A visit by India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat to the United States this week is being opposed by many activists, politicians and human rights groups in New York.
Bhagwat is scheduled to speak on Saturday at an event called the “Universal Oneness Celebration” at Madison Square Garden in New York, and is expected to draw more than ۵,۰۰۰ attendees, including multifaith leaders.
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But while the event is being billed as an event for unity, the RSS – a Hindu majoritarian front that is the parent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party – has repeatedly faced accusations back in India of contributing to the persecution of religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told local media on Tuesday that he does not support the upcoming event and called the RSS’s ideology “exclusionary.” Many human rights groups in the US, such as Hindus for Human Rights, have said in a statement that “Mohan Bhagwat does not represent Hindus.”
The principal organiser of Saturday’s event is a US-based non-profit group called American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue (AHEAD) Forum, which argues on its website that it seeks to promote intercultural understanding. But the website itself offers no details of those behind the group.
A deeper look at the group’s founding and registration documents, however, sheds light on its leaders – and their deep links to the RSS, which has long advocated for a Hindu-first vision for India, a country that has otherwise, through its millennia-long history, been home to people from many faiths.
So what is AHEAD Forum and who are the organisers of Bhagwat’s New York event?
What is the event about?
The event, organised by AHEAD Forum, will take place from on Saturday ۲:۰۰pm to ۱۵:۳۰pm local time (۱۹:۰۰-۲۱:۳۰ GMT) in Madison Square Garden in New York.
According to AHEAD’s social media platforms, the event called “Universal Oneness Celebration” seeks to celebrate “diversity, dialogue, and the timeless Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.”
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is a Sanskrit phrase which translates to “the world is one family.”
India’s RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has been invited as the event’s keynote speaker and comes more than a year after the RSS celebrated ۱۰۰ years since its founding in ۱۹۲۵. Leaders from other faiths are also expected to attend.
But Apoorvanand, a Hindi professor at the University of Delhi who writes literary and cultural criticism, told Al Jazeera that the “unity” advertisements for the event refer to “Hindu unity”.
“The objective is to establish Hindu unity, which the RSS works for. It’s also about Hindu unity against Muslims and Christians,” he said.
What is the RSS and who is Bhagwat?
The RSS is a right-wing Hindu volunteer organisation founded in ۱۹۲۵ by physician and Hindu nationalist Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, modern-day Maharashtra.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, sometimes called the Sangh for short, is Hindi for National Volunteer Organisation.
The RSS works across society, operating schools, hospitals, magazines and publishing houses, to advocate for the idea of Hindutva, a Hindu supremacist idea that aims to turn India from a constitutionally secular state into a Hindu one.
It describes itself as a “Hindu-centric civilisational, cultural movement” that aims to “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory” and is often described as the ideological mothership of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But the RSS has also been banned in India several times, including in ۱۹۴۸ after a former member assassinated independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Currently, the RSS leads a network of more than ۲,۵۰۰ right-wing Hindu organisations called the Sangh Parivar, Hindi for “RSS family”.
Bhagwat, who was born in Chandrapur in the Indian state of Maharashtra, grew up in a family that supported RSS values and officially became the organisation’s member in ۱۹۷۵. He was appointed as the organisation’s chief in March ۲۰۰۹.
What is the controversy over the New York event?
Indian human rights groups, activists and also New York’s Mayor Mamdani have opposed the event.
When asked by local media on Tuesday about stopping the event, Mamdani said that as the first Indian-American mayor of New York, it has “been incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision”.
He acknowledged that he grew up in India, which he said was “a pluralistic society of a secular Republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person who was from India.”
He, however, added that he was not sure if, as mayor of New York, he could stop a private organisation’s event.
In a statement published on August ۱۹, Sravya Tadepalli, deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, said, “Mohan Bhagwat does not represent Hindus. He represents the fringe, extremist Hindu nationalist movement, which has engaged in hate and violence against religious minority communities for a century.”
“In ۱۹۳۹, Madison Square Garden hosted a Nazi rally, which any of us can look back on and feel shock and shame. Madison Square Garden should not make the same mistake by holding a rally celebrating the leader of a hate movement like Hindu nationalism,” Tadepalli added.
