The moment the costume is removed they become untouchables.

Deepti belongs to a caste called as Kottaris and is studying for her masters in commerce while working at a mall. We have performed many intercaste, interreligious marriages but the maximum opposition has been when one of the couple is a Dalit. As to be expected, Deepti’s family was very much opposed this match and three days ago she fled home and started staying as a paying guest.

Today it was a tearful shivering young woman who had come to meet me, worried about her fate and that of her beloved. This was because her family had arranged a match for her from her own caste, a young man who was a relative of the head of a most feared moral police of the Hindutwa right wing! She was scared that his goons were searching for her. In fact, all the documents needed for her marriage were kept at the place where she used to work, and she was scared by her former colleagues who told her that a close watch was being kept on her locker by the minions of this man.

She had come to us for help along with a middle-aged lady whom we assumed was her relative- but it was not! She was Sandesh’s mother who had come with her out of love for her to-be daughter-in-law. By that time a number of progressive organisations had been intimated and also some very progressive minded journalists. While we tried to get her documents from the place where she used to work, some goons from there tried to follow her and then it was a ride straight to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Sri Seemanth Singh who had instructed his office to give all help for the couple. By the time we reached the office, ony Deepti’s brothers were there and they informed the police that they had absolutely no objection to her marrying any one of her choice.

So, in the evening one progressive-minded priest, Jayaram Bhat, performed their marriage in the presence of journalists and progressive minded organisations like DYFI, Samudaya, AIDWA, Insurance employees union and the Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association!

For the last named, though religious marriages are not their cup of tea, under some circumstances, particularly when registration has to be done immediately, this sort of ritual becomes necessary. In a state like Karnataka where self respect marriages are not recognised as common law marriages for registration purposes, some sort of a formal drama becomes necessary for registration purposes. We are very happy that Sri Jayaram Bhat has been co-operating with us for the past two decades whenever the need arises.

Related posts:

1. The Legacy Of Brahmanism: Abomination of Untouchability And Curse Of Caste System
2. Exposing The “Miracle” Of Blindfolded Sight- The Story of Ranjana Agarwal
3. Sambhavi Gudilona, Badilona? Story of a Humanist Campaign Against Religious Exploitation of a Child
4. Ayurveda Question, And A Story About Akhilesh Sharma
5. A Secular (“Priest-less”) Marriage Ceremony At Shimoga, Followed By A Rationalists’ Meet!

This post is to announce that four new Nirmukta Groups and a long overdue official Nirmukta Page have now been launched as part of our community network on facebook.

The images on the left are clickable.

Nirmukta Skeptics: The purpose of this group is to discuss all sorts of events and ideas from a skeptical perspective, using the tools of science to evaluate dubious claims and expose the pseudoscientific ones.

Nirmukta Humanists: This group is for those atheists and freethinkers interested in discussing morality, ethics and all sorts of issues involving social rights and justice.

Nirmukta Science: This group is for atheists and freethinkers interested in posting and discussing science-related links, book suggestions, videos, documentaries and articles. The group is also a place for discussion on the scientific method and philosophy of science.

Nirmukta Politics: This group is for those atheists and freethinkers interested in discussing political events and ideas in a secular and rational framework.

Credit for the customization of the Facebook Page goes to Lalit Mohan Chawla for the coding and Bala Bhaskar for graphic design. Bala also designed the logos for the new Facebook Groups.

The new official Nirmukta Page has far fewer members than the Nirmukta FB group as of now, but it will become Nirmukta’s main outreach page on facebook. Several new features have been added to this page, including a custom landing page and tabs that extend functionality. Please be sure to check them out.

Lalit has put together a handy guide to help us promote the Nirmukta page.

Eight ways you can promote the Nirmukta FB Page.

1) Add it to your profile
2) Post a testimonial in welcome page
3) Add it as a ‘featured page’ on your page
4) Share it (see # 2 in the image) on your profile (check post to profile while commenting in testimonials).
5) Invite friends (the conventional way)
6) Like the page
7) Post and share images or share the image below.
Invite friends using Smart Suggest app

Related posts:

1. Announcing The Nirmukta Community Forums At Nirmukta.Net
2. Nirmukta on Facebook and the Long Overdue Newsletter
3. Everybody Bake Jesus Day – Facebook Event
4. Freethought News: Nirmukta Forums, SEA-Atheists, Meet Narendra Nayak (Poll)
5. Nirmukta Advisory Board and National Coordinator Appointed On Temporary Basis
6. Nirmukta Live: Video Panel Discussion And Interactive Chat Conference

After that it was back to Edinburgh for a pleasant stay with Jacob whose Ph.D.thesis was about blood donation in India. He is very much interested in our movement too and is also planning to write a book about it. So it was on a Sunday that the two of us went to Glasgow to meet the Humanists there. The Glasgow chapter of the IHEU had arranged for an interaction with their members. It went on very well and there was also an Irish Humanist present. I asked him a question which is usually asked to us here- Are you a Roman Catholic Humanist, or a Protestant one? The audience burst into laughter! He said that was the tragedy in Ireland where even Humanists were divided along such lines! So, it is not unique to India, where we are labelled Hindu rationalists or Muslim rationalists!

