Publication: New York Times
Dec. 23, 2025
Title: The NYT’s “Far-Right Network” Takes a Map of Hindu Civil Society and Calls It a Menace
By SamyaTattwa, AHAD
The New York Times’ essay, “Youth Hostels, Blood Banks, Yoga: How One Far-Right Network Spread Across the World,” claims to unmask a shadowy, globe-spanning machine led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Its exhibit A is a shiny, newly released interactive map of ~2,500 organizations that (we’re told) stitch together charities, schools, temples, and think tanks into a political juggernaut. The headline does the rest of the work: hostels and blood banks are no longer community infrastructure; they’re cover for extremism.
A strong accusation demands stronger evidence. What we actually have is a data-visualization that (1) deliberately blurs “formal” and “informal” ties, (2) records “possible” links as if they prove command-and-control, and (3) invites the public to keep adding dots to the constellation. That’s a clever way to grow a story. It isn’t proof of a conspiracy. [1] 
The keystone is methodologically soft
The very project the NYT leans on—Seeing the Sangh—admits it is a “work in progress,” and codifies 34 linkage criteria with weights for “definite,” “probable,” and “possible” ties, capping every organization’s score at 1.0. It even has a “Thin Evidence” label when only one datapoint exists. The FAQ distinguishes “parent organisations” (formal control) from “linked organisations” (looser associations like a shared venue or board overlap). Yet the map displays both under a single visual grammar branded “the largest far-right network.” That is net-widening by design. [2] 
If you’re going to generalize from the map to a global menace, you must first convince readers that possible equals proven and linkage equals command. The dataset’s own documentation says otherwise. [3] 
“Shrouded in secrecy”? These groups are registered, regulated, and in plain sight
Take Keshav Srushti, the campus featured in the NYT’s lede. Its public pages describe environmental “city forests,” water initiatives, rural livelihoods, schools, and research centers—open, fundable, visitable. That’s what normal civil society looks like. [4] 
Overseas, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) bodies operate as charities in stringent jurisdictions. HSS (UK) is on the Charity Commission register with current filings; HSS (USA) runs a public “Health for Humanity” Yogathon and other community programs under 501(c)(3) rules. This isn’t “shrouded”; it’s auditable. [5] 
Crucially, after a high-profile undercover TV sting in Britain, the UK Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry (2016) found mismanagement around one offensive speaker, required governance fixes, and explicitly recorded “insufficient evidence” that the objectionable views were endemic—and “no other evidence of formal links with RSS.” The charity stayed on the register and tightened safeguards. That is oversight working, not a deep state. [6] 
The service record the NYT airbrushes
When Kerala was devastated by floods in 2018, Seva Bharati/Seva International volunteers moved supplies, ran medical camps, and supported local authorities—covered by mainstream Indian outlets at the time. You do not have to share the Sangh’s ideology to acknowledge the work. [7] 
Likewise, the Ekal Vidyalaya ecosystem—one-teacher village schools in underserved regions—reports roughly 86–90k schools and ~2.2–2.3 million enrolled children, nearly half girls (2025 data). You can debate pedagogy and content; you can’t dismiss the scale without evidence beyond insinuation. [8] 
“Supremacy” is an allegation; the stated doctrine is inclusive
For years, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said “Hindu Rashtra” does not exclude Muslims; recent addresses reiterate that being a “staunch Hindu” does not mean opposing others. You can interrogate gaps between preaching and practice; but misquoting the doctrine doesn’t help readers. [9] 
The same public record shows RSS leaders repeatedly elevating healthcare and education as rights and inaugurating community facilities—most recently a 144-bed cancer hospital in Chandrapur, Maharashtra (December 22, 2025), a collaborative public-interest project reported across outlets. A militia doesn’t build oncology wards. Civil society does. [10] 
Courts and regulators—not slogans—govern India’s civic space
If the thesis is that a “network” uses service fronts to smuggle extremism into the mainstream, you’d expect India’s courts and regulators to reflect that in law. They don’t.
