{"id":1755,"date":"2026-08-29T08:31:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/08\/29\/rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-new-york-protests\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T08:31:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:31:55","slug":"rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-new-york-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/08\/29\/rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-new-york-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat\u2019s New York appearance sparks protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>India\u2019s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is set to travel to the United States this week for a high\u2011profile speaking engagement at Madison Square Garden in New York. The event, titled the \u201cUniversal Oneness Celebration,\u201d is scheduled for Saturday from 2:00\u202fp.m. to 3:30\u202fp.m. local time (19:00\u201121:30\u202fGMT) and is expected to attract more than 5,000 participants, including leaders from multiple faith traditions.<\/p>\n<h2>Event details and organizers<\/h2>\n<p>The gathering is being organized by the American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue (AHEAD) Forum, a nonprofit that describes its mission as building bridges between communities worldwide through understanding and mutual respect. According to AHEAD\u2019s website, the celebration will promote \u201cdiversity, dialogue, and the timeless Indian philosophy of\u202fVasudhaiva\u202fKutumbakam,\u201d a Sanskrit phrase meaning \u201cthe world is one family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AHEAD Forum was incorporated as a nonprofit in May\u202f2025 and filed for tax\u2011exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service in September\u202f2025. The organization\u2019s most recent tax filing shows revenue of $61,409, entirely from contributions, and assets valued at $61,124. The nonprofit lists three directors \u2013 Sudesh Agrawal, Naresh Rajanna and Rasita Vishnuram \u2013 and identifies Harish\u202fKandpal as its bookkeeper. Earlier filings indicated Khanderao\u202fKand, a long\u2011time U.S. leader of the RSS overseas wing, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), as the bookkeeper and the organization\u2019s original address. The California nonprofit registry records show the bookkeeper\u2019s address was changed to Kandpal\u2019s in March\u202f2026 after investigative reporting highlighted Kand\u2019s RSS connections.<\/p>\n<p>Senior RSS functionary Sunil Ambekar has defended the event, calling it an \u201cinterfaith gathering\u201d in which Bhagwat will \u201ccommunicate with a diverse, multicultural and multi\u2011faith audience.\u201d The AHEAD Forum maintains that the celebration seeks to showcase intercultural understanding, though its website does not disclose the identities of individuals behind the group.<\/p>\n<h2>Criticism and political context<\/h2>\n<p>The planned appearance has drawn sharp opposition from a range of activists, politicians and human\u2011rights organizations in New\u202fYork. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city\u2019s first Indian\u2011American mayor, told local media that he does not support the event and described the RSS\u2019s ideology as \u201cexclusionary.\u201d Mamdani, who grew up in India, said the country was \u201ca pluralistic society of a secular Republic\u201d and expressed concern about a movement predicated on an exclusionary vision. He added that, as mayor, he was unsure whether he could halt a privately organized event.<\/p>\n<p>Hindus for Human Rights, a U.S. advocacy group, issued a statement on August\u202f19 through its deputy executive director Sravya\u202fTadepalli, asserting that \u201cMohan Bhagwat does not represent Hindus. He represents the fringe, extremist Hindu nationalist movement, which has engaged in hate and violence against religious minority communities for a century.\u201d The statement also referenced the 1939 Nazi rally once held at Madison Square Garden, arguing that the venue should not repeat history by hosting a rally for a leader of \u201cHindu nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Academic commentary adds to the controversy. Apoorvanand, a Hindi professor at the University of Delhi who contributes literary and cultural criticism, told Al\u202fJazeera that the event\u2019s \u201cunity\u201d messaging is in fact a call for \u201cHindu unity,\u201d and that the RSS seeks \u201cHindu unity against Muslims and Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Background on the RSS and rising tensions<\/h2>\n<p>The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was founded in 1925 by physician and Hindu nationalist Keshav\u202fBaliram\u202fHedgewar in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Described as a right\u2011wing Hindu volunteer organization, the RSS operates schools, hospitals, magazines and publishing houses to advance the ideology of Hindutva \u2013 a vision that aims to reshape India from a constitutionally secular state into a Hindu nation. The RSS identifies itself as a \u201cHindu\u2011centric civilisational, cultural movement\u201d and is widely regarded as the ideological mothership of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n<p>The organization has faced bans in India, notably in 1948 after a former RSS member assassinated independence leader Mahatma\u202fGandhi. Today, the RSS leads a network of more than 2,500 right\u2011wing Hindu organizations, collectively known as the Sangh\u202fParivar (\u201cRSS family\u201d). Mohan\u202fBhagwat, born in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, joined the RSS in 1975 and was appointed chief in March\u202f2009.<\/p>\n<p>Human\u2011rights observers note a sharp increase in religious\u2011based violence in India in recent years. Since 2015, several Muslim individuals have been lynched by mobs over cattle\u2011related disputes or accusations of consuming beef. Hate crimes against Christians have also risen, with the India Hate Lab reporting that incidents of anti\u2011Christian hate speech grew from 115 in 2024 to 162 in 2025 \u2013 a 41\u202fpercent increase.<\/p>\n<p>These domestic developments have intensified scrutiny of the RSS\u2019s overseas activities, including the New\u202fYork event. Critics argue that a platform that celebrates \u201cuniversal oneness\u201d while being headlined by the RSS chief risks normalizing a movement accused of fostering exclusionary and majoritarian policies in India.<\/p>\n<p>As the Saturday gathering approaches, organizers maintain that the celebration will be an inclusive, interfaith forum, while opponents continue to call for broader awareness of the RSS\u2019s historical record and its alleged role in communal tensions both in India and among diaspora communities.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will speak at a \u201cUniversal Oneness Celebration\u201d in Madison Square Garden, drawing over 5,000 attendees amid sharp criticism from New York officials and human\u2011rights groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[1679,1680,1677,1678,1671],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hindutva","tag-human-rights","tag-mohan-bhagwat","tag-new-york","tag-rss","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}