- By Kamal Sikder
On 2 October 2025, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), one of India’s most influential nationalist organizations, celebrated its centenary with a mass rally. Thousands of uniformed activists participated, sitting in regimented rows, meditating, and chanting the Hindu mantra Om as a symbolic gesture of collective consciousness. The event underlined the RSS’s enduring role as the ideological nucleus, leadership source, and mobilizing base of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling party (Andersen & Damle, 2019, p. 42).
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered the keynote address, covering issues ranging from India–Pakistan tensions and climate change to economic inequality and regional stability. His prominence at what is officially a “cultural volunteer” gathering underscored the perception—widely accepted in Indian politics, that the RSS acts not only as an ideological guide but also as a shadow political authority (Samira Hussain, BBC). This is particularly significant given the organization’s mounting tensions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent years over governance style and policy, with speculation that RSS pressure may push for generational leadership change (Jaffrelot, 2021, p. 187).
Founding and Ideological Underpinnings
The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, Maharashtra, during a period of communal friction. Hedgewar was disillusioned by the Indian National Congress’s alliance with the Khilafat Movement, which he saw as prioritizing Muslim concerns over Hindu identity (Andersen & Damle, 1987, p. 23). His response was to develop an explicitly Hindu nationalist organization, drawing inspiration from Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s doctrine of Hindutva.
Savarkar’s Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (1923) articulated a vision of Hindu identity as a cultural and civilizational essence rather than a strictly religious faith. He grounded this identity in three elements: shared territory, shared ancestry, and shared culture (Savarkar, 1923/1989, p. 113). This exclusivist conception marginalized Muslims and Christians, treating them as outsiders unless they assimilated into the Hindu cultural fold. Hedgewar operationalized this vision through the RSS, which became a vehicle for Hindu ethno-nationalism.
Savarkar’s Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (1923) articulated a vision of Hindu identity as a cultural and civilizational essence rather than a strictly religious faith. He grounded this identity in three elements: shared territory, shared ancestry, and shared culture (Savarkar, 1923/1989, p. 113). This exclusivist conception marginalized Muslims and Christians, treating them as outsiders unless they assimilated into the Hindu cultural fold. Hedgewar operationalized this vision through the RSS, which became a vehicle for Hindu ethno-nationalism.
Social Influence and Expansion
Over the decades, the RSS has grown into the world’s largest voluntary organization, running daily branches (shakhas) where participants undergo physical training, ideological education, and community service (Andersen & Damle, 2019, p. 17). Its appeal spans from lower-caste communities seeking cultural belonging to intellectual elites advocating for a Hindu nation spanning “Akhand Bharat” (Greater India)—a vision stretching from Afghanistan to Indonesia (Jaffrelot, 2007, p. 58).
The RSS combines charitable initiatives with paramilitary-style drills, cultivating loyalty and discipline. Its growth has accelerated in the digital era, where it uses social media propaganda to circulate revisionist histories, Islamophobic rhetoric, and narratives of Hindu victimhood.
The Legacy of Anandamath and Hindu Revivalism
The intellectual roots of RSS ideology can be traced to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Anandamath (1882). Written during the late colonial period, it depicted militant Hindu ascetics (sannyasis) waging war against Muslim rulers in Bengal. The novel’s hymn Vande Mataram (“Hail Mother”) became a nationalist anthem, later embraced by the Congress, though it alienated Muslims by deifying the Hindu goddess as the motherland (Chatterjee, 1882/1992, pp. 211–213).
Passages in Anandamath describe Hindu villagers attacking Muslims, burning their homes, and even forcing them to adopt Hindu practices:
“The villagers began chasing the Mussulmans wherever they met them. Some banded together, went to the Muslim quarters, set fire to their cottages and looted all. Many Mussulmans were killed, many shaved off their beards, smeared themselves with Ganges clay and began singing ‘Hari Hari’” (Chatterjee, 1882/1992, p. 224).
“The villagers began chasing the Mussulmans wherever they met them. Some banded together, went to the Muslim quarters, set fire to their cottages and looted all. Many Mussulmans were killed, many shaved off their beards, smeared themselves with Ganges clay and began singing ‘Hari Hari’”
Another passage reveals the Santans’ (rebels) desire to demolish a mosque and build a temple of Ram on the site, a motif foreshadowing the later Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Scholars argue that Anandamath fused patriotism with Hindu militancy, embedding anti-Muslim violence into the nationalist imagination (Baig, 1965, p. 215).
