Adv. Raya Shenoy was the founder general secretary of Kerala VHP and one of the founding members of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad.
Adv. Raya Shenoy (94), the first Mukhya Shikshak and the senior-most swayamsevak passed away on Wednesday (Feb 23, 2022) in Ernakulam, Kerala. He had been an active member of Ernakulam Bar for the last 67 years. He joined RSS in 1943 when Purushotham Govid Chincholkar, late RSS Pracharak, came to Kochi from Nagpur and started a shakha in Ernakulam. Venkatesh Shenoy, TMV Shenoy, Ranga Hari’s elder brother Purushotham Shenoy and Ranga Hari were Raya Shenoy’s co-swayamsevaks. AV Bhaskar joined that team later. Raya Shenoy was appointed the first Mukhya Shikshak of Ernakulam shakha in those days. It was three years before legendary Pracharak, late K. Bhaskar Rao, came to Ernakulam.
Shenoy participated in the nationwide satyagraha when RSS was banned in 1948 in connection with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Thus, he missed one year’s college education. He was the founding member of Bharatiya Jan Sangh and BJP in Kerala. He was actively involved in Vivekananda Rock Memorial activities led by Eknath Ranade since 1962. He was a member of the volunteer team led by senior RSS pracharak late P. Madhav in connection with the formation of Hindu Maha Mandalam under the auspices of Nair Service Society (NSS) led by Mannath Padmanabhan and Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam led by R. Shankar in the 1950s.
Raya Shenoy was the founder general secretary of Kerala VHP and one of the founding members of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad. He was the lawyer, along with his senior, for Gowda Saraswath Community when they fought a legal battle in Kerala High Court for the status of a linguistic minority in the 1960s, and he came out with flying colours.
Late Sunanda Bai was Raya Shenoy’s wife. R. Vinodkumar. Adv. Prashanth and Adv. Sudheer are his sons, and Geeta Satheesh is his daughter. He continued his legal practice until recently, despite his age.
