12 December 2019

Citizenship Amendment Act comes into existence, opening a path for discrimination against Muslims, triggering massive violence across the NorthEast

09 November 2019

Supreme Court of India hands the Babri Masjid site to Hindus despite acknowledging that demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 was a crime, as was its defiling by forcibly installing a Hindu idol there in 1949

05 August 2019

Articles 370 and 35A of Indian Constitution that provided a special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir revoked, fulfilling a long-standing demand of the RSS-BJP

20 June 2019

Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had exposed Narendra Modi’s complicity in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a fabricated case of custodial kiling; the judge refused to allow Bhatt to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, nor allow the defense to bring any witnesses

26 May 2014

Narendra Modi becomes PM

23 May 2019

BJP wins landslide election

16 May 2014

Modi wins 2nd term

May 2004

Vajpayee loses Lok Sabha election; Manmohan Singh becomes prime minister

September 2002

Narendra Modi becomes the chief minister of Gujarat

February-March 2002

At least 2,000 Muslims were massacred in Gujarat in a pogrom carried out by RSS-BJP-VHP affiliated mobs after Modi blames Muslims in Godhra for a train fire that killed 59 passengers, including kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya

23 January 1999

Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons burnt to death as they slept in their car by Bajrang Dal criminals

16 February 1998

BJP emerges as the single largest party in Lok Sabha election again, with its highest-ever 182 seats; Vajpayee forms a coalition government with a majority

27 April 1996

For the first-ever time, BJP emerges as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha election-winning 161 seats. Vajpayee becomes prime minster but resigns after 13 days as he fails to get a majority

6 December 1992

RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal vigilantes raze Babri Masjid to the ground; BJP leaders including Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti are booked for making communal speeches leading to the demolition

June 1991

Congress emerges as single largest party in Lok Sabha election, BJP reaches three-figure for the first time with 120 Lok Sabha seats

1991

Durga Vahini, an “arm” of the Bajrang Dal, is founded under Sadhvi Rithambara, a self-styled female monk who had emerged as a principal rabble-rouser against the Babri Masjid

10 November 1990

BJP emerges as third-highest party in Lok Sabha election with 85 seats; lends outside support to Vishwanath Pratap Singh who replaces Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister

30 October / 2 November 1990

16 Kar Sevaks are killed in police firing after they attack Babri Masjid

23 October 1990

Then Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav’s government arrests Advani and stops Rath Yatra

25 September 1990

Then BJP President Advani launches a Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in favor of Ram temple

2 December 1989

BJP withdraws support from central government leading to V. P. Singh’s resignation

9 November 1989

VHP lays the foundation of a Ram temple on land next to the Babri Masjid following permission from then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government

February 1986

Faizabad District Judge Hari Shankar Pandey orders unlocking of the Babri Masjid and allows worship by Hindus

1984

VHP launches its movement to claim Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid as the birthplace of Lord Ram

Bajrang Dal is founded as a youth wing as a vigilante outfit for cultural indoctrination

December 1984

BJP is decimated winning only two seats in Lok Sabha election that were called by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi; Congress under Rajiv wins 400 plus seats

1983

VHP organizes “ekatmata yatra” with the purpose of forging “Hindu unity” against Islam and Christianity

January 1980

Janata Party wins only 31 seats which include RSS/former BJS MPs, as Indira Gandhi wins a landslide in Lok Sabha elections and returns as prime minister

6 April 1980

Bharatiya Janata Party is formed by RSS/former BJS members splitting from Janata Party on the issue of dual membership

1979

Janata Party breaks apart after former BJS leaders such as Vajpayee and Advani refuse to disavow their connections with the RSS; Charan Singh becomes prime minister with outside support from Indira Gandhi’s Congress party but his government collapses after 24 weeks as Indira Gandhi withdraws support

23 March 1977

Janata Party wins the Lok Sabha elections in a landslide with RSS/former BJS leaders winning the largest number of seats at 93 of all constituents of Janata Party; Morarji Desai is named prime minister; for the first time, RSS/former BJS members Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani become national ministers

23 January 1977

Janata Party is formed as Bharatiya Jana Sangh merges into it after Indira Gandhi calls Lok Sabha election

1975-77

RSS chief Deoras writes an apology to Indira Gandhi from prison; Atal Behari Vajpayee is allowed on parole after reportedly promising good behavior

25 June 1975

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi clamps Emergency suspending constitutional rights; many opposition leaders, including JP and from the RSS-BJS, are arrested

1974

JP brings Bharatiya Jana Sangh into his mass movement, bringing legitimacy to RSS for the first time since Gandhi’s assassination

JP forms Lok Sangharsh Samiti as the platform leading his mass movement against Indira Gandhi and names RSS’s Nanaji Deshmukh as his successor if he is arrested

