Articulating a framework for stronger India-US engagement, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Friday said any meaningful strategic partnership between New Delhi and Washington must rest on “mutual trust, a level playing field, and mutual respect”, warning that the absence of such balance would inevitably lead to a “trust deficit”.
Speaking during a fireside chat with Walter Russell Mead at the New India Conference in Washington DC, Hosabale underscored India’s growing global relevance — citing its demographic strength, technological progress and status as the world’s fourth-largest economy — as a natural basis for deeper partnership with the United States.
“If America is looking for a strategic partnership with India, it has to recognise India’s size, its demographic dividend and technological advancement. Such a partnership can only be built on mutual trust, a level playing field and recognition of each other’s needs,” he said, stressing that “mutuality” is central in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape.
In a candid exchange that also sought to address Western perceptions of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hosabale firmly rejected comparisons of the organisation with the Ku Klux Klan, calling such characterisations “misinformed narratives” built over decades.
“The RSS is not an Indian version of the Ku Klux Klan,” he asserted, countering allegations of supremacism and emphasising that the organisation draws from a civilisational ethos that views the world as “one family”.
Describing the RSS as a “people’s voluntary movement”, Hosabale said its century-long work has focused on building social capital through character development, service and community engagement, with tens of thousands of daily grassroots gatherings across India.
He also pointed to what he termed persistent gaps in Western understanding of India, arguing that outdated stereotypes often overshadow the country’s emergence as a technology hub and a major economic power.
On the question of balancing tradition with modernity, Hosabale maintained that cultural values and modernisation are not inherently contradictory. “They can coexist, provided there is adaptation with time,” he said, likening India’s civilisational continuity to a banyan tree — deep-rooted yet constantly evolving.
The interaction, part of a broader outreach by the RSS to global think tanks and opinion-makers, highlighted both the opportunities and underlying frictions in India-US ties, even as both sides seek to deepen engagement in a shifting geopolitical order.
