Why has the RSS called for dialogue with Pakistan?

The story so far:

Last week, Dattatreya Hosabale, the second in command in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mothership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said in an interview to news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that India should persist with attempts at a dialogue with Pakistan. His statement triggered reactions from Pakistan, leaders of political parties in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), India’s former Chief of Army Staff, and from the Opposition.

Why have Mr. Hosabale’s remarks made news?

There have been a lot of comments on not just the substance of the remarks, but also their timing, coming as they do close on the heels of the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, which followed the 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam in J&K that left 16 people dead. The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government has consistently held that there can be no dialogue as long as Pakistan-backed terror groups continue to carry out attacks in India. In the light of the filial relationship between the RSS and the BJP, Mr. Hosabale’s views have therefore raised queries as to whether the Union government was being provided political cover to change its stance on talks with Pakistan.

What has been the RSS’s record with regard to talks with Pakistan?

RSS office bearers maintain that the context of Mr. Hosabale’s remarks had more to do with the organisation’s long-held beliefs than with any immediate preoccupation with dialogue and discourse. They point out that Mr. Hosabale’s remarks, taken in full, made it clear that while there was no trust in Pakistan’s political and military leadership, people-to-people contact remains the most crucial aspect of engagement, in keeping with the RSS’s own ideas about civil society engagement. The remarks are therefore not comments on what the government should or should not do, but relate instead to what the RSS has been saying for a while.

What has the RSS said about relations with Pakistan in the past?

In April 1964, Deendayal Upadhyaya and Ram Manohar Lohia issued a joint statement on relations with Pakistan. At the time, the latter, while canvassing support from Opposition parties for an anti-Congress front, had reached out to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political wing of the RSS and the precursor to the BJP.

Both Lohia and Upadhyaya agreed that the division between India and Pakistan was historically proven to be based on artificial grounds (reflected in the RSS’s conception of an Akhand Bharat or undivided Indian subcontinent) and the governments of the two countries always indulged in tooti baatcheet (piecemeal dialogue) and toota vichar (piecemeal thinking) instead of establishing a comprehensive framework for talks. The concept of Akhand Bharat as a loose Hind-Pak Mahasangh also finds mention in the statement.

This may be too far in the past. But even more recently, the RSS, and indeed Mr. Hosabale himself, has advocated for dialogue. In 2015, at the conclusion of an RSS-led Samanvay Baithak or coordination meeting with all its frontal organisations, Mr. Hosabale had, in an answer to a question, said: “India is part of SAARC and has family-like cultural relations with neighbouring countries, be it Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Bangladesh. It was one body which was divided to form Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is natural that people living there are part of the same family. Sometimes relations [go bad], like it happens between brothers and so we also discussed how we can improve our relations with those who are historically and geographically attached to us.”

Similar sentiments were expressed in 2017 as well, after another joint meeting between the BJP and the RSS.

What were the reactions to Mr. Hosabale’s recent comments?

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the remarks, calling them a “positive development” and hoping that “sanity will prevail in India”. In J&K, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said that he is “glad that somebody is now thinking that war is not an option.” Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said “talks are the only headway” to address the issues between the two countries. India’s former Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Naravane (retd.), also welcomed the statement as a positive sign for engagement and dialogue between the two countries, especially at a delicate time in bilateral relations. The Congress criticised the remarks, with MP Manish Tewari asking: What has “materially changed since the Baisaran massacre?”

Can Mr. Hosabale’s statement be extrapolated to reflect government policy?

The answer is complicated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a product of the Sangh Parivar and has publicly acknowledged this fact. His government has been one of the most intensely ideological in India’s history, fulfilling some of the core issues on the RSS agenda including the reading down of Article 370 and the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

With regard to the relationship with Pakistan, matters stray into a territory that is more dynamic, and affected by both internal and external events. The RSS’s views have been quite consistent for a long time; therefore, governmental intervention, which also depends on immediate circumstances, may not usually follow the same trajectory. What the comments suggest is that whenever or if ever Mr. Modi seeks to initiate dialogue with Pakistan, he will have political cover from the ideological parent of the BJP.