Bengal and the Sangh: A story older than contemporary politics

Bengal and the Sangh: A story older than contemporary politics

In the political imagination of West Bengal, the story of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is often narrated as if it were a relatively recent phenomenon—an organization that entered the state only in the shadow of contemporary electoral churn. That telling, however, misses a much longer and deeper historical arc. The relationship between Bengal and the RSS is not new. It stretches back to the 1930s, when the first shakhas, discussions, and ideol…