The right-wing Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-from which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party emerged-has launched an international lobbying campaign to counter mounting global condemnation over its involvement in attacks on minority communities.
The RSS outreach, which includes high-level visits to the United States, Germany, and Britain, comes in the wake of a damning report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, according to a media report.
The bipartisan US federal government body explicitly declared that the RSS “has been involved in acts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority groups for decades”. Modi joined the RSS in his youth, and the rise of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to near-national dominance is widely attributed to the RSS’ vast network of volunteers, during a period marked by a hardening Hindu-Muslim political divide in the officially secular country where Hindus are a majority.
Indian opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have repeatedly slammed the RSS for fueling intolerance towards minorities and promoting a divisive, majoritarian ideology that directly threatens the country’s secular fabric.
The RSS says it is a “Hindu centric civilisational, cultural movement” whose goal is to “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory”, including by uniting Hindus and protecting the religion. Historically a highly controversial outfit, the RSS has been banned several times since its inception in 1925, most notably in 1948 after a former member assassinated the independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Despite its violent track record, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale held a rare briefing for foreign media in Delhi to defend the organization against widespread accusations. Hosabale acknowledged that the primary global accusations against the RSS are that it is a “paramilitary organisation,” that it promotes “Hindu supremacist things,” that it “pulls society backwards,” and leaves non-Hindus as “second-class citizens”.
The lobbying efforts come as Modi continues to deliver on the core, controversial agenda items of the Hindu extremist group. These include the construction of a temple to the Hindu god Ram on the site of a historic mosque razed by Hindu mobs in 1992, as well as the contentious revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, formerly India’s only Muslim-majority state.
Seeking to salvage its international image, the RSS plans to extend its lobbying tour to additional countries across Europe and Southeast Asia.
India’s opposition successfully leveraged concerns among underprivileged castes to hand Modi a rare setback in the 2024 national election, when his party fell short of a majority and was forced to rely on allies.