Preparatory sessions of the All India Hindu Sabha were held at Haridwar (13 February 1915), Lucknow (17 February 1915) and Delhi (27 February 1915). In April 1915, Sarvadeshak (All India) Hindu Sabha was formed as an umbrella organisation of regional Hindu Sabhas, at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.

Gandhi and Swami Shraddhanand were also present at the conference and were supportive of the formation of All India Hindu Sabha. The Sabha emphasised Hindu solidarity and the need for social reform.

At its sixth session in April 1921, the Sarvadeshak Hindu Sabha formally changed its name to Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on the model of the Indian National Congress. Presided over by Manindra Chandra Nandi, it amended its constitution to remove the clause about loyalty to the British and added a clause committing the organisation to a “united and self-governing” Indian nation.

Amongst the Mahasabha’s early leaders were the prominent nationalists, educationalists and four-time Indian National Congress president Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who founded the Benaras Hindu University, the Punjabi populist Lala Lajpat Rai and Lajpat Rai’s mentor Navin Chandra Rai of the Hindu Samaj who chaired the special Congress session of 1920 held at Lahore which gave the call for non-cooperation.

Under Malaviya, the Mahasabha campaigned for Hindu political unity, for the education and economic development of Hindus as well as for the conversion of Muslims to Hinduism.