Authors like Vikram Sampath believe the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha had a stormy relationship. Mr Sampath, who has written an exhaustive two-volume biography of Savarkar, writes that the Hindu Mahasabha"s decision to set up a group of volunteers akin to a "revolutionary secret society" to "safeguard the interests of the Hindus" had "embittered" its relations with the RSS.