'A Marxist teacher made me an atheist': Zoho's Sridhar Vembu on why children turn Left

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu on Wednesday shared a personal account of how a Marxist school teacher briefly turned him into a Marxist and an atheist as a teenager. He said his experience explains why children from conservative families sometimes adopt Left-leaning views.

Vembu's remarks came in response to author Shefali Vaidya's post questioning why children of even BJP leaders and RSS volunteers often grow up with ideological views different from those of their parents.

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'I BECAME A MARXIST AT 14'

Recalling his school years, Vembu said he studied Classes 6 to 9 in a free government-aided school started by a DMK-affiliated person but "did not hear any DMK messaging there."

He said he later moved to another free school for Classes 10 to 12 that had been funded by an RSS-affiliated person and had an RSS member as trustee. "I did not even know what the RSS was and heard nothing about the RSS as a student," he said in a post on X.

However, Vembu said one of his teachers had a lasting influence on him. "But in my 10th standard in that school, I had a Marxist Tamil teacher. His entire class was about the coming Marxist revolution... For a period I became a Marxist and atheist thanks to him. I was 14," he wrote.

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THE QUESTION THAT CHANGED HIS MIND

Vembu said the teacher encouraged students to question authority, prompting him to ask what would happen after a Marxist revolution. 

"I asked him, 'Sir, when the revolution comes, and everything is owned by the government, would everything become corrupt like the electricity board or the telephone department?'"

According to Vembu, the teacher replied, "After the revolution, people will develop socialist consciousness, and so everything will work better." 

"I could not accept that answer so Marxism lost its appeal for me," Vembu wrote, adding that he nevertheless "remained an atheist for many years" because of the teacher's influence.

He also recalled that his mother blamed the teacher for the change but still insisted that "you must respect the Guru."

'RESPECT FOR EDUCATION WEAPONISED'

Vembu said conservative parents often face situations where "their very respect for the educational system has been weaponised by the Marxists."

"Remember that the school had an RSS man as trustee and as a student I had not heard one word about RSS, yet the Marxist teacher was free to brainwash kids like me. That is right vs left for you," he wrote.

Vembu's post came after author Shefali Vaidya asked why children of communist leaders rarely become "Sanghis", while some children of BJP leaders and RSS volunteers grow up with different ideological beliefs.

She wrote: "Genuine question, I have rarely seen children of commie leaders turning into 'Sanghis'... but why do so many BJP leaders and even Sangh Swayamsevaks seem to be raising woke, entitled, abusive brats in their homes, who neither respect their parents nor the ideology they espouse? What's going wrong?"