London: Mohan Bhagwat’s recently concluded global outreach was promoted as part of the centenary celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), designed to generate “positive and factual perspective on Bharat, Hindu society and the RSS and address misconceptions about the organisation”.But the tour’s final leg in London ended amid secrecy, political scrutiny and the disruption of an event – an outcome that Rajiv Sinha, a member of Hindus for Human Rights UK (HfHR UK), said left the RSS “inviting more enemies than friends”.The fierce resistance by the progressive South Asian and Hindu organisations that followed Bhagwat from the United States and Canada to the United Kingdom has punctured the RSS’s carefully cultivated image globally, laying bare how the paramilitary organisation – widely considered the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has reached a ceiling in its limits to ‘whitewashing’ Hindu nationalism by masking far-right politics beneath appeals to the Indian diaspora along the lines of “the world is one family” and “unity”.On September 7, Sinha led members of Britain’s South Asian diaspora – including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs – in a protest outside London’s Bentley Hotel in South Kensington, after receiving a social-media tip that Bhagwat was holding an event there during the final leg of his three-day UK tour.A video shared by Sinha on X shows police stationed outside the hotel’s entrance as the protestors chant near its entrance: “Mohan Bhagwat, I am a Hindu, you are a fascist” and “Real Hindus do not lynch.” In another video, Sinha is heard saying, “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace.”We disrupted Mohan Bhagwat’s final event in London yesterday. My sources were correct.I guess #RSS operations aren’t as sophisticated as they’d like.The #Hindu supremacists and their collaborators had to pack up & sneak out of the Bentley Hotel.No to #rss #hindutva #fascism pic.twitter.com/2Qdp6LmHSB— Rajiv Sinha (@RajivSinhaG) September 8, 2026Sinha told me that the plan of action began as a “loose picket”, planned initially by him along with other protesters. According to Sinha, the two-hour protest “rattled” Bhagwat and left the organisers “utterly humiliated”. He said the event was forced to end early and that some attendees were escorted out with police assistance, covering their faces.Bhagwat had more conciliatory things to say during his address. To be Hindu goes beyond religion and involves “the nature to respect and accept all diversities”, Bhagwat said. Uniformity, according to him, is not necessary for unity. But does the parivar of organisations and workers for whom Bhagwat’s RSS is a fountainhead concur? The recent examples, while his trans-Atlantic visit was ongoing, from ‘New India’ are only the tip of the iceberg.Secrecy exposed limits of the RSS’s ‘Goodwill’ tourBhagwat arrived in London on September 2, after visiting the United States and Canada. Yet his final itinerary was not publicly disclosed and remained under wraps, claims Sinha. He told me that even invitees learnt the location of the concluding programme only five hours before it began.This was in sharp contrast to the heavily publicised and planned gathering at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the centre piece of Bhagwat’s US visit, which ignited debate about his controversial commentary and leadership.Also read: US Sikh Groups Urge Marco Rubio to Deny RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat EntryAfter all, a goodwill tour depends on visibility and not secrecy. If its purpose was dialogue, why was the venue reportedly kept secret? Sinha described this growing secrecy as a “progression in fear”.Bhagwat’s visit to Khalsa Jatha British Isles Gurdwara in Shepherd’s Bush, the oldest Gurdwara in Europe, has also faced strong opposition from the progressive Sikh community, including the Sikh Federation UK, which cited “longstanding concerns” about the RSS’s ideology and activities.The federation drew “an important distinction between an individual quietly paying their respects and a gurdwara being used as a backdrop for a carefully managed public relations exercise”.That distinction cuts to the heart of Bhagwat’s ‘goodwill’ outreach.A South Asia solidary group the RSS could not reduce to one communityBhagwat’s visit mobilised diaspora groups both for and against him. That divide itself exposed any narrative that the RSS could speak for overseas Indians as a single, unified voice. A growing coalition in the Indian diaspora – one that brings together Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and unprivileged-caste voices – pushed back against his presence, complicating one of Hindu nationalism’s most useful claims abroad: that criticism of the RSS amounts to hostility towards Hindus.The hotel action followed a larger demonstration outside the British Parliament on September 6, which was jointly organised by the South Asia Solidarity Group, the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain), Hindus for Human Rights UK, the UK Indian Muslim Council, India Labour Solidarity and other campaign organisations.Placards declared “Diaspora United Against Fascism” and “Never Forget Gujarat Genocide, 2002”.The protesters have also questioned the silence of British officials, including London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan. Twenty organisations had written to Mayor Khan, urging the Greater London Authority not to provide a venue for an event organised by the RSS.They described the RSS as “an authoritarian and militarist group which drew explicit inspiration from European fascism” and demanded the officials make sure Britain’s multicultural fabric was protected. The groups also urged the mayor to consult the Home Office on whether Bhagwat’s presence met the legal threshold for exclusion.Also read: British Hindus Must Take a Stand Against Groups Promoting Hindu Supremacy in the UKIn a letter to the Foreign Office, the organisations also claimed that Bhagwat’s visit was “part of a charm offensive of public outreach, supported by his allies in the UK”.British MPs were compelled to respondThe campaign also reached British institutions and parliamentarians. Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, tabled a written question in parliament over Bhagwat’s visit against the UK government’s commitments to human rights and religious freedom.Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn categorically emphasised that the UK should not host “the leader of a hate group with a grievous history of far-right violence”. “This is a deeply authoritarian, exclusionary and discriminatory organisation which has suppressed religious freedom and inspired horrific attacks on minorities,” the Your Party MP added. “There should be no space for this kind of hatred in our city, and it is truly appalling that this is going ahead”.An international chain of resistanceLondon was the tour’s conclusion, not the beginning of the resistance.In New York, more than 60 interfaith, civil-rights and caste-oppressed organisations opposed Bhagwat’s “Universal Oneness Celebration” at Madison Square Garden while New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the RSS’s vision “exclusionary”.The New York Times reported that two religious leaders felt they had been “duped” into attending because invitations did not identify Bhagwat or the RSS, according to email exchanges reviewed by the newspaper. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom went further, calling for targeted sanctions and describing Bhagwat and other RSS members as “complicit in religious freedom violations”.Long before he arrived in Canada, protests around Bhagwat’s visit included opposition from two members of Parliament. Over 40 Canadian groups also opposed the event as well.In a nutshell, Bhagwat’s centenary tour leaves the RSS facing one blunt question: How can it claim to represent a global Hindu community when Hindus joined Muslims, Sikhs and caste-oppressed groups across three countries to reject its politics? The RSS may have secured prestigious platforms with its limitless resources, but South Asian solidarity groups denied it the legitimacy it hoped those platforms would confer.Kalrav Joshi is a London-based journalist.