A Hindu who believes Muslims should be “driven out” of India cannot remain a Hindu, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said at a conference in New York Saturday, arguing that the Hindu understanding of oneness of humanity leaves no room for such exclusion.
“In 2018, during my lecture series, Muslim brothers asked me that I talk about Hindu Rashtra and if that meant Muslims would be driven out. I said no, that is not Hindutva. If any Hindu thinks there should be no Muslims in India, he will not remain Hindu,” Bhagwat said. “If you want to call yourself a Hindu you have to believe that all paths are leading to the same Goal. And every human has dignity. There is no difference between human beings.”
Bhagwat said the Hindu tradition held that all faiths ultimately lead to the pursuit of divinity and that India had historically provided shelter to people of different denominations who could not find safety elsewhere. However, he said, “a baggage” from the past had contributed to disturbances between communities.
He said the RSS believed it had a responsibility to communicate the idea that diversity did not negate an underlying unity. “Diversity is a decoration of our innate unity. It has to be protected. As I protect my own specific nature, I have to protect others also. Diversity is the rule of nature. Unity is the truth behind nature,” he said.
Bhagwat said the objective was also to influence policies and politics, including efforts to stop wars, but argued that this could not be achieved by beginning with political institutions.
“So we want to influence policies. We want to stop wars. Therefore, we want to influence the politics. But we cannot start with those,” he said. “Politics has now become a game of self-interest. Where there is me and my, there is no solution. We and ours is the solution.”
The RSS chief, who was scheduled to speak at Madison Square Garden (MSG) later in the day, said the organisation’s experience in India had convinced it that such efforts had to begin at the societal level. He referred to the dialogue initiated with Muslims and Christians after his 2018 lecture series, saying “dialogue is the first step, service is another”.
Recalling an incident involving the collision of two planes over Haryana – the 1996 crash involving Saudia flight and Kazakhstan Airlines – Bhagwat said that RSS workers were among the first to reach the site and help survivors, while also arranging the last rites of those who died.
“We did not think that they (victims) were Muslims. Had we been in politics, we would not have been able to do it,” he said, adding that the RSS did not seek publicity for such work. “There are perceptions created because of wrong narratives. But when you come and see us from inside, all those will be dispelled within a day.”
Bhagwat said the RSS wanted to build social strength first, which could eventually influence politics through public opinion. “Because politics in democracy depends on public opinion. So if there is a public opinion for something, no politician will dare to go against it,” he said.
He described the effort to bring together communities of different faiths and establish an understanding of their underlying unity as an “eternal work” that religious leaders would have to undertake.
“This has to be done by religious leaders. They have to impart this wisdom to humanity,” he said, while acknowledging that it would be “a laborious, tedious and time-consuming job”.
“At times Muslims and Christians come to me and say we have sat for seven times and nothing has happened. I say continue sitting, something will happen,” Bhagwat said. “If your purpose is true… maybe we have some lacunae that we have to correct, but if our purpose is true we will proceed. We have to make resolve that we will continue this till eternity so that humans do not fall into the pit of evils.”
Among the speakers was Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the prominent Nigerian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Abuja from 1994 to 2019. Speaking about the “baggage” carried by communities from the past, Onaiyekan said Africa’s religious conflicts were rooted partly in the history of conversion and competition between Islam and Christianity.
“We are carrying a lot of baggage from the past. We need to shed them,” he said, recounting how his own family had members who became Christian and Muslim as the two faiths expanded in Africa.
“Islam and Christianity came into Africa as a sort of competition for conversion, for domination. And that rivalry has not left,” he said. “Now how are you going to convert further when we are all converted. So that is the reason we have fights now.”
Onaiyekan questioned the continuing emphasis on converting people of other faiths and said religious communities needed to re-examine their own scriptures and traditions.
“My conviction is we should get out of this idea that we need to go and make disciples of all nations,” he said, asking whether people should “kill each other until everybody becomes Christian or Muslim”.
“We need to review our scriptures,” he said. “I can do that since my church already started that in 1965. I don’t think all Christian groups in Africa have gone through that self- examination. We need to do it.”
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had criticised the RSS saying its “exclusionary” vision was at odds with the pluralistic, secular idea of India he grew up with. “I don’t support (Bhagwat’s) rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on cancelling a private event,” Mamdani said when asked if the event should be cancelled.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed the 'One World, One Humanity' faith leaders' conference in New York (PTI screengrab/AI enhanced) 
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