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi clamps Emergency suspending constitutional rights; many opposition leaders, including JP and from the RSS-BJS, are arrested

5 June 1973

Golwalkar passes away at Nagpur; Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras becomes RSS’s third sarsanghchalak, or supreme leader

26 February 1966

Savarkar passes away

1964

Vishwa Hindu Parishad is founded by Golwalkar in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda as president

21 October 1951

Bharatiya Jana Sangh is formed with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as president

November 1949

RSS mouthpiece Organizer criticizes Indian Constitution writing: “…In our constitution there is no mention of that unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing"

July 1949

Ban on RSS is lifted after Golwalkar promised then Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel that RSS would have a written constitution, forego politics and “remain devoted purely to cultural work”, and respect the Indian tricolor

10 February 1949

Savarkar is acquired of charge of conspiracy in Gandhi’s assassination

December 1948

Golwalkar is arrested after RSS announces a movement against its ban

5 February 1948

Savarkar is arrested and charged with conspiracy for Gandhi’s assassination

4 February 1948

Indian government bans RSS; its ban notification saying the RSS was carrying out “undesirable and even dangerous activities” and that RSS members had “indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity and murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunition. They have been found circulating leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist methods, to collect firearms, to create disaffection against the government and suborn the police and the military. These activities have been carried on under a cloak of secrecy …”

30 January 1948

Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a former RSS member

15 August 1947

India is partitioned and India and Pakistan become free nations

14 August 1947

RSS mouthpiece Organizer rejects Indian tricolor saying the tricolor will “never be respected and owned by Hindus… a flag having three colors will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country”

January 1947

British government bans RSS but rescind it after four days

1943

Hindu Mahasabha joins hands with Muslim League to form a government in NWFP

1942

Hindu Mahasabha boycotts Quit India; Savarkar writes a memo, “Stick to your Posts”, saying Mahasabha members who were “members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures or those serving in the army to stick to their posts” and not join Quit India

26 July 1942

Hindu Mahasabha’s Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, a minister in Bengal under Fazlul Haq’s ruling coalition, writes to British Government expressing solidarity and with advice on how to suppress Quit India Movement, saying: “Anybody, who during the war, plans to stir up mass feeling, resulting internal disturbances or insecurity, must be resisted by any Government that may function for the time being”

1941

With Savarkar’s approval, Hindu Mahasabha joins the Krishak Praja Party-led Progressive Coalition ministry of Fazlul Haq in Bengal

21 June 1940

Hedgewar passes away; M. S. Golwalkar becomes RSS’s second Sarsanghchalak or supreme leader

1940

Savarkar declares open support for Hitler’s treatment of the Jews at Hindu Mahasabha annual conference, saying: “There is no reason to suppose that Hitler must be a human monster because he passes off as a Nazi or Churchill is a demi-God because he calls himself a Democrat. Nazism proved undeniably the saviour of Germany under the set of circumstances Germany was placed in”

1939

M. S. Golwalkar publishes “We or our nationhood defined”; In it he writes: “To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by”

1937

Moonje establishes Bhonsala Military School in Nasik; Governor of Bombay State, Sir Roger Lumley, lays the foundation stone of its main building

Savarkar is elected president of Hindu Mahasabha, openly supports two-nation theory in his presidential address saying: “There are two antagonistic nations living side by side in India… India cannot be assumed today to be a Unitarian and homogenous nation, but on the contrary there are two nations in the main: the Hindus and the Muslims”

1935

Moonje establishes Central Hindu Military Education Society at Nashik claiming its “training is meant for qualifying and fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of men with the ambition of winning victory with the best possible causalities of dead and wounded while causing the utmost possible to the adversary”

1934

All India Congress Committee passes a resolution forbidding Congress members from becoming members of the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League

Moonje and Hedgewar discuss plan to militarize Hindus along Italian and German lines; Moonje tells Hedgewar: “This ideal cannot be brought to effect unless we have our own swaraj with a Hindu as a dictator like Shivaji of old or Mussolini or Hitler of the present day in Italy or Germany... But this does not mean that we have to sit with folded hands until some such dictator arises in India. We should formulate a scientific scheme and carry on propaganda for it”

1931

Hindu Mahasabha leader Balakrishna Shivram Moonje tells fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini he is impressed with a fascist youth organization that indoctrinated boys as young as six years old

1930

Hindu Mahasabha decides to not join Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience Movement

1929

Hedgewar writes to RSS shakhas to worship the bhagwa (saffron) as the national flag, following a resolution by Indian National Congress that called upon Indians to observe January 26, 1930 as Independence Day by displaying and honoring the Tricolor

1928

Savarkar’s pamphlet is reprinted as “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?”

1925

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is formed by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar