The RSS, formed in 1925, is marking its 100th anniversary on October 22, 2025. Its politics has been Hindutva, and it aims at a Hindu Nation. Its pledge, an oath taken by its volunteers, commits them to remain loyal to the Hindu nation. It set up shakhas at a rapid pace; a shakha (branch) is the basic unit of RSS.

In these shakhas, young boys, initially, and then people of all ages, play Indian games like Kaddadi and Kho-Kho. They are ideologically brainwashed, which is called shakha bauddhik (intellectual session). This training program is pervasive and runs for varying periods. It is an exclusively male organisation; for women, there is a subordinate Rashtra Sevika Samiti. Note the absence of the word swayam (self) here in the name of the women's organisation.

Shakha narrations glorify Hindu kings like Chhatrapati Shivaji and Rana Pratap, while villainising Muslim kings as cruel. The seeds for hatred against Muslims are sown here. It has a vast spread, 83,000 shakhas, lakhs of swayamsevaks, and hundreds of pracharaks have influenced the social thinking and created intense hate against Muslims, and over the last few decades, against Christians as well.

Its centenary celebrations began with three lecture series by its Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi (August 26, 27, 28, 2025). Bhagwat will also be giving lectures in three other metro cities. In his three lectures in Delhi, he refuted his own and Modi's rumoured retirement. He also asked that, since population growth is declining, couples should adopt a three-child norm to counter the imaginary fear that Muslims will become a majority in the country.

The core part of the lectures was to define "Hindu" to incorporate Muslims and Christians into its definition. We have witnessed in society the marginalisation and ghettoisation of Muslims and 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."

While the word "Hindu" originated as a geographical category for all those living east of Sindh, it gradually came to encompass all the religious traditions prevalent in this region, including Brahmanism, Nath, Tantra, Siddha, and Ajivikas, which were collectively lumped together as a single religious category. This religious category has become stronger over the last two centuries, although Ambedkar noted that Brahmanism is the dominant tradition in Hinduism. Today, Hinduism is primarily a religious category, though it began as a geographical one.

One recalls that Hinduism comprises many sects. Savarkar, the one who articulated the two-nation theory in his book 'Essentials of Hinduism,' defines a Hindu as one who regards this land, spanning from the Indus to the sea, as pitrabhumi (fatherland) and punyabhumi (sacred land).

Later, when Murli Manohar Joshi became the President of the BJP in 1990, he called all Indians Hindus, Muslims being Ahmadiyya Hindus, and Christians being Christi Hindus. It was an initial attempt to impose Hindu identity on these minorities.

Now Bhagwat takes it further to say that Hindavi, Bhartiya and Sanatan are synonyms. They have been used interchangeably. The word "sanatan" only means eternal. In Hinduism, the holy books, the rituals, and holy places are all different from those of Muslims and Christians. The Christians and Muslims cannot identify with the religious term Hindu.

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 practised by Mahatma Gandhi, who was murdered by a person who had his training in RSS shakhas, Nathuram Godse. At another level, these definitions can also apply to many devout followers of various religions.

The claim that RSS is meant for all Hindus falls flat when we see that it is an exclusively male organisation. Its major narratives about history are built around hate against Muslims and Christians. Most of the RSS ideologues and Savarkar uphold Manusmriti, which is highly discriminatory against women, Dalits and other backwards classes. Bhagwat attempts to downplay this in his lectures by claiming that these holy scriptures were written in a particular context, while all major ideologies have differing perspectives on this. Exclusion of other religions, the lower 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 the BJP, the electoral political progeny, in the Lok Sabha. There is not a single elected Muslim or Christian MP from the 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. Special Intensive Revision in Bihar is yet another attempt at exclusion of poor and marginalised sections of society.

These three lectures, in a way, clearly outlined RSS's ongoing agenda of imposing Hindu identity on all Indians. Hindu religious identity is being presented in a very clever manner as a national identity.