Fact Check: Viral Claim of Hindu Student Suspended in Kerala for Wearing Ayyappa Mala Is Misleading
Social media posts falsely claim that a Hindu student in Kerala was suspended for wearing an Ayyappa mala
Social-media posts claim that in Kerala, a Hindu student was suspended for wearing an “Ayyappa mala” (a sacred garland worn by devotees of Ayyappan) and that local Hindu activists confronted the school teacher. The viral caption reads, SHOCKING: In Kerala, a Hindu student was suspended for wearing an Ayyappa mala. Local Hindu activists confronted the school teacher. Police have still not responded.
Here's the screenshot of the claim
Fact-check :
The claim is misleading. The video is not from Kerala.
On close analysis of the video we found that the audio is clearly not Malayalam but Telugu. An in-depth analysis of the video’s keyframes revealed an abbreviation on an office locker reading P.R.T.U.T.S, which stands for Progressive Recognized Teachers Union, Telangana State.
We then extracted keyframes from the viral video and searched them using Google reverse image search and found same video on the YouTube page of Prime 9 News . The post titled Teacher Gets Suspended For Wearing AyyappaMala is uploaded on November 5, 2025.
For further details did a keyword search and found several reports on a student's suspension for weaing Ayyappa mala. Though we could not find further reports on the viral video, we found similar cases reported in Telangana and Andra Pradesh. The Telangana Today report dated November 6, 2025 says that a protest was organised outside a private school in Suryapet (in Telangana) by devotees of Ayyappa. They accused the school principal of harassing a student who wore the sacred Ayyappa mala as part of his religious observance ahead of his pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The student and other devotees claimed the school's actions, including verbal abuse and restricting the student’s class participation, constituted religious discrimination. Police were deployed to manage tension outside the school premises.
We also found a Samayam Telugu post on YouTube reporting that a sixth-grade student, Nihan Tejas, was denied entry to Sherwood International School in Jeedimetla, Hyderabad, for wearing an Ayyappa mala. The report posted on October 31, 2025 says that the incident prompted protests from ABVP leaders and raised concerns about religious freedom in educational institutions.
A similar case was also reported from Andhra Pradesh. According to the Times of India, a fifth-grade student was denied entry to class for wearing an Ayyappa mala after observing deeksha at a private school in the NTR district. A group of devotees and activists gathered at the school objecting to the denial of entry, following which the school management issued an apology.
We did not find any report of a school in Kerala suspending a student specifically for wearing an Ayyappa mala, nor any credible public report of local Hindu activists confronting a teacher in such a context in Kerala.
The claim that a Hindu student was suspended in Kerala for wearing an Ayyappa mala is misleading. The incident occurred in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, not Kerala.