RSS at 100: The next phase of its evolution should make it more open

Over the past hundred years, despite bans and a political climate that was not conducive to its survival, the RSS has continued to expand

As it turns 100, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) could look back with some satisfaction at having achieved its avowed objective of unifying and awakening the Hindus when it was founded on the Vijayadashami day (September 27) in 1925. That it is also at its mightiest, with its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading the government at the Centre for the past 11 years, and in over a dozen states, and with a former RSS pracharak as the country’s third-longest-serving Prime Minister, is  evidence of the self-proclaimed apolitical Sangh’s electoral success. 

Over the past