Nirmukta » Blog

Announcing The Nirmukta Community Forums At Nirmukta.Net

Editor — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:47:39 +0000

Hello Fellow Freethinkers!

The team of activists at Nirmukta is very excited to unveil our very own Freethought Community Forums. These forums were created with the intention of providing a safe and dependable communication platform for those of us interested in promoting science and reason in India.

You may ask ‘why do we need another forum to discuss Freethought? Aren’t there enough social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Atheist Nexus, Orkut etc…?

The way we see it, these open social networking sites are just the first step in reaching out to Freethinkers. They offer us a public venue to promote our cause and to attract new members into our community. However, we think that it is enormously useful for our community of Freethinkers to have our own online portal to communicate with each other. The new Nirmukta Forums belong to all the Freethinkers of India. A powerful community-owned forum gives us security, privacy and customizability in ways that generic social networks don’t. This is why we hope that you will use these forums to their fullest potential and help propel the Freethought Revolution in India.

Through these forums we can focus on building a community of Freethinkers by Celebrating Science and Reason, providing support to the victims of religion/superstition, discussing Science and Philosophy with other Indian Freethinkers, planning ideas for eradicating the superstitions and oppressive beliefs of our time, holding Regional Group meetups, and planning strategies for Local Action….among other things.

So pelase join us in creating meaningful, moral and naturalistic alternatives to religion and superstition.

Please visit the site, http://nirmukta.net, register for an account (if activation email is missing, please check spam folder- we’re still fixing this problem) and begin sharing with your fellow Freethinkers.

This message is from the team of activists at Nirmukta, including but not limited to:

Siddharth Singh
Bala Bhaskar
Shobhit Gupta
Rakshi Rath
Sundeep Peswani
Kitty Hundal
Prabhakar Kamath
Sajith Unni
Jayesh Vijayan
Sri Harsha Dandibhotla
Pankaj Kulkarni
Ajita Kamal

Nirmukta Live: Video Panel Discussion And Interactive Chat Conference

Editor — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:24:13 +0000

Greetings Friends!

Members of the Nirmukta team will be broadcasting a live meeting and interactive discussion in the Nirmukta chatroom on Saturday the 23rd, at 21:30 IST (16:00 London, 11:00 New York). You have the chance to participate online by asking questions and presenting suggestions to our panel of activists, skeptics, writers and academics.

The chatroom is located at : http://tinychat.com/nirmukta

RSVP for this on facebook, here.

This event is open to all. A full agenda will be posted very soon along with the list of panel members.

The web-based platform we are using is tinychat.com. This service allows upto 8 panelists to broadcast simultaneously. The text-chat function is open to all audience members who sign in using their facebook or twitter accounts. If you don’t have one yet, consider getting one before the event (although if you don’t have one yet you’re probably here by mistake).

The main subject of the discussion will be the future of the movement, and our panelists will present their views on Nirmukta and its potential role in advancing reason in India. However, there will be other subjects discussed as well. There are many areas to be covered since this is the first meeting and broadcast. In the future we will have scheduled broadcasts of shows on various subjects and in various formats.

So, come talk with us at the chatroom next Saturday. Make a note of it on your calendar. Send us an email and tell us what you’d like to see discussed. Join us and become part of the Nirmukta community.

Important: Please RSVP for this event on the facebook page.

Ajita Kamal

Editor

Send Email to:

info [at] nirmukta.com

ajita [at] nirmukta.com

Meera Nanda’s Latest Book (and other developments)

Editor — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:20:43 +0000

The past few months have seen a lot of interesting developments and events. We can safely say that the freethought community is growing and exchanging information at a more rapid pace than previously. Here is a quick recap of some events from the recent past.

Meera Nanda’s highly anticipated latest book, ‘The God Market’ is available in book stores in India from Random House. It has been published only in India, but is available online here.

We have a new contributor to Nirmukta, Dr Vinod Wadhawan, the Raja Ramanna Fellow at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Dr Wadhawan brings a scientific perspective to our work here.

