India’s problem isn’t just Modi - It’s what's behind him that needs to be understood

Modi is the product of the RSS - a right-wing nationalist organisation that takes its intellectual heritage from Adolf Hitler. It is a movement that has many ‘Modis’ waiting to succeed the incumbent.

May 10, 2025

India’s attack on Pakistan has increased the threat of an escalating conflict between the two nuclear powered neighbours.

Narendra Modi is characterised in the west as one of the world’s populist leaders - like Donald Trump, Victor Orbán or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Like Trump and Orbán he has a distinct nationalist streak in him. Yet the problems within India and in relation to Kashmir and Pakistan are greater than one man.

There is an ideology and an organisation that Modi emerged from, that has spread across India, and has presence around the world.

The RSS - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - meaning 'National Volunteer Union' or 'National Volunteer Corps’ - is a right-wing nationalist ‘volunteer’ organisation that has been accused of having paramilitary activities - and whose intellectual heritage was influenced by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi’s philosophy.

Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, was a member of the RSS - though some have disputed whether the organisation was involved in the murder.

Like many in societies dominated by nationalism, there will be a core of people who say welcome the political ideology where their ‘tribe’ seeks to dominate others. However, the ‘others’ face persecution and injustice.

Moreover, nationalism - when empowered in a state - rarely remains confines itself to its own borders. It seeks to expand and dominate others on the grounds that either they must dominate or be dominated.

What is the RSS?

The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. It claimed that its aim was to defend Hindus and to ensure their domination over India, the movement RSS was founded in 1925 by individuals from the Brahmin caste (the top caste in their hierarchy). Their ideas were borne out of an inferiority complex in relations to Muslims – and wanted to mimic some qualities they perceived as contributing to Muslim strength – for example the intense sense of community, but feared their weakness in relation to the fact that Muslims existed across Europe, Africa and Asia.

Under their second head, M.S Golwalkar (who also co-founded the militant VHP), the RSS became a pan-India organisation. Golwalkar popularised the term ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu Nation), and focussed on the intellectual transformation of Hindu society. He saw Hindu society under threat from Western progressive ideas – including democracy, instead thinking that society worked best when run along caste lines. He defined India as a nation from the oceans to the Himalayas – unifying religion with nationalism by referring to India as ‘Bharat Mata’ (Mother India) and considering it most sacred land. Hence, he characterised partition as cutting up one’s mother. He considered that Muslims and Christians were not proper Indians. Under his leadership, ideas of extreme hatred towards Muslims increased. He wrote admiringly of Nazi Germany’s quest for racial purity.

Over many years the movement spread, taking over schools, colleges, labour unions, farmer unions and eventually into politics.

Its supporters characterises it as a welfare and social organisation. However, others describe it like the Nazi party and Hitler Youth, prior to assuming power.

Some countries have talked about banning it.

What is the link to Hitler and Nazism?

The RSS’s founder, Hedgewar, was deeply influenced by Vinayak Savarkar (d. 1966) – an atheist, who was influenced by Nazi and Italian fascism, and who supported Hitler’s policy towards Jews. He exploited the Hindu identity in India, uniting around a shared motherland, ancestry and culture so as to exclude Muslims and Christians in particular. He was part of the Hindu Nationalist party ‘Hindu Mahasabha’. He was charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Gandhi.

Despite this, Sarvakar is celebrated today on Indian stamps.

Sarvakar has been described as the godfather of ‘Hindutva’.

The website Hindutva watch says -

Hindutva (literally “Hindu-ness”) is a modern political ideology that advocates for Hindu supremacy and seeks to transform India, constitutionally a secular state, into an ethno-religious nation known as the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation). Hindutva is the official platform of the BJP, an extreme right political party in India. Parts of the Indian diaspora, including in the United States, also champion Hindutva (also this). Some scholars define Hindutva as a type of Hindu nationalism, whereas others use “Hindutva” and “Hindu nationalism” as synonyms.

It must be said this ideology is not “Hinduism”. Hinduism as a religion that is said to have existed for around 4000 years. It has approximately one billion followers in India – but is also present in large numbers in Nepal and Sri Lanka – but also in Muslim countries such as Bangladesh (~14 million), Indonesia and Pakistan. Its religious texts are the Vedas, Ramayana , Geeta and Purana – and its worship is focussed on a polytheistic tradition involving millions of ‘gods’.

