RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat runs into a counter-campaign in United States

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, now in New York on the first leg of his three-nation trip for global outreach marking the Sangh’s centenary, has faced a robust campaign opposing his visit. Bhagwat is also due to visit Canada and the UK as part of the public relations outreach. More than 1,000 Americans have called on the US to revoke Bhagwat’s visa. Hundreds of appeals have also been made to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani to cancel Bhagwat’s rally at Madison Square Garden on 29 August.

A section of the Indian diaspora in the US, including the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian Overseas Congress, USA, along with other organisations, has launched a campaign to sensitise US policymakers, business leaders and community leaders about the RSS’s controversial past.

Indeed, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan commission created by the US Congress to monitor religious freedom worldwide, recommended targeted sanctions against the RSS in its 2026 annual report. It called for freezing US-based assets and barring responsible individuals from entering the US. ‘American institutions should ask why an organisation facing such an extraordinary recommendation from USCIRF is simultaneously being offered platforms, political access and legitimacy in the United States,’ the Indian Overseas Congress said in a statement.

Kshama Sawant, a Democratic Socialist running for the US Congress, expressed disappointment over New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s failure to cancel Bhagwat’s event on Saturday. Mamdani said that while he was proud of a secular and inclusive India, where his mother’s family continues to live, he did not have the authority to cancel a private rally.

Sawant, in a post on X, said: ‘During my decade as the lone socialist on the Seattle City Council, I used my office to build movements to win the nation’s first resolution condemning anti-Muslim, anti-poor citizenship laws by Modi and the BJP-RSS. I also won the first and only ban on caste-based discrimination outside South Asia. The Modi regime is retaliating against me by refusing to grant me a visa to visit my mother and family in India.’ She also warned Americans about the RSS’s fascist roots and attacks on minorities in India that she said are condoned and encouraged by the organisation.

Several groups in the US have highlighted the Hindu organisation’s alleged involvement in ‘acts of extreme violence and intolerance’ against religious minorities. Bhagwat was the RSS general secretary during the 2002 Gujarat violence. Human Rights Watch named the RSS among the groups ‘most directly responsible’ for the anti-Muslim violence, which killed around 2,000 people. ‘Mohan Bhagwat does not represent Indian Americans, and Madison Square Garden should not present him as though he does,’ IAMC president Mohammed Jawad said.

Sawant has been scathing in her opposition to the visit. ‘The BJP-RSS leaders and the billionaire class in India have built close links with the genocidal and apartheid state of Israel. Israeli Pegasus spyware has been used to carry out shocking levels of surveillance of Indian activists, public officials and independent journalists. By refusing to use his mayoral position to cancel the event and condemn Bhagwat and the RSS, Mamdani is failing to stand with Muslims and other oppressed communities in India and with the Palestinian people,’ she said on X.

The Indian Overseas Congress, USA, in a statement, expressed concern over the RSS chief’s US tour and the growing effort to present the RSS to Americans as a benign cultural organisation promoting ‘universal oneness’. Reiterating that ‘our criticism is directed not against Hinduism or Hindus, but against the political weaponisation of religious identity’, the IOC statement recalled the 1999 murder of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines.

“Churches and Christian organisations have reported attacks on places of worship, disruption of prayer meetings, harassment and imprisonment of clergy, and allegations that ordinary religious activity constitutes forced conversion. Muslims have faced inflammatory rhetoric, the bulldozing of their residences, communal polarisation and discriminatory treatment. Dalits, Adivasis and other vulnerable communities continue to struggle for dignity and equality,” the statement added.

Stating that the United States must not become another battleground for importing India’s religious divisions, the IOCUSA statement pointed to some members of the Indian American community promoting majoritarian ideologies in the US while enjoying the freedoms and protections guaranteed by the American constitutional system. George Abraham, vice-chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, USA, warned against importing ideological conflicts into the United States.

“We must not allow the politics of religious hatred to take root within our diaspora. It will divide our temples, churches, mosques, gurdwaras, associations, neighbourhoods and eventually our children. Whatever our political differences, the Indian American community must not become an overseas battlefield for groups aiming to polarise India along religious lines,” Abraham said.