New York, Aug 30 — Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat has pledged the organisation's full support to religious leaders working to promote interfaith cooperation, saying sustained grassroots action can change the global climate of conflict and mistrust.
"RSS with all its might is always with you because we are on the same page," Bhagwat told an international gathering of religious leaders in New York.
Addressing the "One World, One Humanity" programme, attended by more than 180 participants from 30 countries, Bhagwat said religious diversity should be respected and protected.
He added that different faiths were paths towards the same ultimate truth.
"Diversity is a decoration for our innate unity. It has to be accepted. It has to be respected. It has to be protected," he said.
"As I protect my own specific nature, I have to protect others also."
Bhagwat said the RSS believed it had a duty to take this message beyond India.
"We as RSS, we think because we have this knowledge that all humanity is one, it is our duty to go all over the world and tell everybody that in spite of our diversity, we are one," he added.
"Diversity is the rule of nature. Unity is the truth behind it."
The RSS Chief also addressed questions surrounding the organisation's approach towards Muslims.
Recalling an interaction with Muslim participants in Delhi in 2018, he said he had been asked whether Muslims would be driven out of India under the idea of a Hindu nation.
"I said no. That is not Hindu," Bhagwat said.
"If any Hindu thinks that there should be no Muslim in Bharat. He will not remain Hindu."
"If you want to call yourself Hindu, you must believe that all paths are leading to the same. And every human has a dignity. There is no difference between humans," he added.
Bhagwat said dialogue with Muslim and Christian communities in India had continued since that 2018 meeting.
Dialogue and service, he added, must proceed together and begin within communities rather than through political intervention.
"These things do not happen through politics. Sorry to say, but the fact is, politics has now become a game of self-interest," he said.
"We and ours is the solution. So our experience in Bharat is that we have to start with the society."
Bhagwat said political policies could eventually be influenced by building a strong public consensus.
In a democracy, he said, politicians would find it difficult to disregard firmly established public opinion.
"Whatever we decide to do today, we should start in our own country and create pockets of such selfless service, such atmosphere of unity," he added.
"We should create at our own place the models of the world we want."
In his remarks, he called for interfaith dialogue to be expanded from national leadership forums to provinces, districts and local blocks.
Local engagement, he said, could correct mistrust and demonstrate how communities could cooperate through service.
"If we together start working, we can change the situation of the world," Bhagwat said.
He cautioned, however, that the effort would require patience because changing ingrained habits and public attitudes would take time.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was founded in Nagpur in 1925 by K.B. Hedgewar. The organisation marked its centenary in 2025 and describes itself as a volunteer-based cultural and social movement.
Bhagwat has served as the RSS Sarsanghchalak, or chief, since 2009. The organisation has a large network of volunteers and affiliated bodies working in social service, education, labour, student affairs and other fields across India.