n.a. n.a.
1949 3,80,749 3,58,262 1,05,612 3,13,635 8,294 86,363
1950 4,13,744 3,33,506 80,080 3,16,360 5,401 1,01,124
1951 4,47,859 3,53,651 88,443 4,46,424 7,349 1,09,098
1952 5,26,546 5,89,019 1,18,529 4,47,730 1,501 1,08,145
1953 5,53,789 4,33,235 2,47,492 4,36,335 8,854 1,73,212
1954 5,72,413 4,46,919 2,34,239 4,38,939 11,524 1,88,217
1955 8,98,482 4,36,702 2,55,517 4,18,693 44,954 2,71,702
1956 10,41,840 5,00,202 2,76,861 4,41,334 7,171 2,01,007
1957 16,80,169 5,16,249 4,45,089 5,17,537 57,019 2,23,223
1958 31,41,189 4,52,103 2,54,212 3,66,723 33,952 3,40,347
1959 31,03,293 4,26,129 3,04,839 4,67,165 2,28,768 4,14,224
Source: “The General Reports of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission”
*Central or State Government not specified

As it has been mentioned above, with the support of government funds the
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission were able to expand as well as
consolidate their work in the fields of educational and health services during the

293 The General Secretary, 1960, “The General Report of the Ramakrishna Math & Mission (1958-59)”, Belur
Math, p 3
294 The General Secretary, 1954, “The 56th & 57th General Reports of the Ramakrishna Mission (1952-53)”,
Belur Math, p 4
295 Ibid., p 3

168
1950s. Alongside these works, in the following decade they could augment their
rural and tribal welfare activities in different parts of India with continued state
support. The “General Report” of 1970 mentioned that “greater emphasis was
paid during the period to relief and rehabilitation work as well as activities in rural
and tribal areas.”296 The Report noted that “the centres in Raipur and Ranchi
(Morabadi) ran a ‘Panchayati Raj Training Centre’ and a Social service training
centre (‘Divyayan’) respectively.” These two centres were primarily meant for the
tribal communities.

With the increase in government support the volume of work of the Math and
Mission between 1970297 and 1980298 had increased remarkably. Compared to the
figures of 1970, in 1980 this was a hike of about 24 per cent in the number of
students enrolled in the educational institutions run by the Math and Mission. In
the field of health services there was an increase of almost 50 per cent in case of
indoor patients and 24 per cent in case of outdoor patients respectively,
compared to the figures of the Report of 1970. According to the Report of 1980,
the organisation ran in the rural and backward areas 15 Secondary or High
Schools, 49 Senior Basic, Junior Basic, M.E. and U.P. Schools, 48 Primary
Schools, 73 night Schools for adults, 10 Vocational Training Centres, a Rural
Librarianship Training Centre, a Village-Level Workers’ Training Centre, a School
of Agriculture, and an Institute for training village youths in farming – with a total
of 18, 566 students.299 Therefore, even in the field of rural and tribal welfare
works the focus of the Mission was on providing mainly educational services.

296 The General Secretary, 1970, “The General Report of the Ramakrishna Math & Mission (1968-69)”, Belur
Math, pp 3-4
297 Ibid., p 4
298 The General Secretary, 1980, “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission (1978-
79)”, Belur Math, pp 3-4
299 Ibid., pp 6-7

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The second Convention of the movement in 1980:
From 23 to 29 December, 1980, the second Convention of Ramakrishna Math
and Mission was held. Its main objective was to establish “closer understanding
and cooperation” among the monks, lay devotees, and friends of the Order, and
to impress upon their minds the idea that “all of them belonged to the same
spiritual family of Sri Ramakrishna, and hence had a common responsibility for
educating and uplifting the masses, protecting the interests of the weaker sections
of society, and at the same time building India on the basis of spirituality.”300
About twelve thousand delegates including representatives from all the existing
138 branch centres of the Order from India and abroad attended the Convention
held in Belur Math and the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Calcutta.

The authorities of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission had realised by then that it
was impossible for them to penetrate into the far-flung corners of the country
with the very limited number of monastic members. Thus for further expansion
of the movement the need for more active involvement by the lay followers and
admirers in the activities of the Mission was earnestly felt.301 The Convention,
therefore, deliberated on the ways and means of “reaching out to youth and
masses in rural and interior regions through non-affiliated institutions”.302 As an
outcome of these deliberations a follow-up committee called the ‘Ramakrishna-
Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Committee’ was set up. Gradually it has become
“integral to extending the work of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna
Mission in India”.303 Even at the time of the first Convention in 1926, there was a

300 Mukherjee, Amitabha, 2006, “The Fourth Phase of Ramakrishna Movement – Expansion after
Independence”, in Swami Lokeswarananda, Swami Prabhananda, and Swami Bhajanananda (ed.), The Story
of Ramakrishna Mission – Swami Vivekananda’s Vision and Fulfilment, Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, p 309
301 Vandanananda, Swami, 1983, “Problems before the Ramakrishna Organisation”, Swami Lokeswarananda
(pub.) in “Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Convention 1980: Report”, Belur Math, pp 252-57
302 Prabhananda, Swami, 2010, “An Overview of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission” in
Swami Atmapriyananda (ed.), 2010, Ramakrishna Mission – A Saga of Service for a hundred years and more...,
Belur Math: Ramakrishna Mission, p 30
303 Ibid., p 30

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persistent pressure on the Mission authorities from various local organisations
and societies bearing the names of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda to
grant them official recognition as permanent branch centres of the Mission. After
more than five decades the pressure seemed to be more intensified than before.
The formation of the Bhava Prachar Committee was meant to respond to those
demands and at the same time it was an effort to streamline the spontaneous
efforts of the followers and sympathisers and expand the social base of the
movement. Swami Vireswarananda, the then President of the Math and Mission
played a crucial role in spearheading the idea which determined the course of
development of the movement in the following decades.

The Bhava Prachar Parishads:

The Bhava Prachar Committee is supposed to act as an apex advisory body from
the headquarters at Belur Math. It consists of senior monks of the Ramakrishna
Order, with the General Secretary as its ex-officio Chairman and another senior
monk as its Secretary and Convener. In its overall guidance coordinating
committees consisting of lay devotees called ‘Bhava Prachar Parishads’ were
formed – initially for the different districts of West Bengal, then for the other
parts of the country. Each Parishad consists of two representatives from each
‘non-affiliated’ centre within its purview. A Parshiad has an elected Secretary-
cum-Convener from among its members and a President and one or more Vice-
Presidents, usually occupied by senior monks the Ramakrishna Order nominated
by the Committee at Belur Math.304 In 2010, the central Bhava Prachar
Committee had 24 Bhava Prachar Parishads associated with it representing
altogether 865 ‘non-affiliated’ or ‘private’ centres attached to them spread all over
India (Prabhananda, Swami, 2010: 30).

304 Belur Math, The Headquarters of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, 2014: “Bhava Prachar
Parishads and Non-Affiliated Centres” (http://www.belurmath.org/bhavprachar.htm), last accessed on
17.06.2014

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The Bhava Prachar Parishads are expected to perform three main functions.305
First, they should act as “liaison” between the central Bhava Prachar Committee
consisting of monks of the Ramakrishna Order and the lay devotees working
with the ‘Non-affiliated Ashramas’ in their corresponding areas. Second, they
have to “coordinate” the work of the non-affiliated centres of the area and
provide a “common forum” for the centres to discuss their problems and share
their views. And third, they should keep “a watch on the working” of the non-
affiliated centres under their respective purview and see that the centres are run in
accordance with the ‘Ten- point guidelines’ framed by the central Committee at
Belur Math.

This way, in spite of having paucity of man-power, compared to the increasing

expectations of the society from them, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission
sought to widen their social base and expand their activity throughout India
during the last three decades.

The interface with the political forces – varied dimensions:

As it has been noted above, the rapid growth of the volume of work of the
Ramakrishna movement, particularly in the fields of education and health services
in the post-Independence era was largely credited to sustained government
sponsorship, both from the Central and state levels. Since the 1970s, the amount
of government grants to the educational institutions run by the Mission went up
remarkably (Table: 4.2, p 175). But at the same time the authorities of the
Ramakrishna Mission had to fight a protracted legal battle during the 1980s and
1990s, to resist political interference in the pretext of government instructions in
conducting their academic institutions, particularly in West Bengal where most of
their educational institutions were located.

305 Belur Math, The Headquarters of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, 2014: “Bhava Prachar
Parishads and Non-Affiliated Centres” (http://www.belurmath.org/bhavprachar.htm), last accessed on
17.06.2014

172
Some teachers of the Vivekananda Centenary College, run by the Mission in
Rahara, in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal sued the Mission authorities
in 1980. on the charge that they were not complying with the appropriate norms
stipulated by the State Government regarding the formation of the Governing
Body of the college and the appointment of the Principal. In their defence the
authorities of the Mission claimed that “... being a minority based on religion, the
institutions established by it would be protected under Article 30(1) of the
Constitution of India. Therefore, the West Bengal Act of 1975 and West Bengal
Act of 1978 would not be applicable.”306 The Mission also claimed “its right to
establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes and to
manage its own religious affairs; to own and acquire movable and immoveable
property; and to administer such property in accordance with the law. The
aforesaid rights were claimed under Article 26 of the Constitution of India.”307 By
“minority” the authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission meant that they were the
followers of “Ramakrishnaism” which was distinct from the Hinduism per se as it
was based on the “experimental data provided by Sri Ramakrishna and is founded
wholly upon his immediate certitude”.308 Initially their prayer was upheld by first a
Single Bench and then a Division Bench in the Calcutta High Court in the late
1980s. It seemed to be a clever legal stance; however it had created a ruckus
among the monastic members, lay devotees as well as the Hindu community in
general.309

306 The Supreme Court of India, Civil Appellate Jurisdiction, 18 April, 2011: “Bholanath Mukherjee & Ors.
vs. R.K. Mission V. Centenary College ... on 18 April, 2011: Bench: B. Sudershan Reddy, Surinder Singh
Nijjar”, Civil Appeal No. 2457 of 2006 (http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=37909),
last viewed on 18.06.2014
307 Ibid.
308 Beckerlegge, Gwilym, 2000, “Categorising the Ramakrishna Math and Mission”, in Gwilym Beckerlegge,
The Ramakrishna Mission – The Making of a Modern Hindu Movement, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, p
63
309 “The issue was deeply disturbing to the Hindu public, for it appeared the heirs to the very symbol of
resurgent Hinduism, Swami Vivekananda, had abandoned the faith. Even within the Order there was

173
Ultimately, to the satisfaction of even many of the monastic members as well as
followers of the Ramakrishna Mission, the Supreme Court of India in its
judgement dated 2 July, 1995, dismissed the Mission’s claims for the “minority”
status. The Court observed:
... we hold that the citizens of India residing in the State of West Bengal, who are
professing, practising or propagating the religious doctrines and teachings of
Ramakrishna and have become his followers, cannot claim to belong to a minority based
on Ramakrishna religion which was distinct and different from Hindu religion and as
such are not entitled to the fundamental right under Article 30(1) of the Constitution of
India, of establishing and administering educational institutions of their choice through
310
Ramakrishna Mission or its branches in that State....

However, the Court also observed: “... we hold that persons belonging to or
owing their allegiance to Ramakrishna Mission or Ramakrishna Math belong to a
religious denomination within Hindu religion or a section thereof as would entitle
them to claim the fundamental rights conferred on either of them under Article
26 of the Constitution of India....”311

There were other incidents of alleged political interferences particularly by the

then major ruling party in West Bengal during 1980s and 1990s, either through
government directives or through the various trade unions backed by them which
had affected the activities of the Mission in the branch centres such as the Purulia
Vidyapeeth, the Baranagar Primary School, the Golpark Institute of Culture and

considerable debate. Today the Mission is relieved to have the matter closed.” – Anon., 1999, “Monks with
a Mission. The challenges of success impact Ramakrishna Mission as it enters its second century of
service”, Hinduism Today, Magazine Web Edition, August, 1999
(http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4331), last viewed on
18.06.2014
310 The Supreme Court of India, Civil Appellate Jurisdiction, 18 April, 2011: “Bholanath Mukherjee & Ors. vs
R.K.Mission V.Centenary College ... on 18 April, 2011: Bench: B. Sudershan Reddy, Surinder Singh
Nijjar”, Civil Appeal No. 2457 of 2006 (http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=37909),
last viewed on 18.06.2014
311 Ibid.

174
the Seva Pratishthan hospital in Kolkata.312 This was mainly a result of the
negative ideological orientation towards the non-party voluntary initiatives,
especially of the religious type, reinforced by the practice of extending the
hegemony of ‘party-bureaucracy’ by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to all
kinds of social activism, particularly in West Bengal during their uninterrupted
rule for more than three decades since 1977.313 Of late, the present West Bengal
Government has issued an Ordinance on 6 September, 2012, to grant ‘autonomy’
for recruiting teachers to the schools run by the Ramakrishna Mission and other
such organisations entitled to enjoy income tax exemptions under section 80G of
the Income Tax Act of India.314

Table: 4.2: Amounts of Government Grant and Private Donation Received by RKM during 1971-2011:
A Comparison
Field of Activity (All figures in INR)
Report Educational & Cultural Medical Rural Development+
Year Government Private Government Private Government Private
Grant* Donation Grant* Donation Grant* Donation
1971 1,11,30,60 7,48,351 16,21,003 8,39,082 n.a. n.a.
1976 1,85,15,627 11,50,822 27,29,718 9,20,544 n.a. n.a.
1981 3,22,81,486 20,81,233 51,58,724 22,61,760 n.a. n.a.
1986 6,42,04,064 81,27,350 77,73,933 33,94,958 12,45,867 15,99,264
1991 14,55,29,732 1,36,65,981 1,15,52,075 67,90,359 1,01,99,923 23,66,779
1996 22,63,94,045 3,49,17,576 1,95,49,990 1,05,43,740 2,11,68,747 75,17,882
2001 46,19,44,890 4,53,74,412 3,34,08,687 3,03,22,102 3,41,70,685 86,81,362
2006 46,82,83,132 5,23,55,363 4,15,93,517 4,34,85,211 7,83,85,668 1,66,95,258
2011 102,61,85,872 8,93,47,923 5,74,74,335 8,51,75,381 15,04,39,799 3,23,27,848
Source: “The General Reports of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission”, *Central or State Government not
specified, +The Separate account head for ‘Rural Development’ was introduced from 1986 only.

