Mainstream WeeklyIt is surprising that RSS is not a registered organisation even after 100 years of its existence. What is even more surprising is that the Congress Party which ruled India for so many years did not insist upon this basic requirement of a rule-based society. Leave aside the Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel who had expressed his appreciation for its role in refugee relief during the Partition days, even Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was avowedly anti-RSS, did not raise this basic question.
Now that for the first time the question has been officially asked by the Congress-led state government of Karnataka the matter has assumed a serious proportion. In a letter dated June 13, 2026, addressed to the RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat, the Home Minister of Karnataka, Priyank Kharge, wrote that ‘the RSS must clarify its legal status, registration, office bearers, funding, expenditure, taxation and permissions for public activities…. In its centenary year, the RSS must responsibly abide by the Constitution and register, disclose, pay applicable taxes and function transparently within the Constitution.’
To appreciate the influence the RSS wields in Indian politics the following passage from the book The RSS: A View to the Inside by Walter Andersen & Shridhar Damle (2018) may be handy. It notes: ‘The RSS since the early 1990s [beginning of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement] has grown into one of the world’s largest non-government associations [Narendra Modi was not the first to use the expression], with an estimated 1.5-2 million regular participants in its nearly 57,000 local daily meetings (referred to as shakhas), 14,000 weekly shakhas and 7000 monthly shakhas, taking place across 36,293 different locations nationwide as of 2016. In addition, there are some 6 million alumni and affiliate volunteers.’ In the intervening ten years all these figures have grown exponentially.
The mystery of RSS registration had always intrigued me. More than three years ago I had gotten in touch with above mentioned Andersen and two eminent political scientists, Suhas Palshikar and Christophe Jaffrelot on the subject. But it did not help. But Palshikar guided me to an article published in Nagpur Today dated September 6, 2017. It said inter alia: ‘[I]t has been revealed that RSS is already a registered organisation in Chandrapur [near Nagpur]. After former corporater (sic) of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and social activist Janardhan Moon attempted to register an NGO with the same name, claiming that RSS is not a registered name, the Public Trust Registration office, had announced a hearing in the matter on 8th September. However, raising an objection, social worker and advocate, Rajendra Gundalwar, visited the PTR office with documents supporting the argument that RSS is an already registered name in Chandrapur. Thus, no new registrations shall be made in the same name.’
The newspaper further said: ‘Questions being raised on RSS’s registration is not new. Time and again Congress and other political parties have continued to raise the matter. 92 years after its establishment, it has been discovered that registration of the ‘sangh’ actually belongs to Chandrapur and not Nagpur. As informed by Gundalwar, “RSS is already a registered organisation with registration number 08-D 0018394. The digit code of registration is 94910. The registration has been issued under section 1860 of Indian Government and Society Registration Law 1950.” He has also discussed the case with top officials of RSS.’
Curiously, in the entire present controversy surrounding the mystery of RSS registration neither the RSS nor any of its critics mentioned about this report. On the contrary, Bhagwat is taking refuge under the umbrella of Hindu religion as if Hinduism and RSS are synonyms. Many decades ago, I recall having discussed the question with an RSS sympathiser. His argument was very close to what Bhagwat tells now. He explained that RSS was like a temple where people walk in and walk out without leaving any record of their visits. Is it that simple?
Before I end this essay, one name must be mentioned. It is that of Lalan Singh of Nagpur. His simple query was that if RSS was not a registered organisation, how could its chief be provided with Z-plus state security? He approached the Home Ministry with such questions as what kind of security cover was provided to the RSS chief, since when, and how much money had so far been spent on that. His letter was tossed from one department to another involving the centre, state and the district administration. Ultimately, he was put under the intelligence scanner and barring routine harassment by the police nothing came of his appeal (details in Anand Vardhan Singh’s interview of Lalan Singh on Public India dated 20 February 2025).
(Author: Prof Partha S. Ghosh is a retired faculty member from JNU, New Delhi)