• In 2019, a unanimous Supreme Court settled the Ayodhya title dispute, awarding the contested land to a temple trust and simultaneously directing the state to allot 5 acres for a new mosque in Ayodhya. The Court condemned the 1992 demolition as unlawful and cited ASI evidence of a prior non-Islamic structure beneath the 16th-century mosque—reasoning you can read in summaries and the judgment itself. [11] 
• In July 2024, the Madhya Pradesh High Court criticized a decades-old central bar on government employees associating with RSS—calling the original classification a “mistake”—while the Union government issued an OM removing RSS from the list of restricted associations. That’s the opposite of the “criminalized underground” the NYT hints at. [12] 
And if you want a reality check on the “pariah” trope abroad: the same United States that revoked Narendra Modi’s visa in 2005 later hosted a State Visit (June 2023) and issued joint leaders’ statements in 2025 deepening strategic cooperation. Democracies evolve; narratives should, too. [13] 
What the NYT misses about plural democracies
Civil society across ideologies scales through federations: Catholic Caritas, the YMCA, faith-based hospitals, diaspora charities. They’re registered, supervised, and contestable in law. India’s Hindu civil ecosystem is no different: you can investigate finances, question curricula, or prosecute wrongdoing. But you can’t take every hostel, blood bank, and youth group with a possible tie to the RSS and declare the whole edifice a stealth machine for authoritarian takeover. That’s conjecture elevated to thesis.
If Seeing the Sangh wants to be a reference work, it should keep mapping. If the NYT wants to persuade skeptical readers, it should stop letting the label “far-right” do the intellectual heavy lifting and start grappling with what its own source actually says: many ties are inferred, graded, and sometimes thin; formal control and informal linkage aren’t the same thing; and regulators have not found systemic illegality in the marquee diaspora charities it darkly gestures at. [14] 
The counter-narrative in one line
India’s Hindu civil society is not an invisible pathogen; it is a visible, lawful ecosystem—imperfect, noisy, and scrutinized—that builds schools, runs relief, and argues in court like every other large civic tradition in a plural democracy.
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Endnotes
1. The NYT’s central prop (Seeing the Sangh)—“largest far-right network”—is a dynamic, public-submission database; see the project’s landing page. 
2. Method: 34 criteria with weights (definite/probable/possible), a cap at 1.0, and a “Thin Evidence” flag; see the FAQ. 
3. The FAQ distinguishes “parent” vs “linked” organizations; conflating these misleads readers about control. 
4. Openness of Keshav Srushti’s activities (education, water, “city forests,” livelihoods) is evident on its official sites. 
5. HSS (UK): active Charity Commission record; HSS (USA): public Yogathon and nonprofit status. 
6. UK Charity Commission Inquiry (2016): found mismanagement around one speaker, no systemic extremist teaching, and no other evidence of formal links with RSS; required governance fixes; charity remained registered. 
7. Kerala floods 2018: Seva Bharati/Seva International relief documented in Deccan Herald and partner reports. 
8. Ekal Vidyalaya scale (2025): ~86–90k schools; ~2.2–2.3M children; nearly half girls—official reports/pages. 
9. Bhagwat on inclusivity: “Hindu Rashtra does not mean it has no place for Muslims” (2018); “staunch Hindu ≠ oppose others” (2025); “don’t see RSS only via BJP lens” (Dec 2025). 
10. Chandrapur Cancer Hospital inauguration (Dec 22, 2025) and remarks on affordable health/education: multiple outlets. 
11. Ayodhya (2019): SC’s unanimous verdict—temple trust + 5 acres for mosque, ASI evidence noted, demolition unlawful—judgment and summaries. 
12. MP High Court (July 2024): called the original bar on staff associating with RSS a “mistake”; Centre removed RSS from the list—court coverage and order reporting. 
13. U.S.–India arc: 2005 visa revocation; 2023 State Visit joint statement; 2025 joint leaders’ statement. 
14. Bottom line on the dataset and diaspora governance: see the project FAQ and the UK Charity Commission inquiry report.