This article originally appeared in the March 2010 edition of Himal Magazine.
The defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India’s general elections last year was greeted with relief by secularists and democrats everywhere. Not entirely unreasonably: they read the fact that the BJP lost a solid 3.4 percent of its previous poll share as evidence that Indian voters had rejected the majoritarian politics of Hindu pride and prejudice, peddled by the BJP and the rest of the Sangh Parivar. The general consensus is that the ideology of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, has lost its appeal among the urban youth and middle classes - that secularism has won and “God has left politics,” to borrow the elegant title of a recent essay by Delhi journalist Hartosh Singh Bal. Market reforms and globalisation emerge as the stars of this saga. Both the friends and critics of the BJP agree that it is the fervour for making money in India’s roaring economy that doused the flames of Hindu nationalism from the hearts of the middle classes. But that is not all. The ‘free’ market, we are told by a section of influential Dalit intellectuals, will not only free India from the menace of communal violence, but will also lift the curse of caste oppression. It is fair to say that the gospel of globalisation is gaining ground in India. Read the full story
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Dates: 6-7 March, 2010
Location: Mulali Juba Kendra Hall near Moulali crossing close to Sealdah station, Kolkata.
The Science & Rationalists Association of India ( Bharatiya Bigyan O Yuktibadi Samity) has completed 25 fruitful years. There will be a celebration of the silver jubilee on 6-7 March 2010. The annual conference will also be held during the two days with delegates attending seminar, workshop and interactive session during the day. The program on the evening of March 7, 2010 will be open to all. For more details about our activities you may visit our website, www.srai.org.
The program on the 7th will start from 5 pm with songs and discussion by the veteran Bengali folk song maestro Sri Swapan Basu, followed by our anti-superstition demonstrative show “Aloukik noy, Loukik”.
You are invited to attend the function and make it a grand success!
Prabir Ghosh
[G.S. Juktibadi Samiti]
Sumitra Padmanabhan
[President, Juktibadi Samiti]
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Reaching out to the younger generation is our priority number one. All our efforts are to reach out to this generation. The older generations with their fixed mindsets they are either with us or against us. Some fence sitters may need a push or pull from us to come our way. But, most of the times it is preaching to the converted or nonconvertible! Read the full story
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The details of the meeting are as follows.
Date : 14.03.2010
Time : 10.30 A.M to 5.30 P.M
Venue :
Akhila Karnataka Makkala Koota,
Pampa Mahakavi Road,
Fort, Chamarajpet,
Bangalore - 560018
(Near Kannada Sahitya Parishath, opposite City Institute Club)
The first state level Rationalist meet will be held on the 14th of March 2010. The goals of the meet are to strengthen the Rationalist Movement in the state, to incorporate scientific temper, to fight against superstitions, miracle mongers and fundamentalism. Most importantly, we aim to encourage the youth to join the movement. We wish to have the support of people from all walks of life. No restrictions on the numbers of members from any delegation for attending the conference. However, only two persons from each district are allowed to present a paper on the above subject.
For further details/clarifications contact by e-mail: babukadur44@gmail.com ; phone : 9886679088 and 080-41476288
B.V.V.Subbarao
Convener
Bangalore Rationalist Association
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Posted on 12 February 2010
Editor’s Note: Professor Narendra Nayak has embarked on another rationalism tour in India. This time he focuses his efforts around the Maharashtra and Karnataka regions covering large cities like Mumbai to tribal regions like Itarsi. This tour begins its first event on Feb 13th and ends on March 7th, a week before the Karnataka Rationalist Association meet. For more information on Prof. Nayak and his demonstrations and training programs, please see the Related posts at the bottom of this post.
February
13 - 15th a training program at Mahad for dalith activists from all over Maharashtra. Contact person- Pravin Gangurde 98906 31933
16 - 18th to be fixed. Contact person- Pravin Gangurde 98906 31933
18 - 19th Thane. Contact person- Dr. Rajendra Nayak-02225854378
20 - 21st at Itarsi, four interactions each day at an equal number of tribal villages, organised by Tribal Welfare Department of MP Govt. Contact person- Rajesh Parashar- 9425310803
22nd at Bhopal organised by the above department. Contact person- same as above.
