Back in November 2018, Subramanian Swamy, then a Rajya Sabha MP, offered an intriguing piece of advice on Twitter: "Nationalists in Kerala should reach out to Syrian Christians since they are culturally in sync with Hindutva and have brains. Time to isolate Commies." Over the past seven years, there have indeed been consistent efforts by the BJP—Hindutva’s sweet child—to engage with various Christian denominations, particularly the influential Syrian Christian community in Kerala. These efforts have yielded some success. Notably, when the BJP opened its account in Kerala during the last Lok Sabha elections by winning the Thrissur seat, support from Christian voters played a crucial role. However, the actions of Hindutva-affiliated sister organisations like the Bajrang Dal—particularly in northern states—have, from time to time, become the biggest stumbling block for the BJP’s Christian outreach efforts in Kerala.
Saint Thomas Christians, or Syrian Christians—who trace their origins to the apostolic mission of St Thomas in the 1st century AD and now belong to various liturgical denominations—constitute approximately 70% of Kerala’s Christian population, which itself makes up around 18.38% of the state’s total population. Their numerical strength, combined with significant economic clout in agriculture, education, and healthcare, and institutional influence through powerful churches like the Syro-Malabar, makes Syrian Christians the most prominent Christian group in Kerala, both demographically and politically.
Kerala’s unique demographic landscape poses a challenge to the BJP’s traditional Hindu consolidation-centric electoral strategy. With Hindus making up just over half the state’s population—and their votes divided among the UDF, LDF, and BJP—the party has come to realise that Hindu votes alone are insufficient to secure electoral victories in the state’s triangular contests.
Syrian Christians claim a history of nearly two millennia in Kerala and have adopted many Hindu cultural customs while retaining their distinct religious identity. They held a high social status akin to upper-caste Hindus and, like them, practised caste-based hierarchies. Subramanian Swamy’s 2018 tweet urging “nationalists” to reach out to Syrian Christians can arguably be seen as reflecting a stream of Hindutva thought in which certain communities are categorised as “sons of the soil,” with cultural affinity to Hindutva ideals, and thus regarded as potential allies of the saffron fold—while others are cast as “foreign invaders.”
While the BJP has long expressed interest in reaching out to Christian communities in Kerala, it is since 2023 that these efforts—particularly towards Syrian Christians—have significantly streamlined and intensified. In March 2023, after the BJP’s victories in the northeastern assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared: “I am confident that in the coming years, as it has happened in Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Goa, a BJP-led government will come to power in Kerala too.”
The central leadership of BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made crucial outreach to bishops of various denominations from Kerala. The state BJP leaders also followed the example. Following Modi’s statement, BJP Kerala vice president A.N. Radhakrishnan, for instance, made a widely publicised pilgrimage to Malayattoor Kurishumudy, an international Christian pilgrimage site dedicated to Saint Thomas. Other BJP leaders visited various Bishop Houses across the state, especially during Easter 2023, and party workers personally delivered the Prime Minister’s Easter message to Christian households.
Fear farming?
Beyond framing Syrian Christians as culturally compatible with Hindutva, the BJP has also sought to tap into the economic and social insecurities of the community—fuelled in recent years by narratives about declining political influence, demographic shifts favouring Muslims, and rising economic competition. These anxieties are seen as potential openings for the BJP. At the same time, polarising narratives such as “love jihad,” “land jihad,” and “narcotics jihad” have also found traction among sections of the Christian communities in Kerala in recent years. There have also been allegations that Hindutva forces have carefully planted proxies to amplify divisive narratives within Christian spaces—through youth groups to even devotional channels.
Christian sections in Kerala traditionally backed the Congress and the Kerala Congress parties. The BJP has seen that and made attempts to project that saffron governments can provide a protective framework for Christian interests in the state. Notably, in Modi 3.0, George Kurian—a member of the Christian community—was appointed as the second minister from Kerala, alongside Suresh Gopi, whose victory in Thrissur was significantly bolstered by support from Christian voters.
Another crucial example was the Munambam issue. The BJP had promised to resolve the plight of over 600 families—mostly Christians—in Munambam, who have been living in uncertainty ever since the Kerala State WAQF Board staked claim to the land they’ve occupied, invoking Section 40 of the previous WAQF Act in 2019. The party positioned a new Act as a magic solution to protect residents from arbitrary Waqf claims. Catholic bodies such as the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) endorsed the WAQF Amendment Bill, 2025, (later renamed as UMEED Bill) and urged both the UDF and LDF to support it in Parliament.
To an extent, the BJP’s strategy seemed to pay off. Despite pressure from Christian groups, most parties in the UDF and LDF voted against the Bill—reluctant to upset their Muslim support base. Following the Bill’s passage, there were celebrations in Munambam: firecrackers were burst, BJP was hailed, and around 50 protestors even joined the saffron party.
