# Hindu Mahasabha (अखिल भारत हिन्दू महासभा)
**Hindu Mahasabha** (अखिल भारत हिन्दू महासभा, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, ABHM) is a Hindu nationalist organization founded in India in 1915 that campaigned for the consolidation (sangathan) of Hindu society and, from the late 1930s, contested elections as a separate Hindu communalist party.[1](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0257643013496691) It was the right wing of the Congress Party until [Vinayak Damodar Savarkar](https://www.edgepedia.org/vinayak-damodar-savarkar) transformed it into a separate party in 1937, and its political line was later carried forward by the [Bharatiya Jana Sangh](https://www.edgepedia.org/bharatiya-jana-sangh) and the [Bharatiya Janata Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/bharatiya-janata-party) (BJP).[2](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2019/04/the-bjp-in-power-indian-democracy-and-religious-nationalism?center=europe) • [3](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2018/10/the-mobilization-of-conservative-civil-society)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915, as the All-India Hindu Mahasabha[1](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0257643013496691) |
| Early program | Physical and military regeneration of the Hindu community; sangathan (Hindu consolidation) ideology[1](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0257643013496691) • [4](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf) |
| Political turn | An avowedly non-political reform body in the early 1920s; by 1939 the principal Hindu communalist political organization in British India[5](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/3328/) |
| Separate party | Savarkar transformed it from the Congress right wing into an independent party in 1937[2](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2019/04/the-bjp-in-power-indian-democracy-and-religious-nationalism?center=europe) |
| 1948 crisis | Nathuram Godse, a former RSS worker, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948[6](https://apnews.com/article/79c30c8ae750a9c037d86b9e2c1b640c) |
| Political heirs | The right-wing Jan Sangh (1960s to early 1980s) and its successor, the BJP[3](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2018/10/the-mobilization-of-conservative-civil-society) |
| Status today | A small organization that continues to operate; described in the Indian press as a waning fringe outfit shouting to stay politically relevant[7](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hindu-mahasabha-the-waning-fringe-outfit-shouting-to-stay-politically-relevant-5563082/) |
## Origins and social base
The Mahasabha's origins lay in the internal history of the United Provinces in colonial north India, where a constructed "Hindu identity" was given political expression in the early twentieth century amid growing Hindu-Muslim conflict.[4](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf) Its propaganda of Hindu unity aimed to create a perceived coherence of interests among Hindu groups, and its grassroots membership came from the elite social classes: educated and wealthy Hindus, landowning groups, the urban professional intelligentsia, and business groups in the towns and cities.[4](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf) The organization systematically sought the support of powerful landed interest groups and strengthened an active alliance with Hindu ruling princes in north India.[4](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf)
In its first decades the body overlapped heavily with the Congress. A Hindu Mahasabha Conference met at Lucknow in December 1916, with Rampal Singh, a Bais Rajput taluqdar of Kurri Sidhauli, as chairman of the reception committee, and [Lala Lajpat Rai](https://www.edgepedia.org/lala-lajpat-rai) served as president of the Eighth Annual Session of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha at Calcutta in April 1925.[8](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/abs/hindu-mahasabha-and-the-indian-national-congress-1915-to-1926/BB6384DD2E88E962A3BF2F68A4F5FC4E) In 1909 the Punjab Government had even contemplated extending official recognition to the Hindu Sabha and other communal bodies.[8](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/abs/hindu-mahasabha-and-the-indian-national-congress-1915-to-1926/BB6384DD2E88E962A3BF2F68A4F5FC4E)
## From reform body to political party
In a 1995 master's thesis written at [Concordia University](https://www.edgepedia.org/concordia-university), Keith Meadowcroft documents how, over the years 1922 to 1939, the Mahasabha changed from a self-declared apolitical body working for the social and cultural betterment of India's Hindus into the leading communalist political body for Hindus in British India.[5](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/3328/) The pivot came in 1937, when Savarkar turned what had been the right wing of the Congress into a separate party; unlike the [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh](https://www.edgepedia.org/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh) (RSS), founded in 1925 as an offshoot of the Mahasabha milieu, the Mahasabha engaged in electoral politics even before independence.[2](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2019/04/the-bjp-in-power-indian-democracy-and-religious-nationalism?center=europe)
**Savarkar's ideology.** V. D. Savarkar supplied the movement's defining ideology of Hindutva, which treats Indian civilization as inseparable from Hinduism. In December 1938, weeks after [Kristallnacht](https://www.edgepedia.org/kristallnacht), he declared that Muslims who opposed Hindu interests "will have to play the part of German-Jews," and the RSS's second leader, [M. S. Golwalkar](https://www.edgepedia.org/m-s-golwalkar), proclaimed that Germany's "purging the country of the semitic Race - the Jews" was "a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by."[9](https://time.com/6320003/india-weaponizing-history-against-muslims/)
**Organization and militarization.** From 1915 to 1940 the Mahasabha advocated the physical and military regeneration of the Hindu community, a program examined by Bhuwan Kumar Jha in *Studies in History*.[1](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0257643013496691) The sangathan ideology it articulated served to construct a distinct Hindu political identity and unity defined in conflict with Muslims in India.[4](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf) Under B. S. Moonje it also engaged with untouchable politics, including the Moonje-Ambedkar Pact on conversions and "denationalising" conversions, studied in *South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies*.[10](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856400600550781)
## The freedom struggle and the Gandhi assassination
The Mahasabha stood apart from the mainstream anti-colonial movement. Leaders of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha repeatedly displayed their contempt for the anti-British freedom movement, according to a history of the two organizations published by CPIML Publications.[11](https://publications.cpiml.net/book/indias-freedom-movement-legacy-and-lessons/hindu-supremacists-vs-indias-freedom-struggle-a-brief-history) A study of colonial perceptions of the RSS and the Mahasabha during 1942 to 1944, the period of the Quit India movement, appears in the *Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences*.[12](https://www.rjhssonline.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2018-9-3-32)
