The largest right-wing group in the world is in India.
That group is an all-male, Hindu nationalist organisation called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, better known by its acronym, the RSS. Its goal, critics say, is to undo the founding fathers’ vision of India as a secular country home to people of many faiths.
Some members and affiliates have been implicated in or accused of instigating attacks against India’s Muslim and Christian minorities. Famously, a former RSS member assassinated Mohandas Gandhi in 1948.
Critics contend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is hostile to Muslims in particular and borrows from the organisation’s Hindu nationalist ideology.
The movement’s leaders rarely speak to the Western press, so it was surprising when a lobbyist representing one of those leaders asked NPR to arrange an interview. The RSS general secretary — effectively the organisation’s second in command — Dattatreya Hosabale, was in Washington, D.C., this week for a talk at the conservative Hudson Institute.
NPR’s Rob Schmitz spoke with Hosabale to learn why he was in the nation’s capital and why he agreed to meet with the press.
Listen to the full interview by clicking on the blue play button above.
