But the RSS' goal is to redefine India according to its majority Hindu faith. When Indians won their freedom from British rule in 1947, they established a pluralistic democracy based on secular principles, embracing their diversity.
As he runs for a second term, the RSS' influence is more apparent than ever - something that alarms members of India's religious minorities and those who believe in the country's secular basis, who accuse the RSS of chauvinism and fostering intolerance and hate. The RSS, founded nearly 100 years ago, has profoundly shaped Indian society and politics - and Modi himself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a longtime RSS member, and the group's influence is apparent in his Hindu nationalist policies. The RSS also runs summer camps, where volunteers train with rifles, and a political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose candidates now hold the highest offices in the land. 15, 2017.īut it's not simply a celebration of Hindu culture. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers an address on Independence Day in New Delhi on Aug. The RSS, he says, helps supplement their knowledge. Sharda believes that centuries of non-Hindu rule - British colonialism and the Mughal Empire before that - have left Indians without a strong sense of their culture and heritage.
We have forgotten the great deeds our people have done." "We recite the names of great people - sons and daughters of India - right from the ancient times to modern India," explains Ratan Sharda, 64, who has been an RSS member since childhood. The idea is to celebrate more than 5,000 years of Hindu culture. It's part of a vast all-male network that runs Hindu catechism classes, yoga sessions and these morning drill sessions, called shakhas. There are potbellied, middle-aged dads, retirees and a young boy in a soccer jersey and no shoes - all members of a local cell of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, stand at attention and salute a saffron-orange flag at a morning shakha, or drill session, in a park in suburban Mumbai, India.īefore dawn, men gather in a suburban Mumbai park to play team-building games, meditate, chant Sanskrit mantras from Hindu scripture and salute a saffron-orange flag - the color, sacred to Hindus, of robes worn by Hindu monks.
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