From Nagpur to Stanford: RSS enters global censorship zone

NEW DELHI: When a senior RSS official enters the policy tech circles of Stanford University and the strategic think tank ecosystem in Washington, areas where it has long faced scrutiny, the move is less routine than a targeted attempt to challenge the global narrative.RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s visit to the US and Germany in April on the occasion of the Sangh’s centenary needs to be seen in this light. The academic space in the United States, particularly the Ivy League ecosystem, has produced some of the most trenchant criticism of the RSS and Hindutva. In this context, Hosabale’s schedule stands out: a speech at the Stanford-related THRIVE 2026 conference in Silicon Valley, a policy engagement at the Hudson Institute on April 23, interactions with the Indian diaspora, and an interview with NPR.At the Hudson Institute, Hosabel addressed the cognitive battle head-on. “This false propaganda has been going on for decades. They portray the RSS as a Hindu supremacist organization, anti-minorities, anti-women,” he said. In another interaction, he said, “The RSS has been working silently all these years… Now we thought it would be better to reach out. Our words should also become the message.”The Stanford site—THRIVE 2026—is positioned differently, targeting a global technical and academic audience. There, Hosabalay tended to civilized and ethical themes. “We are all part of the same energy source… one planet, one family, one common future,” he said, calling for science and technology to be guided by an ethical framework.The NPR interview, conducted in Washington, had a more directly political statement. “We will not re-establish any Hindu state,” he said.In the United States, ongoing academic and student-led criticism of the Sangh and Hindutva is significant. The Columbia University publication Morningside Post (March 24, 2021) described RSS-related networks as being associated with “ethno-fascist paramilitary groups,” and a 2020 paper in the journal SAGE (From Majoritarianism to Fascism: Indian Education under the Modi Regime, Bhatty and Sundar) described the RSS as having an “umbilical cord” with and aiming to establish a “semi-fascist” ideological project. Hindu rashtra, while the 2021 disbandment of the Global Hindu Faith Conference (backed by multiple Ivy League departments) defined Hinduism as a political ideology distinct from Hinduism and warned of its global implications, triggering a boycott from Indian groups.“RSS’s vision for the next 100 years is to contribute to a sustainable society at all levels, from family to society, with environmental responsibility and underpinned by shared universal values,” said Hosabale, who works with leading German policy institutions such as the German Science and Politics Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and members of the Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin.The outreach also marked a shift in RSS communications strategy. According to a Sangh insider, “the Sangh, an organization that has historically relied on grassroots work and limited global expression,” is now seeking to “engage directly with international opinion makers.”