Hindu Mahasabha

Hindu religious and political organization, formed at the 1915 Kumbha Mela,
a gigantic religious festival. The Hindu
Mahasabha was originally formed to
help foster Hindu causes, such as a
call for a complete ban on cow
slaughter, promoting the use of the
Hindi language in the DevaNagari
script, and addressing the problem of
caste discrimination.
In the early 1920s, the movement
became more overtly political and
by the early 1930s espoused an
unabashed Hindu nationalism, exemplified by its leader, Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar. The dark underside of this
Hindu nationalist crusade was a pronounced animus toward Muslims,
which was only strengthened by the
deteriorating relations between the
two communities in the years preceding World War II.
Although the Hindu Mahasabha was
eager for official recognition by the ruling British government and sought to be
recognized as the sole legitimate speaker for the Hindu community, these
hopes were never realized. The British
government included them in talks only
after negotiations with the Indian
National Congress Party had broken
down, and cut relations with the
Mahasabha after fences had been
mended with the Congress.
After independence in 1947, the
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Hindi
party’s image was damaged by its association with Mohandas Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse. It continued
to field political candidates until the
early 1960s, but never gained significant
political power. For further information
see Kenneth W. Jones, “Politicized
Hinduism: The Ideology and Program
of the Hindu Mahasabha,” in
Robert D. Baird (ed.), Religion in
Modern India, 1998.