ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to examine how an Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated organisation aimed at rewriting Indian history implements its cultural programme at a local level through the participation of people who do not necessarily have any connection with the Hindutva ideology. It highlights the contrast between the Hindutva-oriented position the Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana defends as far as its central leaders are concerned and the field-oriented directives given to its local mediators for small-scale data collection. It then shows how ABISY's fieldwork methodology is what gives the organisation credibility among the local population. The chapter focuses on the activity that the organisation has in Kullu and on its local mediators — how these are selected and why they may (or may not) be persuaded to become involved in the ABISY cultural project. The ABISY project coexists with other attitudes of 'transcending the local' by associating local landscape and mythology with the textual repertory.
