'Those involved in mob lynching are anti-Hindu': Does RSS chief mean what he says?

By Ram Puniyani 

From October 2, 2025, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will begin its centenary year celebrations. To mark the occasion, the organisation has planned several events, including a series of three lectures in Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan on August 26–28. This lecture series will later be held in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata.

Back in 2018, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered three lectures at Vigyan Bhavan, which were given considerable media and political attention. Some naïve political commentators even speculated that the RSS was undergoing change — one insider likened it to a “glasnost” moment. However, subsequent developments belied these hopes. The RSS’s actions continued along its established ideological lines.

Bhagwat had said in 2018 that “a person cannot be a true Hindu if they say Muslims should not live in India” and that those involved in mob lynching were “anti-Hindu.” Yet lynchings of Muslims continued unabated — such as the killings of Shahrukh Saifi in Uttar Pradesh and Lukman in Haryana in 2020. Bulldozers were deployed to demolish Muslim homes and shops, and anti-Muslim propaganda remained a central political tool for the Sangh Parivar. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tragedy was used to vilify Muslims further, with terms like “corona jihad” and “corona bomb” being circulated, leading to social boycotts of Muslim street vendors.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) excluded Muslims from its provisions while providing a pathway to Indian citizenship for others. This was followed by the proposed National Population Register, prompting widespread protests like the Shaheen Bagh sit-in. The protests faced threats from leaders like BJP’s Kapil Mishra, and the subsequent Delhi violence claimed 51 lives — two-thirds of them Muslim.

Despite Bhagwat’s conciliatory rhetoric, the Sangh Parivar under his leadership has supported policies and narratives that deepen divisions. The 2018 lectures did not mark any real change; the organisation continues on its Hindu nationalist path, still shaped by the ideology of M.S. Golwalkar, who identified Muslims, Christians, and Communists as “internal threats” to the Hindu nation.

Christians, too, face rising persecution. Attacks on churches, pastors, and congregations have grown sharply in the past decade. A senior Christian leader reported in 2023 that there were four to five incidents daily, doubling to about ten every Sunday — unprecedented levels of hostility, often led by Hindu extremist groups within the Sangh Parivar such as the RSS, BJP, and Bajrang Dal.

As for Communists and other dissenting voices, labels like “urban Naxal” have been used to target human rights activists. Many were arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon case. Maharashtra is even considering a “People’s Security Bill” that would empower the state to monitor, investigate, and act against individuals or institutions suspected of aiding banned Maoist organisations.

These policies, laws, and acts of violence stem from the propaganda spread in RSS shakhas, supported by its affiliated organisations. Why then the need for lecture series in 2018 — and again in 2025? Likely to sugarcoat the bitter reality of the RSS agenda and to project its Hindu Rashtra vision as compatible with democracy. The evidence shows otherwise: statements by the RSS chief are rarely meant for implementation; they serve to placate critics.

There may also be a political undercurrent — inviting dissenting leaders from other parties could be part of a fresh “Operation Lotus,” aimed at drawing disgruntled politicians into the Sangh camp. The truth of this will become clear with time.

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The author formerly taught at IIT Bombay and is President of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism