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The Organization That Remade India

palladiummag.com · 3,916 words · saved by 1 readers

Can a fractured civilization be restored? Only three groups in the modern world can claim to have made a serious attempt to solve that question. All three were founded in the 1920s during an upsurge of nationalism and anticolonial sentiment that roiled their humiliated civilizations: the Chinese Communist Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Westerners tend to be familiar with the first two, but the third—despite being arguably the most successful of the three—remains largely unknown. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) translates into English as “National Volunteer Organization.” It is an innocuous description for a group that launched the world’s largest political party, Hinduism’s most prominent religious council, and India’s largest labor union, private school network, and student union. Birthed in support of “a glorious revival” of Hindu civilization, in the words of its second chief, the RSS has left its mark on virtually every facet of Indian society

Daniel Villafruela/Parade in honour of the founders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Can a fractured civilization be restored? Only three groups in the modern world can claim to have made a serious attempt to solve that question. All three were founded in the 1920s during an upsurge of nationalism and anticolonial sentiment that roiled their humiliated civilizations: the Chinese Communist Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Westerners tend to be familiar with the first two, but the third—despite being arguably the most successful of the three—remains…

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