312 Indian Express: “Ramakrishna Mission schools battle Leftists”, Calcutta, 26.04.1998
313 Chakraborty, Satyabrata, 2007, “New Social Movements and the Indian Left: Prospect of Proximity” in
Harihar Bhattacharyya, and Abhijit Ghosh (ed.), Indian Political Thought and Movements: New Interpretations and
Issues, Kolkata: K.P. Bagchi, pp 237-57
314 The Telegraph, Kolkata, 07.09.12; Cf. The Statesman: “Autonomous RKM: Freedom’s ambit must be
widened”, Kolkata, 08.07.12

175
Thus although the order denied the Ramakrishna Mission any privileges enjoyed
by a religious minority community in India, yet it had accorded them special
rights to set up and conduct academic or religious institutions to preach their
ideology; which implied that the concerned government agencies should restrain
themselves from unnecessary interferences into the affairs of the Mission. But the
matter was again taken to the Calcutta High Court in 1997, and a Single Bench
verdict partially upheld the right of the State Government to issue directives to
the said college at Rahara, run by the Mission like any other government-aided
college. However, the order was dismissed by a Division Bench verdict at the
Calcutta High Court in 2004, which upheld the 1995 Supreme Court verdict in
this regard. In 2006, the aggrieved party appealed before the Supreme Court of
India. Finally the Supreme Court Division Bench in its order dated 18 April,
2011, dismissed the writ petition against the Mission.315

The phase of reconciliation and recognition:

However, during the last three decades the contribution of the Ramakrishna
Mission in different fields of socio-economic and cultural service has been duly
recognised by the Government of India and the states as well. In some areas
where the government agencies themselves could not make it out, the Mission
played a crucial role in reaching out the people with the necessary services. Be it
the relief and rehabilitation works among the victims of natural calamities or riots;
or the tribal welfare initiatives in the North-East India or in Bastar, Chhattisgarh
– the role of the Ramakrishna Mission has been praised by various government
agencies and the society at large cutting across political and ideological lines.
Some of the most prominent accolades bestowed on them include the Gandhi
Peace Award of 1998, presented by the Government of India, the National

315 For the complete text of the “Judgment” please refer to: The Supreme Court of India, Civil Appellate
Jurisdiction, 18 April, 2011: “Bholanath Mukherjee & Ors. vs R.K. Mission V. Centenary College ... on 18
April, 2011: Bench: B. Sudershan Reddy, Surinder Singh Nijjar”, Civil Appeal No. 2457 of 2006
(http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=37909), last viewed on 18.06.2014

176
Communal Harmony Award of 2005, sponsored by the National Foundation of
Communal Harmony, an autonomous organisation set up by the Government of
India, Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indira Gandhi Award for National
Integration of 2009 (given to the Narainpur branch of the Mission), offered by
the Indian National Congress. Even the Indian Left is in the process of
reorienting their outlook towards the Ramakrishna Mission in recent years, as it
has been observed by a scholar this way: “From grudging accommodation to
pragmatic near-deification is another recent development. The changed attitude
to the institutions run by the Ramakrishna Mission may be an example.”
(Chakraborty 2007: 252).

Section – V: Volume and Nature of Work of RKM in the Last Three

Decades

The volume of work during 1980s and 1990s:

According to the “General Report” of 1990 during 1988-89, there were 127
branches in all, of which 54 were Mission centres, 23 combined Math and
Mission centres and 50 Math centres. Among them 46 Mission centres, 18
combined Math and Mission centres and 32 Math centres (96 in all) were in
India.316 The number of branch centres in India had increased from 84 in 1980 to
96 in 1990, i.e. 12 new centres were added; whereas as a whole (including foreign
centres) the increase was 10, i.e. from 117 to 127.

As per the 1990 Report the Math and Mission conducted altogether 1,527
academic institutions including 5 colleges, 9 H. S. Schools, 34 Secondary Schools,
4 Polytechnics, 1, 209 non-formal education centres etc. which served 26, 388
girls and 1, 30, 783 boys.317 During 1988-89, the twin organisations ran 13

316 The General Secretary, 1990, “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission (1988-
89)”, Belur Math, p 7
317 Ibid., p 8

177
hospitals with 1, 857 beds which served 59, 872 in-patients and 19, 55, 443 out-
patients.318 The Report stated that the Math and Mission spent about Rs. 2.05
crore for rural and tribal development work apart from the expenditure incurred
by the educational and medical institutions located in rural and tribal areas. These
activities were categorised as: “(i) General (ii) Agriculture (iii) Education and self-
reliance and (iv) medical.”319 The activities included generating awareness among
the villagers regarding sanitation and cleanliness, providing clean drinking water
by digging bore-wells and tube-wells, arranging free soil-testing for the village
farmers and training them with improved methods of cultivation, and providing
them with agricultural inputs and financial help, organising projects like wasteland
development, fruit and forest trees planting, conducting free schools, boarding
facilities and non-formal education centres and providing free medicines and
basic medical service through mobile dispensaries.

A decade later the “General Report” of 2000, recorded the total number of
branch centres as 139 with an increase of 12 branch centres compared to the 127
in 1990. And in India the number stood at 104, i.e. 8 more than the number of
branch centres in India as per the “General Report” of 1990.320 Apart from these,
the Report mentioned of three important rehabilitation projects: one, the
construction of a concrete bridge across the river Vruddha Gautami in East
Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh; two, the transfer of an integrated rural
development programme with a “revolving fund for developmental work” to
three registered societies in the Asua Taluka of Latur district in Maharashtra; and
the construction of 150 houses and three community halls in the Jamnagar
district of Gujarat.321 These large scale projects involving crores of rupees

318 Ibid., p 7
319 Ibid., pp 9-10
320 The General Secretary, 2000, “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission (1998-
99)”, Belur Math, p 7
321 Ibid., p 15

178
 signified a qualitative growth in the capacity of the organisation in conducting
developmental works with adequate funds and expertise.

Table: 4.3: Pattern of Expenditure of RKM between 1981 and 2011

Report Year (All Amounts in INR)
Purpose of Expenditure
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011
Establishment Expenses 4,31,72,616 8,73,76,195 19,31,24,842 32,55,12,105 691,188,497 90,56,08,670 191,51,64,143
Boarding Expenses 1,45,76,618 2,31,96,482 4,54,30,803 7,18,63,466 105,357,975 15,69,88,625 27,64,93,997
Relief, Rehabilitation/ Welfare
21,61,461 34,63,391 1,14,05,668 2,04,40,039 87,383,324 9,87,09,341 12,29,24,809
Expenses
Educational and Cultural
66,43,303 1,16,86,765 2,04,52,722 4,00,48,757 69,099,829 12,12,02,940 21,67,50,518
Expenses
Medical Expenses 52,82,693 1,03,82,293 1,75,02,550 3,76,13,943 75,668,002 12,70,12,650 31,30,20,109
Grants to Beneficiaries/Project
0 17,74,084 68,50,926 2,23,25,494 37,988,586 1,99,34,630 6,49,01,146
Expenses (Rural Development)
Purchases and Production
42,11,531 1,63,17,024 3,16,57,897 5,11,59,507 83,768,840 14,40,55,685 21,91,99,823
Expenses
Puja/Seva and Celebration
8,61,512 23,09,216 37,51,997 62,03,371 7,121,235 1,20,20,058 2,16,50,710
Expenses
Other Expenses (Souvenir,
building repair, travel, press, 6,91,782 1,38,70,882 2,88,96,687 5,09,87,768 96,129,977 16,63,20,120 25,88,96,412
legal etc.)
Total 7,76,01,516 17,03,76,332 35,90,74,092 62,61,54,450 125,37,06,265 175,18,52,719 340,90,01,667
Source: “The General Reports of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission” for the concerned years

A survey of the pattern of expenditure of the Ramakrishna Mission as reflected in

their annual audited accounts reveals (Table: 4.3, p 179) that over the last three
decades since 1981, there have been about 31 per cent rise in the expenditure for
the educational work, about 58 per cent hike in the expenses for health care
services and around 56 per cent increase in the expenses for the relief,
rehabilitation and welfare activities. On the other hand since 1981 till 2011, the
rise in the expenses for Puja, Seva and other celebrations has remained limited to
24 per cent, whereas the establishment expenditure of the organisation rose about
43 per cent during this time. Although these estimates do not take into
consideration some technical details like the rate of inflation, the accounting
policy, the methods of sampling adopted by the auditors for preparing the reports
for different years; yet it can be said in general that the major focus of the

179
Mission’s work has been on organising educational and health care programmes
for the needy; and despite its religious character the Mission’s priorities were the
developmental works rather than performing religious rites only.

