Hindu Mahasabha in the context of Hakim Ajmal Khan

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; /bʱaːɾət̪iːjə dʒənət̪aː paːrtiː/ ; lit. 'Indian People's Party') is a conservative political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum, and it has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. The party's policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the parliament as well as state legislatures.

The party's origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Indian politician Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, after he left the Hindu Mahasabha to form a party as the political wing of the RSS. After the Emergency of 1975–1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other political parties to form the Janata Party; it defeated the then-incumbent Indian National Congress in the 1977 general election. After three years in power, the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, with the members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvening to form the modern-day BJP. Although initially unsuccessful—winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the back of the Ram Rath Yatra in Uttar Pradesh. Following victories in several state elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest political party in the Parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government, under its then-leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lasted for only 13 days.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966) was an Indian politician and ideologue. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while confined at Ratnagiri in 1922. The prefix "Veer" (meaning 'brave') has been given by himself, when he penned his own biography under the pseudonym Chitragupta. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha.

Savarkar began his political activities as a high school student and continued to do so at Fergusson College in Pune. He and his brother founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society. When Savarkar travelled to England for his law studies, he involved himself with organisations such as India House and the Free India Society. He also published books advocating complete Indian independence by revolutionary means. One of the books he published called The Indian War of Independence about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was banned in British India.

Bhai Parmanand (4 November 1876 – 8 December 1947) was an Indian nationalist and a prominent leader of the Ghadar Party and Hindu Mahasabha.

The two-nation theory was an ideology of religious nationalism that advocated Muslim Indian nationhood, with a separate homeland for Indian Muslims within a decolonised British India, which ultimately led to the partition of India in 1947. Its various descriptions of religious differences were the main factor in Muslim separatist thought in the Indian subcontinent, asserting that Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, each with their own customs, traditions, art, architecture, literature, interests, and ways of life.

The theory was adopted and promoted by the All-India Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah and became the basis of the Pakistan Movement. Hindu Mahasabha under the leadership of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supported the Two-nation theory. According to them, Hindus and Muslim cannot live together so they favoured India to become a religious Hindu state. The Two-Nation theory argued for a different state for the Muslims of the British Indian Empire as Muslims would not be able to succeed politically in a Hindu-majority India; this interpretation nevertheless promised a democratic state where Muslims and non-Muslims would be treated equally. The two nation theory sought to establish a separate state for Indian Muslims from the northwestern provinces and Bengal region of colonial India. Pakistan claims to be the inheritor of the traditions of Muslim India, and the heir of the two-nation theory. Buddhist and Dalit activist, B R Ambedkar supported the theory and partition of India in the interest of safety of India. According to Ambedkar, the assumption that Hindus and Muslims could live under one state if they were distinct nations was but "an empty sermon, a mad project, to which no sane man would agree". Congress rejected two-nation theory and opposed it even after the creation of Pakistan.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian barrister, educationalist, politician, Hindutva activist, and a minister in the state and national governments, appointed by Nehru the first Prime Minister of India. Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a nationalist leader who emphasised organised self-reliance over impulsive agitation, took a pragmatic stance during the Quit India Movement to prevent famine and administrative collapse in Bengal. He later became India’s first Minister for Industry and Supply in Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet (1947–1950) and resigned over the Nehru–Liaquat Pact, citing concerns about the treatment of Hindus in East Pakistan. In 1953, he died in custody in Jammu and Kashmir while protesting the state’s permit system, declaring that there should be “one nation, one constitution, and one flag.” After falling out with Nehru, protesting against the Liaquat–Nehru Pact, Mukherjee resigned from Nehru's cabinet. With the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946. He was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in 1953 when he tried to cross the border of the state. He was provisionally diagnosed with a heart attack and shifted to a hospital but died a day later. Mukherjee’s ideals of cultural nationalism, civilizational unity and fearless national service continue to influence Indian political thought. The Bharatiya Janata Party recognises him as a principal ideological forerunner, while many scholars view him as one of the earliest articulators of a dhārmic vision of the Indian nation-state.