India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

By   Justin Kirangacha| The Common Pulse/latest news /US/ Kenya/Abroad/Africa / OCTOBER2025.

India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, better known as the RSS, has long been one of the most controversial and influential organizations in modern Indian politics. Once banned after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu nationalist, the RSS was for decades a movement confined to whispered networks and underground training camps. Today, it stands tall in the open sunlight, no longer shy about its ambitions or its ideological reach. The RSS is not just a cultural group or a political influencer, it is the beating heart of a Hindu nationalist vision that has reshaped India’s social, religious, and political identity. What was once a shadow organization now casts a long silhouette over the Indian state itself.

From Secret Meetings to Public Mobilization

The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor who believed that India’s weakness under colonial rule stemmed from a lack of Hindu unity. Inspired by European fascist movements of the early 20th century, the organization envisioned a disciplined, militarized Hindu society bound by cultural pride and a sense of religious duty. For much of its early existence, it operated as a volunteer corps dedicated to “Hindu awakening.” But beneath the drills, uniforms, and slogans lay a mission more sweeping, a transformation of India into a Hindu nation, a Bharat that would no longer define itself through pluralism but through cultural homogeneity.

When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a former RSS member, the group was temporarily banned. The Indian government, still finding its footing after independence, feared the spread of extremist nationalism. Yet the ban was short-lived, lifted after the RSS formally distanced itself from the killing and promised to remain apolitical. But history would reveal that while the RSS avoided direct politics, it had already begun planting the seeds for a political machine that would later dominate the Indian landscape.

The Ideological Core: Hindutva and Cultural Supremacy

At the heart of the RSS ideology lies Hindutva, a concept articulated by V.D. Savarkar, who argued that India should be defined not by its political boundaries but by its cultural identity as a Hindu civilization. The term “Hindutva” is often translated as “Hindu-ness,” but it carries connotations of ethnic and cultural nationalism. Under this vision, Muslims and Christians, though citizens, are seen as outsiders to the national ethos unless they assimilate into the cultural norms of the majority.

The RSS built this ideology into its daily routine, training millions of men and boys through morning drills, lectures, and volunteer work. Members are taught discipline, patriotism, and a sense of religious duty that extends beyond worship, into service, politics, and even conflict. The organization’s network of shakhas, or local branches, became breeding grounds for leaders who would go on to shape Indian politics. The RSS’s work is meticulous, structured, and patient. Unlike most political organizations, it does not seek instant gratification, it works across generations, slowly infusing its worldview into the nation’s institutions.

The Political Wing: The Rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party

While the RSS publicly claims to be a cultural body, its political ambitions found formal expression in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951, which later evolved into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is, in many ways, the political arm of the RSS. Its leaders, from Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Narendra Modi, are lifelong swayamsevaks, RSS volunteers who grew up within its ideological framework.

This connection has become the foundation of modern Indian politics. When Modi came to power in 2014, it was not merely a party victory but the culmination of the RSS’s long campaign to reshape India’s moral and cultural compass. The organization’s vast network provided ground-level mobilization, electoral strategy, and grassroots discipline that political rivals could only envy.

Under Modi, the RSS’s influence is no longer subtle. It can be seen in the rewriting of school textbooks, where ancient Hindu achievements are glorified and Mughal history is minimized. It’s present in the government’s push for cow protection laws, citizenship reforms favoring non-Muslim refugees, and the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on the site of a demolished mosque. These policies, once considered fringe or divisive, have become mainstream under a government aligned with the Sangh’s worldview.

Social Engineering and the Power of Cultural Outreach

The RSS has also mastered the art of soft power. It runs schools, charities, and media outlets that extend its reach into every layer of Indian life. Through its affiliates, known collectively as the Sangh Parivar, it operates student unions, labor organizations, women’s groups, and even farmer collectives. This ecosystem allows it to influence not only politics but culture, education, and the economy.

