They say Nagpur sits at the geographic centre of India. It is a modest sandstone marker, but also a fitting metaphor for an organisation that began there in 1925 and went on to claim a central place in India’s civic imagination. From a playground shakha led by Dr. K.B. Hedgewar and a handful of young men, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has, over the past hundred years, grown into a sprawling network that touches education, relief, cultural activity, and, indirectly, politics.

The Sangh’s story is not just about scale. It is about method: how a simple, repetitive routine became the foundation for a long-lived institution.

The RSS still describes its essence as “coming together every day for an hour" which combines physical drills, study and discussion. It is an unremarkable formula

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