Recent trends in the developmental works of RKM:

The latest facts and figures available in “The General Report of Ramakrishna
Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”322 published in April 2014, provides an
outline of the recent trends of the development initiatives organised by them. As
per the Report, the present activities of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission may be broadly classified into the following categories: (1) Relief work,
(2) Welfare work, (3) Medical service, (4) Educational work, (5) Work in rural and
tribal areas (6) Spreading of moral, cultural and spiritual ideas, and (7) Work
outside India.

During 2012-13, the Math and Mission conducted ‘Primary Relief’ activities such
as Cyclone Relief, Distress Relief, Disturbance (ethnic/communal) Relief,
Drought Relief, Earthquake and Tsunami Relief, Fire Relief, Flood Relief, Hail
Storm Relief, Medical Relief, Milk Distribution and Winter Relief among 99, 782
families in 415 village spread over twenty-one states and Union Territories in
India. They spent Rs. 2.05 crore on this head. Remarkably, during the year under
review the Mission had conducted several relief operations through some of their
foreign centres situated in Bangladesh, Fiji, Japan, South Africa and the USA as
well.323 So far as ‘Rehabilitation Work’ is concerned the Math and Mission spent
Rs. 21 lakh during 2012-13, to execute projects like the excavation of a lake in
Arita village in Purulia district of West Bengal and distribution of sewing and
weaving machines to economically backward people in Guwahati in Assam.324

322 The General Secretary, April 2014, “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission:
2012-13”, Belur Math
323 Ibid., pp 22-25
324 Ibid., p 25

180
 Table: 4.4: Medical Units run by Ramakrishna Math and Mission during 2012-13
No. of No. of In- Out- Inmates/
Units
Units Beds Patients Patients Students
Hospitals 15 2,269 96,242 34,15,098 -
Dispensaries 125 - - 35,05,335 -
Mobile Medical Units 60 - - 7,88,405 -
Medical Camps (including Eye Camps) 953 - - 2,60,823 -
Old Age Homes 5 - - - 180

a) Colleges 2 - - - 273
Nurses’ Training
Institutes
b) Schools 5 - - - 469

Institutes of Postgraduate Studies and

2 - - - 135
Research
Institutes of Paramedical Courses 1 - - - 114
Total 1,168 2,269 96,242 79,69,661 1,171
Source: “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”, p 29

During 2012-13, the headquarters and the branches of the Math and Mission
conducted ‘Welfare Work’ by giving direct monetary assistance to the poor in
terms of scholarships and stipends to the students, medical aid to the patients,
distributing ration bags, food items, cooked meals, hygienic and educational kits,
and pecuniary help among the aged and the destitute. In 2012-13, the Math and
Mission spent Rs. 2.46 crore and Rs. 9.09 crore respectively for these purposes.325
As per the Report, during 2012-13, the Math and Mission spent Rs. 14.83 crore
and Rs. 131.54 crore respectively, towards ‘Medical Service’ (Table: 4.4, p 181).
And in 2012-13 the Mission spent Rs. 232.50 crore for ‘Educational Work’, while
the Math spent Rs. 19.38 crore in this field of work (Table: 4.5, p 182).

325 Ibid., p 26

181
 Table: 4.5: Educational Institutions run by Ramakrishna Math and Mission during 2012-13
No. of No. of Students
Units
Units Boys Girls Total
University Faculty Centres 5 875 335 1,210 529
Arts and Science Colleges 5 7,738 27 7,765 3,921
Sanskrit College 1 38 32 70 -
Teachers’ Training Institutes 4 534 11 545 309
College of Physical Education 1 145 - 145 145
Junior Basic Training Institutes 5 163 133 296 129
Higher Secondary Schools 34 27,164 12,648 39,812 18,444
Secondary Schools 33 11,216 4,986 16,202 3,717
Sanskrit Schools 2 308 160 468 -
Junior High/Middle Schools (VI-VIII) 34 4,729 3,433 8,162 3,574
Junior Basic/U.P./L.P Schools (I-V) 90 11,512 7,353 18,865 9,930
Pre-Basic/K.G./Nursery Schools/Crèches 327 5,769 4,432 10,191 2,504
Hostels/Students’ Homes 111 12,444 1,506 13,950 5,583
Orphanages 11 1,479 86 1,556 1,251
Polytechnics 4 2,524 - 2,524 1,153
Junior Technical & Industrial Schools 6 1,068 - 1,068 521
School of Languages 3 77,072 38,429 1,15,501 3,511
Computer Training Centres 22 6,978 5,036 12,014 5,438
Blind Boys’ Academy 1 188 - 188 55
Vocational Training Centres 79 16,769 9,191 25,950 13,533
Institutes of Agriculture 2 2,300 965 3,265 1,022
Rural Development Training Institutes 6 1,777 4,067 5,844 5,133
Non-Formal Educational Centres 124 3,907 3,304 7,211 4,139
Night Schools/Adult Education Centres 11 201 119 320 286
Chatushpathi (Sanskrit School) 1 91 - 91 -
National Open School Centres 6 499 447 946 530
Coaching Centres 477 16,974 15,470 32,444 3,479
Others 12 880 632 1,512 897
Total 1,417 2,15,322 1,12,802 3,28,124 89,733
Source: “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”, pp 31-32

182
According to the 2012-13 “General Report”, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission
spent Rs. 59.03 lakh and Rs. 40.67 crore respectively, “specifically for rural and
tribal development work”. The Report mentions that the ‘Work in Rural and
Tribal Areas’ by the twin organisations is accomplished in following three ways:
i. through our centres located in rural and tribal areas;
ii. through our urban centres, which have taken up development projects in rural and
tribal areas; and
iii. through our educational and medical institutions in semi-urban areas, where rural
people form a significant percentage of the beneficiaries.326

During 2012-13, the two organisations treated 13, 047 in-patients and 18, 83, 714
out-patients in 7 hospitals having 479 beds, 48 dispensaries, 60 mobile medical
units and 722 medical camps in the rural and tribal areas in India. They have also
conducted a nursing school with 83 trainees in the rural area. In the same period
they ran a total of 1, 093 educational units starting from coaching centres to
degree colleges in the rural and tribal areas for 70, 193 boys and 44, 185 girls.
More than thousand cultural and educational programmes were organised by the
Math and Mission where more than a lakh participants from the rural and tribal
belts of India took part. Besides, in the year under review they screened 1, 715
educational films through their 15 audio-visual units across 789 villages in India.
There were altogether 80 libraries and reading rooms for the rural and tribal
people in different branches of the Math and Mission having a total of 5, 31, 503
books and 942 periodicals attended by around 3 lakh people during the period
under review. During 2012-13, the Ranchi (Morabadi) centre conducted the
‘Divyayan’, a training centre along with a Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) meant for
the tribal youth to inculcate among them the knowledge and skills of modern
methods of agriculture, dairy, bee-keeping and poultry farming. They also
undertook various projects sponsored by the Government of Jharkhand, such as

326 Ibid., p 33

183
Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), Seed Village
Programme, etc. The Narainpur centre implemented various government
schemes like National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), Lac Project and
organised agricultural training and demonstration for a large number of farmers.
Further, with the support of the UNICEF the centre conducted various
programmes on education, child malnutrition, sanitation for the primitive ‘Hill
Maria’ tribals in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The Mumbai centre continued
its work on comprehensive rural development project at Sakwar in Maharashtra
through vocational training, medical service and other programmes. The
Narendrapur centre conducted numerous integrated rural development projects
in several districts of West Bengal. The Saradapitha centre with its two units,
Janasiksha Mandira and Samaj Sevak Sikshana Mandira trained rural youths in
various vocations and conducted health awareness programmes, agricultural
camps, etc. for the rural people.

