Hindus in Ramanathapuram are agitated and hurt over the indifference of the authorities to the damage caused by anti-social elements to the memorial installed in the heart of the city to commemorate the visit of Swami Vivekananda to Chicago for participating in the World Parliament of Religions and the great speech delivered by him.
The memorial was put up by the then King of Ramnadu on January 25, 1897 on land belonging to the royal family of Setupathis when Swami Vivekananda returned to India. The monk returned to his country via Rameswaram where he stayed for a fortnight as the guest of the then King Setupathi, the Ramnadu ruler.
Though the memorial tower was installed in 1897, it was renovated on November 5, 1968 under the auspices of S Ramanatha Setuopathi, the then head of the royal family. “Though this memorial may not look so imposing, for the people of Ramanathapuram it is a symbol with which they identify the great cultural heritage of this country. For us, Swami Vivekananda is a sense of pride and honour,” Adalararasan Setupathi, a member of the royal family of Ramnaud told The Pioneer.
Though the memorial was damaged many times in the past, various Hindu organisations had set it right after lodging complaints with the law enforcing agencies. Many people whom The Pioneer spoke to said that the vandalism is being done by certain Islamist elements to get the memorial removed because of a qabaristan that has come up in land adjacent to it.