RSS Celebrates 100 Years

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925, recently marked its centenary. In recent decades, it grabbed power and moved into the centre stage, becoming a dominant force in Indian politics, primarily through its affiliations with the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), which has governed India for much of the last two decades. Prime Minister NarendraModi took special interest in glorifying RSS and its architects. In truth due to RSS Modi is continuing as Prime Minister.

The BJP’s close ties to the RSS have been a source of both power and controversy, particularly as the BJP has celebrated key figures in the RSS’s ideological pantheon. Among these figures are men whose legacy is entwined with an extremist, perverted version of Hindu nationalism that stands in stark contrast to the democratic values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

For those familiar with the RSS’s founding principles, it is no surprise that the BJP has publicly honoured figures such as V.D. Savarkar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and M.S. Golwalkar, three men who shaped the ideological backbone of the organisation. Their birthdays have been celebrated as national holidays, and their philosophies have been subtly, and at times explicitly, woven into the fabric of India’s political discourse. However, what is far more troubling is how the government has validated these controversial figures and their deeply exclusionary and extremist views.

At the heart of the RSS’s ideology is Hindutva, a vision of India where the Hindu identity, narrowly defined, reigns supreme. This concept, first articulated by Savarkar in the 1920s, asserts that India is a land exclusively for Hindus, a view that explicitly marginalises religious minorities–particularly Muslims and Christians.

Savarkar’s ideological heirs, like Golwalkar, took this doctrine even further. Golwalkar himself was often likened to fascist thinkers such as Hitler, particularly due to his endorsement of the idea of racial superiority. The RSS’s rejection of India’s secular, pluralistic Constitution has been a persistent thread throughout its history.

As the BJP acts as the RSS’s political arm, the tension between its ideological vision and the principles of the Indian state has grown more pronounced. The BJP’s champions of Hindutva–Savarkar, Golwalkar, and their ilk–offer a vision of India where religious and cultural homogeneity are paramount, and the political establishment’s embrace of this vision sends a message that the government’s commitment to secularism is waning.

Golwalkar’s call for a “homogenous society,” in which the identity of the majority religious group is elevated as the ultimate form of devotion, is deeply troubling in a democratic society. When the ruling party backs these views, they embolden those who subscribe to them, empowering them to police society, impose their beliefs on others, and silence those who disagree. The validation of such rhetoric by the state has profound implications, not just for the political landscape but for the very nature of public discourse and social harmony.

When the BJP, the political arm of this ideological movement, celebrates Golwalkar’s life and writings, it is not simply honouring a historical figure; it is endorsing a worldview that has the potential to divide the nation along increasingly dangerous lines. This ideological shift–an embrace of religious and cultural homogeneity–signals a pivot away from the pluralism that has long been at the heart of India’s national identity.

[Contributed]

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 19, Nov 2 - 8, 2025