From Space Scientists to Nobel Laureates: The Luminaries Who Have Graced the RSS Vijayadashami Utsav

For nearly a century, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s foundation-day celebration in Nagpur has drawn guests from industry, science, the arts, social service and the highest constitutional offices of India. As the Sangh closes its centenary year, here is a look at who has stood on the Reshimbagh stage, and why the occasion matters.

A foundation day like no other

Every year on Vijayadashami, the festival also known as Dussehra, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) holds its principal annual celebration at its headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The date is not incidental. Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur on Vijayadashami, 27 September 1925, and the Sangh has marked its foundation day on the festival ever since.The tradition of inviting a distinguished guest is almost as old as the organisation itself. According to the RSS, guests have attended the Vijayadashami Utsav since 1933, when the chief guest was the Bhonsle Raja of Nagpur, Fateh Singh Rao. Since 1995, the celebration has been held at the Reshimbagh ground in Nagpur.

In recent years the guest list has read like a cross-section of Indian achievement: a former President, a Nobel Peace laureate, a former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a pioneer of India’s IT industry, a celebrated composer and a record-setting mountaineer.

2026: Closing the centenary year

The Vijayadashami Utsav on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, will mark the close of the RSS’s centenary year. The programme begins at 7:40 am at Reshimbagh, and Dainik Jagran Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Gupta will be the chief guest. Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat will deliver the annual address. Gupta is also a whole-time director of Jagran Prakashan, the Indian media conglomerate whose flagship publication is Dainik Jagran, one of the most widely read Hindi dailies in the country. He has been a director of the company since 1993.

Former Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar has been invited as a guest for the occasion. Dhankhar served as Vice President from 2022 to July 2025, and before that as Governor of West Bengal from 2019 to 2022. A lawyer by profession, he was also a Union minister in 1990–91. Yaniv Revach, Israel’s Consul General for Mid-West India, is also among the invited guests.

2025: A former President opens the........

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