Academics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark

There were the usual questions about our superstitions, the role of the Godmen and such. After the interaction we returned to Edinburgh and went to a concert of the local orchestra which was a part of the ongoing Edinburgh cultural festival. On the next day was the interaction with the Edinburgh Humanists. The Humanists are a group of older people like us! But the Skeptics are younger. On the next day was a meet with the Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub! Yes, that is the name of the group that has a number of chapters all over UK. As their very name suggests we had to meet them at the pub! Before I met them I had some other engagements. I was in the radio station called Awaz run by the Asian community that interviewed me about our movement, the issues facing the country and my views on a variety of things. Next was a more-than-an-hour-long interview by Prof. Brown, a professor of History who is publishing a book on the atheists of India and wanted to include me in it. The meeting of the Skeptics at the pub was a tremendous success. We had to be evicted from the premises as we ran out of time. The response of the young crowd was excellent and I was also invited to their other chapters on my next visit.  I met one of their members at Birmingham later too and a meeting was sought to be organized at London, but could not come through because of the short notice.

Interview for Awaz FM radio- Glasgow

After the meetings in Scotland it was the turn of the Asian Rationalist Society, Britain to host me at Birmingham for their very important meeting to motivate people into pledging their bodies for organ donation. Its leaders, Sachdev Virdee and Bhagwanth Singh, are very dynamic persons. In fact they had hosted me on my last visit to England and they did so this time too. Virdee had in fact succeeded in prosecuting a so called godman who had promised many cures to people. In fact, it was he who had wanted me to boil eggs in Birmingham. He had previously told me that there was a Baba called the ‘egg baba’ who would pull out of boiled eggs slips of paper with people’s names written on them. Virdee had asked me to perform the same “miracle”. I had readily agreed to but got into trouble later. Anyway that deserves a separate mention!

On reaching Birmingham I was met by Bhagwanth Singh who took me to the office of the Asian Rationalist Society, Britain where we met Virdee. On the next day they organized a small meeting for the members of their association in which we had very casual interactions with some of their members. The Asian rationalist society Britain works very actively to promote rational thinking among the community and also educates them about the various benefits available to them. The organ donation campaign was a part of this activism. Cultivating scientific temper was one of the steps towards motivating people into pledging their organs for donation, and hence I had been invited for the same.

The issue of the ‘boiled egg Baba’ who had been exploiting the community by claiming to predict lottery winners from apparently intact boiled eggs. He would pull out the names of the family member in whose names the lottery tickets were to be purchased. I had agreed for the same as we had been doing this trick with raw eggs in India. In some parts of Eastern India there are tantriks who rub people’s stomachs with unopened raw eggs to ‘pull out’ evil spirits and other things administered through the food. They would then open the eggs and display the ‘extracted’ evil items like hair, pieces of roots etc. When we went to purchase eggs, I found myself in trouble because all chicken eggs in Britain are brown! I was prepared for white eggs and my experience was only with those. So, we had to hunt around quite a bit for them and finally we settled on duck eggs which were off-white in color and of a larger size.

So, we were ready to expose the so called ‘miracle’ of the boiled egg Baba who was said to have earned more than a million pounds using this trick. On the 27^th day of August, a Saturday, we had a meeting on organ donation by the Birmingham branch of the Asian Rationalist Society. It was a well attended meeting (by Western standards) with more than two hundred people. As per the usual custom there were poems sung by their bards, welcome addresses and all the formalities. There was a Punjabi psychiatrist who explained to them the need for proper treatment of mental illness, and on why it was very much needed for the community to be united and members to help each other since tissue compatibility is greater among people hailing for the same ethnic groups. Then it was the time for our demonstration of the so-called miracles and showing video footage of the tricks of the Indian godmen. This was received very well by the audience who had a number of questions.

Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub. Those in the front row have gone for refills!

Suddenly the ‘boiled eggs’ cropped up. We showed them intact eggs that were broken open in the presence of some of the members of the audience. We pulled out names of people from the inside of the eggs on which were written the names of Babu Gogineni who was one of the speakers, Bhagwanth Singh, Sachdev Virdee and some others. So, it was a veritable exposure of the ‘boiled egg Baba’! The audience were shocked when it was explained how easy it is to perform this trick. It is just a matter of carefully snipping off a part of the shell of the boiled eggs, inserting the slips into them and resealing them with a color matched adhesive cement.

This was not the first superstition that the Birmingham Indians were prey to. In fact, the last time I had been there one Punjabi gentleman had met me with a very serious problem. He had confided to me that back home in Jalandhar some enemy of his was doing black magic to him and one of his friends had arranged a tantrik who was doing the rituals to ward them off! He told me that to date he had sent him various sums of money which would total up to about 6,000 pounds. Now, he said, there was a demand to send a lump sum of 3,000 pounds for a more elaborate ritual. He asked my advice on whether it would work! Imagine a sum of nearly a million rupees to stop the effects of black magic from a place thousands of miles away!

Asian Rationalist Society of Britain meet, Birmingham

Later on it was time for the Rationalists in the Pub meeting with the members of the executive committee of the ARSB. It was not the first such meeting- in fact, almost every day ended with the meeting of the members in a pub nearby! The younger group of skeptics at the pub would be meeting once a month while the office bearers of the ARSB conduct most of the executive committee meetings in the salubrious environs of a pub near their office where they are regular customers even otherwise. One of the members of the Birmingham chapter of skeptics in the pub, Patrick, had come to this meeting and had recorded an interview which would be podcast on their website later.

After having come so near to the Mecca of reason, it would have been a sacrilege if we were not to perform the rationalist Haj. Close to Birmingham is Shrewsbury, the birth place of Charles Darwin, the man who struck the biggest blow to the religious views of the origin of life on the earth by proposing the theory of evolution. On the way to this place is the area where the Industrial revolution is said to have started. Anyway, the Haj of rationalism deserves a separate story which will be penned when there is time!

No related posts.

Dr. Mayur Moreker gave a presentation about the benefits of eye donation and gave some useful tips for protecting our eyes.

Key points of the talk:

A. Eye Donation.

1. Individuals of any age can donate their eyes. The donor may be a just born neonate or a 100 year old adult. Anyone, even people who have undergone cataract surgery, LASIK surgery, spectacle wearers, and diabetics can pledge to donate their eyes.

2. A single individual’s eyes can help up to 4-6 people. Different layers of the two corneas and parts of sclerae of the 2 eyes can potentially save the structure and provide sight for upto 6 different people.

3. The procedure takes only 15 minutes. In most instances the entire eye is not removed. Only the cornea, which is the outermost part, is removed, and small guaze  balls are placed and the eyelids are closed. There is no damage to the face. Externally it would be difficult to tell that the eyes have been donated.

4. In case of an urgent call for eye donation of our beloved ones, dial 1919 to connect to the nearest eye bank. Eye bank personnel will visit our homes and do the needful within half an hour of reaching our homes.

5. Eyes have to be removed within 6 hours of death and transplanted to the recipient within 96 hours.

6.India has tremendous shortage of corneas, so everyone must donate their eyes.

B. How can one prevent an eye infection?

One of the commonest reasons for corneal blindness in India is infection.

1. If you feel something is in the eye; DO NOT rub the eye, let it tear and visit an eye surgeon.

2. Do not be your own doctor and do not try over the counter eye drops from a local chemist. Eyes are too precious. Do not neglect them; go see an eye specialist immediately in case of injury to the eyes.

3. Be extremely meticulous while wearing and removing contact lenses. Make sure you do not scratch your eye while removing or inserting the contact lens. DO NOT share contact lenses, clean them regularly with the contact lens solution provided.

C. Tips for people who work long hours in front of computer

1. Take short breaks after every 30 – 40 minutes and look at a distant object, out of an open window or down a long corridor, as far as possible for a minute or two.

2. Remember to blink when you are in front of a computer screen. The blink rate drops from normal of about 18 times per minute, to as low as only thrice every minute. Try to keep your blink rate as close to normal while on computers

3. Maintain the computer monitor 20 degrees below eye level.

4. Use an anti-glare screen monitor.

Here is a program that will remind to take you a break on a Windows computer.

D. Some myths about eye numbers

Eye numbers in a child depend on two factors – length of the eye and the shape of the cornea. And in a child the eye number will change with age till they stabilize when the growth of the child stabilizes between 18-22 years of age. So don’t scold your child if he/she gets glasses and expect the eye numbers to change as the child grows; till it stabilizes. Having glasses is not really your or your child’s fault.

LASIK surgery to get rid of glasses is advisable only when the numbers stabilize and remain stable for a year.

Finally, Dr. Mayur R. Moreker spoke a few minutes on the realization of his passion to be a Martial Arts Stsdent, touching upon the innovative concept of training the visually impaired in Martial Arts at AAtish Academy For Performing X-treme Arts, Andheri, Mumbai.

Attendees dispersed after pledging their eyes for donation.

[Dr. Mayur R. Moreker (www.linkedin.com/in/eyeinflammation) is a Consultant Eye Surgeon, Specialist in Ocular Inflammation, Immunology, Uveitis, Eye Infections, Cornea, Ocular Surface Disorders and Complicated Cataract Surgeries and a Personal Counselor at Bombay Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Mumbai and an X-treme Martial Arts Student at AAtish Academy For Performing X-treme Arts, Mumbai (www.aatishacademy.com/).

He can be reached on +91 9820308358 or eyeinflammation@gmail.com]

Related posts:

1. Report On ‘Yukti 2011′- Organized By Nirmukta’s Bangalore Freethinkers
2. Atheist/ Freethinker Meets in Pune and Mumbai
3. Moving Forward after the Mumbai Terror Attacks
4. “Sound Healing” – From New Age Mysticism to Organized Religion
5. Chennai Freethinkers’ Thinkfest 2011 – A Report
6. The 7th Chennai Freethinkers’ Meet – A Synopsis

Having been instrumental in bringing the ruling Bharathiya Janatha Party to power using their money and muscle power, they had been extracting their pound of flesh from the ruling combination, tons of money, through various mining scandals. After these became a national level issue, the CBI was forced to investigate. With the President of the erstwhile (banana) republic behind bars, it has recently returned into the fold of the Republic of India! If this had not happened, our program would have had to be conducted there after seeking his permission! Jokes apart, our interactions there were organized by a group called Arivu, which means knowledge in Kannada, most of whose members had been opponents of this exploitation of the resources by these people.

This group has been very active in organizing programs on various areas such as environmental degradation, dissemination

Audience at Sirigere

of scientific knowledge etc. They have also been promoting rational thinking in their area and have also conducted programs for the people of Bellary city, which was the capital of the now defunct republic, and that too without the permission of the powers that be at that time! This time, one of the members, a chartered accountant called Pannaraj, wanted me to come over to his village where he had organized a one day function in the memory of his late mother and had also inaugurated a trust for the same to be run by the members of his family. He wanted me to administer an oath to them that they would carry on his work after he was no more. Arivu is not an organisation run by a single person. There are three couples involved- Dr. Aravind Patel, a Surgeon, his wife who is a gynecologist, Dr. Havildar, who is a Banker, his wife who is a teacher and the family of Pannaraj. My contact with Dr. Havildar’s family goes back two decades. His wife had taken my training in one of my first exposing miracles workshops held at a nearby place. The husband had also accompanied her and had become my uninvited student. He had started conducting this activity himself! In fact he had done more of them than his wife who had taken my training formally. This time it was going to be a well attended program with people from the surrounding villages too joining in and spending the day in Sirigere, Panna Raj’s village, attending the various activities for the promotion of rational thinking. The events included more spectacular activities such as pulling a car with a hook through the skin of one’s back, standing on swords, lying on a bed of nails etc. They had invited a special team from Tamilnadu comprising of Aruchamy and his comrade,  who are our specialists in the field and have been doing thse things for the past two decades.

Taking advantage of my trip some other interactions had also been arranged. In the meanwhile the producer of the Australian TV channel, Gareth, who had filmed me in the past, wanted to complete the shoot with an interview featuring his reporter, a very famous TV personality called Alison. I suggested that they could come to Bellary to shoot and they readily agreed. This was the third program.

There was also a fourth incidental program giving me a first hand experience of how things were in Bellary. Here are the details. Bellary is one of the most economically backward, superstition ridden areas of Karnataka, but has a large amount of iron ore. This was being exploited by the mining lobby lead by the Gali Reddys, who started making huge profits when the demand shot up taking the prices up. They were operating in the adjoining state of Andhra too with the active connivance of the ruling party there. In fact they had gone to the extent of altering state borders to encroach into Karnataka and had licenses in Andhra Pradesh. After making billions by dubious means they started subverting the whole systems of laws of the nation regarding mining, transport, environment and the rest. They became so powerful that the others who wanted to do any mining activity had to pay a ‘royalty’ to them. They became such megalomaniacs that they started sitting on golden thrones wearing crowns of gold and diamonds. Their superstitions went to the extent that a golden crown encrusted with diamonds costing about 350 million rupees was also offered to the temple at Tirupathi. They were so stinking rich that they had several choppers which they used even for things like flying home for lunch from Bangalore, which is around 300 kms away, and then flying back!

Interview with Australian TV anchor, Alison

Eventually their affairs created such a national level scandal that the High court of Andhra Pradesh ordered a CBI investigation, which resulted in the arrest of the leader of the Republic of Bellary, H. H. Janardhan Reddy. With him cooling his heels in the jail at Hyderabad his allies started deserting him and so did his gang of a couple of thousand unemployed youngsters who were used to moving round the town of Bellary on their motor bikes at his cost, spying on people to see if there was any revolt brewing against their lords and masters. The rulers were so paranoid about the ruled that they had even taken up several acres of land around their residence to convert it into a sort of fortress. We were told that the plans for this structure were taken from the palace built by Saddam Hussain! Those who had property in that area were either paid a pittance or unceremoniously evicted and the structures razed to the ground in front of them. There was a five storied hospital in front of their fortress which could have provided a sniper a chance to shoot at them. When it was brought to their attention, I was told, it was purchased immediately at the price fixed by the great ruler himself without giving any choice to the owner! Such was their power that no official dared to take any action against them. Another reason for this was that most of them were in his pay! Now, after the scam surfaced, many of them are said to be running for cover. The economically backward sections of the population were in support because for each vote cast in their favour, they would be paid a handsome amount. But, after the decline of the republic and take over by the union of India (mind you, not govt. of Karnataka) things have changed. The construction of the fort has been held up. The subjects of the erstwhile kingdom have now started rebelling against their former rulers! The economy of the whole place, once heavily reliant on the illegal exports of iron ore, is now in ruins. Those who tried to organize a Bellary bundh against the arrest of the Reddys and had dared to barge into the district commissioner’s office have been arrested. They had been so accustomed to the influence of their lords and masters, they had barged into this office and destroyed computers and records, all of which was recorded by cc TV cameras. After identifying the culprits the police arrested the leaders, something that would have been unthinkable in their heydays, as the whole police department was subservient to him! Any one who was not would have been summarily transferred. When their wishes were not acceded to by the then Chief minister they had even made plans to bring down the govt!

Coming to the programs that we had in Bellary starting from the 8th of October, first there was a press conference during which we explained to the reporters what the aims and objectives of FIRA were. Then we moved to the village of Sirigere which was the native place of Pannaraj, one of the trustees of Arivu. As mentioned above, he had organized these activities in the memory of his later mother. He told me that being a non believer he had not performed any religious ceremonies for her but he conducted a lot of charitable work with the money that would have been spent on such useless rituals. The program started with my administering an oath to the younger generation of his family which included his nephew and nieces- the children of his brothers and sisters. The usual trend in India is to treat only brother’s children as members of the family and those of the sister! Then Dr. Havildar and I performed many of these so called ‘miracles’ explaining to the people the various scientific principles behind them. When this was happening, the members of the Australian TV crew arrived along with the producer and the anchor. That was a great diversion for the several thousand people assembled there. They broke into thunderous applause when the reporter Alison bravely volunteered to be the subject for two fire experiments – placing burning camphor on the tongue and passing a burning torch over the body!

After a sumptuous lunch the people of the villages assembled to see some seemingly impossible physical feats.

The 5 storied building taken over by Reddys fearing sniper attacks.

Aruchamy and comrades from Tamilnadu were the performers who passed skewers through their cheeks and tongues, shouting no god, no god to show to the people, that there was no need for the intervention of any divine power. Then they passed hooks through the skin of their backs and pulled a car, hung from ropes tied to these hooks, stood on sword blades and lay down on a beds of nails without suffering any injury. However, due to the over enthusiasm of the crowd, or maybe his own weakness, one of the TV cameramen who was with the Australian team fell flat on his face which caused him some abrasions. The programs had to be terminated as the crowd was seemingly getting out of control. But it was a great experience for the villagers who had always though that such things can be done only by those who either have supernatural powers or can invoke them! Some pointed out to me the open ground where this practice known as sidi is be performed on a particular day of the year, when those who had taken vows to that effect would be suspended by hooks passed through the skin of their backs and swung around after being suspended from poles by ropes tied to these hooks. It was a sort of shock for these people that this could be done without the need of any divine intervention and by people who were smiling!

The next day began with a shoot by the Australian TV channel. The reporter asked me a number of questions about our movement and how it could change the people of our country. They also wanted to walk the talk by taking to the typical dusty street of India, and this too was done. Some of scenes had to be shot in a particular dress to maintain continuity! The final shooting was done under the shade of a tree at a temple in the city. Then it was time for them to go and for me to go on! For Dr. Patel, one of the trustees of Arivu had fixed one interaction with the students of the college of Business administration where he had been recently elected as chairman. It was his first introduction to the students and he wanted it to be through our awareness program on rational thinking. We had to come out hurriedly from his college because the next interaction was for the students of the local medical college and the topic was –modus operandi of quacks. But, for reasons not known to us, the attendance was extremely thin, which was a surprise for me as our presentations are very well received at Medical colleges. But those present made up for the lack of numbers by asking lots of questions.

External view of the fort of the Reddys.

So, that was the end of my trip to the ex Republic of Bellary. I had taken the photos of the fortress of the Reddys and the hospital that was seen as a security threat without much risk. But, I was told that those who had done this before the ruler was dethroned had their limbs broken. I was also told about the reporter of one of the TV channels of Karnataka most famous for spreading superstitions, was assaulted and then knocked down by a speeding car, and was not supported by the top brass of the channel. He had resigned and is now a freelancer! Mind you these criminals are all members of the party whose elderly leader is now leading a National campaign against corruption. The money power of the Reddys was instrumental in bringing this party to power in Karnataka, where they formed their first govt. in the South. The leader of the opposition in the Parliament was their ‘mother’, but she dropped them like a hot brick when the charges became too hot to brush under the carpet. Their main supporter in Andhra was Y.S.R. Reddy, the late Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who was said to be instrumental in bringing Congress to power in his state! So, it is evident that there are two things in India that have no political barriers- one is corruption and the other superstition!

No related posts.

The result was Thinkfest 2011, an event organized by the Chennai Freethiners on the 1^st and 2^nd of October.

Day 1 was an in-house programme. The morning was spent in an Institution for Children with Special needs. The group interacted with the children who cheerfully sang, danced and played games.

In the afternoon there were mentoring sessions with Prof. Narendra Nayak and Mr.Babu Gogineni . Prof. Nayak shared his experiences in spreading Rationality traveling the length and breadth of the country, and the problems faced by him.

Mr. Babu explained what Humanism was all about. He also gave valuable suggestions on how to make presentations in the media.

