FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, August 31 – As Mohan Bhagwat visits Canada today, he is likely meeting not just members of the public, but donors to his organization’s transnational fundraising network.

To ensure public accountability on this question, Just Peace Advocates has filed a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency asking it to examine the charitable status of 21 registered Canadian charities, including the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Canada, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of Canada, Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Ontario and Sewa Canada International Aid Inc., over their ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization. The complaint, using data from Sciences Po’s Center for International Research (CERI), identifies approximately $46 million moving between RSS-affiliated organizations in Canada, and a further $21.5 million sent from those organizations to RSS-linked groups abroad.

At the centre of the complaint is a question of eligibility. Canadian charity law requires that a registered charity deliver a benefit to the public, and purposes that discriminate on religious grounds or run contrary to public policy cannot be charitable. The complaint argues that organizations advancing an ideology built on the subordination of non-Hindu minorities cannot meet that standard, whatever their spending records show.

Over 40 Canadian civil society and community organizations have sent a letter calling on Minister Anandasangaree to bar Bhagwat from entering the country. Thousands of letters from individuals were also sent.

The RSS was founded in 1925 in India with the core mission of transforming India, a pluralistic society, into a majoritarian Hindu nation-state, marginalizing non-Hindu minority groups, including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Dalits, and Adivasis (Indigenous Peoples). The RSS is not merely a cultural or religious organization. It is a century-old paramilitary brotherhood, the ideological and organizational parent of a vast network of groups collectively known as the Sangh Parivar. This includes the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), which has ruled India since 2014.

RSS’s sophisticated and opaque transnational network of organizations operates worldwide and harvests funds under the guise of charitable donations, while evading accountability, including, but not limited to, it seems the provisions of the Income Tax Act, as detailed below. Prime Minister Modi called the RSS “the world’s largest NGO” and a global database housed at Sciences Po’s Center for International Research (CERI), Seeing the Sangh, described its family of organizations as “the largest far-right network in history.” A recent report from Savera has documented the influence and operations of the RSS’s “Vishwa Vibhag” or “Overseas Department”, a secretive but influential unit that coordinates its operations abroad — even as the RSS insists that it operates only in India. This is ironic as the RSS and BJP have targeted NGOs in India for criticizing the government.

Meanwhile, RSS’s highly decentralized global structure with thousands of local “fronts” operates opaque funding pipelines. These pipelines allow capital, corporate donations and community charity funds to move across international borders with minimal regulatory oversight, obscuring the ultimate destination and use of the funds.

Just Peace Advocates has tracked the money flow of several RSS-affiliated organizations in Canada. While many are non-profits and therefore are not required to disclose their financial records, we identified 11 affiliated organizations with 21 registered Canadian charities. Four are core-Sangh organizations, three are Sangh-embedded, and four are Sangh allies. Overall, we found approximately $46 million moving between RSS-affiliated organizations in Canada. Additionally, these Canadian, RSS-affiliated organizations also sent over $21.5 million to other RSS-linked groups outside of Canada. The complaint cites evidence, including independent reporting and Indian government reports, that these groups have engaged in partisan activity, discriminatory behavior and/or violence.

The RSS Project has thoroughly documented these, and thousands of other, organizations ties to the RSS and its Hindu nationalist project. For decades, the RSS has propagated right wing Hindu nationalist ideology, resulting in communal polarization and open hostility towards India’s religious minorities.

Therefore, the CRA is asked to investigate all 21 charities and, if warranted, revoke all RSS-affiliated organizations. Canadian policy and law is clear: discrimination, including religious discrimination is barred. Therefore, any organizations affiliated with the Hindu-nationalist RSS fail to meet the Public Benefit Test, a requirement for all registered charities. Further, we have asked the CRA to investigate charities that appear to potentially be violating the Income Tax Act by failing to devote its resources to its own charitable activities, supporting non-qualified donees, and/or failing to file accurate T3010 returns.

The Hindu far-right in Canada has not only funded and abetted their counterparts in India but also advanced divisiveness domestically, from its growing ties to the Canadian right-wing to its direct role in stoking tensions between Canadian Hindus and their Sikh and Muslim neighbours. The question follows, what really is the purpose of Bhagwat’s visit? Is he here to solicit donations for his transnational organization?

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Contact: info@justpeaceadvocates.ca

Quotes:

The Government of Canada has failed in its commitments to keep Indian-Canadians safe. As this report reveals, under the watch of the Canada Revenue Agency, charitable foundations are sending tens of millions of dollars to organizations in Canada and India that are linked to the far-right RSS network. The RSS has a well-documented history of violence against minoritized Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and Dalit communities. At the same time, the government has not acted to prevent the chief of RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, from visiting Canada despite public safety concerns raised by hundreds of civil society organizations and individuals.

— Member of Canadian Forum for Human Rights and Democracy in India

Canadian tax dollars shouldn’t be used to fund violent supremacist groups and causes abroad. If Canadian nonprofits are sending money to Hindu nationalist groups in India, the CRA needs to look closely at where that money is going and what it is funding. Any serious violations of Canada’s charity laws should be thoroughly investigated.

