Mission Mandir in Ayodhya Accomplished: What Next for RSS?
Dharma flag hoisting at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. (Image UP Info Dept)
The RSS is laying stress more on “assimilation” than “antagonising communities.”
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, November 25, 2025 — With ‘Dharma’ flag hoisting at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) closes a consequential chapter in the journey of the organisation. The Ramjanmabhoomi movement remains the only temple campaign of the RSS till date.
In an address at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi earlier this year, RSS sarsanghchalak (general secretary) Mohan Bhagwat had said that the Ayodhya movement remains the only temple issue taken up by his organisation. He also said that RSS may give moral support for movements to reclaim any other temple places. The message meant that the people are free to take up movements for Kasi in Varanasi and Mathura but the RSS will not directly involve.
The RSS ideologues claim that there is a churn underway within the saffron organisation. The RSS is laying stress more on “assimilation” than “antagonising communities.”
Within the RSS, deliberations are underway on the strength of the politics of Hindutva, which gained force from the Ramjanmabhoomi movement for the Ayodhya temple. Ideologues argue that the politics of Hindutva is now overwhelmed by exigencies of entitlements in electoral politics.
With the RSS’s political offshoot—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—facing a major jolt in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, ideologues in the organisation assert that the politics of economy is on the ascendance in the elections. Uttar Pradesh has been a laboratory of the politics of Hindutva for the BJP for the last two and a half decades.
The BJP also seems sanguine with claims that Muslim women voted for the party and the alliance partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the just concluded Bihar Assembly elections. With data still be distilled, the RSS and the BJP per insiders are growing optimistic with “assimilation” approach for the Muslims.
Bhagwat’s Manipur visit also witnessed him laying more stress on bridging divisions between the Vaishnavite Meitei and Christian Kuki communities in the strife torn state. ‘Samrasta (harmony)’ also happens to be one of the five focus, ‘panchprana,’ area of the RSS.
The RSS ideologues also claim that the organisation is enthused with the growing influence of “Sanatan Dharma” culture. They argue that the outreach to the people outside the broader contour of Sanatan Dharma is yielding positive outcomes.
With the flag hoisting in Ayodhya, the RSS per ideologues may embark on an energised mission for expansion of the “Sanatan Dharma” culture with space for diversity.
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