Abstract
This study examines Swami Vivekananda's views on religious diversity and religious nationalism with special reference to his discourses on the relation between Buddhism and Hinduism.
Swami Vivekananda stunned the audiences at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 in Chicago and became known as one of the leading Hindu revivalists in 19th century India as well as the founder of Ramakrishna Mission. Today, in the age of globalization, Vivekananda is recognized again as a patriot who embodied the great spirituality of India for the world.
This study analyzes his transitional discourses on Buddhism in relation to Hinduism, divided into the following four periods:（1）Introduction of Hinduism to the West at the Parliament of the World's Religion in 1893 using the rhetoric of affinity between Hinduism and Buddhism;（2）view of an encompassed Buddhism into Hinduism, based on the inclusive ideology of Advaita Vedanta philosophy during his missionary work in America and Europe after the Parliament of the World's Religion;（3）intention and background of using the term ‘Buddhistic degradation' for southern Buddhism, particularly in relation to the modern Buddhist revival movement led by Anagarika Dharmapala, in his lectures after returning to India in 1897;（4）meaning and implications of the phrase ‘A total revolution has occurred in my mind about the relation of Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism' mentioned in his letter to explain ‘the new facts gathered in Bodh-Gaya' in February 1902, five months before his death.
