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Guest Essay

By Felix Pal

Dr. Pal is a lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Western Australia.

An hour’s drive north of Mumbai, India, in the middle of a swath of low green hills and small farmhouses, a large arch marks the entrance to a complex known as Keshav Srushti — or, loosely, Keshav’s Creation. Next to the arch is a tall portrait of a man with a walrus mustache and an orange blazer: Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.

Dr. Hedgewar was the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an organization widely credited as the incubator of the Hindu far right. He started the group, better known as the R.S.S., in 1925 as a martial arts gymnasium........

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