By contrast the nationalistic ideology called ‘Hindutva’ is a mere century old. It originated in the 1920s, during British rule of India. In 1919, Indian Muslims mobilised to defend the Ottoman Caliphate, which became a focus for anti-imperialist/anti-British sentiment. However, this was said to have provoked an inferiority complex amongst some, who started formulating divisive nationalist ideas. This was coupled with a fall in the proportion of the Hindus in India (from 75% in 1881 to 68% in 1931), which reinforced this inferiority complex amongst some nationalists, who started describing the community, using fear-mongering language, as a ‘dying race’. It was against this background that ‘Hindutva’ emerged.

Comparisons with Zionism

Whether in its nationalism, persecution of ‘others’, expansionist philosophy, victim mentality, rewriting of history, shameless propaganda, bulldozing of houses - many have made comparisons with the ideology that has led to the occupation of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of its people.

BJP – ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’ (meaning Indian Peoples’ Party)

The BJP - the current ruling party in India, led by Narendra Modi - was founded in 1980, following predecessor parties which collapsed (the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and then the Janata Party). They were founded by people who had been influenced by Hedgewar (the founder of the RSS) and Sarvakar (the chief ideologue of the Hindutva), but unlike them had managed to achieve their entry into political life. Initially the BJP’s gains were very localised and modest. They capitalised on the failings of the dominant Congress Party which had led India since partition. Congress was dominated by a Westernised elite class. Yet the liberal direction they were taking did not fit well in India, being a generally conservative society. The BJP has always maintained a close association with the RSS.

Escalating violence against Muslims under the BJP

With political power, the Hindutva ideology increased its violence against Muslims. The BJP backed a campaign to destroy the ancient Babri mosque in Ayodhya, so winning it crucial votes. This escalated some years later with their leader L.K. Advani leading a march on the mosque, with intense anti-Muslim rhetoric leading to attacks on Muslims.

In 1992 the RSS amassed 100,000 BJP and VHP supporters and marched on Ayodhya eventually attacking and demolishing the mosque. Senior BJP politicians like Advani and Vajpayee (a later prime minister of India) were implicated in the demolition. It is estimated that 2000 people died in the subsequent weeks as violence against Muslims spread. (The perpetrators were all later acquitted by the Indian courts in 2020, when the BJP had firmly entrenched itself in government.)

In 2002, under BJP rule in Gujarat, led by Narendra Modi, there was mass violence against Muslims. It is estimated 2000 were killed and 150,000 displaced – with Modi accused of having approved the violence. Rape, mutilation and torture were widespread, with police even giving the addresses of Muslims who were to be attacked.

After Modi secured power in 2014, things went from bad to worse. Muslims have been attacked with impunity across the country. ‘Cow vigilantism’ has spread with impunity. In 2019, Modi’s government changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir, increasing Indian state oppression within it. There is open talk of killing and displacing Muslims and raping their women – by religious leaders and politicians alike.

Muslim journalists who have exposed some of these things have been targeted. Muslim women in Karnataka have been banned from attending college if they wear hijab, and other states are in the process of enacting similar policies. Muslim protestors who opposed the BJP policies have had their home demolished, similar to tactics used by Zionists in occupied Palestine. Indeed The BJP government has enjoyed increasingly close relations with the Zionist occupation, mimicking its tactics in many places. Zionism was similarly launched by a small number of secular nationalistic Jews.

Under BJP rule, courts frequently uphold judgments reinforcing hostile policies and actions, choosing to interpret India’s secular constitution in the most discriminatory way possible.

Nationalism always expands beyond its borders

The approach of Modi’s government in Kashmir and its warlike approach in the past few days should be a warning to all those who care for wellbeing and stability in South Asia and the world in general.

Like Hitler - one cannot expect a regime that carries this ideology to stick to agreements and ceasefires.

The world needs to wake up to this expansionist ideology that seeks influence far and wide.

Abdul Wahid has been active in Muslim affairs in the UK for over 25 years. He has been published on the websites of Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AbdulWahid_X.

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