Its educational wing, Vidya Bharati, manages thousands of schools that blend modern education with nationalist and religious instruction. The Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram works among tribal communities, promoting Hindu unity and countering Christian missionary influence. Meanwhile, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal act as enforcers of the cultural agenda, often at the front lines of religious tensions and communal clashes.

In urban centers, the RSS has built a new image for itself, less militant, more modern. It speaks of development, cultural pride, and self-reliance. But the old themes remain intact beneath the polish. The idea of India as a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation, still forms the ideological spine of its vision.

Critics and the Question of Democracy

Critics argue that the RSS’s growing influence undermines India’s secular democracy. The group’s rigid worldview leaves little room for dissent, diversity, or minority rights. Journalists, activists, and opposition leaders have accused it of fostering intolerance and promoting a majoritarian mindset that marginalizes Muslims and Christians. The violence that has erupted in the name of religion, from lynchings over beef consumption to riots sparked by religious polarization, has deepened fears that the RSS’s ideological dominance is turning India away from its pluralist roots.

The RSS, however, presents itself as a unifying force. Its leaders claim they are working to restore India’s true identity, long suppressed by colonial and postcolonial secular elites. To them, Hindutva is not about exclusion but cultural authenticity, a return to the values that sustained India for millennia. Yet, as its footprint grows, so does the unease about where this “cultural nationalism” ends and political authoritarianism begins.

A Global Hindu Network and the Diaspora Influence

Beyond India’s borders, the RSS’s reach extends into the global Hindu diaspora. Through organizations like the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, it has built chapters in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Africa. These groups organize community service, cultural festivals, and religious education, but they also serve as ideological ambassadors of the Hindutva worldview. Indian-origin politicians abroad have often found themselves navigating the thin line between cultural pride and political endorsement of the Sangh’s controversial politics.

The global influence also feeds back into India through funding, lobbying, and social media campaigns that amplify nationalist narratives. The result is a feedback loop of global identity politics, where pride in Hindu civilization becomes intertwined with support for the Indian government’s hardline stances.

The Quiet Transformation of the Indian State

The RSS’s influence is now woven into the very fabric of the Indian bureaucracy and social order. Its members hold key positions in education boards, cultural councils, and civil service institutions. The organization’s discipline and hierarchical structure mirror that of a parallel government, one that operates quietly alongside the elected one. It does not seek headlines or public credit, it prefers to guide policy, shape public sentiment, and control the narrative from within.

Even the Indian armed forces have seen increasing engagement with RSS figures, as patriotic education and Hindu symbols are more openly promoted in military ceremonies. Universities that once prided themselves on liberal inquiry are being nudged toward nationalist conformity. In television debates, in classrooms, in public celebrations, the language of nationalism has fused with the language of faith.

The Future of India Under the Sangh’s Shadow

Whether one sees the RSS as a patriotic organization reclaiming cultural dignity or as an ideological machine eroding pluralism depends largely on which India one believes in. To its supporters, it represents the awakening of a long-suppressed civilization, finally standing tall in the world. To its critics, it signals the corrosion of democracy, the narrowing of freedoms, and the weaponization of faith.

As India approaches another election cycle, the RSS remains both kingmaker and silent strategist. It has achieved what few movements in history have, transforming a cultural ideology into a ruling ethos. From the grassroots to the highest offices of power, its influence is deep, pervasive, and enduring.

What began as a volunteer movement nearly a century ago has now become the ideological backbone of the world’s largest democracy. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh no longer needs to operate in secrecy or fear. It has stepped out of the shadows and into the center of India’s political and cultural stage, shaping the future of a nation that still struggles to decide whether its destiny lies in secular democracy or cultural nationalism.

The question that remains is not whether the RSS will continue to wield power, it will, but how India will balance that power with the ideals upon which its republic was founded. The struggle between faith and freedom, between identity and inclusion, now defines the Indian experiment itself. And in that struggle, the RSS stands not as a mere participant but as the architect of a new and unapologetically assertive India.