Mumbai (AsiaNews) – A trip to the United States by the leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – a long-standing organisation of Hindu nationalists, often accused of promoting violence and intimidation against Christians in India – once again brings to the fore the issue of attempts by Hindu fundamentalism to take root even within diaspora communities.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the US government to impose financial sanctions and travel bans on Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose visit is set to culminate in an event scheduled for 29 August in New York.
The findings of the 2026 report
The USCIRF has called for the withdrawal of diplomatic courtesies, citing alleged violations of religious freedom – a move that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed as “biased and selective”. The RSS is an organisation politically very close to the BJP, Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.
Indeed, in its latest report of March 2026, the USCIRF recommended that the US government designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” due to what it described as ongoing and serious violations of religious freedom. The commission cited discriminatory laws and policies, violence and intimidation against religious minorities, and what it termed official tolerance of such abuses.
The USCIRF had also called for targeted sanctions against individuals and entities deemed responsible for, or complicit in, serious violations of religious freedom. Among these is, in fact, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The recommended measures include the freezing of assets under US jurisdiction and the imposition of visa or entry restrictions on those affected.
The USCIRF’s recommendations do not automatically lead to the imposition of sanctions: the commission is an independent, bipartisan US federal advisory body, and its annual reports are recommendations addressed to the US government. Any measures would need to be formally adopted and implemented by the relevant US authorities in accordance with applicable US laws.
But regardless of the Trump administration’s eventual decisions, Mohan Bhagwat’s visit is causing a great deal of debate within the Indian diaspora communities in the United States. Savera, a coalition of organisations of Indian origin in the United States that campaigns against the infiltration of the Hindutva supremacist ideology, has openly opposed the visit. Savera has published an investigation detailing the RSS’s attempt to bolster and rehabilitate its international image through this trip.
The event at Madison Square Garden
The main event, titled “Universal Unity”, is scheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York on 29 August and is expected to attract thousands of participants.
It is being organised by AHEAD (American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue), which presents itself as an independent and recently established organisation; however, the report documents its very close network of ties with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), considered the US arm of the RSS.
Savera shines a particular spotlight on Saumitra Gokhale, described as the RSS’s chief official for international activities. In the HSS’s tax documents, Gokhale is formally listed as a “yoga instructor”, with a salary of around $36,000 a year.
The authors state, however, that they have found no documentation to substantiate this role. On the contrary, biographies and publications within RSS circles describe him as an engineer, an official of the RSS and the global coordinator of the HSS.
Gokhale is reportedly in fact the “Vishwa Vibhag samyojak”, that is, the coordinator of the Vishwa Vibhag, the RSS department responsible for overseas relations and activities. He is said to have taken up this post in 2011, having been posted abroad as early as 1999 and having held posts in the Americas since 2004. His role, according to the authors, is therefore much more significant than the professional title listed in the tax documents would suggest.
The RSS’s international network
The investigation also traces the history of the Vishwa Vibhag, claiming that the department has existed since the 1940s and has been led by only a handful of high-ranking RSS officials. Gokhale is said to be the fourth coordinator in the organisation’s history.
His international activities are said to be documented by numerous trips to North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, which the authors interpret as part of the coordination of the RSS’s global network.
Finally, the report argues that the RSS’s alleged discretion regarding its international activities is no coincidence. The authors see a contradiction between the organisation’s strongly nationalist ideology and the construction of a transnational network.
The formal separation between the RSS, the HSS and diaspora organisations would, according to this interpretation, allow for a certain political and legal distance to be maintained, making it more difficult to attribute activities carried out abroad directly to the RSS.
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