‘Millions-strong’: A look at India’s Hindutva driven ultranationalist RSS

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NAGPUR: Thousands of uniformed men parade across central India brandishing bamboo sticks and chanting patriotic hymns, a stunning show of strength for the country’s million-strong Hindu ultra-nationalist group.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, celebrated its 100th anniversary this month.

AFP was one of a handful of foreign media outlets granted unusual access to the group, which forms the ideological and organizational backbone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power since 2014.

Like the 75-year-old prime minister, critics have accused him of eroding the rights of India’s Muslim minority and undermining the secular constitution.

In the parade, RSS volunteers in white shirts, gray trousers and black caps boxed and stretched in time to whistling and barking commands.

“Forever I bow to you, love motherland! Motherland of our Hindus!” They sang in a scene that evoked past paramilitary exercises.

“Be my life […] Lie in your goal! “

‘Ready to fight against those who come in the way’

Hindus make up about 80% of India’s 1.4 billion people.

Founded in 1925, the RSS calls itself “the world’s largest organization”, although it does not provide membership figures.

At the heart of his vision is “Hindutva” – the belief that Hindus represent not just a religious group but are the true national identity of India.

“They are willing to fight against anyone who gets in their way […] This means minorities, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other Hindus who do not subscribe to this idea.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has used softer language, saying minorities have been accepted but they “should not be a cause of division”.

Anant Pophali, 53, said three generations of his family were involved with the group. An insurance company worker said, “The RSS made me proud to be an Indian.

‘Fascist by nature’

RSS was formed during the British imperial rule. But it quickly diverged from the liberation efforts of Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party, whose leader Jawaharlal Nehru considered them “fascist by nature”.

Mukherjee said the archives showed “a link between the RSS and fascist movements in Europe”.

“He has said very clearly that the way the Nazis treated the Jews is the way our own minorities should be treated,” he told AFP.

The RSS does not directly comment on such parallels, but Bhagwat insisted that “today we are more accepting”.

The RSS was an armed Hindu militia during the bloody partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Hindu extremists accused Gandhi of breaking up India. A former RSS member assassinated him in 1948, and the group was banned for nearly two years.

But the RSS quietly rebuilt, focusing on local units known as “Shakhas” for recruitment. Today, it claims 83,000 across the country as well as more than 50,000 schools and 120,000 social welfare projects.

At a branch in Nagpur, Ilhad Sadachar, 49, said the unit’s aim was to “create solidarity”.

“You can get a lot of good energy, a lot of good values, like helping those in need,” he said.

In a surprise that AFP was allowed to attend, dozens of members—many middle-aged or elderly, and not in uniform—gathered for an hour of calisthenics and song.

But in a display of symbolism, they gathered under a saffron flag — the color of Hinduism — instead of India’s tricolor.

RSS and PM Modi

RSS is deeply political. The group resurfaced in the late 1980s, spearheading a movement that culminated in a violent mob razing a centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya—now replaced by a gleaming temple to the Hindu god Rama.

“This was the turning point,” said the historian, Mukherjee, adding that the RSS “was able to mobilize on a large scale on religious issues, which became clearly anti-Muslim at its heart”.

The group helped deliver an electoral landslide to Modi’s BJP party in 2014.

Since then, Modi — a former RSS “pracharak,” or organizer — has pursued policies that critics say have marginalized India’s estimated 220 million Muslims, 15% of the population.

“There has been a marked increase in terms of violence, lynching and hate speech since Modi took office,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, director of the United States Center for the Study of Organized Hate.

RSS leaders denied that he had participated in the atrocities. Bhagwat said, “These allegations are baseless.

“Atrocities were never committed by the RSS. And if it happens anyway, I condemn it.”

Under Modi, it has expanded its reach. “The RSS has been able to shake Indian society in a direction that is more nationalist, less liberal in the Western sense,” said Swapan Dasgupta, a former nationalist parliamentarian.

But volunteer Vankatesh Somalur, 44, said the group only promoted “good values”.

“The most important thing is to contribute to your country,” he said. “A country that is above all one.”