The leader of a fascist Hindu organization is scheduled to visit Canada this month on a tour intended to clean up its image. But human rights groups are saying he shouldn’t be allowed into the country at all.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh—or RSS—is a paramilitary group whose early leaders were inspired by Nazism.
It has been called the “ideological mothership” of India’s ruling far-right party, which was founded as the RSS’s political wing.
Under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has seen a wave of violence against Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Dalits: mob lynchings of Muslims, attacks on Christmas celebrations, and a a 97 per cent increase in hate speech since 2023.
RSS members have frequently led the violence. A 2025 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom concluded that the RSS has been “involved in acts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority groups.”
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada has been deepening ties with Modi, providing diplomatic cover for his governing party.
This spring, Carney signed a number of massive trade deals with the Indian government, despite concerns about the BJP’s worsening human rights record.
Now Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS’s leader, is slated to visit Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. at the end of August.
RSS organizers say Bhagwat’s tour will “correct the narrative about [the] RSS which is prevalent in the West.”
In early August, two letters by human rights organizations Justice for All and the Canadian Forum For Human Rights and Democracy in India (CFHRDI) urged the Canadian government to deny him entry. Over 300 organizations signed on, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims and World Sikh Organization of Canada.
“Allowing the head of a violent paramilitary network into Canada threatens vulnerable minority populations—including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, and Dalits—and undermines Charter rights,” the CHFRDI’s letter said.
‘Power to operate’
The RSS is a century-old Indian network, with an estimated 5 million members worldwide.
The first Canadian organization linked to the RSS network was set up in 1970 in Toronto. Today, several RSS affiliates are active in Canada, from its overseas wing the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh to its charitable arm Sewa International, which raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for activities in India.
Though it presents itself as a volunteer-based cultural organization, the RSS was founded to transform India from a secular country into a Hindu nation that marginalizes non-Hindu minorities.
Early RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar drew inspiration from the Nazis and Italian fascists, arguing in his 1939 book We; or, Our Nationhood Defined that India belongs to Hindus and that “foreign races in Hindusthan” should be “wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation.”
Chinnaiah Jangam, an associate professor at Carleton University and a spokesperson for the CFHRDI, says the RSS draws heavily on the Indian diaspora in North America for members and donations.
“They have made the diaspora an important force through which they try to spread their tentacles across the world,” he told The Breach. “The diaspora is a kind of public-facing platform for them.”
The NDP’s Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson and Immigration and Public Safety Critic Jenny Kwan have joined the call for the federal government to deny Bhagwat entry, and have renewed the NDP’s position that the RSS should be banned from Canada entirely.
A counter-letter, provided to The Hindustan Times, says that critics of the RSS are peddling “prejudice dressed up as advocacy.” The letter claims to be written by “the Indo-Canadian community,” but no individuals or organizations are identified as the authors.
Hindu nationalists commonly claim to represent all Hindus, and argue that any criticism of their ideology is discrimination against all Hindus.
“A letter from sitting Members of Parliament branding the world’s largest Hindu voluntary organisation ‘fascist’ and calling for the wholesale exclusion of its members risks casting suspicion on the roughly 828,000 Canadians who identified as Hindu in Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census,” the counter-letter said.
The relationship between Canada and India has thawed significantly since two years ago, when Justin Trudeau’s government found evidence of Indian government involvement in a campaign of home invasions, drive-by shootings, arson, and two homicides targeting Sikh activists in Canada. The accusations led to both countries expelling diplomats.
Jangam worries that Bhagwat’s visit will inflame Hindu nationalist violence in Canada again.
“Given the way in which Mark Carney is soft on India and the BJP,” he said, “what Mohan Bhagwat’s visit will do is make these people feel that they have the power to operate.”
When I went to journalism school 10 years ago, my parents thought that they would eventually read my articles in The Montreal Gazette. Today, that newspaper is a husk of its former self. But I get to explain that I’m working towards critical, independent, and sustainable journalism.
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– Amanda Siino, Development Director, The Breach
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