Thread by @AudreyTruschke

And there we have it, the Hindutva American Foundation defending the RSS, a paramilitary organization that advocates Hindu supremacy, attacks minorities, and repeatedly uses violence to achieve its aims.

A short #THREAD on the RSS

The RSS, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is a paramilitary group founded in 1925.

What was going on in 1925? In India, independence movements, which the RSS largely sat out. The RSS had its eyes trained on Europe and imitated fascist movements, especially in Italy.

Hedgewar was the first head of the RSS. He called the group "Rashtriya", national, because he wanted to make Indian = Hindu. No room for religious minorities or other ways of being Indian. And it gets worse...

The second head of the RSS, Golwalkar, wrote in 1939 admiring Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Germany. He was especially impressed by the Nazi emphasis on singular cultural identity and considered it a good example for how Hindus should treat Indian Muslims.

Think about this.

In the 1940s, Indian independent movements were gaining steam. The RSS sat it out, largely because they were busy imitating the British rather than opposing them (down to the khaki pants).

But Mahatma Gandhi proved an issue...

An RSS man, Nathuram Godse, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. Why? Godse gave an impassioned speech at court on the subject, in which he was quite clear that Gandhi's inclusion of Muslims was what merited his murder.

The RSS is on point here: anti-Muslim and violent.

After Godse murdered Gandhi, the RSS was temporarily banned. It was deemed a threat to the new nation of India.

It was banned a few more times subsequently too. It remains a threat to the constitutionally secular state of India.

To emphasize: For the vast majority of its history, the RSS has opposed the interests of the Indian nation.

Since 2014, things are more complicated because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a lifelong RSS man. It is unsurprising that we've seen a rise in anti-Muslim violence in India since 2014.

Despite messy connections, the RSS remains a non-state entity that does arms training, spews anti-minority hatred, and uses violence.

Think this is an exaggeration? Take it from the horse's mouth. Here's the RSS on its ability to deploy an army: hindustantimes.com/india-news/rss…

By the way, the RSS also sometimes does training camps for foreigners. One of them was attended by Mihir Meghani, who founded HAF (the right-wing Hindutva American Foundation), in the 1990s.

coalitionagainstgenocide.org/reports/2013/c…

The Hindu American Foundation often tries to sweep ties between its board members / founders under the rug, sometimes saying "Oh, it was long ago."

The 1990s were yesterday from a historian's perspective, but also note the following:

HAF doesn't condemn Hindutva / Hindu nationalism.
HAF doesn't call out human rights abuses in India.
HAF's leadership has been relatively consistent, with little turnover since its founding.

HAF's supporters should really ask their leaders some hard questions about these things.