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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS Flag
Founder(s) Dr K B Hedgewar
Type Volunteer organisation
Founded 1925
Location India
Members estimated at 2.5 to 6 million[1]
Website Rssonnet.org
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) (Hindi: राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ), (National Volunteer Organization[2] or National Patriotism Organization[3]), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu natio
nalist, paramilitary,[4] volunteer,[5] and allegedly militant [6][7][8][9][10][11] organization in India. RSS is a part of the umbrella group of Hindu nationalist organisations – Sangh Parivar.[4] It was founded in 1925 by Dr. K. Hedgewar, a doctor from Nagpur, as a social and cultural organisation in British India,[5] to oppose both British colonialism in India and Muslim separatism.[18]
RSS volunteers participated in various political and social movements including the freedom movement[5] and the organization became the leading Hindu nationalist organization in India.[18] By the 1990s, the group had established numerous schools, charities and clubs to propagate its ideology.[18] RSS volunteers are also known for their role in the relief and rehabilitation work during natural calamities[19] and for running more than 100,000 service programs in education, health care, rural development, tribal emancipation, village self-sufficiency, Farming Programmes in rural India and the rehabilitation of lepers and special needs children.[20][21][22]
Some critics have referred to the RSS as a Hindu nationalist organization.[1][23][24][25] It was banned by the British,[18] and then after independence three times by the Government of India- first in 1948 when Nathuram Godse, a former member[citation needed], assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.;[18][26][27] then during emergency(1975–1978) and after Demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.