Some depressing news: Basava Premanand (see our articles on him here, here and here) has been battling cancer over the past two years. His condition has deteriorated recently. If you have anything you’d like to say to him, please send your messages to us. Premanand has dedicated his life to spreading rational thinking and his last wishes of building the Methods of Science museum is becoming a reality, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated few. Let us honor this great man for all he has done for secularism in India.

Other developments in brief:

The nirmukta group on facebook has been growing steadily. The nature of the medium restricts excessive discussion on the facebook group page, but it is a great place to see other readers of Nirmukta and to meet prospective secular friends!

We have been using twitter sparingly to post news and developments concerning the freethought community in India. Perhaps we will start using this medium more often.

Nirmukta will be one on September the 12^th, this year. We will be interviewing Dr. Steven Novella of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, as a special report on the pseudoscience in medicine that is promoted by charlatans. If you have any questions you’d like to ask Dr Novella, please contact us using the form on the Contact Us page, or send us a message at info [at] nirmukta.com

Nirmukta on Facebook and the Long Overdue Newsletter

Ajita Kamal — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:40:24 +0000

Just a quick post requesting Nirmukta readers to click here and join us on facebook. I have left the group open to all and I hope that those interested in becoming part of the free-thought community in our corner of the world will join. Promoting secularism and science in Southeast Asia are the stated objectives. There will not be much required of you after joining the group, but since getting such a group off the ground is the hard part, please excuse some persistence on my part in getting you to join
I have been having more trouble than I had anticipated with the newsletter, and am considering making it bi-monthly instead of monthly as initially proposed. The good news is that I finally have sufficient material to put together a first issue that will be worthy of Nirmukta! For the millions out there waiting with bated breath, it should be out in the next couple of weeks. There will also be a link to it from the homepage.

Looking for new banner and logo design

Ajita Kamal — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:03:58 +0000

We are looking to change the look of Nirmukta. Towards this end we are looking for a graphics designer who can help us with our logo and banner. If you are interested please get in touch with us at info@nirmukta.com. Related posts:Naturalism Logo Contest: $500 1st Prize Related posts:

Naturalism Logo Contest: $500 1st Prize

What We’re Up Against

Ajita Kamal — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:40:36 +0000

A couple of days ago I had sent out an email to the subscribers and contributors at Nirmukta, notifying all of you of the posted article containing my interview with James Randi.

There was one reply to that email that I found interesting.

Here is it:

Dear Nirmukta Authorities Concerned People,
We
are blessed by ALMIGHTY through Jai Sai Baba, as a devotee of Sai,
without doubt our requirements are fullfilled. At present, our earth
must witness everywhere peace without trouble to
humanbeings.Please,send useful informations time to time.
with love and affection,
Sai Devotee,
Dr. T. Mariappan,
VCRC, Puducherry.

Now, this perseon has never commented or filled out the contact form before, so I realized immediately that whoever this was, s/he had been spying on us quietly for a while. A quick review of the log revealed the date on which this person had registered at Nirmukta. It happened to be the same day that the first article criticizing Sai Baba appeared at Nirmukta, 10/06/08.

So this is what we’re up against. I am reminded of Scientology, the way they operate; cult-like, projecting a false humility and always pretending to be benevolent. Meanwhile they are opposed to the basic tenets of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, using covert subterfuge, slander and the threat of prosecution. Too bad Anonymous can’t help us here.

I’m not sure if I should take this email as a threat. One thing is for sure- I’m all in now. I’ve stayed away from controversy for long enough. The realization that millions of Indians are still prisoners of the physical and mental abuse that unreasonable ideologies use to restrain minds, forces me to dedicate myself towards the cause of free-thought.

My Right to Blah!

On the New Color Scheme

Ajita Kamal — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:47:53 +0000

An astute observer would have noticed that there have been some changes to the color scheme at Nirmukta. The said scheme may also appear familiar to some of our readers. In all seriousness, the new look is purposefully designed to convey the “Indian-ness” of the website (and yes, I do stand by those colors!) while maintaining our focus on the brewing conflict between science and religion in society.