A ‘Symposium on Science and Secularism’ was organized on October 2^nd 2011. Dr.Ganesh gave a detailed introduction about Nirmukta and its objectives and how each topic chosen by the speakers was relevant to the present scenario.

Image Slideshow

Professor Nayak demonstrating with burning camphor

Interacting with school children on Day 1

Mr. Gogineni talking to the group on Day 1

Day 1, Professor Nayak demonstrating for school students

Interacting with school students, Day 1

Prof. Nayak interacting with the group on Day 1.

Day 1, Mr. Babu Gogineni interacting with the group

More interactions with school kids on Day 1.

Event registration, Day 2

Event registration, Day 2

Professor Dayanandan speaking on evolution, on Day 2

Professor Nayak's lecture, Day 2.

Mr. Babu Gogineni speaking at the event, Day 2

Professor Nayak speaking about quackery, Day 2

Audience engrossed in the lecture, Day 2

Professor Nayak demonstrating with burning camphor, Day 2.

Prof. Dayanandan's talk on evolution, Day 2

Audience on Day 2

Audience, including Prof Nayak and Mr. Gogineni, Day 2.

Audience, Day 2.

More Audience, Day 2

Prof Nayak, Day 2

Audience, Day 2

Main event banner, featuring the Thinkfest 2011 logo

Audience taking a break, Day 2

Chennai Freethinkers group, after the event

The Chennai group after the event

Another picture after the event

One of the event banners, featuring the Nirmukta logo

Prof. Dayanandan’s talk was on ‘Chimpanzee is our cousin; so is the neem tree.’ He weaved magic with his words and portrayed beautifully the rich tapestry of interrelationship between all life forms on earth.

The audience listened in fascination when he explained how mitochondria, the energy factory in animal cells, had evolved from bacteria; how variation in skin colour in human beings had evolved as recently as 60000 years ago. He took us to the 19^th century – bringing before our eyes young Darwin embarking eagerly on his voyage, visiting the Galapagos islands, collecting specimens while travelling for five years, and upon returning, carefully collating and analyzing before publishing his seminal book ‘On the Origin of Species.’ He made us marvel at the fact that Darwin arrived at his theory without any knowledge of genes.

Then he took us farther back in time to Africa where Homo sapiens evolved and then spread to other continents. He vividly painted the picture of our ancestors trudging ‘Out of Africa.’ He explained what the ‘evolutionary bottleneck’ was and how the entire world population had probably descended from a small group of about 5000 individuals. He also showed some stone tools that were fashioned by our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago around modern Chennai. It was a comprehensive and engaging session that sparked of academic brilliance yet couched in simple terms for all to understand with ease. The meticulously prepared slides and the arresting photographs of nature kept the audience engrossed.

Later there was an interactive session in which the audience came up with interesting questions and the session ended with the audience wanting to hear more lectures from Prof. Dayanandan.

The next talk was by Prof. Narendra Nayak on the topic of Alternative Medicine. He explained the various ‘alternatives’ available including homeopathy, crystal therapy, gem therapy, and so on, and explained how they were all different types of quackery; he showed videos of conmen nonchalantly explaining to gullible people how their treatments ‘work’.

He also showed videos of ‘psychic surgery’ which left the audience in splits. The doctors in the audience added to the presentation by sharing their experiences and cautioning people about the dangers of alternative medicine. Prof. Nayak stressed on the fact that there is no alternative medicine – there is only Science or Evidence based medicine; he talked about self limiting diseases and the placebo effect; he said it is a myth to consider alternative medicine as cheap and harmless. The session was an eye opener to many members of the audience who had thought alternative medicine was safe and with no side effects.

The first session after Lunch was by Mr. Babu Gogineni.  He explained what Humanism means and who could be called a humanist. While Atheism is ‘just a conclusion’ and Rationalism is ‘an approach’ Humanism is a life stance and a philosophy he said.

He suggested that freethinkers should take up causes and explain their stand to the public. For example, he said we can support women who want to visit the Sabarimala temple in Kerala which by tradition does not allow women to enter. This led to an agitated discussion in which many members of the audience expressed their disagreement saying that we should not support visiting temples when we ourselves do not believe in the existence of god. Mr. Babu replied that Humanism is supporting one’s right to have a religion or not have a religion, and when there is a fundamental inequality it is our duty to address it. Morevoer, this step would shake the foundation of religion and weaken it ultimately. It is a healthy sign that the debate generated that day was continued by the members in Facebook. Can giving aid to welfare institutions affiliated to a particular religion or fighting for equality within religion be considered as ‘pre-competitive’? Mr. Babu’s talk was, to describe in one word, poetic.

The last session of the day was ‘Science behind Miracles’ by Prof. Nayak. He demonstrated with utter ease several miracles attributed to the divine power – be it ‘materializing’ holy ash or gold chain or currency; he showed the trick of placing burning camphor on tongue.

Then he showed videos of Sai Baba poorly performing cheap tricks which were caught beyond doubt by the camera. The audience were surprised by the cognitive dissonance of several educated people who fell for such tricksters. Due to lack of time Prof. Nayak could not demonstrate all the debunking in his repertoire.

