Exposing baba black sheep
Despite the recent murder of one of their own, India's small but vocal community of rationalists promises to carry on its crusade against superstition
Padmaparna Ghosh, TNN | Aug 25, 2013, 05.36 AM IST
If it's inspiration that's the main issue then Narendra Dabholkar — who was shot dead in Pune earlier this week — did not die in vain. Rationalism's many foot soldiers across the country continue to stand firm in the face of all kinds of harassment , whether assault, litigation or death threats. From villages in Punjab to the forests of Jharkhand, these men and women use logic and science to expose godmen and black magic practitioners for the frauds they might be. But atheism is not a job for the faint-hearted , in a deeply religious country with innumerable gods.
"If not me, they will kill someone else. We are not leaders who will hide behind others. I speak seven languages and I will continue to travel all over the country to spread rationalism," says Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), an apex body of more than 85 Indian atheist, rationalist and humanist groups.
Nayak, who also founded the Bangalore chapter, started disseminating the message of rationalism in 1980, the same time as Dabholkar, whom he counted as a dear friend and colleague. And Nayak has also faced his share of death threats and assault attempts — even attempts to get him fired from his day job as professor of biochemistry at Manipal University. He later quit in 2006 to devote himself to the rationalist cause full-time .
When Nayak was just beginning to lay the foundations of this network in the early 1980s, Megh Raj Mitter could not peel himself away from the books of Abraham Kovoor, a famous Sri Lankan rationalist who campaigned to expose fraud and explain paranormal phenomena across South Asia. "Behind every big idea, there is a small incident. I loved Kovoor's books, so I gave one to a friend. After reading it, he said he wanted it in Punjabi as his wife was under some baba's influence and he was cheating her out of Rs 2,000 every year. I translated it. People kept coming to our house, we got more and more stories of such frauds and we started busting superstitions," says Mitter. And so began Punjab's Tarksheel (Rationalist) Society. Today, Tarksheel boasts of thousands of volunteers. Besides Kovoor's book (which was later banned by the Punjab government), Mitter has written and translated 29 other books to help combat superstitions, blind faith and religious/ spiritual frauds.
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