RSS which was formed in 1925 is completing its hundred years on 2nd October 2025. Its politics has been Hindutva and it aims at Hindu Nation. Its pledge, an oath taken by its volunteers, commits them to remain loyal to Hindu nation. It set up shakhas at a rapid pace, shakha (branch) is the basic unit of RSS. In this shakha earlier young boys, and now people of all ages play Indian games like Kaddadi, Kho-Kho etc. They are given ideological training, which is called shakha bauddhik (Intellectual session). This training program is very extensive and runs for varying periods. It is an exclusive male organization, for women there is subordination Rashtra Sevika Samiti, note the absence of word Swayam (self) here in the name of women’s organization.
In shakha narrations Hindu kings like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Rana Pratap are glorified while Muslim kings are presented as cruel villains. The seeds for hatred against Muslim are sown here. It has vast spread, 83000 shakhas, lakhs of swayamsevaks and hundreds of pracharaks have influenced the social thinking and created intense hate against Muslims, and from last few decades against Christians as well.
Its’ centenary celebrations began with three lecture series by its Sarsanghchalak, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi (26,27, 28 Augst 2025). Dr. Bhagwat will be giving lectures in three other metro cities as well. In his three lectures in Delhi at one level he talked about much discussed retirement for Modi and Bhagwat himself. Bhagwat denied such a possibility. He asked that since population growth is declining couples should adopt three child-norm, probably this was to counter the imaginary fear that Muslims will become a majority in the country.
The core part of lectures was to define Hindu so as to incorporate Muslims and Christians in the definition of Hindu. We have witnessed in society the marginalization and ghettoization of Muslims and scattered attacks on these two communities in rising numbers during the last few decades. In the new definition religion is not mentioned and everybody living in this land is being called Hindu! “… The RSS chief said, “Hindavi, Bhartiya, and Sanatan are synonymous… There is content behind these words, which is not just geographical… Our DNA has been the same for the last 40,000 years.”
Defining Hindu has a long trajectory. While the word Hindu began as a geographical category for all those living on east of Sindhu, gradually all the religious traditions prevailing here like Brahmanism, Nath, Tantra, Siddha and Ajivikas were lumped together as Hindu as religious category. This religious category became stronger during the last two centuries though Ambedkar remarked that in Hinduism Brahmanism is the dominant tradition. Today Hindu is primarily a religious category though it did begin as a geographical one.
One recalls that Hinduism has many sects constituting it, Savarkar the one to articulate ‘Two Nation theory’ in his book ‘Essentials of Hinduism’, defines Hindu as one who regards this land spread from Indus to sea as Pitrabhumi (Father land) and Punyabhumi (Sacred land).
Later when Murli Manohar Joshi became the President of BJP in 1990 he called all Indians as Hindu, Muslims being Ahmadia Hindus, Christians being Christi Hindus. This was the initial attempt of imposing Hindu identity on these minorities.
Now Bhagwat takes it further to say that Hindavi, Bhartiya and Sanatan are synonyms. They have been used interchangeably. Word Sanatan just means eternal. In Hinduism the holy books, the rituals, the holy books and holy places are all different from those of Muslims and Christians. The Christians and Muslims cannot identify with the religious term Hindu.
To boost his point further Bhagat classifies Hindus into four categories, to incorporate non-Hindus into the ambit of Hinduism. Says he, “There are four categories of Hindus — those who consider themselves Hindus and take pride in it, those that consider themselves Hindus but do not take pride in it, those who know they are Hindu but do not even mention it, and those who don’t even consider themselves Hindus,” It is a subtle way to impose various identity aspects of Hinduism on non-Hindus. In practice Savarkar’s definition rules the ground reality imposed by the communal forces.
Though RSS ideologues make such claims that Hinduism is tolerant and inclusive, the reality is very different. Bhagwat loftily said ““A Hindu is one who believes in following their own path without demeaning others’ beliefs and respects others’ faith without disrespecting them. Those who follow this tradition and culture are Hindus...”
As a matter of fact, this lofty understanding was practiced by Mahatma Gandhi, who was murdered by the person who had his initial training in RSS shakhas, Nathuram Godse. At another level these definitions can apply to many devout followers of different religions as well.
The claim that RSS is meant for all Hindus falls flat when we see that it is exclusively male organization. Its major narratives about history are built around Hate against Muslims and Christians. Most of the RSS ideologues and Savarkar upheld Manu smriti which is highly discriminatory against Women, Dalits and OBCs. Bhagwat is trying to cover this up in his lectures by saying that these holy scriptures were in particular context, while all major ideologies have different tones on this. Exclusion of other religions, low caste and women is the core hallmark of RSS ideology and practice. Muslims are not a part of RSS shakhas.
What one knows about the practice of inclusion from the composition of MPs of BJP, the electoral political progeny, in Lok Sabha. There is not a single elected Muslim or Christian MP from BJP. From the ruling party leaders PM downwards, the hate speech against Muslims abounds with gay abandon. The attempt to disenfranchise Muslims in Assam in the form of NRC-CAA has not yet been aborted. SIR in Bihar is yet another attempt at exclusion of poor and marginalized sections of society.
These three lectures in a way clearly outlined RSS’s ongoing agenda of imposing Hindu identity on all Indians. Very cleverly Hindu religious identity is being presented as national identity.