In 1948 [Nathuram Godse](https://www.edgepedia.org/nathuram-godse), a former RSS worker, fired three bullets into [Mahatma Gandhi](https://www.edgepedia.org/mahatma-gandhi)'s chest, killing him months after India gained independence.[6](https://apnews.com/article/79c30c8ae750a9c037d86b9e2c1b640c) During the first years of the 2000s, the RSS pushed the [National Council of Educational Research and Training](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-council-of-educational-research-and-training) (NCERT) to remove material covering mistreatment of lower caste Indians and Mahatma Gandhi's killing by Godse, described by certain historians as having belonged to the RSS; textbooks now in use discuss the assassination but omit crucial background on how the Hindu right shaped the assassin.[13](https://time.com/6269349/india-textbook-changes-controversy-hindu-nationalism/)
## Decline after independence and legacy
After 1947 the Mahasabha receded while the organizations around it grew. The Carnegie Endowment's analysis describes the Mahasabha's later incarnations as the right-wing Jan Sangh of the 1960s to early 1980s and, in turn, the BJP, which captured the popular imagination and led a revival of religious and cultural nationalism.[3](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2018/10/the-mobilization-of-conservative-civil-society) A survey of rightwing party manifestos likewise lists the Hindu Mahasabha, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and the BJP as the three Hindutva parties prominent at the national level since independence.[14](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/10/803/xml) [The Indian Express](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-indian-express) has described the present-day Mahasabha as a waning fringe outfit shouting to stay politically relevant.[7](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hindu-mahasabha-the-waning-fringe-outfit-shouting-to-stay-politically-relevant-5563082/) A report of a panel of independent international experts lists the Hindu Mahasabha, alongside the [Arya Samaj](https://www.edgepedia.org/arya-samaj) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, among Hindu organizations nationally reported to enjoy state patronage and impunity.[15](https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/librariesprovider21/default-document-library/piie-report-final.pdf)
The organization itself continues. The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha describes its mission as Hindu unity, seva (service), and dharma, working toward an [Akhand Bharat](https://www.edgepedia.org/akhand-bharat) and Hindu Rashtra from village to nation.[16](https://www.abhmindia.org/) Its own mission statement presents it as a national organization committed to protecting, promoting, and empowering Hindu society, uniting Hindus across caste, language, and region.[17](https://abhmparty.org.in/our-mission/) In 2026 its [West Bengal](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-bengal) unit announced a political alignment with the BJP at a Kolkata Press Club meeting held on Savarkar's birth anniversary.[18](https://www.aimamedia.org/news/662574/comittee.aspx)
## References
1. [Bhuwan Kumar Jha (2013). Militarizing the Community: Hindu Mahasabha's Initiative (1915-1940). Studies in History.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0257643013496691)
2. [The BJP in Power: Indian Democracy and Religious Nationalism, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2019)](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2019/04/the-bjp-in-power-indian-democracy-and-religious-nationalism?center=europe)
3. [The Mobilization of Conservative Civil Society, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2018)](https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2018/10/the-mobilization-of-conservative-civil-society)
4. [Constructing Nation and History: Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930, SOAS thesis](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33704/1/11010467.pdf)
5. [Keith Meadowcroft (1995). From "Hindu-Muslim Unity" to "Hindu Raj": the evolution of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha 1922-1939. MA thesis, Concordia University.](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/3328/)
6. [Once a fringe Indian ideology, Hindu nationalism is now mainstream, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/79c30c8ae750a9c037d86b9e2c1b640c)
7. [Hindu Mahasabha: The waning fringe outfit shouting to stay politically relevant, The Indian Express (2019)](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hindu-mahasabha-the-waning-fringe-outfit-shouting-to-stay-politically-relevant-5563082/)
8. [The Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress, 1915 to 1926, Modern Asian Studies](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/abs/hindu-mahasabha-and-the-indian-national-congress-1915-to-1926/BB6384DD2E88E962A3BF2F68A4F5FC4E)
9. [How India's Hindu Nationalists Are Weaponizing History Against Muslims, Time](https://time.com/6320003/india-weaponizing-history-against-muslims/)
10. [The All-India Hindu Mahasabha, untouchable politics, and 'denationalising' conversions: the Moonje-Ambedkar Pact, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856400600550781)
11. [Hindu-Supremacists Vs India's Freedom Struggle: A Brief History, CPIML Publications](https://publications.cpiml.net/book/indias-freedom-movement-legacy-and-lessons/hindu-supremacists-vs-indias-freedom-struggle-a-brief-history)
12. [Political Mobilization in India (1942-44): Colonial Perceptions of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences](https://www.rjhssonline.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2018-9-3-32)
13. [India's School Textbooks Are the Latest Battleground for Hindu Nationalism, Time](https://time.com/6269349/india-textbook-changes-controversy-hindu-nationalism/)
14. [Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindu Populism in India: An Analysis of Party Manifestos of Indian Rightwing Parties, Religions](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/10/803/xml)
15. [Report of the Panel of Independent International Experts II, University of the Free State](https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/librariesprovider21/default-document-library/piie-report-final.pdf)
16. [Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, official site](https://www.abhmindia.org/)
17. [Our Mission, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha](https://abhmparty.org.in/our-mission/)
18. [Kolkata: Hindu Mahasabha Aligns Politically with BJP on Savarkar Jayanti, AIMA Media](https://www.aimamedia.org/news/662574/comittee.aspx)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Political systems and ideas › Political parties and party families › South Asian parties and alliances*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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