New Investigation Lays Bare the Largest Far-Right Network in History
A new dataset, stored at a repository housed at Sciences Po's Centre for International Studies (CERI) and published in India by The Caravan, sheds light on the global network of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), identifying over 2,500 organisations tied to the RSS.
December 10, 2025 — CERI-SciencesPo and The Caravan magazine are excited to announce a groundbreaking new research project, "Seeing the Sangh: Mapping the RSS's Transnational Network." Seeing the Sangh is the world's first comprehensive map of the organisational network surrounding the RSS — the largest far-right network in the world.
This joint venture includes a newly-launched public-facing website, published and hosted by The Caravan, featuring an interactive dashboard that depicts the RSS's network in granular detail. Members of the public will also be able to submit their own data and evidence through this website — which, after independent verification, will be periodically added to the map.
The project also includes a data repository, housed at SciencesPo-CERI, containing a data back-end that will aid scholars and researchers with their research. Access to this repository is restricted, but will be made available on application to vetted academics and researchers who demonstrate a relevant research request.
Context
For an organisation that Indian PM Narendra Modi recently called "the biggest NGO in the world," and that seeks, in its own words, to become "indistinguishable from Indian society," the public knows precious little about the RSS. Although it is common knowledge that it coordinates a vast network of organisations, the RSS formally acknowledges a relationship with only around three dozen subsidiaries — what is known as the "Sangh Parivar" (the family of the Sangh). Through the strategic disguising of the RSS's ties to its subsidiary and affiliate organisations, observers have never had access to a comprehensive understanding of this organisational network.
This obfuscation and shape-shifting has allowed the RSS to ensure that little is conclusively known about how it moves resources, how authority travels through the network, and where its influence begins and ends. It also allows this network to appear like a loose archipelago of vaguely linked organisations, rather than a centrally-directed, bureaucratically-managed hierarchical network. In the process, the RSS can enjoy plausible deniability for a range of activities, create an air of mystique where its influence appears all-encompassing, and simultaneously say many things to many constituencies at the same time, taking credit and responsibility only when it chooses.
But we need not concede the RSS to be unknowable. Over the course of a rigorous six-year data collection process, this project has demonstrated that rather than a mere three-dozen organisations, the RSS can be tied to at least 2,500 distinct organisations. Many of them share the same individuals, work out of the same addresses, regularly co-organise events together, claim overlapping spheres of work, and are tied by shared flows of money, both domestic and transnational. This evidence suggests that these organisations are not a loose family, as the RSS would like us to believe, but tightly networked parts of one large entity.
Quotes
"The Sangh is history's oldest, richest, largest far-right network. Everyone has long known that this network exists, but Seeing the Sangh is the first attempt to actually trace the large-scale contours of the network. In doing so, we uncovered that the bulk of organisations in the Hindu far-right are made up of seemingly innocuous organisations — service providers, publishing houses, cow shelters — that act as key vectors for Sangh legitimacy, as well as for flows of informational and financial resources. Many of these organisations do not always visibly display loud and proud commitments to Hindutva, but are nevertheless key avenues through which the Sangh shapes India and its diaspora. What this means is that in tracing the Sangh, it is not enough to just look for loud and proud Hindutva. But by following the Sangh's personnel, finances, relationships and material infrastructures, we can say more precisely what the Sangh is, where it has spread, and what it does."
Felix Pal, Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia
"Hindutva is often equated with BJP, the Hindu nationalist party, but this ethno-religious movement has also developed deep roots in civil society since the creation of RSS in 1925. This dataset, by revealing connections between the RSS, the mother organisation, and a myriad of more or less acknowledged subsidiaries which go much beyond what is known as the "Sangh Parivar" (the RSS family), makes it very clear: Hindu nationalist activists have reached out to almost every social and professional milieu. This network is not confined to India but is expanding globally thanks to the support of the diaspora, something this database captures also in great detail."
Christophe Jaffrelot, Research Director at SciencesPo-CERI/CNRS and co-director of the SciencesPo South Asia Programme
"The RSS is widely recognized as the country's largest and most powerful organization, yet we have long lacked transparency regarding its size, geographical reach, and affiliated organizations. This interactive database addresses that gap directly. The RSS operates with a distinct ideology, and those engaging with its affiliates—whether in India or abroad—deserve to know about these connections. What they do with this information is their choice, but they shouldn't be deprived of it."
Hartosh Singh Bal, Executive Editor of The Caravan
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