Amid these remarks, the RSS has defended Bhagwat’s goals at the upcoming event.
On Thursday, senior RSS functionary Sunil Ambekar said, “The Universal Oneness Celebration in New York exemplifies an interfaith gathering.”
He said that Bhagwat would “communicate with a diverse, multicultural and multi-faith audience”.
What is AHEAD Forum?
AHEAD Forum describes itself as an organisation that “builds bridges between communities worldwide through understanding and mutual respect”.
According to its website, the group has chapters across major US cities including New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, DC an Houston, among others.
AHEAD Forum was registered as a nonprofit organisation in May ۲۰۲۵. According to the Internal Revenue Service (the US tax agency), the Forum filed for tax exemption in September ۲۰۲۵.
At the end of ۲۰۲۵, the tax filing shows that AHEAD had generated revenue of $۶۱,۴۰۹ – all of it from contributions. AHEAD also had assets worth $۶۱,۱۲۴ in the last fiscal year.
Who are the key individuals at AHEAD?
While US IRS data shows that AHEAD’s current directors are Sudesh Agrawal, Naresh Rajanna and Rasita Vishnuram, a report published by Savera, a coalition of US-based groups trying to combat the rise of Hindu nationalism, suggests direct links between the nonprofit and the RSS.
Al Jazeera has also independently verified a series of documents filed by AHEAD with US agencies that show these links.
The group listed an individual named Harish Kandpal as its bookkeeper in its filing with the IRS under its tax-exempt status in ۲۰۲۵.
But California’s listing of registered nonprofits and businesses shows that AHEAD Forum was, until earlier this year, listing Khanderao Kand, a long-time US-based leader of the RSS and its overseas wing, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), as its bookkeeper. The organisation, in fact, was originally registered to Kand’s address. The California database shows the registration was changed to Kandpal’s address in March ۲۰۲۶.
That, Savera said in its report, happened after Kand’s RSS links and his efforts to lobby in the US on behalf of the Hindu supremacist group were “exposed by investigative reporting”.
However, Kandpal and Kand have previously been colleagues at the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, another US-based group founded by Kand.
Meanwhile, Savera found that other leaders of the AHEAD Forum also have links to the RSS or to organisations close to the Modi government. Sudesh Agarwal, one of the directors of the nonprofit, heads the Cleveland chapter of the HSS, for instance.
Al Jazeera has reached out to AHEAD Forum for its response to the findings in Savera’s report, and accusations that it is attempting to mask the Hindu majoritarian leanings of its leaders, but is yet to receive a response.
Why is all this significant?
Since ۲۰۱۵, several Muslims in India have been lynched by mobs during disputes about herding cattle or over allegations of eating beef. They have also fallen victim to targeted attacks.
Besides hate crimes against Indian Muslims, there has been a marked spike in hate crimes against Christians in India recently. According to a report published at the start of the year by India Hate Lab, a group that tracks hate crimes and speech in India, hate speech events targeting Christians rose from ۱۱۵ in ۲۰۲۴ to ۱۶۲ in ۲۰۲۵, a ۴۱ percent increase.
Many instances of hate speech against Muslims and Christians have involved leaders of the BJP or other organisations in the broad RSS ecosystem.
However, in recent months, the RSS has been organising visits to the US and other Western countries to bolster its public image globally and dispel claims it is involved in violence against religious minority groups in India.
Saturday’s event is one such effort by the RSS and the event’s hosts, according to experts.
“The RSS is spreading its tentacles to collaborate with other right-wing organisations,” Apoorvanand said.
“They have expressed this intent very clearly in recent times that they want to establish a right reactionary network and be part of it. So they are looking for allies at events in the West with groups close to [US President Donald] Trump and his allies,” he said.
“I’m very sad that people who are enjoying American hospitality and freedom of speech and expression in the US, want to practice Hinduism in this way, where they use their resources to support an organisation which is responsible for marginalisation of Muslim, Christian and other minority communities within India.
“There could not be a more deceptive thing than this.”
