The ABVP was started by students in 1948, a year after Indian Independence, with the objective of channeling students' energy toward the task of national reconstruction. It was founded by a group of students and teachers , and was registered on 9 July 1949. Its growth process was slow and sporadic in its first few years, but accelerated after Professor Yeshwantrao Kelkar, a lecturer in Bombay, became its main organiser in 1958. He built the organisation into what it is now, and is considered to be the real architect of the ABVP.
The ABVP gradually spread its work across various universities in India.Though the ABVP insists that it is not a student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).