In this special episode of Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100, Harsh Mander speaks to Felix Pal, a lecturer on political science and international relations at the University of Western Australia, about his six-year long research into the RSS and its affiliates recently published in The Caravan magazine. The research revealed a network of 2500 organisations around the world that are directly or indirectly connected to the RSS, and overtly or covertly espousing its ideas.

Commenting on the findings are Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist at Sciences Po who specialises in Southasia and has written several important books in India’s politics, and Tanika Sarkar, a historian of modern India who works on religion, gender and politics in Southasia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right.

You can watch this full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FSg9h0NXipU

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

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