Moreover, the Report stated, an integrated rural development project called

‘Pallimangal’, started by the headquarters in 1980, was continued in some villages
in and around Kamarpukur and Jayrambati in West Bengal. Under this project,
during 2012-13, 6, 728 patients were treated by a mobile medical unit, special
medical camps and health care and awareness programmes were conducted.
Several government sponsored health care programmes such as National Leprosy
Elimination Programme, Control of Tuberculosis through Community Based
Directly Observed Treatment with Short-Course-Therapy (DOTS) under Revised
National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) and Child Nutrition
Programme were conducted for the rural people. Several educational and cultural
activities were also conducted as part of the Pallimangal project. Besides, persons
from economically backward communities were trained in weaving, jute-spinning
and handicraft, incense stick-making, food-processing and tailoring projects
under this programme.

184
As per the “General Report” of 2012-13, the Math and Mission conducted
various programmes across India through 2, 892 cultural units such as “Balak
Sanghas, Youth Sanghas, Jnana Vahini, Viveka Murasu, and Institute of Human
Excellence” to spread “moral, cultural and spiritual ideas”. Around 6.5 lakh
people participated in these programmes, according to the Report. The Report
says the two organisations conducted during the year 267 libraries attended by
more than 18 lakh persons. The twin organisations spent during 2012-13 a total
of Rs. 27.17 crore on publication of books. The Math centres at Mayavati,
Baghbazar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Mysore, Rajkot, Trissur, and
Bhubaneswar, were among the most prolific publishers during the year under
review. In 2012-13, 22 journals in different languages were published from
various branches of the Math and Mission. Besides, the Math and Mission centres
maintained several temples and prayer halls and organised lectures, retreats and
devotees’ meets during the year and the Report claims that “Thousands of people
were inspired to accept higher values of life by coming into contact with the
different centres.” Further the Report notes that the Ashramas affiliated to the
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Parishads in different parts of India
“spread moral values and culture” among the people under the guidance of the
Ramakrishna Math, Belur.

The Report also mentions that the 3 Mission centres and 10 combined Math and
Mission centres in Bangladesh conducted various welfare activities besides
holding religious classes and discourses. Some of the Mission branch centres in
Fiji, France, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and
Switzerland conducted educational and health care services in addition to the
regular cultural and spiritual services. The remaining 23 Math centres abroad
conducted mainly spiritual and cultural work through holding classes, organising
seminars, festivals and retreats as well as publishing books and journals. The

185
following summery of the activities of the Math and Mission during 2012-13, was
presented in the report:

Table: 4.6: Service Institutions run by Ramakrishna Math and Mission during 2012-13
Number of Institutions / Amount spent
Nature of Activities Number of Beneficiaries
Types of Service in Rs. (Crore)
Schools, Colleges, Hostels,
454 Students 2,69,565
etc.
Educational Work in
Non-formal education 251.88
Rural and Urban Areas
centres, Night schools, 972 Students 59,463
Coaching classes, etc.
Inpatients 96,242
Hospitals 15
Outpatients 34,15,098
Dispensaries 125 Outpatients 35,05,096
Mobile Medical Units 60 Outpatients 7,88,405
Medical Services in Medical Camps 953 Outpatients 2,60,823
146.37
Rural and Urban Areas Nurses’ Training Centres 7 Trainees 742
Medical Research Institutes 2 Students 236
Paramedical Training
1 Students 114
Institutes
Old Age Homes 5 Inmates 180
Relief and
- About 4.94 lakh 2.26
Rehabilitation
Scholarships, stipends, medical aid
Welfare Activities and pecuniary help to poor and About 36.30 lakh 11.55
needy students and others
Agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy,
soil testing, improved sanitation
programmes, solar energy
Rural Development
promotion programmes, various About 42.67 lakh 41.26
Activities
training programmes, afforestation,
cultural activities, seminars,
workshops, etc.
194 new titles and 1,641 reprints of books were brought out;
Publication 27.17
22 journals in 14 languages had 4.42 lakh subscribers
Source: “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”, pp 45-46

186
Branch Centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission – present scenario:
According to the “General Report” of 2012-13, there are 178 branch centres of
the Ramakrishna Math and Mission excluding the headquarters at Belur Math, of
which 133 centres are located across 23 Indian States and Union Territories and
45 in twenty other countries. Out of the 133 branch centres in India there are 46
and 65 exclusive Math and Mission centres, respectively; and the remaining 22 are
combined Math and Mission centres. So as per the latest available information
the exact number of branch centres of the Ramakrishna Mission across India is
87. Following is the distribution of centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission
as in March 2014:

Table: 4.7: Distribution of Centres of Ramakrishna Math and Mission across the World as in March 2014
Countries Centres
Combined Math &
Name No. Mission Math Total
Mission
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany,
8 - - 8 8
Japan, Netherlands and UK
Russia 1 - - 2 2
USA 1 - - 13 13
Fiji, France, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore,
9 9 - - 9
South Africa, Sri Lanka and Switzerland
Bangladesh 1 3 10 - 13
India 1 65 22 46 133
Total 21 76 32 69 178
Source: “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”, p 199

Types of branch centres in India:

In the successive “General Reports” the branch centres of the twin organisations
of the Ramakrishna movement have been classified as the ‘Math centres’,
engaged mainly in preaching and religious activities, the ‘Mission centres’,
rendering mainly ‘welfare services with spiritual outlook’, and the ‘Combined
centres’ conducting both types of activity at the same time. The major branch

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centres in India are again classified in six categories in terms of the type of service
being offered by them, viz. (i) Medical Institutions, (ii) Educational Institutions,
(iii) Rural Development Institutions, (iv) Major Publication Centres, (v) Welfare
of Special Groups, and (vi) Spiritual Counselling. Activity-wise the foreign branch
centres are classified into three categories, i.e. centres conducting (i) Medical
Institutions, (ii) Educational Institutions and (iii) Religious Counselling.

Table: 4.8: Distribution of Centres of Ramakrishna Math and Mission across India as in March 2014
Name of the State No. Mission Combined Math & Mission Math Total
Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1 1 - - 1
Andhra Pradesh 1 2 2 1 5
Arunachal Pradesh 1 3 - - 3
Assam 1 2 1 - 3
Bihar 1 4 - - 4
Chandigarh 1 1 - - 1
Chhattisgarh 1 2 - - 2
Delhi 1 1 - - 1
Gujarat 1 2 1 1 4
Jammu & Kashmir 1 2 - - 2
Jharkhand 1 4 - 2 6
Karnataka 1 2 1 4 7
Kerala 1 1 - 8 9
Madhya Pradesh 1 2 - - 2
Maharashtra 1 1 1 2 4
Meghalaya 1 2 - - 2
Odisha 1 3 1 1 5
Rajasthan 1 2 - - 2
Tamil Nadu 1 8 - 6 14
Tripura 1 - 1 - 1
Uttar Pradesh 1 2 3 1 6
Uttarakhand 1 - 2 3 5
West Bengal 1 18 9 17 43
Total 23 65 22 46 133
Source: “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-13”, pp 197-98

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In terms of the nature of origin, the branch centres in India may also be classified
into four categories. Branch centres which are founded by either a direct
monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna or a prominent monk of the Order while
they were visiting the place as a wandering monk or a preacher or simply doing
sadhana. The branch centres at Sargachhi (founded by Swami Akhandananda),
Almora (founded by Swamis Shivananda and Turiyananda), Bhubaneswar
(founded by Swami Brahmananda), Chennai and Bangaluru (founded by Swami
Ramakrishnananda), Allahabad (founded by Swami Vijnanananda), Kankhal
(founded by Swami Nischayananda), Shela (founded by Swami Prabhananda or
Ketaki Maharaj) are examples of such a category. Then there are centres which
were started by the headquarters in a planned way sometimes on request by the
government, such as the Seva Pratishthan, the Narendrapur Ashrama and the
Institute of Culture in Kolkata, the Narainpur centre in Chhattisgarh, the
Hatamuniguda centre in Odisha, the Saradapitha and the Vivekananda University
in Belur, West Bengal. The other type of branch centres are those which are
founded in places associated with the memories of the iconic figures of the
movement. Kamarpukur (birth place of Sri Ramakrishna), Jayrambati (birth place
of Sarada Devi), Shimla in Kolkata (birth place and ancestral home of Swami
Vivekananda), Cossipore, Shyampukurbati and Balaram Mandir (places where Sri
Ramakrishna stayed in Kolkata), Baranagar (the place where the first Math was
started) are the examples of such type of centres. Sometimes temporary relief and
rehabilitation works conducted by the Ramakrishna Mission in an area later on
facilitated the formation of a permanent centre (viz. Bankura Sevasharama).
However most of the other branch centres were initially started by the
spontaneous initiatives of the local followers of the movement which were later
on taken over or granted affiliation by the headquarters. The centres in
Midnapore (started in 1914, taken over in 1926), Jammu (started in 1964,
affiliated in 2000), Lucknow (started in 1914, taken over 1925), Raipur (started in

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1957, taken over in 1968), Ranchi Morabadi (started in 1927, affiliated in 1930),
Vijaywada (started in 1956, affiliated in 2001) are instances of such a category.

Section – VI: Organisational Framework and the Main Workforce of RKM

The administrative structure and procedures:

The administration of the Ramakrishna Math is governed by the Board of
Trustees. The Trustees have enormous powers in every sphere of decision-
making within the organisation. Their powers and responsibilities get multiplied
as the same Trustees act as the ‘ex-officio’ members of the Governing Body of
the Ramakrishna Mission. The powers of the Board of Trustees include:
ownership of property belonging to different Math centres in India, appointment
of heads of centres, conducting legal transactions, along with making the major
policy decisions pertaining to the whole of Ramakrishna Math, including the
branches. On the other hand, the Governing Body does the same pertaining to all
the Mission centres.

As per the rules of the Ramakrishna Math, the Trustees are elected for life.
Usually when a vacancy is caused by the death of a senior Trustee election to the
post is held. A monk who has completed at least twenty years in the Order is
entitled to participate in the electoral process as a voter. So he must be a Sanyasin
or senior monk, the Brahmacharins or the novices don’t have the right to vote. A
prospective candidate must be a Sanyasin having the right to vote in the electoral
process and aged less than sixty years. A monk who has been ‘rejected’ twice by
the voters can not be a candidate for the third time, and a person with a
‘disreputable’ background cannot be a candidate either. However if no
nomination is filed within a stipulated time, which is rather the most common
thing to happen as forwarding one’s own name as a candidate seems to be too
ambitious an act for a monk, then a panel of suitable candidates is prepared by
the existing Trustees themselves. And a candidate is chosen from among the

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panel by the voters through ‘secret ballots’. There is no official scope of
canvassing, however sometimes there are rumours of tacit lobbying; but these are
difficult to substantiate with hard facts. Moreover, there is a well preserved
convention among the monastics of the organisation to show respect to the
seniors (in terms of joining the Order, not necessarily the elders) which provides
them, to a great extent, an effective shield against any breach of conduct or foul
play in this regard.

Usually there are nineteen to twenty-one members in the Board of Trustees. The
Trustees elect from among themselves a President, two to three Vice-Presidents,
a General Secretary, four Assistant Secretaries and a Treasurer. The President and
Vice-Presidents are usually elected for life or till their next promotion, for the
latter. The other office-bearers are elected for a renewable tenure of minimum
two years. There is hardly any recorded incident of expulsion or demotion of a
Trustee in the recent history of the organisation.

The office-bearers of the Board of Trustees of the Ramakrishna Math hold the
same offices at the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission. However, as it
has been already mentioned, the Math and Mission have separate legal identities,
rules and regulations and books of accounts. The General Secretary acts as the
chief executive and key decision-maker in both the organisations, whereas the
President is mostly regarded as the spiritual head of the movement. The “General
Report” of 2012-13 of the Math and Mission mentions: “... the Secretarial Office
of the Headquarters of the worldwide Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission is ... situated on the grounds of Belur Math. The work of coordinating
and supervising the various activities of the 178 branch centres of the Math and
Mission is carried on in this office by the General Secretary, assisted by four
Assistant Secretaries. The Secretariat has various departments such as General,

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Cash, Accounts, Investments, Audit, Law, Relief and Rehabilitation, Welfare,
Construction and Maintenance, Staff Welfare, Website, Bhavprachar, etc.”327

The functions of the General Secretary include: carrying out the decisions of the
Board of Trustees and the Governing Body, admission of monastic aspirants into
the Order, their training and deployment in branch centres, coordination of the
work of different branch centres, regulation of all financial transactions, and
“keeping a check on the physical being, character and conduct of individual
monks”. The General Secretary is assisted in his work by usually four Assistant
Secretaries and a Treasurer. Each Assistant Secretary coordinates one or more
departments of the Secretariat. A Working Committee consisting of some senior
as well as efficient junior monks provides the Secretariat with non-binding
advices on various policy matters.

The administration of a branch centre of the Ramakrishna Math is conducted by

a head or “Adhyaksha” appointed by the Trustees whereas a branch centre of the
Ramakrishna Mission is governed by a Managing Committee appointed by the
Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission. The monastic Secretary of this
Committee functions as the head of that branch. Although the branch centres are
considered as part and parcels of the Ramakrishna Mission and the headquarters
keeps overall supervision on key matters like ownership of assets, appointment
and transfer of monastic members, methods of account keeping and
documentation and undertaking major expansion initiatives; still they have to be
financially self-sustaining for continuing their service. This is considered as a
‘litmus test’ of the level of local support for the branch centre and its activities.
This is also one of the primary considerations before the headquarters while
making a decision on opening new centres.

327 The General Secretary, 2014, “The General Report of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission: 2012-
13”, Belur Math, p 49

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The Trustees of the Math and the members of the Governing Body of the
Mission usually meet every month to conduct the affairs of the twin
organisations. The decisions are usually taken on the basis of consensus. The
annual General Meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission is held in December every
year where the General Secretary issues the annual “General Report” along with
the Audited Accounts of the Mission for the previous financial year. A meeting of
the heads of the branch centres is held at the headquarters at Belur Math in every
two years and a Monks’ Conference is convened in every three years at the
headquarters to discuss various aspects of the activities of the twin organisations.
Although not binding, the recommendations of these meetings usually reflect the
collective opinion of the members of the Order; hence draw considerable
attention of the Trustees while deciding upon policy matters. Apart from issuing
circulars, directives and orders from time to time the headquarters publishes a
Bulletin containing latest information and other official communication for the
members every month. Besides conventional modes of correspondence the
headquarters and most of the branch centres are well equipped with the latest
telecommunications technologies and have their own websites and e-mail ids for
maintaining close contacts within the organisation and with the general public as
well.

