Hindu Ekta Sammelanams in Kerala disguise Sangh politics as temple gatherings

Saffron flags fluttered along a narrow lane about 300 metres off Edappally’s busy main road as the chenda melam drew people toward the Anjumana Devi temple ground on February 28. What appeared to be a festive evening featuring a mega Thiruvathira soon transformed into a Hindu Ekta Sammelanam organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), where calls to “forget caste” and rally behind Hindu unity formed the core message.

The organisers told TNM that the objective was to unite diverse segments of the Hindu society by transcending caste, linguistic, and regional differences. Though they claimed that the event was apolitical and did not aim to influence the upcoming Assembly elections, a participant of a similar event held in Palakkad on March 1 said that one of the speakers mentioned the election as an opportunity to demonstrate "Hindu strength".

Such events are part of a nationwide initiative marking the RSS's centenary year, which began on October 2, 2025. In Kerala, though, these gatherings, organised by the RSS and its affiliates, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Aikya Vedi, are part of a broader mobilisation that coincides with the run-up to the state’s Assembly elections in April.

Often held on temple premises and promoted with saffron flags and hoardings carrying the slogan “we are one,” these events typically blend cultural performances with political messaging centred on Hindu consolidation. Alongside speeches by RSS, VHP or Hindu Aikya Vedi workers and spiritual leaders, some gatherings also have speeches by children. 

The messaging is a careful mix of the "Hindus are in danger” narrative, fortified by claims of how “Hindus cannot even sing bhajans or attend bhajan gatherings freely in Kerala”. Speakers also raise allegations of “politicians not being concerned about Hindus”, stressing “Hindu unity” and proposing “marrying on time, focusing on childbirth" as solutions.

According to reports, the RSS plans to hold over a lakh such conferences across India in 2026. In Kerala, over 1,000 Ekta Sammelanam events are reportedly scheduled to be held between February and March. The events aim to reach people at the grassroots level, spreading across panchayats, municipalities, and corporations. 

Several leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) have openly expressed their disagreement with such events. Responding to a similar gathering held on March 8 in the Kozhikode district, party leaders stated that they view these events as the RSS’s covert plan to gain control over temples by misleading attendees into believing they are attending a harmless spiritual gathering.

The BJP is seeking to expand its footprint in the state after modest gains in the recent local body elections. Temple events are increasingly emerging as a vehicle for this push, cloaked in the language of spirituality while advancing a political project.

1000 Hindu Ekta events across Kerala 

The event at Edappaly Anjumana temple, which TNM attended, began with a chenda melam, followed by a mega Thiruvathira dance performance–a traditional group dance performed by women– followed by a bhajan. Later, the sammelanam officially began in a nearby auditorium, with the lighting of the lamp by Swami Anghamrithapuri, from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and a speech by RV Babu, the state president of Hindu Aikyavedi.

“All Hindu communities are participating in these events, including people from tribal to fishing communities, cutting across political parties and caste,” Babu said. According to the organisers, the Hindu community lacks organisational strength, and neither politicians nor others are willing to stand with Hindus when problems arise. Through these events, they seek to build a strong sense of “Hindu Dharma”.

The majority of attendees at the Edapally event were from the Nair community, as most residents in the area are members of the Nair Service Society (NSS), according to office bearers present there. In addition to the NSS, people belonging to the Viswakarma community, members of the Brahmana Sabha, and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) also participated in the event.

Jayasankar, the treasurer of NSS’s Edappally Karayogam, stated that the Nair community in Edappally largely supports events like the Hindu Ekta Sammelanam. “NSS supports this event mentally. We don’t concern ourselves with the decisions made from Changanassery [the state headquarters of NSS]. The majority of people in Edappally Karayogam are with this event,” he said. He clarified that they do not view this event as solely an RSS event, but rather as an initiative for Hindus.

The “headquarters” jibe Jayasankar was making is connected to NSS leader and General Secretary G Sukumaran Nair, who has allied with the ruling LDF, which is directly at war with the Sangh Parivar. With several CPI(M) leaders calling such RSS Ekta Sammelanams communally polarising, there seems to be a split within the NSS itself about their necessity.

