The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

Why is the RSS, the Parent Organization of India’s Ruling BJP, Still Unregistered?

The century-old RSS has always maintained that it is a “body of individuals” that does not need to register and pay taxes.

RSS activists at a training camp in Nagpur, India, on June 4, 2026.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “the world’s largest NGO.” A global database describes its family of organizations as “the largest far-right network in history.” Yet, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological-organizational parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), remains an unregistered entity a hundred years after it was established.

The RSS is neither a trust nor a non-profit. It is not a legal entity and, hence, is free from financial and other scrutiny.

Recently, the Congress, India’s main opposition party, launched a series of attacks on the RSS for its unregistered status. However, the RSS top brass made it clear that they have no intention of registering the organization, as Indian laws do not mandate registration of every association.

The debate around the RSS’s lack of registration is decades old. It resurfaced last year, when it emerged that the RSS had appointed a lobbyist in the United States and spent $330,000 on it.

In June this year, Priyank Kharge, who is the home minister in the Congress-run southern state of Karnataka, revived the issue by demanding that the RSS register itself as an organization, disclose its funding, finances, office-bearers, and operations, and operate with greater transparency. “In a country where even a street vendor must register, temples and Gods must account for every donation received and citizens must file tax returns, how can RSS be exempted?” he asked.

He challenged the RSS to point to the law that exempts them.

The demand carries political weight, as Priyank is not just another Congress minister; he is the son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.

However, the RSS has always maintained that it is a “body of individuals” that does not need to register and pay taxes. RSS helmsman Mohan Bhagwat pointed out that they had fought legal battles earlier when the Income Tax department asked them to pay taxes, but they secured a court ruling in their favor.

The RSS heads the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella grouping of organizations that espouse Hindutva. It is a centrally guided, decentralized but interconnected network of ideologically cohesive organizations. The RSS has no formal membership. Anyone who attends the shakha (the basic unit) is a swayamsevak (volunteer). Shakha gatherings usually involve physical exercises, games, discussions, prayers to the ‘motherland’ and homage to the Bhagwa Dhwaj, the RSS’ saffron flag, for an hour daily.

RSS claims it earns from the gurudakshina (offerings to the guru or teacher) that swayamsevaks offer before a saffron flag on the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima at the shakha. The donation is given in closed envelopes. Only the shakha’s mukhya sikshak, karyavah and gata-nayak, the three usual office-bearers of a shakha, get to know what donations came.

It is, indeed, not mandatory for every organization to be registered. For example, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), India’s oldest surviving human rights organization, founded in 1972, remains unregistered. It has branches in almost every district of the eastern state of West Bengal, India’s fourth-most populous state, where it is based.

“We did not register because APDR was founded as an anti-establishment organization meant to question the State, power and authority,” said Ranjit Sur, an APDR veteran. According to him, registration requires annual reporting not only of financial details but also of all activity. “We knew the government could cancel our registration any moment even if we registered,” Sur told The Diplomat.

Due to the lack of registration, the bank account in the name of APDR was frozen by the authorities in 2020, and the organization was denied a space at the Kolkata International Book Fair last year.

The advantage of the RSS is that it........

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