NEW YORK: “Diversity is a decoration for our unity. It has to be accepted. It has to be respected. It has to be protected. As I protect my own specific nature, I have to protect others also,” said RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat in his keynote address at the inter-faith dialogue ‘One World, One Humanity’ at Madison Square Garden, New York on August 29, 2026.
Speaking about the journey of RSS, Dr Bhagwat said, “Sangh started in 1925, and during the course of hundred years, we have created a place, a prestige for us in our own society. Today when I am talking this, even Baba may ask, where were you all these years? You are talking these things today. We were there, but we were so minuscule, so neglected, that even if I would have come here to participate, I would have been rejected outside. Now we have some say in our own society. In spite of that baggage we can carry, said your baggage is past. We have to live together.”
“I am not a religious scholar, nor a religious authority like. But I am working in society. We traditionally say that religions might be different, but humanity is one. There are many religions, and in today’s world, religions are largely defined by rituals. And to bring in a religious discipline, and to create that path to divinity, this discipline of rituals is also necessary. But what for a religion is there? It is leading us to. So, if I indicate something to you, see there, that light, which is a little bit different. You will see my finger pointing, and then you will see the light. But if you ignore my finger, you will never see the light. The purpose is defeated,” Dr Bhagwat further said.
Narrating an anecdote, Dr Bhagwat recalled, “I had a discussion in Delhi in 2018, and Muslim brothers were also there, and they asked me first, You are a Hindu organisation. You say Hindu Rashtra. What about us Muslims? Would you drive us out? I said no. That is not Hinduism. If any Hindu thinks that there should be no Muslim in Bharat, he is not a Hindu”.
“Every human has a dignity. There is no difference between human beings. Vidyavinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini, Shuni chaiva shvapake cha panditah samadarshinah, those who know, they do treat a dog and a Brahmin equally. Because all these are differences, which is decorated division, and have put only for mind, but the reality, which is always the same,” he said.
He further said that, “Dialogue is the first step; service is another. We are serving and while serving, we don’t discriminate. We serve whoever is in need. One lakh thirty thousand small service projects our Swayamsevaks are serving with the help of people without discrimination.”
Two planes collided in Dadri, Haryana—a state in India. Both planes were from Muslim countries. Most of the passengers were Muslims. After the collision, our Swayamsevaks reached there first. And they served. All passengers were dead. Our Swayamsevaks arranged the funeral, and when their relatives came, helped them in identifying them. We don’t have the thought that they are Muslims, he said while recalling the Air India Plane crash at Dadri.
“All our leaders, at any point of time, they have emphasised on Unity of Humanity. Our constitution after independence, we got a constitution which emphasises on this. But politics has now become a game of self-interesr. And you have rightly said: Where there is ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ there is no solution. ‘We’ and ‘ours’ is the solution.”, he said.
“We have to start from the society and build strength, so that we can influence politics also. Because politics today, especially in democracy, it depends on the public opinion. If there is public opinion, then no politician will dare to go against it. Therefore, I think after taking the common stand, we have to act in the society. And we have to act first locally. Whatever we decide to do today, we should start in our own country”, he said.
