A visit by India\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Bhagwat is scheduled to speak on Saturday at an event called the \u201cUniversal Oneness Celebration\u201d at Madison Square Garden in New York, and is expected to draw more than 5,000 attendees, including multifaith leaders.<\/p>\n
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But while the event is being billed as an event for unity, the RSS \u2013 a Hindu majoritarian front that is the parent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party \u2013 has repeatedly faced accusations back in India of contributing to the persecution of religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told local media on Tuesday that he does not support the upcoming event and called the RSS\u2019s ideology \u201cexclusionary.\u201d Many human rights groups in the US, such as Hindus for Human Rights, have said in a statement that \u201cMohan Bhagwat does not represent Hindus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The principal organiser of Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A deeper look at the group\u2019s founding and registration documents, however, sheds light on its leaders \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
So what is AHEAD Forum and who are the organisers\u00a0of Bhagwat\u2019s New York event?<\/p>\n
What is the event about?<\/p>\n
The event, organised by AHEAD Forum, will take place from on Saturday 2:00pm to 15:30pm local time (19:00-21:30 GMT) in Madison Square Garden in New York.<\/p>\n
According to AHEAD\u2019s social media platforms, the event called \u201cUniversal Oneness Celebration\u201d seeks to celebrate \u201cdiversity, dialogue, and the timeless Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is a Sanskrit phrase which translates to \u201cthe world is one family.\u201d<\/p>\n
India\u2019s RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has been invited as the event\u2019s keynote speaker and comes more than a year after the RSS celebrated 100 years since its founding in 1925. Leaders from other faiths are also expected to attend.<\/p>\n
But Apoorvanand, a Hindi professor at the University of Delhi who writes literary and cultural criticism, told Al Jazeera that the \u201cunity\u201d advertisements for the event refer to \u201cHindu unity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective is to establish Hindu unity, which the RSS works for. It\u2019s also about Hindu unity against Muslims and Christians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What is the RSS and who is Bhagwat?<\/p>\n
The\u00a0RSS<\/a>\u00a0is a right-wing Hindu volunteer organisation founded in 1925 by physician and Hindu nationalist Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, modern-day Maharashtra.<\/p>\n The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, sometimes called the Sangh for short, is Hindi for National Volunteer Organisation.<\/p>\n The RSS works across society, operating schools, hospitals, magazines and publishing houses, to advocate for the idea of\u00a0Hindutva<\/a>, a Hindu supremacist idea that aims to turn India from a constitutionally secular state into a Hindu one.<\/p>\n It describes itself as a \u201cHindu-centric civilisational, cultural movement\u201d that aims to \u201ccarry the nation to the pinnacle of glory\u201d and is often described as the ideological mothership of India\u2019s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n But the RSS has also been banned in India several times, including in 1948 after a former member assassinated<\/a> independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.<\/p>\n Currently, the RSS leads a network of more than 2,500 right-wing Hindu organisations called the Sangh Parivar, Hindi for \u201cRSS family\u201d.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s member in 1975. He was appointed as the organisation\u2019s chief in March 2009.<\/p>\n What is the controversy over the New York event?<\/p>\n Indian human rights groups, activists and also New York\u2019s Mayor Mamdani have opposed the event.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cbeen incredibly troubling to see the rise of a movement that is predicated on an exclusionary vision\u201d.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that he grew up in India, which he said was \u201ca pluralistic society of a secular Republic that believed in the belonging of each and every person who was from India.\u201d<\/p>\n He, however, added that he was not sure if, as mayor of New York, he could stop a private organisation\u2019s event.<\/p>\n In a statement published on August 19, Sravya Tadepalli, deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, said, \u201cMohan 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1939, 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,\u201d Tadepalli added.<\/p>\n Amid these remarks, the RSS has defended Bhagwat\u2019s goals at the upcoming event.<\/p>\n On Thursday, senior RSS functionary Sunil Ambekar said, \u201cThe Universal Oneness Celebration in New York exemplifies an interfaith gathering.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that Bhagwat would \u201ccommunicate with a diverse, multicultural and multi-faith audience\u201d.<\/p>\n What is AHEAD Forum?<\/p>\n AHEAD Forum describes itself as an organisation that \u201cbuilds bridges between communities worldwide through understanding and mutual respect\u201d.<\/p>\n According to<\/a> its website, the group has chapters across major US cities including New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, DC an Houston, among others.<\/p>\n AHEAD Forum was registered as a nonprofit organisation in May 2025. According to<\/a> the Internal Revenue Service (the US tax agency), the Forum filed for tax exemption in September 2025.<\/p>\n At the end of 2025, the tax filing shows that AHEAD had generated revenue of $61,409 \u2013 all of it from contributions. AHEAD also had assets worth $61,124 in the last fiscal year.<\/p>\n Who are the key individuals at AHEAD?<\/p>\n While US IRS data shows that AHEAD\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera has also independently verified a series of documents filed by AHEAD with US agencies that show these links.<\/p>\n The group listed an individual named Harish Kandpal as its bookkeeper in its filing with the IRS under its tax-exempt status in 2025.<\/p>\n But California\u2019s 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\u2019s address. The California database shows the registration was changed to Kandpal\u2019s address in March 2026.<\/p>\n