The year 2025 would be remembered for two significant civilisational milestones — completion of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) turning 100. Both the events are intrinsically linked.

The RSS played a key role in the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement when it was relaunched in 1983. The word ‘relaunched’ has been used to remind readers that it was a civilisational battle that lasted for 500 years before it came to its logical conclusion in 2019 with the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the construction of the temple. The construction of the temple was finally completed this year.

The RSS turned 100 this year on Vijayadashami. It was founded by Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925. Mohan Bhagwat, the current Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, is its sixth Chief Mentor. The five earlier Sarsanghchalaks include Dr Hedgewar, MS Golwalkar, Madhukar Dattatreya Deoras, Professor Rajendra Singh and KS Sudarshan.

The RSS has never witnessed any struggle over change in leadership, which is a unique phenomenon for any 100-year-old organisation. It has also consistently expanded over the last 100 years and is still going strong. The fundamental strength of the RSS is its adaptability, and the reason for that is it does not position itself as an organisation within society but sees itself more as a movement or a flow whose objective is to organise society. Hence, the RSS takes up issues that society is concerned about. It works on these issues from a contemporary perspective.

In this context, it is important to look at how the RSS defines its core philosophy of Hindutva from a contemporary perspective. Three key leaders of the RSS have carefully dwelt on this issue, and their recent thoughts on ‘Hindutva........

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