The RSS’s Sarsanghachalak, or its chief Mohan Bhagwat, just met more than 2,000 Gen Z and Gen Alpha students from across India.

The timing was deliberate- coming right on the heels of the protests over the NEET paper leak that forced Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. 

Bhagwat played the sympathetic elder-backing the youth, calling the protest a legitimate part of democracy, and asserting that questioning power isn’t anti-national. All this while not overtly criticising the government. 

Many saw it as the RSS reaching out to a new generation.

But there's nothing new about it.

The RSS has always been about catching them young. That India’s future must be shaped from its classrooms. 

In fact, one of their first major initiatives after Independence wasn't political at all. It was educational: opening a primary school in Uttar Pradesh in 1952, as noted by historian Tanika Sarkar. 

That’s why schools, colleges, textbooks, teachers, and universities have remained central to the Sangh Parivar’s long-term project.

Today, that influence extends far beyond the RSS’s own schools. It reaches curriculum debates, NCERT textbooks, the National Education Policy, Sainik Schools, universities, and even appointments to key educational institutions.

So why has education always been such an important battleground?

Let me explain.

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Produced by Megha Mukundan, script by Lakshmi Priya and Pooja Prasanna, edited by Nikhil Sekhar and Jaseem Ali, camera by Ajay R.