Bankim himself served as a colonial magistrate during the aftermath of the 1857 Revolt, where he opposed Muslim sepoys and was seen as pro-British. His works helped frame the “Bengal Renaissance” less as a universalist modernist awakening and more as a Hindu revivalist project that marginalized Muslims (Sarkar, 2001, p. 93).
These dynamic troubled Muslim intellectuals, some of whom complained to Rabindranath Tagore about anti-Muslim hostility in Bengali literature. Tagore’s reported response was telling:
“Just because there is anti-Muslim rhetoric in Hindu literature, we cannot abandon our national literary contributions. Muslims should write their own literature.”
This remark, though pragmatic, reflected a literary nationalism that excluded Muslims, reinforcing their sense of alienation (quoted in Islam, 2002, p. 176).
“Just because there is anti-Muslim rhetoric in Hindu literature, we cannot abandon our national literary contributions. Muslims should write their own literature.”
Hindutva and Fascist Sympathies
The RSS’s ideological trajectory also drew inspiration from European fascism. In We, or Our Nationhood Defined (1939), RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar praised Nazi Germany for preserving “racial purity” and suggested India should adopt similar strategies to protect Hindu culture (Golwalkar, 1939/2006, p. 43). Archival evidence demonstrates that RSS leaders studied Mussolini’s and Hitler’s organizational models and advocated for dictatorial-style leadership (Casolari, 2000, p. 220).
The RSS’s ideological trajectory also drew inspiration from European fascism. In We, or Our Nationhood Defined (1939), RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar praised Nazi Germany for preserving “racial purity” and suggested India should adopt similar strategies to protect Hindu culture (Golwalkar, 1939/2006, p. 43). Archival evidence demonstrates that RSS leaders studied Mussolini’s and Hitler’s organizational models and advocated for dictatorial-style leadership (Casolari, 2000, p. 220).
Exclusionary Politics and Regional Consequences
The RSS has consistently advanced programs that exclude minorities, such as the “Ghar Wapsi” campaign, which promotes the idea that all Indian Muslims and Christians were once Hindus and must return to their roots. This narrative legitimizes both conversion drives and social ostracism.
The organization has been implicated in communal violence, from the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by an RSS-linked figure, to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, and pogroms targeting Muslims and Christians. Although periodically banned, each prohibition was lifted, signalling the organization’s entrenched role in Indian society (Andersen & Damle, 2019, p. 92).
In contemporary politics, the RSS exerts enormous influence over the BJP government. Its ideology informs controversial policies such as the revocation of Kashmir’s special status, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and debates over a Uniform Civil Code. These policies are widely seen as attempts to recast India into a Hindu ethnocracy (Jaffrelot, 2021, p. 217).
Regionally, the RSS’s rhetoric of Akhand Bharat has raised alarm in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Analysts argue that the combination of religious nationalism and expansionist vision poses a destabilizing force in South Asia, heightening mistrust and polarizing relations (Ghosh, 2022, p. 141).
The final word
The centenary of the RSS highlights not only the resilience of a century-old Hindu nationalist movement but also its transformation into a political powerhouse shaping India’s domestic and foreign policy. Its intellectual foundations in Anandamath, its ties to fascist models, and its continuing exclusionary practices underscore why critics see the RSS as a threat to pluralism and regional peace. For supporters, however, it remains the custodian of Hindu civilization. The contest over its legacy, revivalist heroism versus authoritarian nationalism, continues to shape the destiny of South Asia.
References
- Andersen, W., & Damle, S. (1987). The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. New Delhi: Vistaar.
- Andersen, W., & Damle, S. (2019). The RSS: A View to the Inside. New Delhi: Penguin Random House.
- Baig, M.R.A. (1965). The Muslim Dilemma in India. Delhi: Asia Publishing House.
- Casolari, M. (2000). “Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence.” Economic and Political Weekly, 35(4), 218–228.
- Chatterjee, B.C. (1882/1992). Anandamath. Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad.
- Golwalkar, M.S. (1939/2006). We, or Our Nationhood Defined. Bangalore: Sahitya Sindhu Prakashana.
- Ghosh, A. (2022). Nationalism, Violence and Democracy in India. New York: Routledge.
- Islam, S. (2002). The Bengal Muslims, 1871–1906: A Quest for Identity. Oxford University Press.
- Jaffrelot, C. (2007). Hindu Nationalism: A Reader. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Jaffrelot, C. (2021). Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Sarkar, S. (2001). The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903–1908. Delhi: Permanent Black.
- Savarkar, V.D. (1923/1989). Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? New Delhi: Bharatiya Sahitya Sadan.
- Samira Hussain, India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist organisation marks centenary, 2nd October, BBC Online.
