This is the second season of Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, a Himal Southasian podcast series produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. You can catch the first season here.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is turning 100 years old. The organisation was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hegdewar, a former member of the Indian National Congress who, disenchanted by Mohandas Gandhi’s non-violent means of anti-colonial resistance and efforts towards Hindu-Muslim unity, decided to go his own way. After its founding, the RSS viewed Gandhi and Muslims as its two great enemies. The Hindu Right took Gandhi’s life; its crusade against Muslims continues.
The RSS is also the organisational parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power in India since 2014, and the ideological guru of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. Over the past 11 years under Modi and the BJP, India has taken a sharp turn against its minorities, especially Muslims, with legislation like the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Modi government also oversaw the construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya – a long-cherished dream of the RSS – at the site where the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
In 12 conversations, 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.
Season Two of Partitions of the Heart, titled ‘Saffron Siege’, runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. This page will be updated with new episodes as they appear.
Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episode 1 (releasing 17 September): Rajmohan Gandhi on Gandhi, the Partition riots and Hindutva
Episode 2 (releasing 24 September): Vinay Lal and Mridula Mukherjee on the leading lights of Hindutva and the RSS during the freedom struggle
Episode 3 (releasing 1 October): Apoorvanand on the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha in the decades after Gandhi’s assassination, and its role in communal riots and polarisation
Episode 4 (releasing 8 October): Aakar Patel and Rana Ayyub on Hindutva and the RSS under Narendra Modi