Mr. Bala Bhaskar proposed the Vote of Thanks and the day ended with the audience wanting more such programmes and the speakers expressing happiness to have such a knowledgeable and interested audience. It was a great experience organizing a refreshing event as this. And so we dare to hope….maybe  Chennai Freethinkers would in the near future begin to conduct an annual event with lectures on Science and Secularism, something on the lines of the Christmas Lectures ; organize debates between famous theists and atheists; reach out to school students regularly to teach them what skeptical thinking means; conduct summer camps like the Camp Quest  and so on.

Meanwhile it is time for us to concentrate on community building – we recognize that we are not a homogenous group (far from it, infact!)  and so think of ways to reach out to each other. We are planning a visit to the Crocodile Bank, a Turtle walk on a moonlit night in the beaches of Besant Nagar,  a Tree walk with Nizhal to learn to recognize the various species of trees thriving in the concrete jungle of Chennai, prepare science videos in Tamil and distribute it to schools in rural areas to spread science and rationalism. Thus we have set out on our long voyage to Ithaka – a journey full of adventure, full of discovery, our thoughts raised high and a rare excitement stirring our spirit and our body. May we enjoy the journey to the hilt!

Related posts:

1. Report On ‘Yukti 2011′- Organized By Nirmukta’s Bangalore Freethinkers
2. The 7th Chennai Freethinkers’ Meet – A Synopsis
3. Delhi Freethinkers’ Meet – Sunday, March 27, 2011
4. Delhi Atheists Meet – A Brief Report
5. Science Versus Religion: A Report From The World Atheist Conference
6. Eyewitness report of the Psychic Yoga Challenge

So, I decided to attend the IHEU Congress and along with that do a tour of the UK. The Norway conference was organized by the Norwegian Humanist Society which has around 80,000 members and is growing. There Humanism is recognized as a life stance and they get the same government grants that religious institutions receive. They have their own ceremonies for confirmation, marriage, Christening and funerals, without the invocation of any supernatural power. They also have a nice building housing their headquarters in Oslo. After the registration I was given the choice of staying at a hotel or with one of their members. I chose the latter because I wanted to know their culture and views. I was very lucky to be the guest of Knut who works for the income tax office. He was an excellent host and a thorough gentleman. Long before my date of arrival at Oslo he had mailed me the detailed instructions for regarding the stay! Anyway when I arrived in Oslo I was met by Vidu and his Srilankan friend Suresh, who picked me up from the airport and dropped me at his house. Though Vidu is from Aarhus in Denmark, he had come to Oslo just to meet me and also persuade me to have an interaction at his university. Anyway that is another story which we shall see later.

At Oslo the Norwegian Humanists had plans to keep us busy for a week. On the first two days we had a leadership training program for the activists of the movement. It was a two day affair held at their headquarters. We had very useful discussions about the various aspects of the movement and also had the opportunity to share our experiences with the younger set. After this was the three day meeting at the convention center which was very close to the place where the recent terrorist bomb blast had taken place. On the first day was the plenary followed by a number of parallel sessions on the various aspects of humanism, including a lecture on evolution by the noted evolutionary biologist P.Z.Myers. I had the opportunity to meet a number of humanists from many countries as there were delegates from about thirty countries from all corners of the world, though the demographics were tilted towards those from the developed world, and that too Western Europe and the UK.

That we Humanists are a very tolerant lot can be seen from the following incident.

There was a group of Islamic fundamentalists from England that had put up a stall just outside the venue of our conference and were distributing booklets to our delegates about the existence of God, talking about how the Koran was a book directly revealed to Mohammad by Allah, etc. Some of our delegates had discussions with them. On the second day, one of the delegates from Pakistan came running to me in a state of excitement and told me that one of their people had entered the venue with his booklets and was distributing them. He requested me, asking me to please handle him. I just went over to the man, welcomed him and told him that he was welcome to our world congress where there were so many delegates from all over the world. I also requested him to make arrangements for us to go to their world congregation at Mecca where we could be allowed to distribute our literature. He said that was not in his control. But, I told him that he could at least be our guest and have lunch with us and offered him what I was eating; this must have hit him hard. Firstly, it was Ramadan time, and secondly, unknowingly I had offered him bacon! He said he was not a delegate and hence not eligible to eat there but I reassured him that he was my guest! However, by that time the security people had moved in and they evicted him from the premises.

Later on, I realized why our Pakistani fellow humanist was so excited. He was from Peshawar, a communist, and had been jailed for 5 years for blasphemy. No wonder he was so bitter about Islam!