Self-goals
Even though the BJP envisions a future where Christian votes shift en masse into the Hindutva fold, each step forward is often undermined by incidents that alienate the very communities they seek to court—particularly attacks on Christians and missionaries.
After violence erupted in Manipur between the Hindu-majority Meitei community and the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribes, Christian groups across India raised alarm over the targeting of Christian minorities. In Kerala, the incident triggered deep unease within the Christian community. To contain the fallout, the BJP leadership—especially Kerala Prabhari Prakash Javadekar—undertook concerted efforts to engage with the state's bishops, attempting to reframe the violence as an ethnic conflict rather than religious persecution.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, shortly after the BJP’s Munambam outreach, Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, published an an article titled “Who Has More Land in India? The Catholic Church vs Waqf Board Debate.” Its timing—immediately after the passage of the Waqf Bill—and its sweeping claims about Catholic landholdings raised eyebrows, threatening to unsettle the fragile trust the BJP was attempting to build with Kerala’s Christian communities.
Then came reports from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, that a group of activists—allegedly linked to the Bajrang Dal—had physically assaulted Malayali Christian priests. The priests were not only beaten but publicly humiliated, while local police reportedly stood by. The incident sparked widespread outrage in Kerala, especially among the Christian faithful.
Deepika, the Church-run daily, condemned Organiser’s article as exaggerated and baseless. It also voiced growing fears within the Christian community about rising attacks by Sangh Parivar-affiliated groups, particularly in the wake of the alleged assault on Catholic priests in a BJP-ruled state.
The situation was further complicated by the BJP’s lone Lok Sabha MP from Kerala, Suresh Gopi. His combative response to media queries about the Jabalpur incident drew criticism and significantly undermined the party’s outreach efforts. Gopi’s tone appeared dismissive, reinforcing opposition narratives and further alienating Christian communities, thereby weakening the BJP’s attempt to portray itself as a protector of Christian interests. Along with this, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju's damaging press meet in Kerala—which gave the idea that the new amendment will not simply solve the Munambam issue, but the affected people have to go through a long legal process—led to the allegations that the BJP misled the public with false promises.
“When introducing the WAQF Amendment Bill in Parliament, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju had promised that the Bill would provide a permanent solution to the Munambam land issue. However, his comments during his visit suggested otherwise—that the WAQF Amendment Bill alone would not resolve the issue permanently, and that the matter might have to go to court, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court,” Syro-Malabar Church’s spokesperson Fr. Antony Vadakkekara said in the aftermath of Rijiju’s comments.
Notably, the Syro-Malabar Church, which is the largest Christian denomination in Kerala, is a major provider of human resources for missionary activities within the global Catholic Church. The high rate of vocations, particularly among nuns, positions the Syro-Malabar Church as a key source of personnel for missionary work.
The arrest of two Catholic nuns from Kerala—Sister Vandana Francis from Thalassery and Sister Preethi Mary from Angamaly—at Durg Railway Station in Chhattisgarh on charges of human trafficking and forced conversion is seen as a direct continuation of the Jabalpur incident, especially since both cases involved missionaries from Kerala. Notably, the Bajrang Dal is reported to have played a key role in the Durg incident as well.
Predictably, political parties like the CPI(M) and the Congress strongly criticised the arrests. The Church leadership—particularly the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Conference—also condemned the incident, calling it a painful attack.
Interestingly, sections within the Church who have been uneasy about fellow bishops engaging and dining with powerful figures from the Hindutva fold voiced sharp criticism against their own in the aftermath of the Durg arrests.
The BJP has typically framed such incidents as law enforcement actions or "unfortunate one-off incidents" rather than premeditated acts of religious persecution. Echoing this line, BJP leader Shaun George claimed the nuns were misunderstood, stating that they were seen meeting people on the platform without tickets, which drew the attention of the railway police. George also said that the BJP’s Kerala unit had extended full support and had been in contact with the nuns’ families for the past three days. “Even the Prime Minister’s Office intervened. Justice will be ensured soon,” he assured.
George, recently elevated to the position of BJP state vice president, went on to accuse the Congress of hoping for unrest among minorities in North India, alleging that the party’s real worry is the increasing support for the BJP among minority communities. He further criticised Kerala’s Chief Minister, stating that apart from sending a letter to the Prime Minister, he had done little to support the nuns.
While the BJP continues to defend its position by projecting Christian leaders within its ranks, there is little doubt that as long as incidents perceived in Kerala as attacks on minorities continue in other parts of the country, Hindutva’s outreach efforts in the state are unlikely to deliver the full results it desires anytime soon.