Ruling BJP's ideological parent aims to restore India's lost glory

NEW DELHI -- As India votes in its six-week-long general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to draw huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at roadshows and rallies. One of the key forces behind this mobilization across the country is the party's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

"Our nation was a great nation historically -- knowledge, prosperity, wealth-wise -- in all walks of life, but we lost [all of] that with time [and] want to regain it," Sunil Ambekar, the chief RSS spokesperson and a longtime senior functionary of the powerful Hindu nationalist organization, told Nikkei Asia.