“There is a pressing need for Hindu unity in India right now. The existence of Hindus is being questioned in the country,” said Vasanthakumar, an NSS member. His grouse was that the dominant caste Hindus enjoy no job reservation benefits. 

“In the Nair community, there are no reservations, while other communities are getting that. Although the NSS has advocated for reservations based on economic conditions, this has yet to happen in Kerala. In Kerala, the reservation is given based on caste. And generally Hindus are pushed back in many sectors,” Vasanthakumar claimed. 

However, since 2020, Kerala has 10% reservation in place for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) among the general category communities for seats in educational institutes and government jobs. 

Across the RSS Hindu Ekta events in the state, such victimisation of the Hindus and a call for Hindus to “awaken” remain a recurring theme.

‘Awakening Hindus’

At the Edapally event, RV Babu of the Hindu Aikya Vedi used the protest against an artwork at the Kochi Biennale as an example of eroding Hindu influence, and a sign for Hindus to “unite”. 

The artwork by Tom Vattakuzhy, which was a reimagining of The Last Supper, featuring women, was withdrawn following protests by Christian groups who labelled it offensive. “This is due to the collectiveness of Christians; if Hindus have such a crisis, no authority will do the same,” he claimed. 

However, in December 2025, AKMHSS Kottoor, an aided school in Malappuram district, decided to withdraw its drama from the state-level competition following interventions from right-wing groups, who alleged that the drama insulted mythological characters from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Babu further claimed that the caste system in the country was a distortion of Hinduism. 

“It is true that caste became a factor that divided us. But all of that is a later distortion that came into Hinduism. In older times, there was no caste here; later it came here. Now, we should ignore and forget it and move forward together,” he urged. He also argued that, during the time of the Europeans, an idea was created that only Brahmins are Hindus and others do not belong to Hinduism.

Several political commentators have flagged this trend of the Sangh to project casteism as an European construct. 

Kerala’s governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar recently said that there were no castes in the Hindu religion, which was a higher-level 'varna' itself, and it was the British who included castes in it when they started a census in India for the first time.  

Devdutt Patnaik, an Indian author, had rebutted such claims. “Eighteenth-century Indian rulers, Brahmins, and merchants actively enforced a deeply entrenched system of caste and untouchability through administrative decrees and social norms”, he wrote in The Economic Times.  

An Indian Express report also cites a caste-based survey, carried out in the Marwar kingdom in 1664, for tax documentation, which pre-dates the British era.

However, the Sangh and its projects, like the temple-based Ekta Sammelanams, continue to divorce caste oppression from Hinduism and mobilise more Hindus to marry, have children, and “keep the Hindu population high.”

‘Hindus must marry, reproduce’

While addressing the attendees, Babu also emphasised the importance of families and said that if families collapse, the country will also collapse. He then brought in the population of Hindus in the country and said that the “Hindu population is declining”, and the “Hindu community should think of having more children”. 

However, according to the 2011 census, the population of Hindus in the country is 96.63 crores (79.8%); Muslims 17.22 crores (14.2%); and Christians 2.78 crores (2.3%). The growth rate of the population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 %: Hindus 16.8%; Muslims, 24.6%; and Christians 15.5%. 

In a 2021 study by the reputed US-based Pew Research Centre, titled Religious Composition of India, census and the 2015-16 National Health and Family Survey (NFHS) data have been used to analyse slow population growth. It confirms that population decrease is largely associated with a steep decline in fertility across religious groups in the last few decades.

The country has not had a census since 2011.

Babu also went further and connected the Hindu population to secularism and freedom of expression. 

“If the Hindu population declines, it means that secularism in our country will be under threat, and freedom of expression will be under threat, because all these things exist here largely because Hindus are the majority,” he claimed, giving examples of countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, governed by Islamic states, where freedom of expression is skewed. 

