Inside India’s RSS: the secretive group of hardcore Hindus dedicated to Narendra Modi’s re-election

They’re known as the RSS – a force of more than 4 million volunteers devoted to the re-election of India’s hardline Hindu prime minister.

But the power of the secretive, all-male Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stretches way beyond dusty villages and sprawling urban centres. More members of the group, founded in 1925, are in the top ranks of government than ever before – including India’s president and vice-president, the head of the ruling party and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who joined its children’s unit when he was eight years old.

With its affiliates, the RSS is recognised as one of the world’s largest non-government associations – and it’s also the ideological mentor of Modi’s ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For three days last month, key RSS functionaries from all over the country gathered for their annual conclave in Gwalior in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to discuss their core tenet: the protection of Hindu traditions and beliefs.

It set the tone of the agenda for the next BJP government. Priorities include the construction of a Hindu temple at the disputed site of Ayodhya, a uniform civil code for all religions and the abolition of special status for Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. All these were featured in the BJP’s election manifesto unveiled on Monday.

For Modi, the RSS also serves another function: It operates one of the country’s most effective get-out-the-vote operations. The group’s support, which hasn’t always been a guarantee for the BJP, could determine whether Modi stays on for another five-year term after votes are counted on May 23.

“Whatever we did in 2014 election, we will do this time also,” Alok Kumar, acting president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an affiliate organisation of RSS, said at the Gwalior conclave. “We will try for 100 per cent polling to strengthen the Hindu forces.”

Other key RSS members, some of whom asked not to be identified, confirmed the group would support the BJP in force as voters head to the polls in the weeks ahead.