New Delhi: When a senior RSS functionary enters the policy-tech circuit of Stanford and the strategic think-tank ecosystem of Washington – places where it has long faced scrutiny – the move reads less as routine outreach and more as a calibrated effort to counter the global narrative.It is in this light that RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s visit to America and Germany in April, as the Sangh celebrated its centenary, needs to be seen. American academic circles, particularly the Ivy League ecosystem, have offered some sharp criticisms of the RSS and Hindutva. Against this backdrop, Hosabale’s itinerary unfolded: an address at the Stanford-affiliated THRIVE 2026 in Silicon Valley, a policy engagement at the Hudson Institute on April 23, an interaction with the Indian diaspora and an interview with NPR.At the Hudson Institute, Hosabale directly addressed the battle of perception. “This propaganda has been going on for decades. They have portrayed the RSS as a Hindu supremacist organisation, anti-minority, anti-women,” he said. In another conversation he said, “All these years, the RSS was working quietly… now we thought it was better to reach out. Our words should also become messages.”The Stanford leg – Thrive 2026 – was presented differently, aimed at a global technology and academic audience. There, Hosabale leaned towards civilizational and moral themes. “We are all part of the same source of energy… one planet, one family, one shared future,” he said, calling for science and technology to be guided by an ethical framework.More direct political expression occurred in an NPR interview conducted in Washington. “We are not establishing a Hindu nation afresh,” he said.Sustained academic and student-led criticism of the Sangh and Hindutva in America is important. The Columbia University-based publication The Morningside Post (March 24, 2021) described RSS-linked networks as linked to “ethnofascist paramilitary groups”, a 2020 paper in SAGE Journals (Sliding from Majoritarianism to Fascism: Educating India under the Modi Regime, Bhatti and Sundar) associated the RSS with a “semi-fascist” ideological project aimed at establishing a Hindu Rashtra. described as a “navel relationship”, while the 2021 Dismantling Global Hindutva conference – supported by several Ivy League departments – framed Hindutva as a political ideology separate from Hinduism and warned about its global implications, triggering a backlash from Indian groups.Joining forces with leading German policy institutions such as the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and members of Berlin’s Abgeordnetenhaus, Hosabale said, “The RSS’s vision for the next 100 years is to contribute to the building of sustainable societies at every level, from families to societies and environmental responsibility, based on shared universal values.”This outreach also signals a change in the communication strategy of the RSS. According to an association insider, “from an organization that historically relied on grassroots work and limited global expression,” it is now trying to “engage directly with international opinion-makers.”