Babu did not touch upon the Constitution of India, or its Preamble, which form the source of the country’s free speech and secular values. Freedom of Expression is specifically guaranteed as a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a). Secularism is mentioned in the Preamble and is also an implicit principle throughout the Constitution.  

But in Babu’s speech, secularism is a byproduct of “Hindu tolerance”. He claimed that Hinduism is the religion that can accept diversity, without explicitly naming the other religions he was vilifying. “However, some other Semitic religions say: only my religion is correct, only my God is true, and only if you follow my path will you attain heaven,” he said.

How are these events organised?

Rajendra Panikar, president of the organising committee of a similar RSS temple event in Palakkad’s Kalleppully, said that he was invited to the event, saying they wanted “someone who is not political and not an RSS member”. 

Rajendra is a teacher of Bhagavat Geetha in Palakkad and the founder of the Bhagavat Geetha Trust. He explained how they formed a committee and invited individuals to attend the event. “They said it would be only for one month and that the program would end on March 1, and it was a Hindu unity conference. I didn’t have much objection because Hindus uniting is necessary now,” Rajendra Panikkar said.

Initially, they created a committee with 51 people. Later, they created 17 sub-committees in different parts of the Mauthamkund Panchayat to work on specific areas. “This work is done by the RSS”, he said.

Later, these committee members went door-to-door and invited people to the event. They also obtained permission from the temple to use their premises and informed the police as well as the event organisers in their jurisdiction. 

What attendees say

TNM spoke to several attendees at the events in Ernakulam and Palakkad. Some of them said that they attend it as a function conducted in the temple near their house, and that participation is not at all connected to politics or the RSS. However, many others said the opposite. 

“Even though the program was organised by RSS, it was not an RSS program. I perceive this as a first step towards giving people a better understanding of our scriptures. In our temples, we should also create awareness among people about our scriptures. Rather than just going to the temple, praying, taking the prasadam, and returning,” said a 56-year-old man from Palakkad, who requested anonymity.

He added that Swaroopanantha Saraswaty of the Sivananda Ashram, who spoke at the event in Palakkad, said that the Assembly election is upcoming and “Hindus should show their power to the political parties”. 

“They emphasised the need for Panch Parivartan,” he further said.

Panch Parivartan (five transformations) is an initiative by the RSS. The five touchstones include social harmony by eliminating caste-based discrimination, family enlightenment by strengthening traditional family values like shared meals and respect for elders, environmental conservation by encouraging eco-friendly habits, such as planting trees and reducing plastic use, and self-based lifestyle by emphasising Indian languages and traditions while minimising reliance on foreign products, and civic duty by encouraging citizens to fulfill their responsibilities, including following traffic rules and paying taxes.

‘Temples belong to devotees, not RSS’

Many local leaders of the CPM allege that these events, held on temple premises, are covert attempts by the RSS to take control. 

In Kozhikode’s Karumala, a village near Balussery, the Democratic Youth Federation (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI(M), publicly opposed an event which was patronised by the Karumala Sree Mahadeva–Devi temple committee.

“The temple belongs to the common people here, not to the RSS. There is a committee in the temple made up of ordinary people who are not RSS members. How can they convey wishes for an RSS programme without the knowledge and consent of all the committee members? That is what we opposed,” said Subeesh, a CPI(M) worker. 

The DYFI displayed a hoarding stating that the temple belongs to devotees, not the RSS. “Dividing people in the name of religion is the stance of communalists. The Karumala Sree Mahadeva–Devi temple should not become a tool serving RSS communalists,” the hoardings read. 

Subeesh also claimed that the event organisers invited individuals by misleading them, saying it was a programme associated with the temple, while concealing that it was, in fact, an RSS event. 

“This is an area with a strong CPI(M) hold. They tactically ignored the houses of CPI(M) sympathisers and misled others by claiming it's an event related to the temple,” he said. Subeesh further stated that the women's group in the temple received a seemingly harmless message requesting them to conduct a Thiruvathira for the event, positioning the gathering as a cultural one.

This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. Read about our partnership here and become a subscriber here.