23 - 27th, training program for students of social work organised by Social Development Foundation, New Delhi. Contact person- Anand-9893642880.
28th feb at Mumbai. Contact person- Dr. Rajendra Nayak 02225854378
March
1st at Mumbai. Contact person- Dr.Rajendra Nayak 02225854378
2nd back to Mangalore
6 - 7th at Alleppey organised by Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham. Contact person- Anil Kumar 9846126080
The Karnataka Rationalist Association meet at Bangalore is on the 14th of March. Read more about it here.
Power Transmission Grid School (2009 Tour)
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A group of activists, academics and leaders of the Freethought Movement have come together to propose the foundation of a well-organized, non-profit, freethought organization in India.
Summary: This is a proposal for a management-oriented approach to a Nirmukta organization. It is in three parts- (1) establishing why such an approach is needed, (2) presenting a mission statement and (3) proposing clear objectives to be implemented immediately.
Introduction
Nirmukta had its first online “meeting” on Saturday the 23rd of January, 2010. The members of the Nirmukta team who participated in this meeting include Prof. Narendra Nayak president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), Dr. Prabhakar Kamath, Pankaj Kulkarni, Siddharth Singh, Ajita Kamal and Kedar Kulkarni. We also had a guest panelist, Blair Scott, the National Affiliate Outreach Director for American Atheists, to help bring us a unique perspective from an established freethought organization in the United States. While the meeting was beset with technical problems, some avoidable by refining protocol and familiarizing ourselves with the format, and some unavoidable (such as the bandwidth issue), we were still able to come up with some good ideas and share them with the group. Read the full story
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Posted on 29 January 2010
Editor’s Note: On January the 23rd, 2010, the Nirmukta team had its first web-conference. Some specific ideas were discussed during this conference, and a commitment was made towards planning to manage the future of the freethought movement. After the conference, Professor Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, prepared the below statement and had it sent to the rest of the Nirmukta team. The team was already preparing a preliminary proposal, and took Professor Nayak’s statement into consideration along with more general management strategies. What follows below is Professor Nayak’s statement. The Nirmukta team’s proposal can be found here.
At the panel discussion held on the 23rd January, Ajita and Pankaj set off some thoughts which have been in my mind for long. The motives are very selfish- to see that the movement for which we have worked so hard grows even stronger. Of course I do hope that one would not begrudge that to me. I was also thanked for having shared my three decades of experiences. It is my feeling that the thanks should be the other way round, for having provided me that opportunity to build up a stronger and younger movement by sharing my experiences with the new generation. Read the full story
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Indian Skeptic is the magazine that reports on the Rationalism Movement in India. This movement is spearheaded by the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), under its president Professor Narendra Nayak. The magazine was founded and for many years published by eminent rationalist and debunker Basava Premanand, along with with Prof Nayak. That original Indian Skeptic was retired after Premanand’s death. Recently, a new avatar of Indian Skeptic was born at the 2009 National level FIRA conference. The magazine still deals with issues concerning rationalists and skeptics of supernatural claims, particularly in India. The editor and publisher of the new Indian Skeptic magazine is T.V. Manoj. Read the full story
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Introduction:
Every so often when reading books of non-fiction written by great thinkers you come across one that you find yourself hoping is wrong about the multitude of depressing facts it presents. Line after line, this is the emotion that Meera Nanda’s latest book, “The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu”, evokes. Beginning with post-independence India, Nanda walks us forward in time, pausing at influential points in the story to build a bullet-proof case for her central assertion that- in her words- “Globalization has been good to the Gods in India”. While it is a fast and thoroughly engaging read with all references relegated to the back pages, the sheer quantity of facts is still overwhelming at times.
Since my position on Nanda’s work is familiar to most followers of this website, I will present this review in an unconventional format. I will first describe the structure and content of the book. Then I will present some popular criticisms. Read the full story
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