Walter K. Andersen

Walter K. Andersen is an American academic. He taught comparative politics at the College of Wooster before joining the United States State Department as a political analyst for South Asia specializing in India and Indian Ocean affairs. Additionally, he was an adjunct professor at The American University in Washington, D.C.

Scholarship of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

Andersen co-authored the book The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism (1987, ISBN 0-8133-7358-1) along with Sridhar D. Damle.

The book has been called an authoritative, detailed examination of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including its early growth in the pre-independence period, its organization, the function of its various officers and the evolution of its ideology. "The founders of the RSS concluded that the Hindu social body was weak and disorganized because dharma was neither clearly understood nor correctly observed." It was the task of the Sangh's members to create a stable Hindu society and culture. The authors avoid categorizing the RSS as having an ideologically loaded framework and treat it with "understanding and objectivity." Roughly half the book focuses on the political involvement of the Sangh, with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Janata Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and includes information about how the Sangh exerts influence on the political partners.

Walter Andersen has also written a four-part series of articles on the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the Economic and Political Weekly in 1972.