Sharda, who has risen from the ranks (that is the only way swayamsevaks rise) and held senior positions in the organisation, begins the Sangh story from the middle of its timeline – from the 1975 internal emergency, when Indira Gandhi threw nearly 1,30,000 people in jail to squash any opposition to her undemocratic rule – rather than from the time of its birth under Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925. Surprise: more than two-thirds of those arrested were RSS karyakartas and pracharaks, who were organising themselves to oppose this tyranny.

It may be a good start for the book, since it shows the RSS not as a defender of fascism, as its critics regularly allege, but an opponent of it. However, what works as a good starting point for dispelling a myth about the organisation may not be a good starting point for the skeptics. You want to know the “inside” story of how the Sangh is organised, how it “indoctrinates” its people, the sources of its funding, etc. So, if you are an RSS critic or disbeliever, I would suggest that you too should follow Sharda’s example, and start the book from the middle chapters. If you like what you read, the beginning (which critiques the critics and lays out the organisation’s worldview) may make more sense; if not, you can skip what you may dismiss as propaganda.

The core of the book, the RSS secrets you may really want to know, begins from page 91, which starts with a full rendition of the daily RSS prayer offering salutations to the motherland and promising to serve it selflessly (Namaste sadaa vatsale matrubhoomi, meaning, I bow to thee, O loving motherland). The prayer is all about volunteering to work for the country, with not one word of negativity against anyone. It’s the Sangh’s version of the Gita’s “Nish kaama karma” (action without desiring the fruits of action). Every swayamsevak is told the meaning of this prayer repeatedly, and the spirit of sacrifice and service is emphasised all the time. There is no place for ego in the Sangh, just selfless work and devotion.

Chapters 6 and 8 are important, for the former describes what is done at the shakha level and why it is key to the Sangh project of nation-building through individual character-building, and the latter its overarching mission. If you understand these two ideas, you will know what the Sangh is all about, and why it does, or does not do, things that one would normally associate with an organisation meant to build Hindu unity.

The numbers presented by Sharda are staggering, though not entirely unknown. There are apparently 56,000 shakhas, where daily attendance for an hour involves half a million people. Adding those who may not attend the shakha daily, the author estimates that 5.6 million people are directly involved with the Sangh emotionally. This bit of statistics should explain why all political parties are both envious and fearful of the Sangh, for when this power is projected into politics, it can threaten most leaders. Perhaps, this was what made Nehru ban the RSS in 1948 after Gandhi’s assassination, wrongly blaming the Sangh for this heinous act. The RSS faced two more bans in its life, once in 1975 during Indira Gandhi’s internal emergency, and again during the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation that resulted in the demolition of the Babri structure in 1992. The RSS’s interest in the BJP comes primarily from the need to get itself political cover, given the repeated attempts by political enemies to rob it of its legitimacy.

The main fare dished out at the shakha, where average numbers could be around 100 persons, is a mix of Indic games, physical drills, yoga, prayer, and some mild intellectual discussions. The mix may vary at some shakhas, but the core idea is to drill the ideas of humility, service and commitment to build unity above all else. No new member is ever asked for details about his caste or faith, though, given the huge propaganda against the Sangh, few Muslims or Christians dare to take an independent line and check it out for themselves. Daily shakhas last for about an hour, encompassing the RSS idea that everyone must give at least one hour a day to his country. A key lesson often given in shakhas is this one: however glorious our Hindu civilisation, it was done in by a lack of unity, thus enabling enemies to defeat them easily. This forms the basis of the RSS’ stress on unity and discipline over discord and difference. On the obverse side, proponents of diversity may wonder whether the RSS is trying to unify Indians by creating an Abrahamic monoculture, but the critics should also ask themselves whether they are celebrating difference or disunity.

A surprising fact: despite all the Hindu unity talk, and despite all the allegations of Brahminical thinking heaped on them, few RSS members are religious in the traditional sense of the term. In Sharda’s words: “Though nearly all RSS volunteers are religious and spiritual, I doubt if most of them perform regular rituals that go with visible Hindu practices. There is no training at all (in shakhas) about Hindu rituals and practices or (efforts to) influence…the so-called Brahminical samskaras.” This lack of enthusiasm for popular Hindu ritualism perhaps goes back to the Sangh’s more charismatic second chief, MS Golwalkar, who, Sharda says, “would admonish people that putting tilak on the forehead, reciting shlokas or scriptures blindly and garlanding one’s god is not true religiosity or spiritualism. For him, patriotism, surrender of self for motherland and service to fellow human beings were the highest form of spiritualism.”