On inauguration anniversary of Rock Memorial: 02nd Sept 1970
How many of you have seen or heard about Vivekananda rock memorial at kanyakumari and how many of you know about Eknathji Ranade???
Probably very few, Eknathji was secretary of RSS when he was relieved of his responsibilities to construct a memorial for this great son of motherland (swami vivekananda). The story of construction is as magnificent as the memorial.
He was not interested in just raising money from a few individuals for this great endeavour,so he formed district level committees and collected 1 Re each from 1 crore Indians.
When the progress started,Christians objected to the project stating it was St Xaviers rock. The government as usual capitulated and declared an inquiry which came out unequivocally in favour of memorial. In the meantime Eknathji submitted a signed memorandum from more than 350 MPs to Shastriji who was pleasantly surprised and took up the matter with Nehru who had to relent.
When the pace picked up,anti Hindi or north agitation picked up and it was demanded that instead of vivekananda (north Indian) ,thiruvalluvar's memorial would be more apt. But Eknathji was not someone to relent,he convinced Karunanidhi, the then chief minister to approve the memorial.
Finally after 7-8 years of effort on this day in 1970,the memorial was a reality.
Probably very few, Eknathji was secretary of RSS when he was relieved of his responsibilities to construct a memorial for this great son of motherland (swami vivekananda). The story of construction is as magnificent as the memorial.
He was not interested in just raising money from a few individuals for this great endeavour,so he formed district level committees and collected 1 Re each from 1 crore Indians.
When the progress started,Christians objected to the project stating it was St Xaviers rock. The government as usual capitulated and declared an inquiry which came out unequivocally in favour of memorial. In the meantime Eknathji submitted a signed memorandum from more than 350 MPs to Shastriji who was pleasantly surprised and took up the matter with Nehru who had to relent.
When the pace picked up,anti Hindi or north agitation picked up and it was demanded that instead of vivekananda (north Indian) ,thiruvalluvar's memorial would be more apt. But Eknathji was not someone to relent,he convinced Karunanidhi, the then chief minister to approve the memorial.
Finally after 7-8 years of effort on this day in 1970,the memorial was a reality.
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