India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the Hindu far right, says it is organising visits to the United States and other Western countries to bolster its public image globally and dispel claims it is involved in violence against religious minority groups in India.The visits announced on Tuesday come amid international criticism regarding minority rights in India and a few months after a US federal agency published a report accusing the group of carrying out acts of violence against minorities for decades.Here is more about the RSS, and what’s behind the visits to Western nations.What is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh?The RSS is a right-wing Hindu volunteer organisation founded in 1925 by physician and Hindu nationalist Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, modern-day Maharashtra.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, sometimes called the Sangh for short, is Hindi for National Volunteer Organisation.The RSS works across society, operating schools, hospitals, magazines and publishing houses, to advocate for the idea of Hindutva, a Hindu supremacist idea that aims to turn India from a constitutionally secular state into a Hindu one.The RSS describes itself as a “Hindu-centric civilisational, cultural movement” that aims to “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory”. It leads a network of more than 2,500 right-wing Hindu organisations called the Sangh Parivar, Hindi for RSS family.“RSS is known as a fascist organisation because if you look at the writings of the first ideologues of RSS, they bring inspiration from Mussolini and Hitler,” Apoorvanand, a Hindi prof …
