Mohan Bhagwat: India must use power to ‘eradicate wickedness' in neighbourhood … Hindu Rashtra is RSS's eternal thought

Indian Express

25-05-2025

Anything that the RSS does, it has to do so keeping in mind that India is a Hindu Rashtra and that is the 'eternal thought' of the organisation, RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat said in an interview to Organiser and Panchjanya, weeklies linked to the organisation, published on Sunday. Bhagwat also batted for using power to 'eradicate wickedness' in India's neighbourhood and using the strength of the Hindu society for their protection against persecution in certain countries.
'What is nitya in the Sangh? Balasaheb once said, 'Hindustan is a Hindu Rashtra.' Apart from this, everything else in the Sangh is transient. The entire Hindu society is the accountable custodian of this nation. The nature and sanskriti of this country are Hindu. Therefore, this is a Hindu Rashtra,' Bhagwat said.
According to the RSS chief, everything has to be done while maintaining this core idea. 'Hence, the Sangh swayamsevak, while taking the oath, explicitly states: 'The all-round development of the Hindu Rashtra while protecting the sacred Hindu Dharma, Hindu Sanskriti and Hindu society,'' Bhagwat said.
The RSS chief, however, said there was complete freedom to express diverse and conflicting opinions. 'The eternal is preserved; the transient evolves with time, space, and context,' he added.
In the backdrop of the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent response from India in Operation Sindoor, Bhagwat articulated his thoughts on national security. According to him, India must worship both virtues and strength. 'For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, should be the nature of our power. When no option is available, then wickedness has to be eradicated forcefully. We have no option but to be powerful, as we have been witnessing the wickedness of the evil forces on all our borders.'
Following Operation Sindoor, the RSS chief had lauded the government on the military action against terrorist bases in Pakistan and said the strikes were inevitable for India's security. The military strikes were something that had 'enhanced the self-respect and morale of the whole country', he added.
Referring to alleged atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government last year, Bhagwat said, 'Someone will worry about Hindus only when Hindus are strong enough. As Hindu society and Bharat are intertwined, the glorious nature of Hindu society will bring glory to Bharat. Such a strong Hindu society can only present a model for taking along the people of Bharat who do not consider themselves Hindus, as at one point they were also Hindus,' he said.
According to the RSS chief, if India's Hindu society becomes strong, then Hindus will automatically gain strength globally. 'This work is going on, but it is not yet complete. Slowly but surely, that situation is evolving. This time, the way anguish against the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh has been expressed is unprecedented. Even Local Hindus now say, 'We won't flee. We'll stay and fight for our rights,'' Bhagwat said.
'Now, the internal strength of the Hindu society is increasing. As the organisation grows, its impact will translate naturally. Until then, we must keep fighting,' he added.
Bhagwat said the world was waiting for India to show a new path and that it was a 'divine duty'.
'The world is waiting for a new path and Bharat, meaning Hindu society, has to provide it as a divine duty. Agricultural, industrial and scientific revolutions are over. Now the world needs a dharmic revolution — I am not talking about religion, but based on human life has to be reorganised based on truth, purity, compassion, and austerity,' he said.
Bhagwat's interview was conducted in the context of the RSS centenary this year. On the qualitative expansion of the organisation, he said, 'The qualitative and quantitative dimensions are not exclusive to each other; if you neglect one, the other will diminish over a period of time. That's why the Sangh from day one has decided to organise the entire society, that is, quantitative expansion encompassing all. But this 'organising' has a specific meaning and content.
'We have devised certain standards for developing a person as per his temperament and how such individuals should work collectively with the sense of 'we' to function as an organisation. We have to grow without breaking the standards or compromising with them, but that does not mean excluding people from the organisation.'
The RSS chief spoke in detail about a socialist leader joining the organisation a few decades ago and struggling with his chain-smoking habit. He narrated how the organisation persuaded the leader to quit after allowing him to smoke a bit.
'Accept people as they are. We have this flexibility. At the same time, we also have the art of affection to transform him as per the need. We have such courage and strength. This is the reason we've grown while sustaining quality. We want quality in the organisation, but we also keep in mind that we have to qualitatively transform the entire society,' Bhagwat said.