India, Sept. 1 -- Nearly 132 years after Swami Vivekananda stood before the Parliament of Religions in Chicago and introduced the spiritual confidence of India to an astonished Western audience, another significant articulation of Bharatiya civilisational thought has taken place on American soil. In the centenary year of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat's address at the Universal Oneness Celebration in New York carried an unmistakable message: Hindu thought does not seek the triumph of one community over another; it seeks a world that recognises the fundamental unity of existence.

The historical circumstances are, of course, very different, and no two speeches need to be artificially equated. Yet the philosop...