NAGPUR
\nBrandishing bamboo sticks and chanting patriotic hymns, thousands of uniformed men parade in central India, a striking show of strength by the country\u2019s millions-strong Hindu ultranationalist group.
\nThe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh \u2014 the National Volunteer Organisation, or RSS \u2014 marked its 100th anniversary this month with a grand ceremony at its headquarters in Nagpur.
\nAFP was one of a handful of foreign media outlets granted rare access to the group, which forms the ideological and organisational backbone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power since 2014.
\nLike the 75-year-old prime minister, critics accuse it of eroding the rights of India\u2019s Muslim minority and undermining the secular constitution.
\nAt the parade, RSS volunteers in white shirts, brown trousers and black hats marched, boxed and stretched in time to shrill whistles and barked orders.
\n\u201cForever I bow to thee, loving Motherland! Motherland of us Hindus!\u201d they sang, in a scene that evoked paramilitary drills of the past.
\n\u201cMay my life […] be laid down in thy cause!\u201d
\n\u2018Proud\u2019
\nHindus make up around 80% of India\u2019s 1.4 billion people.
\nFounded in 1925, the RSS calls itself \u201cthe world\u2019s largest organisation\u201d, though it does not give membership figures.
\nAt the heart of its vision is \u201cHindutva\u201d \u2014 the belief that Hindus represent not only a religious group but are India\u2019s true national identity.
\n\u201cThey are willing to fight against those who will come in their way […] that means minorities, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other Hindus who do not subscribe to the idea,\u201d historian Mridula Mukherjee said.
\nRSS chief Mohan Bhagwat uses softer language, saying that minorities were accepted but that they \u201cshould not cause division\u201d.
\nAnant Pophali, 53, said three generations of his family had been involved with the group. \u201cThe RSS made me proud to be an Indian,\u201d the insurance company worker said.
\nBloody origins
\nThe RSS was formed during the imperial rule of the British. But it diverged sharply from that of independence efforts by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party, whose leader Jawaharlal Nehru considered them \u201cfascist by nature\u201d.
\nMukherjee said archives showed \u201ca link between the RSS and fascist movements in Europe\u201d.
\n\u201cThey have said, very clearly, that the way the Nazis were treating the Jews should be the way our own minorities should be treated,\u201d she told AFP.
\nThe RSS does not comment directly on such parallels, but Bhagwat insisted that \u201ctoday we are more acceptable\u201d.
\nThe RSS was an armed Hindu militia during the bloody 1947 partition of India and the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan.
\nHindu extremists blamed Gandhi for breaking India apart. A former RSS member assassinated him in 1948, and the group was banned for nearly two years.
\nBut the RSS rebuilt quietly, focusing on local units known as \u201cshakhas\u201d to recruit. Today, it claims 83,000 of them nationwide, as well as over 50,000 schools and 120,000 social welfare projects.
\nAt a shakha in Nagpur, Alhad Sadachar, 49, said the unit was \u201cmeant to develop togetherness\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAGPUR Brandishing bamboo sticks and chanting patriotic hymns, thousands of uniformed men parade in central India, a striking show of strength by the country\u2019s millions-strong Hindu ultranationalist group. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh \u2014 the National Volunteer Organisation, or RSS \u2014 marked its 100th anniversary this month with a grand ceremony at its headquarters in Nagpur. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-510477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n