Monastic members of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission:

As it has been already mentioned the monastic members form the backbone of
the organisational structure of both the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. They are
also the chief workforce behind the development initiatives of the twin
organisations. Although Ramakrishna Mission has householders as members and
associates, and not all the monks of the Ramakrishna Order are even its formal
members; yet the in every aspect of its existence and functioning the Mission is
controlled by the monastic members of the Ramakrishna Math. The monastic
Trustees of the Ramakrishna Math act as the members of the Governing Body of

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the Ramakrishna Mission, hence the other non-monastic members have hardly
any say in the administrative or policy matters of the Mission. And in public
perception too, the ‘Ramakrishna Mission’ is seen as a religious and social welfare
organisation run by the monks of the Ramakrishna Order, where the formal
distinction between the Math and Mission gets blurred.

The “General Report” of 2012-13 published in April 2014, mentions of 407

monastic members, 249 lay members and 168 associates of the Ramakrishna
Mission.328 However, according to the latest information obtained from the
headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Belur Math in April 2015,
the total number of monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order is 1, 799;
among them 1, 381 are Sannyasins, 184 are ordained Brahmacharins, and the
remaining 234 are junior aspirant Brahmacharins yet to be ordained formally.

At its inception at Baranagar in 1886, the informal Ramakrishna Order was a

loose band of around twenty young men, mostly Bengali Hindu, disciples of Sri
Ramakrishna. Now there are around eighteen hundred (2015) monastic members
of the Order, drawn from different parts of India and even abroad, with varied
socio-religious-ethnic and linguistic background. The Math maintains an elaborate
body of ‘confidential’ rules and regulations controlling their admission, training,
posting, transfer, promotion and conduct. Every year the Math and Mission make
a formal appeal through their annual “General Reports” which reads as following:
“Our appeal is ... to intelligent and high-minded youths, who appreciate the life-
giving message of Swami Vivekananda, to respond to his clarion call by
dedicating themselves to the service of their fellow beings.”329

328 Ibid., p 18
329 Ibid., p 231

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Healthy young men having at least a Graduate degree in any stream with an age
not below 18 years and not above 28 years are generally allowed to join the
monastery as new members at the headquarters or any of its branch centres.
Persons having Master’s degree or higher academic qualifications may be allowed
at a higher age subject to the discretion of the authorities. The monastic aspirants
have to spend an average of nine to eleven years as Brahmacharins or junior
monastic members wearing white cloths. In the first year, a new-comer is treated
as ‘Pre-probationer’ and is placed under close observation of the senior monks to
see whether he is fit for the monastic life or not. In the next four years, he is
treated as a ‘Probationer’ and is usually assigned to various responsibilities under
the supervision of the seniors and is acquainted to the intricacies and tradition of
the monastic Order as well. During this period a Probationer has to get himself
admitted to the ‘Probationers’ Training Centre’ at the headquarters for a two-year
rigorous training course. As the “General Report” mentions: “All Probationers of
the Ramakrishna Order have to stay for two years at the Training Centre before
they are given Brahmacharya ordination. ... In this institution regular classes are
conducted for the novices on basic scriptures, lives and teachings of Sri
Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and other incarnations and
prophets, Indian philosophy, Western philosophy, Comparative Religion, etc.
The novices are also given training in music, Vedic chanting, performing Puja,
gardening etc.”330

There are usually fifty candidates on an average in each year who receive the
formal vow of ‘Brahmacharya’ at the end of the training. In this regard the
“General Report” says: “At the end of this period he [a Probationer trainee] is
ordained into Brahmacharya and is given certain vows, the most important of
which are chastity, renunciation and service.”331 Regarding the next course of life

330 Ibid., p 48
331 Ibid., p 47

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of a Brahmacharin, the Report says: “After a further period of four years, if found
fit, he [a Brahmacharin] is ordained into Sannyasa [formal monastic ordination as
per Hinduism] and given the ochre clothes [a symbol of renunciation] to wear.”332

One important aspect of the monastic life in the Ramakrishna Order is that as per
the Hindu tradition the monks are given new names twice, once at the time of
formal ordination into Brahmacharya and then again at the time of receiving
Sannyasa. They are expected to discard all their previous identities as
householders and start a ‘new life’ with a ‘new name’ and a ‘new goal’, i.e., the
motto of the Ramakrishna Mission: “Atmano mokshartham jagaddhitaya cha.” – for
the liberation of the Self and the good of the world.

The monastic life in the Ramakrishna Order:

It is difficult for the outsiders to obtain a detailed and officially endorsed outline of
the life in a monastery as it is always a well-guarded ‘secret’. However, Swami
Tapasyananda, a late Vice-President of the Order presented a glimpse of the
nuances of the monastic life in the Ramakrishna Order in a rare piece of writing
on this subject.333 He writes that a monastic member of the Ramakrishna Order
should have the right temperament to mould his life in accordance with the ideals
of “renunciation” and “service”. He makes it clear that none would be allowed to
avoid some kind of work in the name of “pseudo-spirituality”. He emphasises
that monastic vow of poverty does not mean “penury and indigence”; thus the
Order provides “middle class” standard of life to its members. On the other
hand, Tapasyananda reiterates that obedience and discipline are crucial in
monastic life; however, the Order does not allow it to degenerate into “servility
and abjectness”. In his assessment, the monastic life in the Ramakrishna Math

332 Ibid.
333 Tapasyananda, Swami, 2010, “For Enquirers About Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission”, in
Swami Atmapriyananda (ed.), Ramakrishna Mission – A Saga of Service for a hundred years and more..., Belur
Math: Ramakrishna Mission, pp 50-51

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and Mission offers a person with the appropriate temperament “the best
opportunity of developing” his capacities and lead a life dedicated to the
“maximum benefit” to himself and the world at large. It is apparent from
Tapasyananda’s depiction that the monastic life in the Ramakrishna Order is a
blend of traditional as well as modern elements. It is primarily a life of austerity
and spiritual practices, bound with strict moral norms and cast in the traditional
Hindu way of monasticism. But at the same time it is open towards secular
intellectual deliberations, responsive to the social needs of the people and has a
positive outlook towards other religious traditions, which are rare qualities so far
as orthodox Hindu monks are concerned. Another important aspect is that
instead of imparting any specific training in conducting social welfare
programmes to the monastic members, efforts are made by the authorities to
inculcate an overall orientation towards the qualities of mutual help,
unselfishness, taking every little job with utmost sincerity, proper management of
time, maintaining a healthy physical as well as psychological condition and
obedience to the seniors. As a consequence a general standard of efficiency is
maintained across the monastic workforce of the twin organisations irrespective
of their individual differences in innate and acquired qualities.

An appraisal:
The above study provides an overview of the Ramakrishna Mission, rather the
‘Ramakrishna movement’, as a development organisation in India. Based on this
the following points may be identified as the key features of the movement’s
organisational framework and its nature of work.

First, regarding the nature of the organisation:

(a) The Ramakrishna Math is a modern Hindu monastic Order for men
considered to be founded by Sri Ramakrishna himself in 1886, and the

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Ramakrishna Mission, founded in 1897, by Swami Vivekananda, is an association
of persons willing to serve the society with a spiritual outlook. Although the
Ramakrishna Mission has many lay members yet its main workforce consists of
the monastic members (around eighteen hundred in 2015) of the Ramakrishna
Math. Apart from the voluntary monastic and lay workers a large number of paid
staff is also appointed to carry out the work of the twin organisations.

(b) The Ramakrishna Math is administered by a Board of Trustees whereas the

Ramakrishna Mission is run by a Governing Body. The Trustees of the
Ramakrishna Math are elected for life from among the monks of the
Ramakrishna Order through a ‘nomination-cum-election’ process. The Trustees
of the Ramakrishna Math act as the ‘ex-officio’ members of the Governing Body
of the Ramakrishna Mission. Originally presented as a temporary arrangement
this has become an established convention.

