Mohan Bhagwat

Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat (born 11 September 1950) is the Sarsanghchalak (Chief) of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) based in India. He was chosen as the successor to K. S. Sudarshan in March 2009.

Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat was born in a Marathi family in Chandrapur, then Bombay State of India. He comes from a family of RSS activists. His father Madhukar Rao Bhagwat, was the Karyavah (secretary) for the Chandrapur zone and later a Prant Pracharak (provincial promoter) for Gujarat. His mother Malati was a member of the RSS Women’s Wing.

Bhagwat completed his schooling from 'Lokmanya Tilak Vidyalaya' and then the first year of his BSc from the Janata College in Chandrapur. He graduated in Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry from Government Veterinary College, Nagpur. He dropped out of his postgraduate course in Veterinary Sciences and became a pracharak (full-time promoter/worker) of the RSS towards the end of 1975.

After working underground during the Emergency, Bhagwat became the 'Pracharak' of Akola in Maharashtra in 1977 and rose within the organisation responsible for Nagpur and Vidarbha regions.

He became 'Akhil Bharatiya Sharirik Pramukh,' (in-charge of physical training) for India, 1991 to 1999. He was further promoted as 'Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh,' (in-charge of RSS volunteers working full-time for India).

In 2000, when Rajendra Singh and H. V. Sheshadri decided to step down as RSS Chief and General Secretary respectively due to poor health, K. S. Sudarshan was nominated as the new chief and Bhagwat became 'Sarkaryavah,' (General Secretary).

Bhagwat was chosen as the Sarsanghchalak (Chief Executive) of the RSS on 21 March 2009. He is one of the youngest leaders to head the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after K. B. Hedgewar and M. S. Golwalkar.

In June 2015, due to a high threat perception from various Islamic terrorist organisations, the government of India ordered the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to provide Bhagwat with round-the-clock protection. At Z+ VVIP security cover, Bhagwat is one of the most protected Indians today.

In November 2016 while addressing a ‘Prerna Shibir’ on the 80th anniversary of Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s wing of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat said that homo sapiens ate into the space of other species of Homo genus like - Homo Floresiensis and Neanderthals in the past, but even the homo sapiens can go extinct in next thousand years.

In September 2018,Mohan Bhagwat said that RSS has discarded some parts of M. S. Golwalkar’s “Bunch of Thoughts” which are no longer relevant to the current circumstances.

In 2017, the state-run Animal and Fishery Sciences University awarded Mohan Bhagwat with an honorary doctor of science (DSc) degree during its convocation ceremony in Nagpur.