New Delhi: At a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) centenary event in Kolkata on December 21, Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat made a declaration that crystallises the ideological project now driving Indian state policy. He said that India was already a “Hindu nation.”

Speaking at the ‘100 Vyakhyan Mala’ (100 Lecture Series) programme marking 100 years of the RSS, Bhagwat invoked a telling analogy.

“The Sun rises in the east; we don’t know since when this has been happening. So, do we need constitutional approval for that too? Hindustan is a Hindu nation. Whoever considers India their motherland appreciates Indian culture. As long as there is even one person alive on the land of Hindustan who believes in and cherishes the glory of Indian ancestors, India is a Hindu nation. This is the ideology of the Sangh.”

He then made explicit what his organisation truly thinks of India’s foundational secular framework. Formal recognition in the constitution was, according to Bhagwat, immaterial to the RSS. The organisation describes itself as the “world’s largest NGO” according to prime minister Narendra Modi, yet it remains unregistered and has been banned at least three times since Independence.

“If parliament ever decides to amend the constitution and add that word, whether they do it or not, it’s fine. We don’t care about that word because we are Hindus, and our nation is a Hindu nation. That is the truth,” Bhagwat said, his contempt for the constitutional settlement barely concealed.

This brazenly dismisses what India’s founding document actually says. The Preamble of the Indian Constitution explicitly invokes the word “secular,” making clear that India belongs to people of all faiths, not one. Article 14 further enshrines this principle by stating that “the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”

But why should Bhagwat’s comment matter beyond ideological posturing? Because it........

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