(c) For the above reasons as well as for having a common ideology, a common
motto, a common emblem and sharing a common headquarters, despite being
two separate legal entities effectively the Ramakrishna Mission and the
Ramakrishna Math work in tandem along with their branches spread across India
and abroad and are commonly known as the ‘Ramakrishna Movement’.

(d) Following a series of internal crises during the 1920s and 1930s, the
organisation got transformed from a localised, spontaneous, loosely structured
body conducted mainly through moral norms and direct personal contacts into a
centralised, well-structured organisation making planned initiatives and governed
by a set of impersonal yet well-articulated legal framework. This has facilitated to
a large extent the smooth transition of organisational authority from one
generation to another.

(e) The organisation had maintained a tacit balance in its relations with the
contending political elements in the pre-Independence era. In the post-

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Independence era its reiteration of the policy of conscious ‘neutrality’ particularly
on party-politics has largely benefited it in terms having broader social
acceptability. However, the movement’s work among the most marginalised
sections of the society can be seen as a statement of its ‘political’ position; which
emphasises the urgency of empowering the masses and at the same time indicates
the inadequacy of state initiatives in this regard.

(f) To ensure the quality of workforce the Ramakrishna Math imposes restrictions
on new monastic members at the entry level in terms of age, educational
qualification and health conditions, conducts intensive training and ideological
orientation programmes for the probationers, encourages fraternal cooperation
among the members and emphasises on maintaining organisational discipline.

(g) All powers of decision-making on posting, promotion and taking disciplinary

actions regarding the monastic members, mobilising movable and immovable
assets or any key matters are legally vested with the Board of Trustees and/or the
Governing Body. In this sense, the decision-making process in the Ramakrishna
Math and Ramakrishna Mission can not be termed as a democratic one. However
the formal deliberative forums like the Convention, the Heads’ Conference, the
Monks’ Conference, the Working Committee and various occasional committees
as well as informal opinions expressed through personal contacts significantly
influence the process of decision-making; because no decision of the authorities
can be effectively implemented without a genuine commitment and support from
the broad spectrum of monastic as well as lay members as it is purely a voluntary
organisation.

(i) From a handful of young members in its inception the movement has
succeeded during the last more than hundred years of its existence in recruiting
thousands of monastic members and winning the support of millions of lay
followers belonging to various strata of society. At present there are around 1,600

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monastic members in the Ramakrishna Math drawn from different parts of India
and abroad, even from religious backgrounds other than Hinduism.

(j) For extending its social reach a third constituent element was formally added
to the movement in 1980. This umbrella organisation is called the Bhava Prachar
Committee. It has several affiliated Parishads comprising of the lay followers and
admirers of the movement. However like the Math and the Mission this wing of
the movement is also led by the senior monastic members of the Ramakrishna
Order.

Second, regarding the nature of work:

(a) Both the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission perform
developmental activities within India and abroad through their headquarters at
Belur Math and various branches as well as affiliated organisations. However, the
Math focuses more on spiritual activities like imparting training to the aspiring
monks, performing religious rites and congregations, preaching religious texts and
ideas, and maintaining shrines. Whereas, the Mission performs various
developmental activities such as relief and rehabilitation, general welfare, health
care, educational work, work in the rural and tribal areas. The Mission also
conducts programmes for spreading moral, cultural and spiritual ideas within
India and abroad. Thus, both organisations seek to blend spirituality with the task
of physical well-being.

(b) In pre-Independence India the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission were

mostly funded by private donors as the Mission preferred not to accept any
recurring grants from the colonial rulers. However the Mission started accepting
government aids after the Independence and now it is one of the chief sources of
their funds. The other major sources of income of the Mission are private
donations, fees from the students, proceedings of book sales etc. The audited
accounts of all centres of the Ramakrishna Mission in India are published

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annually by the General Secretary. Separate audits for the grants received from
government sources are also conducted. The activities of the Ramakrishna Math
are mostly sponsored by private donors. The accounts of the Math centres are
audited annually by qualified auditors.

(c) Since 1912, an annual “General Report” of the activities of both the
Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission along with a list of their branch
centres is published almost every year by the General Secretary. However, the
audited accounts published annually by the General Secretary as part of the
“General Report” on activities of the twin organisations do not reflect the
financial condition of the Ramakrishna Math.

(d) According to these reports a persistent growth pattern of the movement as a

whole is evident in terms of the number of branches and their geographical
spread as well as the volume of work in terms of the number of projects, the
number of beneficiaries and the amount spent.

(e) Teamwork, sustained engagement to a project, whole-time workforce, non-

sectarian outlook, declared political neutrality, moderate overhead cost,
transparency in financial transactions are some of the features of the activities of
the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

(f) Instead of spontaneous individualised local level low-budget initiatives in pre-

Independence era the movement in the post-Independence period has engaged
itself into planned centrally monitored big-budget projects which can be
implemented through a network of permanent centres with coordinated
teamwork. This shift in work paradigm has ensured efficiency, longevity and
working capacity of the movement. However it seemed to have impacted on the
scope of innovation adversely as many of their projects are now funded by the
government agencies with little scope for modification at the level of execution.

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(g) Instead of doling out financial help the movement emphasises on providing
vocational training to the disadvantaged people so as to make them self-reliant.
That is why conducting educational and training programmes occupy prime
position in their rural and tribal development work. The movement insists on
imparting moral and character building education besides providing secular
education.

With this general orientation about the organisational framework and the nature
of activity of the Ramakrishna Mission in India the next chapter would strive to
ascertain in particular the development perspectives and practices of the
organisation. This would be attempted through a literature survey to trace out the
perceptions of some of the key figures of the Ramakrishna movement
throughout the last hundred years on Swami Vivekananda’s idea of development.
Then it would be supplemented with the presentation of the findings of four case
studies on the development initiatives undertaken by four of the branch centres
of the Mission. These findings are supposed to provide a firsthand understanding
of the development perspectives and practices of the present generation of the
Ramakrishna movement.

Assessing the prospect of the ‘Ramakrishna Movement’ in the mid-1970s, Cyrus

R. Pangborn had observed that in post-Independence India the processes of
democratisation of political authority, secularisation of social outlook and
increasing demands for lucrative vocations among the youth had impacted the
longing for reclusive spiritual life in general, and the growth of a monastic order
like the Ramakrishna Math, in particular (Pangborn 1976: 118). He found the way
in which “the Ramakrishna Order” was able to face these challenges by giving
“revivalistic, vitalistic, and messianic traits to the movement for which it is the
soul”, and providing “some sustenance to its vision” through its organisation, was
a proof of its being “one revitalisation movement wholly dedicated to trying.”

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(Ibid. 119). Whereas, Krishna Prakash Gupta suggested that the Western positivist
method of assessing the role of a Hindu religious movement like the
Ramakrishna Mission was ineffective as it had failed to locate the “inner structure
and dialectics of Hinduism itself” (Gupta 1974: 26-28). After around four
decades, in 2006, Gwilym Beckerlegge expressed his apprehension about the
sustainability of the “service provision” by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission
which seemed to him as “out of proportion to the movement’s size”
(Beckerlegge 2006: 260). Besides, he felt, because of scientific and technological
advancements the nature of “philanthropic practice” was bound change
impacting the “durability” of the “style of transformation” put into effect by
Swami Vivekananda in the late nineteenth century (Ibid.). Keeping these varied
assessments of the role of the Ramakrishna movement in the backdrop, the next
chapter would seek to understand how the Ramakrishna Mission has been
attempting to face these challenges in recent times.

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