Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is an organisation that promotes the unity of Hindus world wide and helps them in "maintaining their Hinduness". Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt likens it to a transnational global network - "concerned with the forging of lateral links across states and countries, therby transcending spatial boundaries, and with instilling a sense of the global unity of all dispersed Hindu-Indians, who originated in India and possess a common cultureal identity grounded in the timeless Hindu dharma. According to Christian Karner, in Britain, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh was established as a "RSS offshoot" in 1966. He considers that it follows the RSS' structure and functions in its "shakhas" (local branches) where participants engage in exercise, "ideological 'education' and devotion to the organisation's saffron flag (Bhagwa Dwaj)