The RSS and its pro-Hindutva politics have come a long way.
The single biggest achievement is that the RSS thought process has got growing numbers/range of acceptability in India and abroad.
On the other hand; the Congress party was founded by a Britisher with initial aim to act as a 'Safety Valve & increase longitivity' of British Empire!
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded on Sept 27, 1925
Forty years before on Dec 28th in 1885, the Indian National Congress was founded by a British civil servant, A. O. Hume.
Its original purpose was not freedom— but control: a “safety valve” to channel Indian discontent and thereby extend the life of British rule.*
BJP leader Pradip Bhandari says: "This is not a contemporary allegation. It is a historical record. In 1916, the great freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai, writing in Young India, explicitly described the Congress as a British-designed safety valve, created to protect imperial interests—not Indian aspirations."
He further states -- "Fast forward a century. From being a safety valve of the British, the Congress has, over time, morphed into a platform that repeatedly aligns with forces hostile to India’s core civilizational and national interests".
The BJP also maintains that - "Under Rahul Gandhi, it increasingly echoes narratives pushed by tukde-tukde lobbies, foreign influencers, and appeasement politics that undermine India on global platforms.
The continuity is stark. Then: a party structured to manage Indians for imperial convenience ... Now: a party that questions India’s institutions, doubts India’s democracy abroad, and weakens India’s resolve at home".
The Congress project hasn’t changed—only the masters have, says Bhandari.
Now, take RSS and look at its journey.
In circa 2025; as the RSS crossed 100 years milestone; one issue that came into fore is the emergence of a Hindu identity. It challenges the British and the perceived Nehruvian concept that India is or was a 'nation in making' since 1947.
The Sangh fountainhead take away is -- Bharat is already a Civilisation (state) and hence the 'nation in making' concept is a pure misnomer.
But there may be another view that in today's India -- the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi do not find resonance in public life. And then the obvious question - Has the Godse mindset taken over ?
This new query is not actually new but it can be answered by the right wingers that the making of Pluralism a casualty is also a gift of Sickularism.
This is not to justify the attacks by the Bajrang Dal and the like against religious minorities especially Muslims and Christians. But the distorted Secularism (which I say Sickularism) has harmed India's true pluralism a lot. That kind of secularism used to mock at Hindus, Hindu rituals and also deities.
Paradoxically, most of it came from Hindus or rather Hindu leaders. For example, Lalu Prasad had sought 'land patta' (document) in the name of Ram in Ayodhya.
The Congress called Ram a myth. But there is again technically non-Hindu like Rahul Gandhi - who claims he is a Brahmin only guided by political compulsions.
If some Hindus talk about 'Hindu assertion' and some have turned 'radical' in some ways - thanks to this politics of Muslim appeasement.
The RSS says it has been unnecessarily subjected to criticism in the name of Nathuram Godse. One of the first persons who denounced Godse according to them was Guruji Golwalkar who called the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi a "heinous act" committed by a "thoughtless perverted soul" and a "vile act".
This name (Godse) would be that was a "blot on our Society in the eyes of the world".
He also emphasized that the attack was a "treacherous" act not just against an individual, but the whole country, and that the nation had sustained an immense loss.
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| Golwalkar |
In other words --- the RSS's journey is seen as a testament to selfless service, national unity, and cultural strength, while it remains a significant, influential, and sometimes controversial force in India's socio-political landscape.
The RSS website declares --
"Since 1925 the Sangh has come a long way to become the only ever-growing movement of Bharat. However this epic journey is not without its ups and downs. Sangh has subdued many challenges by silently working at the grass root level, by person to person contact and heart to heart dialogue.
The initiatives of different times were different, ranging from struggle to save democracy in emergency period to a very strong initiative of social service projects in last few decades, but the impact was cumulative."
RSS says :
Mahatma Gandhi himself was against conversion ( an issue flagged off by Christians from time to time).
"Gandhi ji said conversion is a form of violence because all forms of worship are good and must be respected".
** Founded in 1925 -- the RSS reached as many as 125 places in India by 1940
*** In 2025 December - RSS has 83,000 Shakhas
-- 32 associated organisations
Ends
**** RSS counters Nehruvian/British argument that - India is a 'nation in the making'.
# It negates Left proposition that India is 'never a nation' but only a structured modern state.
## RSS insists -- It's an ancient Civilizational land - that is Bharat Varsha.
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