I’m writing this post to clear up any misconceptions that may arise about the intentions behind using the tri-color scheme as the banner on the site. Of-course, patriotism can be understood in purely naturalistic terms as evolutionarily adaptive. It is also well established that a high degree of patriotism is not incompatible with the capacity to inflict immense suffering on those outside of one’s group. However, the value of belonging to a community that shares history and culture is immeasurable. It is a value that promotes social action and awakens us to come together for our fellow human beings.

Patriotism, like other powerful emotions such as “spirituality” and hope, is too vital a part of our nature for us free-thinkers to leave it in the hands of the religious folk. It only makes sense to utilize all positive social emotion in order to help build a free and moral society.

Any thoughts?

Imagine No Religion

Why Nirmukta?

Ajita Kamal — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:55:00 +0000

When at first I decided to start an online magazine for free-thinkers it was little more than an experiment in creative expression to vent my frustration at the irrationality that permeates many aspects of Indian culture. There are numerous blogs that range from covering scholarly studies to publishing immature rants on the subject of atheism in India. Where does Nirmukta fit in this scheme of things?

The truth is we need a platform for all the issues that concern us, to bring us all under one common banner, so we can use the weight of our voices to bring some much needed change. At Nirmukta, we have put together an excellent team of contributors to cover different issues connected to free-thought. The idea is to bring all the stories that dominate the free-thought news in India, to one spot. So,

Nirmukta!

Over the next few months you will see some small changes to the website. The purpose of these changes is to continue to make our stated objectives possible. Suggestions are welcome and will be appreciated. Stay tuned for what’s to come!

My Right to Blah!

Apar Gupta — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:26:44 +0000

Apar Gupta

Division of Atheism and State: Absence of Status and Tacit Discrimination

One of the frequent themes in my introduction to Hinduism is the reference to the number of deities. The figure which adds up to 330 million is seen with incredible surprise by people belonging to monastic world religions. What does not surprise people is the deficiency in the Indian Legal System to accord any status to atheism, as an individual choice or a rational movement. The understanding is universal, law and atheism suffer a disconnect. Though the absence of recognition in law is discrimination itself, it is not limited to law. The result is a broader social discrimination against atheists.

This discrimination is most evident in the exercise of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. Naturally atheists are not religious minorities (the only type of minorities recognized by the Indian Constitution) they do not enjoy constitutional protections as a group. The case of Athiest Society of India v. Govt. of Andhra Pradesh (cited as AIR 1992 AP 310 ) contains a scathing indignation of atheists in this regard who filed a writ petition to make the court order the state government from performing religious functions at state events. The court noted that, “Such a noble thought cannot be found fault with as offensive to any one… there is no constitutional guarantee to the faith of the Atheists who worship the barren reason that there is no God, and that they cannot seek to enforce such a non-existing right by preventing the believers, in invoking the blessings of the Gods.“

Moreover an atheist as an individual can exercise his/her fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression (subject to the reasonable restrictions). These reasonable restrictions include “public order, decency or morality”. Any person in India will adhere to my personal experience that the chances of an intelligent discussion between an atheist and a theist are remote. Hence an atheist has forgone his free speech right the moment he discovered his rationality. I do not understand the reason for this disability.

Many zealots hold the opinion that atheism is all, “fancy blah blah blah”…. So what’s wrong in me doing some, “blah blah blah”!!

What the hell is a “nirmukta”?

Ajita Kamal — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:34:12 +0000

Hello. This section of Nirmukta will record the content development and behind-the-scenes action at the web site. Not that the articles themselves are not entertaining in their own right, but we thought that a running commentary could be justified given the context. Objective statements about some of the quaint beliefs talked about at Nirmukta can barely skim the oceans of amusing observations possible. This blog page will, however, plunge right in.

Now that I’ve justified the necessity for this blog, lets get to business. As a rule, older languages are usually more ambiguous in their interpretation than recently evolved ones. This being true for Sanskrit, Nirmukta can be twisted to mean many different things. The meaning we use here is “freed”. “Liberated”. It is meant more as a state of being than as a verb. Freed of irrational belief in the supernatural AND the subnatural. What, then, am I? A Nirmuktan? Wonder if I can divine the answer to that.