Property Dispute

Militant Hindutva organisations are eyeing prime real estate belonging to the Hindu Mahasabha

In an unusually important but typically silent manner, a parental Hindutva outfit—All India Hindu Mahasabha—is being swallowed up by its militant offspring Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). As the Hindu Mahasabha’s organisational strength has thinned beyond redemption, its official buildings and premises across the country are being grabbed by various Sangh Parivar affiliates, alleges the original Hindutva outfit.

“The silent grabbing of Hindu Mahasabha offices by the Sangh Parivar began the moment the Jan Sangh was formed in 1951,” says Mahasabha spokesperson Pramod Pandit Joshi. “And the process gained momentum once the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was formed at Mumbai in 1964.”

The Hindu Mahasabha was founded in 1915 as an alternative for Hindus who were not attracted to the secular Indian National Congress and sought to oppose the policies of the Muslim League. In its initial years, it was an adjunct to the Congress. In 1924, Mahasabha leaders decided to function as a political organisation independent of the Congress. Though the Hindu Mahasabha always remained on the fringes of Indian politics, it managed to register a good number of properties in its name. Its influence, however, continued to decline, and after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi—by the Hindu Mahasabha’s Nathuram Godse—the organisation weakened even further.

According to Joshi, while the Hindu Mahasabha offices in Manipur, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhopal and Aligarh were illegally taken over by the Jan Sangh and later retained by its successor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), those at Varanasi and Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh; Indore and Sagar in Madhya Pradesh; Bhosawal, Nashik and Amaravati in Maharashtra and Viramgaon, Rajkot, Baroda and Surat in Gujarat are in possession of the VHP or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

According to Joshi, MS Golwalkar, who later facilitated the formation of the VHP after becoming Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, had a lurking grudge against the Hindu Mahasabha. “In 1939, Golwalkar was stopped from becoming general secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha. A fuming Golwalkar thereafter left this organisation in a huff,” he adds.

The Hindu Mahasabha’s members in its early years included some pre-eminent political leaders such as Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of the Banaras Hindu University, and KB Hedgewar, founder of the RSS.