New Delhi: The RSS has spent decades explaining that it works “only in Bharat”, even as evidence continues to point to its expansion across the globe, and the secretive yet bureaucratised and systematic mechanisms through which it operates.The latest findings come from anti-supremacy platform Savera, which, in a report titled ‘Transnational Entanglements: The RSS ‘Vishwa Vibhag’ or ‘Overseas Department’, which details how the organisation functions through a covert coordinating unit, also known as the Vishwa Vibhag.Released on August 26, it is the second instalment in a series about the RSS’s hidden machinery. According to the report, the presence and activities of the Vishwa Vibhag lay bare the fact that it is not just “inspiration” that drives the material infrastructure the RSS has across the world. The report’s publication coincided with the arrival of Mohan Bhagwat in the United States. Bhagwat, the sixth RSS sarsanghchalak (chief), has begun the first leg of his three-nation overseas tour as part of the organisation’s centenary celebrations. The Wire has previously reported, based on Savera’s first instalment on the RSS machinery, that there are a number of discrepancies regarding the identities and affiliations of the people behind his visit, whose links to the RSS appear to have been obscured.But what is the Vishwa Vibhag and who runs it?Vishwa Vibhag and the role of HSSThe Vishwa Vibhag, literally meaning overseas department, is an informal umbrella and communication link of the Sangh, connecting a number of global organisations that ideologically and culturally align with the RSS’s idea of pan-Hindu unification, while maintaining no official link with it.Per the Savera report, this global operation is coordinated primarily by the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) – particularly, its US division, which serves as “the de facto international headquarters of the Vishwa Vibhag”, and whose own report lists that one in every six of its roughly 1,600 shakhas is outside India.The HSS nodes also extend to Canada and the United Kingdom – the latter being where it established its first shakha in 1966. In fact, the organisation claims to be active in over 55 countries.According to the report, “Although the HSS often denies formal links with the RSS, claiming to be ‘autonomous and independent… having no legal or financial relationship with any other organization,’ this is a brazen lie that the HSS itself struggles to uniformly keep up.”The link between the RSS and HSS can be drawn not only from its self-evident vocabulary, paraphernalia and aesthetic, but also from the key positions that are reserved for RSS pracharaks. This includes Saumitra Gokhale, the HSS global coordinator, whose official designation of a “yoga instructor” is far from his actual role in the organisation.Moreover, RSS leaders – like Bhagwat today, and Dattatreya Hosabele before him – regularly visit and speak at HSS branches abroad.Three top leaders look after the functions of the RSS Vishwa Vibhag: Gokhale, who is also the chief coordinator of Bhagwat’s overseas tour, and his two sah-samyojaks (co-coordinators), Ram Vaidya and Anil Vartak, who look after the Europe and Asia zones, respectively. Under them are the Vishwa Vibhag pracharaks who look after the specific regions and organisations.Key figures of the Vishwa Vibhag. Source: Savera reportThe report also states that the overseas cadre, including the top leaders, go through an array of specific training supervised by the RSS, culminating with travel to India for the RSS shakhas or training camps, even though they deny formal links with the Sangh.The HSS-US in particular has 30 figures who hold simultaneous positions in other Sangh-linked bodies, the report finds, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, Sewa International, the Overseas Friends of the BJP, the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation and the Hindu American Foundation. It also underscores that as an extension of the RSS, the HSS has ramifications that extend further than the organisational boundaries of its own. “Key figures in the HSS are not just simultaneously RSS members; they also spread into the Sangh’s other units, and also hold positions in other organizations like the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA, Sewa International, Hindu American Foundation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, and so on,” it states.The Sangh transnational network – organisations and their ties. Source: Savera reportThe supporting organisationsThere are a number of interconnected bodies apart from the HSS, that play an important role in the Sangh expansion. Many of them share the same individuals, sometimes the same addresses or even the same phone number, and organise joint events thus revealing that the “governing power is concentrated among a small handful of individuals”, the Savera report said.However, there are three prominent Vishwa Vibhag entities that function from India. These include Shri Vishwa Niketan (SVN), a Delhi-based trust that publishes the fortnightly diaspora bulletin Samvad; the Antar Rashtriya Sahayog Parishad (ARSP), also based in Delhi; and the Vishwa Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), its coordination centre in Mumbai. VAK also has a close relationship with Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, an RSS-run training centre, hosts RSS leaders at events, and even has a self-attested financial arrangement with SVN, per the report.Interestingly, a common link among these organisations is Shyam Parande, who the report defines as a “high-level RSS leader”. Parande is secretary of the SVN, secretary-general of the VAK, and also the international coordinator of Sewa International, an organisation that functions as the RSS’s diaspora fundraising arm.The interconnected Vishwa Vibhag entities in India. Source: Savera reprotThen there’s the International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS), “a non-political, socio-cultural organization networking indigenous traditions across the world”; the Washington-based diaspora policy-advocacy body Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS); Friends of India Society International (FISI); and the international unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, among others.Bhagwat’s overseas tour condemnedAt its core, the RSS and the Sangh Parivar has always had one mission: pan-Hindu unification by propagating a Hindu nationalist agenda. However, with political support, especially since the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2014 election victory and rise, it has become the largest far-right network in the world.On Tuesday, August 26, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told the press that he does not support the mega event at Madison Square Garden where Bhagwat will address members of the Indian diaspora on August 29. However, Mamdani said the city may not have jurisdiction to cancel the “private” event.Meanwhile, according to a statement by Savera, 65 organisations have signed a public statement calling on US civil society and elected officials to withhold any platform, honor or photo opportunity from Bhagwat and his network. “He is coming in person because a quieter approach failed,” the statement said.The signatories include Grassroots Asians Rising, the Movement for Black Lives, 18 Million Rising, Faith in Public Life, Showing Up for Racial Justice, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Faith Against Religious Nationalism, and the American Council for Judaism, alongside a range of South Asian organisations.