Overview
- RSS Friends filed with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on August 27, 2026, naming the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its Keshav Kunj address in New Delhi as its foreign principal and listing a Georgia address and three board members.
- The registration says RSS Friends will conduct primarily informational, educational, public-relations and community-engagement work and that it may communicate with the public, media, researchers, academic institutions, community leaders and, where appropriate, government agencies or officials.
- The filing states there is no written employment, consulting, lobbying, public-relations, or agency agreement with the RSS that specifies deliverables or compensation and adds that the absence of a written contract does not mean no factual relationship exists.
- The submission came two days before RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Universal Oneness Celebration at New York’s Madison Square Garden and follows intensified U.S. outreach by RSS leaders in 2026 and a 2025 episode where disclosed lobby-firm payments to introduce RSS to U.S. officials drew political criticism.
- The registration makes DoJ disclosure public and is likely to prompt closer review from U.S. officials, Indian opposition figures and members of the Indian diaspora who have pressed for clarity about how the RSS conducts overseas outreach.