Mohan Bhagwat at 76: How the RSS Chief Helped Reshape Hindutva Politics
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat during his Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur on Thursday! (Image X.com)
By NIRENDRA DEV
As Mohan Bhagwat turns 76, the RSS chief’s journey from grassroots organiser to the centre of the Sangh Parivar’s political project offers a window into the Ram temple, Article 370 and the BJP-RSS relationship.
New Delhi, September 11, 2026 — As Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat celebrates his birthday on September 11, the more interesting question is not merely how long he has remained at the helm of the Sangh, but how much he has travelled up the ladder of Hindutva politics — and what he has delivered for the wider Sangh Parivar.
Bhagwat became RSS chief in 2009, succeeding K.S. Sudershan. The RSS itself records that Sudershan named Bhagwat as his successor in January 2009.
Since then, the political landscape around the Sangh has changed dramatically.
Several long-standing objectives associated with the broader Hindutva agenda have moved from aspiration to political reality: the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the abrogation of Article 370 and the adoption of Uniform Civil Code legislation in some states.
There is, however, another side to that story.
Without Narendra Modi at the helm of the Union government — and without the political determination displayed by the Prime Minister — it would have been difficult for the wider Hindutva movement and Bhagwat-led RSS to see some of these long-standing objectives translated into policy.
The relationship between Modi and Bhagwat has consequently become one of the defining political equations of contemporary India.
From Sangh Organiser to the Centre of the Hindutva Project
Bhagwat’s rise was not sudden.
His years as a senior RSS functionary, including his work as Akhil Bharatiya Sharirik Pramukh during the 1990s, gave him a deep organisational connect with swayamsevaks. His work in Bihar’s villages during this period also exposed him to grassroots social and political realities.
By 2000, he had moved into a position from which he was increasingly handling complex organisational responsibilities.
Then came 2009.
Bhagwat took charge of the RSS at a difficult moment for the BJP and the wider Sangh Parivar. The BJP had suffered a major setback in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, and the party’s organisational and political relationship with the RSS required reconstruction.
By 2014, however, the picture had changed dramatically.
Bhagwat and other Sangh leaders, along with BJP leaders and organisations associated with the wider Parivar, helped create an unusually coordinated campaign environment for the general election.
The result was the BJP’s historic majority under Modi.
That victory changed Bhagwat’s position within Indian politics.
He was no longer simply the head of an ideological organisation operating alongside the BJP. He had become one of the most consequential figures in the ecosystem that supported the political rise of Narendra Modi.
Ram Temple: Bhagwat Beside Modi
Few images better capture the changing relationship between the RSS and the BJP than Bhagwat standing alongside Modi at the Ram temple milestones.
On August 5, 2020, Bhagwat was present when the foundation stone for the Ram temple was laid in Ayodhya.
He was again present in January 2024 when the Ram temple was inaugurated.
The political spotlight naturally remained on Modi, but the RSS chief’s presence carried its own symbolism.
For generations of Sangh workers, the Ram temple had been one of the defining objectives of the movement.
Its eventual realisation therefore represented not simply a BJP political achievement, but the culmination of a much longer ideological and organisational campaign.
Bhagwat was part of that journey.
Is Bhagwat Modi’s Man — Or Is Modi Also Bhagwat’s Man?
There was once a perception in political circles that Bhagwat was effectively “Modi’s man” within the Sangh ecosystem.
That interpretation now looks increasingly inadequate.
The relationship is better understood as one of mutual dependence and political complementarity.
Modi needs the organisational depth and ideological network of the Sangh Parivar.
The RSS, meanwhile, has found in Modi a political leader capable of converting several long-standing ideological objectives into government policy.
The two therefore supplement each other in ways that are difficult to separate.
The RSS does not run the government.
But neither can the BJP’s political machine be completely understood without acknowledging the organisational and ideological ecosystem created by the Sangh.
Bhagwat Has Also Shown His Displeasure
Yet Bhagwat has never been simply a political cheerleader for the BJP government.
At crucial moments, he has demonstrated that the RSS chief retains his own institutional voice.
Following the 2024 Lok Sabha election, when the BJP’s tally fell from 303 seats in 2019 to 240, Bhagwat delivered remarks that were widely interpreted as a message to the political establishment.
Speaking at an RSS programme in Nagpur in June 2024, he said: “A true sevak maintains decorum while working… There is no arrogance that I did this. Only such a person has the right to be called a sevak.”
Bhagwat also raised Manipur, saying that the state had been waiting for peace for more than a year and that the issue needed priority attention.
