A new analysis published by an Indian web portal has drawn striking parallels between India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Afghanistan’s Taliban, suggesting that both movements share disturbing similarities in ideology, governance, and treatment of minorities and women.
A report by journalist Vrinda Gopinath published in The Wire said, while the Taliban enforces its own extreme interpretation of Sharia law, the RSS promotes a rigid Hindutva ideology seeking to reshape India into a Hindu Rashtra. Both, the analysis notes, share a disdain for pluralism, secularism, and women’s equality — elements fundamental to democratic societies.
The report points out that the Taliban replaced Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution with its interpretation of the Shariah, while the RSS has long criticized India’s Constitution as “Western” and urged its replacement with ancient Hindu codes like the Manusmriti, known for its anti-women and casteist doctrines. RSS leaders have even demanded removal of the words “secular” and “socialist” from the preamble of India’s Constitution.
The article also highlights the RSS’s restrictive view of women’s rights, comparing it to Taliban decrees. Both, it notes, seek to control women’s behaviour, dress, and social roles — the Taliban through decrees banning work and education, and the RSS through laws such as the “love jihad” ordinances in BJP-ruled states that criminalize inter-faith relationships.
Analysts quoted in the report say the irony lies in the fact that the same BJP-led government, rooted in RSS ideology, has extended a red-carpet welcome to Taliban representatives in India, despite sharing similar ultra-conservative and exclusionary worldviews.
The report concludes that while the Taliban operates under the banner of religion and the RSS under cultural nationalism, both are driven by the same impulse — to impose uniformity, suppress dissent, and control the social fabric through fear, coercion, and ideological dominance.
