Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu joins RSS march in Tenkasi after revealing his teenage Marxist phase

Zoho founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu joined an RSS route march in Tamil Nadu’s Tenkasi district on Sunday, November 1. He took part in the Patha Sanchalan in Sankarankovil along with BJP leaders and RSS members.

The march was held across more than 100 locations in Tamil Nadu as part of the RSS’s Vijayadashami celebrations. The November 1 event was the second and final phase of the exercise, following an earlier round of marches on October 25.

Photographs of Vembu taking part in the march were shared on X by Ananthan Ayyasamy, BJP’s Tenkasi district president and an entrepreneur. A former engineering director at Intel in the US, Ayyasamy considers Vembu his mentor.

Ayyasamy told India Today that Vembu had planned to attend the RSS march in Tenkasi town but was travelling at the time. "After he returned home, he joined the march at Sankarankovil," he said.

According to Ayyasamy, Vembu is actively involved in RSS activities in the Tenkasi region and regularly attends local RSS meetings, known as baithaks. He also sponsors panpattu vaguppu or cultural classes and weekend sessions on Bharatiya culture and traditions.

Vembu speaks about RSS and self-reliance

Vembu also addressed participants at an event linked to the march, where he spoke about self-reliance, nationalism and the RSS's contribution to nation-building, Ayyasamy said.

"The RSS does not discriminate against people or give anyone special status on the basis of caste or wealth," Vembu said, according to Ayyasamy.

Don't Miss: Women's participation in the workforce rises, but the gender gap is far from closing

Vembu also recalled the RSS's relief work during the December 2023 floods in Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts. He cited the work of hundreds of volunteers through organisations such as Seva Bharathi, including in areas where most residents were not Hindu.

Vembu's earlier remarks on his ideological journey

Vembu's appearance comes months after he spoke about his own ideological journey as a teenager. In July, he recalled how a Marxist teacher influenced him to embrace Marxism and atheism when he was 14.

"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 on X.

Vembu said Marxism eventually lost its appeal, though he remained an atheist for several years. He also criticised the influence of the Marxist teacher despite the school having an RSS member as its trustee.

"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," he wrote.