UK government: boycott Mohan Bhagwat’s visit, condemn and sanction the RSS!

To: David Smith, MP, UK Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Envoy, FCDO
Jim Shannon, MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on FoRB 

Subject: UK Government must boycott the visit to the UK by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat; issue a public condemnation of the RSS and its role in religious persecution, and impose sanctions on RSS members and affiliates

Why we want the UK FoRB Envoy and the APPG on FoRB to take action

India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is an authoritarian, militarist, patriarchal, cadre- based organisation which was inspired by and modelled on pre-World War Two fascist parties in Italy and Germany. RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar (one of Bhagwat’s predecessors as head of the RSS) notoriously described Hitler’s treatment of the Jews as a model of ‘race pride’ which India should emulate in its treatment of minorities. The key RSS aim was, and still is, to turn India into a Hindu state where Indian Christians, Muslims and other non-Hindus will be driven out, forced to convert or be denied basic rights.

Prime Minister Modi has called the RSS “the world’s largest NGO” and a global database described its family of organizations as “the largest far-right network in history.” The RSS has inspired violence worldwide. For example, Norwegian  Neo-Nazi Anders Breivik who carried out a 2011 mass shooting at a summer camp killing 77 people and injuring over 323 drew inspiration from the RSS. In Britain, the RSS’s overseas wing, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) was implicated in the violence against Muslims during the Leicester riots of 2022.

The RSS is at the heart of India’s Hindu-supremacist ‘family of organisations’ which include killer paramilitary gangs such as the Bajrang Dal, the notoriously violent students’ organisation the ABVP, ‘cow vigilantes’ who attack and kill those who they suspect of eating beef or slaughtering cows, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its affiliated political party.

The RSS’ opaque transnational network of organizations enables it to operate worldwide. It continues to harvest funds from the UK under the guise of charitable donations, while evading accountability, with investigations finding that these funds were channelled into violence against religious minorities in India.

The RSS and its affiliates’ well-documented history of grievous human rights violations in India includes: 

• Involvement of RSS affiliates in the Gujarat pogrom in which 2000 people were killed, most of them Muslims, and 200,000 displaced. A report by the British High Commission stated that the violence had ‘all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing’ and that Modi played a proactive role in pulling back police and shielding extremists.
• A large body of evidence of RSS affiliates inciting hatred and discrimination and perpetrating direct violence against Muslims and Christians, oppressed caste people and other marginalised groups in India.
• A mounting body of allegations advanced by United Nations mechanisms over the past decade, of senior RSS/BJP leaders inciting hatred and discrimination and authorities targeting religious minorities, denying them life, liberty, equality, and seeking to convert them into second class citizens.   
• RSS affiliates in India and in the UK, have in recent years, frequently been reported inciting hatred and violence in the UK, sowing discord and destabilising relations between faith communities in Britain. 
•  RSS-affiliated diaspora organisations have been documented engaging in active transnational repression globally, utilizing their local networks to execute targeted intimidation campaigns against critics, academics, and dissenting voices within diaspora communities, a fact acknowledged by the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Faced with some of this damning evidence, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that, for seven consecutive years has advised the US Government to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) “for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations”,  recommended in its 2026 Annual Report, that the US Government impose targeted sanctions against RSS and its leadership – include freezing assets and issuing travel and entry bans, “for their responsibility and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom.”

Mr. Bhagwat’s planned visit to Britain, the third leg of a foreign tour which also includes the US and Canada, is part of a charm offensive of public outreach, supported by his allies in the UK. The British government should not allow him this opportunity. External sectarian conflicts  should not be allowed to vitiate the atmosphere in Britain, by straining the local multicultural fabric, polarizing public spaces, and inciting hostility between different communities.

The threats posed in Britain by the RSS are real, active and ongoing. Mr. Bhagwat’s visit will embolden RSS affiliates in the UK to promulgate hate speech, further polarise the Indian diaspora, and create an environment of fear and intimidation for vulnerable communities across the country. It poses immediate public safety risks to British residents, threatening their rights and community cohesion in Britain.         

We urge you, as defenders of FoRB worldwide, to issue a public condemnation of the RSS; and recommend that UK government impose sanctions on RSS members and affiliates.

We also request an opportunity to meet with you or your officials at the earliest convenience to discuss this matter further and present you with our concerns in person.

We look forward to your timely response on this matter of urgent public concern.

Signatories: 

1. South Asia Solidarity Group
2. UK Indian Muslim Council
3. Hindus for Human Rights UK
4. Periyar Ambedkar Study Circle
5. India Labour Solidarity (UK)
6. South Asia Justice Campaign
7. Dalit Solidarity Network (DSN-UK)
8. Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND)
9. Birmingham Black Sisters
10. International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)
11. Joint Committee to Stop Repression in India (JCSRI)
12. Minority Rights Group
13. Black and Brown Rainbow
14. Million Women Rise
15. Strive UK
16. Indian Workers Association (GB)
17. Nijjor Manush
18. South Asian Liberation Movement
19. Doikayt Collective
20. பொழில்|Poḻil Tamil Women’s Organisation
21. Indus Legacy