He did not name Modi.
But the timing — immediately after an election in which the BJP had lost its single-party majority — made the remarks politically significant.
It was a reminder that the RSS chief can disagree without breaking the relationship.
The Unfinished Hindutva Agenda
If the Ram temple and Article 370 represent major achievements for the wider Hindutva project, Bhagwat’s RSS still faces an unfinished agenda.
The Sangh wants to expand its social base.
That means greater engagement with Dalits, backward classes and communities that have historically remained outside or at the margins of the Sangh’s core social constituency.
This is not simply an electoral calculation.
The BJP and RSS understand that a broader Hindu social coalition is essential for the long-term consolidation of their political and ideological project.
The challenge is also reputational.
The RSS continues to face criticism from opponents who describe the organisation and wider Sangh Parivar as communal.
Bhagwat’s challenge is therefore two-fold: deepen the ideological support base while attempting to change perceptions about what the RSS represents.
The Sangh’s “Hindu Bharat” Project
For the Sangh Parivar, the broader project is not confined to winning elections.
It is about social and cultural transformation.
Bhagwat’s contribution has been to preside over an RSS that has expanded its political relevance without formally becoming a political party.
The BJP contests elections.
The RSS builds cadres, social networks and ideological influence.
The two operate differently but have repeatedly worked in tandem.
When elections arrive — whether in Haryana, Maharashtra or elsewhere — the wider Sangh ecosystem can become a powerful political force without the RSS itself becoming an electoral organisation.
That has been one of Bhagwat’s most important organisational achievements.
Modi’s Tribute Offers Another Window
In 2025, Modi publicly recalled his long association with Bhagwat’s family and praised the RSS chief on his 75th birthday.
The Prime Minister wrote that his association with the Bhagwat family had been deep and recalled his interaction with Bhagwat’s father, Madhukarrao Bhagwat. Modi also highlighted Bhagwat’s lifelong commitment to the Sangh and society.
The relationship between the Prime Minister and the RSS chief is not merely a transactional political arrangement.
It is rooted in a much longer Sangh tradition.
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The Biggest Achievement May Be Organisational
Perhaps the most important achievement of Bhagwat’s tenure is therefore not any single policy.
It is the ability to maintain the Sangh Parivar’s organisational coherence while the BJP has transformed itself into India’s dominant national political force.
The RSS has had to adjust to a BJP that is much larger, electorally stronger and more centralised than it was before 2014.
Bhagwat has managed that transition without allowing the organisational relationship to collapse.
That is no small achievement.
For supporters, it represents the successful transformation of the Sangh Parivar into a much more politically consequential force.
For critics, it represents the growing influence of an organisation that has historically described itself as cultural rather than political.
Both interpretations point to the same reality: the RSS under Bhagwat is no longer peripheral to the story of Indian politics.
What Remains for Bhagwat?
The question now is what remains unfinished.
The BJP has delivered several major political objectives associated with the Hindutva movement.
But the RSS’s larger ambition extends beyond legislation and elections.
It wants a deeper social consolidation, particularly among Dalits and backward classes. It wants greater ideological reach among communities that have traditionally remained outside its core constituency. And it wants to expand the Sangh’s social influence without appearing merely as an extension of the BJP’s electoral machinery.
That may prove harder than winning elections.
The biggest challenge for Bhagwat is therefore not simply to keep the Sangh Parivar united.
It is to make the ideological project broader, more socially inclusive and institutionally durable.
From 2009 to 2026
From taking charge of the RSS in 2009 to witnessing the Ram temple become a reality, Bhagwat has travelled a remarkable distance.
He has seen the BJP move from opposition to dominance.
He has watched the Sangh’s long-standing ideological priorities move into government policy.
He has stood alongside Modi at historic moments.
He has also, when necessary, reminded the political leadership that the RSS has its own institutional voice.
If this is indeed a “golden period” for Hindutva after the end of British colonial rule, Bhagwat’s contribution cannot be ignored.
But history will ultimately judge him on something larger than the political victories of the BJP.
The enduring test will be whether the RSS under his leadership succeeded in transforming its ideological influence into a durable social coalition — and whether the “Hindu Bharat” envisioned by the Sangh became a broader social reality rather than merely an electoral slogan.
Mohan Bhagwat’s journey is therefore not simply the story of an RSS chief. It is the story of how the Sangh Parivar travelled from the margins of power to the centre of India’s political conversation.
(This is an opinion piece. Views are author’s own.)
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