Key points
- RSS supporters claim of doing charity work
- Opponents accuse RSS of persecution of minorities
- The group is glued together by shared experiences, rituals, and garb
- Modi and BJP became the reasons for the group’s power gain in the last decade
ISLAMABAD: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu-nationalist group, is the biggest volunteer organisation in the world.
With over five million all-male members, the organisation has silently gained significant influence in all states of India, according to the Economist.
The RSS supporters claim it does charity work along with teaching young men discipline.
However, critics argue it is that persecutes minorities such as Muslims, Christians, and low-caste Hindus.
Like other such clubs, the RSS is glued together by shared experiences, rituals, and garb.
RSS and Modi
Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, is one of the RSS’s famous and loyal disciples. He is the main factor for the group’s amassing power and influence in the past decade.
The RSS, the organisation was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889–1940), a physician living in the Maharashtra region of India, as part of the movement against British rule and as a response to rioting between Hindus and Muslims.
Hedgewar was significantly influenced by the writings of the Hindu nationalist ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and adopted much of his rhetoric regarding the need for the creation of a “Hindu nation.”
Upper-caste Brahmins
Hedgewar developed the RSS as a disciplined cadre consisting mostly of upper-caste Brahmins who were dedicated to independence and the protection of Hindu political, cultural, and religious interests.
Upon Hedgewar’s death, the leadership of the group was assumed by Madhava Sadashiv Golwalkar and later by Madhhukar Dattatray Deoras.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the pro-Hindu political party of post-independence India. The party has enjoyed broad support from members of the higher castes and in northern India.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a majority in the 2014, 2019, and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Although the BJP was able to secure a majority on its own in the 2014 and 2019 elections, it fell short of the 272 seats it needed to secure a majority on its own in the 2024 elections.