Social and Religious Liberty

We, in India, allowed liberty in spiritual matters, and we have a tremendous spiritual power in religious thought even today. You grant the same liberty in social matters, and so have a splendid social organisation. 

We have not given any freedom to the expansion of social matters, and ours is a cramped society. You have never given any freedom in religious matters but with fire and sword have enforced your beliefs, and the result is that religion is a stunted, degenerated growth in the European mind. 

In India, we have to take the shackles from society; in Europe, the chains must be taken from the feet of spiritual progress.

- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London