— Hindutva Watch

The Canadian Council of Indian Muslims (CCIM) is deeply concerned by the flow of Canadian charitable funding to RSS-linked organizations in Canada and India. As an extreme-right paramilitary entity, the RSS promotes an exclusionary ideology aimed at marginalizing Muslims and other religious minorities. The severity of this threat is recognized globally: the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has repeatedly documented how RSS subgroups perpetrate violence and incitement against minorities, going so far as to call for targeted sanctions against the organization. This aligns with domestic findings, including the landmark 2023 NCCM-WSO report, which detailed similar patterns of violence and hate speech. Allowing tax-deductible Canadian funds to support hate-driven groups directly contradicts Canadian values of pluralism and human rights. We call on the federal government to immediately audit these channels and revoke the charitable status of entities funding extremism.

— The Canadian Council of Indian Muslims (CCIM)

Canadians Against Oppression and Persecution (CAOP)joinsJust Peace Advocates (JPA) in calling for scrutiny of Canadian charity dollars and the broader Sangh Parivar network. Growing research suggests that some Canadian nonprofits engage with the global network linked to India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliated “Sangh Parivar” organizations. The Sangh Parivar encompasses groups like the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Sewa Bharati, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), and others. These RSS-linked humanitarian charities, school programs, and political advocacy in Canada aim to organize the Indo-Canadian diaspora while promoting an ideology that marginalizes India’s minority groups. While these organizations present their work as disaster relief, education, and cultural programs, the same networks actively promote Hindutva—an ideology centered on Hindu majoritarianism and identity. This promotion occurs in contexts where minorities face documented violence, discrimination, and exclusion, including anti-Muslim riots, cow-vigilante attacks, anti-conversion laws, and pressure on Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and Adivasis. Human-rights monitors have repeatedly highlighted the deteriorating climate for religious minorities in India.  Canadian registered charities receive tax-exempt status on the understanding that donations benefit the public, not political projects abroad.  Therefore, Canadian taxpayers should not indirectly subsidize activities that reinforce majoritarian politics or foster communal tension. Charities that send funds overseas must exercise direction and control, and demonstrate that recipients don’t promote exclusionary ideologies.
Canadians Against Oppression and Persecution (CAOP) strongly urges the Canada Revenue Agency to audit these flows for compliance with charity law. Donors deserve transparency. Humanitarian language cannot shield partisan or supremacist projects. Canada’s multicultural commitments require that tax-advantaged giving not support oppression elsewhere. The concerns raised by numerous international human rights organizations deserve serious scrutiny, as they’ve documented discrimination, violence, and restrictions affecting religious minorities in India. Recent reporting has also highlighted ongoing concerns about the treatment of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities.

— Canadian Against Oppression and Persecution

Additional Background on the RSS:

The RSS’s ideology was clearly outlined by its second chief, MS. Golwalkar:

“The non-Hindu peoples in India must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture… or they may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizen’s rights.”

Golwalkar was, and believed all Hindus should be, inspired by the Nazis genocidal treatment of the Jewish people. Under Mohan Bhagwat, current RSS chief, the philosophy of RSS has been fully operationalized.

“Islamophobia has always been a central feature of the ideology of Hindu nationalist factions in India.” From its inception, the RSS’ affiliated political parties have used anti-Muslim hate and stereotypes to fuel its campaigns. This has only accelerated under the Modi-led, BJP government. This is evidenced through violence in the form of cow-protection Lynchings, Mob-Lynchings, Home Demolitions and Bulldozer led destruction of whole communities. It is also clear in the ongoing annexation and Indian-occupation of Kashmir and Jammu.

Bhagwat has repeatedly framed Muslim and Christian communities as demographic threats to India’s Hindu majority. This pattern of vilification induces impunity for anti-religious hate, extending to Christians who endure church burnings, attacks on pastors, oppressive anti-Christian legislation, and pervasive persecution. The Evangelical Fellowship of India has documented 747 verified incidents of hostility against Christians in 2025 alone. Notably, Dara Singh — a member of the RSS — who was convicted for the brutal killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, is likely to be released from prison, underscoring the dangerous nexus between RSS ideology and impunity for violence against religious minorities.

RSS has been consistently accused of perpetuating caste-based discrimination and violence against Dalits, with critics pointing to its Brahminical leadership structure and the systemic exclusion of Dalits from positions of power within the organization. According to former RSS member Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Dalits are used merely as “foot soldiers” while being systematically kept away from leadership roles and denied even basic dignity — for instance, RSS members refuse to eat food prepared in a Dalit’s home.

RSS and its affiliated groups have been linked to several high-profile breaches of Canadian sovereignty and public safety, such as the targeted extrajudicial killings executed on Canadian soil, most notably the murder of Sikh community leader Hardeep Singh Najjar.

The RSS has been banned five times in India since its creation (1930, 1947, 1948, 1975, 1992). In 2026, after seven years of warnings, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended the US impose targeted sanctions against the RSS and its leadership. In its report, USCIRF cited RSS for its direct responsibility for and tolerance of severe systemic violations of religious freedoms and human rights. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has already designated two RSS wings as militant religious organizations — the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal.