Control Over Education Is Critical for the RSS. The Sacking of Pradhan Is a Major Setback for It
Seema Chishti | 25 June 2026 | The Wire
Ever since the RSS’s first entry into government via its political arm – the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1967 – as part of the Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (‘Samvid’) governments, where it shared power with socialists in a few north Indian states, its objective was always to first seek control of the education ministry. The Sangh Parivar acutely understood the ideological power of textbooks and syllabus. The fact that India’s first education minister was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a national movement luminary, eminent scholar and former Congress president, remained a lasting sore point with the RSS.
While Indira Gandhi’s government may have also pushed to centralise education by shifting it away from exclusive state control during the official Emergency, the underlying ideological reasons for the RSS seeking such centralisation are starkly different.