On 2 October 2025, when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) celebrated its centenary, the world’s largest volunteer movement should have been hailed for a hundred years of service to society and nation. Instead, in Tamil Nadu, swayamsevaks were detained by police at Porur, Chennai, after holding a peaceful morning shakha inside a school ground. The excuse offered was that they did not have prior permission, following a complaint by the headmaster.

But the timing, on Vijayadashami and on the Sangh’s 100th anniversary, exposes a deeper reality. It was not a matter of administrative routine but of ideological warfare. The DMK government under M.K. Stalin chose to send a message: Hindu organisations, particularly the Sangh, have no space to assert themselves freely in Tamil Nadu.

The RSS was founded in 1925 by Dr Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur. Hedgewar, a doctor and freedom fighter, realised that Bharat’s real weakness was not only colonial oppression but also the disunity, caste divisions, and lack of discipline among Hindus. His vision was an organisation that would unite Hindus beyond caste and region, instil character, and awaken national pride.

The shakha became his innovation: a simple gathering in open fields where swayamsevaks engaged in drills, sang patriotic songs, and shared brotherhood without barriers. No money, no grand speeches, just discipline, devotion, and Dharma. From this small beginning has grown an enormous civilisational ecosystem.

Today, the Sangh influences education through Vidya Bharati schools, runs relief and welfare through Seva Bharati, uplifts tribals through Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, guides students through the ABVP, represents workers through the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and, through its ideological moorings, has nurtured the BJP into India’s ruling party. The RSS is not merely an organisation; it is a movement, a way of life, and a force that connects the past and future of Hindu civilisation.

Yet this force has been the target of relentless suppression. After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, the Congress government led by Nehru banned the........

© News18