The Sangh Parivar are a family of Hindu Nationalist
organisations (including religious, student, political and
paramilitary organisations) with similar ideological goals and
often overlapping membership. The parliamentary political wing of
the Sangh Parivar is the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), successor to
the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Of the numerous other groups, some of the
most prominent are the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal and the Akhil
Bharatiya Vidhyarti Parishad (ABVP). The RSS is the oldest of these
organisations and all the others spring directly or indirectly from
the RSS. The Sangh Parivar has a history of inciting and
participating in organised communal violence, namely violence
against religious minorities organised in the name of religion.