UNCOVERED: India’s growing tribe of nudists who like to bare it all in public

Since public nudity is illegal in India, they shed their inhibitions and their clothes at clandestine meetups

- Mohua Das

In an idyllic backwater retreat, a few kilometres away from Thrissur, a bunch of 40-odd men and women of different ages gathered over a weekend last month. Some started their day with yoga, some made breakfast, some played board games, some settled down on the sofa with a book and some for a deep conversation. In between, when rains came lashing down, they rushed outside to soak in the shower and gathered inside once more at sundown with someone strumming the guitar and others singing along.

In what looked like a mini summer break, nothing seemed amiss — except for their clothes. That’s right, cocooned in a resort among the dense foliage, this bunch of humans were all naked as a jaybird. These folks — who call themselves ‘Kerala Naturists’ and like to go au naturel every now and then — are only a tiny fraction of India’s growing nudist community that has embraced the practice of ‘social nudism’ also called ‘naturism’, a lifestyle of being clothes-free in social and sometimes public settings as an act of reclaiming their bodies and celebrating their natural self.