At the Laxmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture 2026, BJP leader and former RSS pracharak Sunil Deodhar claimed that Islamic “invasions” in India aimed to spread Islam through killings, forced conversions, abduction of women, and demographic expansion to reduce the population of “kafirs.” He peddled the anti-Muslim conspiracy theory of “love jihad,” alleging that women were targeted because they could bear children, and invoked Maharani Padmini’s jauhar. He claimed that Muslims were frustrated because they could not convert all Hindus despite ruling India, calling it the “frustration of Islam.” He further alleged that British rule aimed to spread Christianity, while calling Protestant and Catholic groups “demons” and accusing them of mass conversions. Deodhar credited the RSS for protecting Hindu identity, claiming that without it Indians would be speaking Urdu and bearing Muslim names, and warned Hindus abroad against sending children to local schools, alleging that they would turn into “demons.” He referenced post-9/11 research on Islam, claiming it identified Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as a worthy opponent to Islam who established Hindu Swaraj. He also contrasted the Kumbh Mela with a hypothetical Muslim gathering, claiming that despite the gathering’s scale no mosques or churches were harmed, and implied that a similarly large Muslim gathering would result in violence, urging people not to preach tolerance to Hindus but to learn tolerance from them.