My stay at Knut’s residence was made pleasant by him, He took great the pains to see to it that I was comfortable. I also understood why he was very keen to have someone from India staying with him. He had a girlfriend from India, and was inquiring about how relationships between two people of the opposite sex are seen in our country if they are not married. I told him that live-in relationships are not uncommon now and even the Supreme court of India has recognized them. Staying with him I also had the opportunity to meet Robert Priddy, an ex devotee of the late Satya Narayana Raju- the thug of Puttaparthi. He narrated to me various instances of Sai Baba’s so called miracles, how he became disillusioned with him and quit the movement. He showed me the ring that was allegedly ’materialized’ by this man and also discussed plans to expose this man by a person who was exploited sexually by him. These plans are however at a very embryonic stage and hence cannot be disclosed. He also narrated the difficulties he had encountered in opening a Sai chapter in Norway back when he was a devotee. It needed just twenty people to do that and he could not find that many in number in the whole of Norway ready to join the Sai movement. That says a lot about the claims made by the organization about having branches in dozens of countries etc! No one is to ready to follow their dictates of being vegetarian, singing bhajans, joining satsangs etc!

On the second day of the conference, the delegates were invited by the Mayor of Oslo to a reception at the Town Hall. It was the same hall where Nobel prizes are awarded each year. It was a pleasure to be in this place and to attend the reception. The refreshments served at Oslo would have caused a furore if done in India or any Islamic country. There was sparkling white wine and other refreshments that would have hit the headlines here and caused public protests. This shows us the difference between the various cultures and what is considered as the right thing to do. There was another problem here- the dress was said to be formal. I had left my tie and blazer at the home of host and thought of going back to wear them. But, I was assured by the Norwegians that in their country formal dress meant no half pants, sandals and T shirts! It did not mean the ‘formal attire’ of the British which was a dark suit with tie etc. The Town hall was painted with murals and was a lovely place. The same evening my host Knut and I took a ferry to the Oslo fjiord where we could see the sun at 9.30pm. It is not for nothing that Norway is called as the land of the midnight sun.

On the next day after the technical sessions it was time for a banquet at the Oslo opera house which was a wonderful place. There I had the surprise of my life. Just before the banquet was to start I was told by Babu Gogineni that I was to receive the award for distinguished service to humanism. This time there were three selected and two of us, V.B.Rawat and I, were from India. He was selected for his work among the landless people of North India and I for my work in carrying the message of humanism to various parts of the country. The award was presented by Sonja Eggericx, the President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. There was a round of applause and I was congratulated by the Humanists from all over the world.

After the World Humanist Congress was over, there was one more workshop for young people on developing humanism. In this workshop I was to present a paper on the techniques used in our country to develop humanism. During this presentation I had an interaction with video clippings and demonstrations of the so called miracles that we have been using as tools to develop scientific temper among the people in our country. One thing was very clear from our interaction with  the Norwegian Humanists- religion was almost dead in their country. No one bothered about God, Heaven, Hell or any religious ceremonies. Though there was a king, he was as democratic as anyone else. In fact one of the sessions was addressed by the Crown Prince of Norway who had just walked in without much fanfare and had walked away too without much of it! However, there was a tinge of sadness over the loss of lives in the senseless murders that had occurred a few days before. More than eighty young people had been shot dead by a religious right winger who had also set off a bomb blast- probably for the first time in the history of what is known to be one of the most peaceful nations on the earth.

Related posts:

1. SWEARING BY GOD: An Atheist’s Experiences In Indian Courts
2. Pseudoscience In The Stars: An Indian Rationalist’s Experiences with Astrology
3. Sambhavi Gudilona, Badilona? Story of a Humanist Campaign Against Religious Exploitation of a Child
4. The Autobiography of a Secular Humanist

This is the ninth part of Dr. Prabhakar Kamath’s latest series on Managing Life Without God and Religion In The Twenty First Century. Links to all published parts in this series can be found here.

This was not to be my next article in the series ‘Managing Life Without God And Religion.’ The ferocity of condemnation of Gandhi and scorching criticism of the basic principles of Satyagraha by so many Nirmukta readers compelled me to share with Nirmukta readers my experiment with the practice of Satyagraha in its most diluted form to tackle the problem of rampant corruption in a small geographical area in India. Space does not permit me to give all details here, but I will delineate the basic facts. If the evidence presented in this article does not convince readers about the efficacy of Satyagraha principles in the social context, I am afraid nothing will.

Journey Back Home

In December 1979, I returned with my wife and two small children to India after being in the U. S. for over nine years. I knew that I would be facing unending challenges in a country where, at that time, just about everything, including rice, sugar, kerosene, cement, water, electricity just to name a few, was in short supply, and the corrupt government, which controlled these essential items, had the people by their throats. Youngsters who read this article might not have any idea how different India was in the late 70s and early 80s. Indira Gandhi’s government returned to power in January 1980, and Sanjay Gandhi and his Congress Party goons were running India. In Karnataka, the stealing of booty from the people by corrupt bureaucrats went all the way to the top, like it still does. Even though India appears to be more prosperous now corruption has become worse, not better.

Mental Preparation

During nine plus years in America, I had been thoroughly spoiled by freedom from oppression, and so I knew I had to prepare myself to face the horrors of India. Those days the horror of India began immediately after one landed at any airport in India. Any person arriving from the U. S. A. was an easy target of Customs Officials. In preparation to my return to India I studied for several years Gandhi and his nonviolent methods of fighting injustice. I realized that if I was to merely manage my life in India, I would either have to pay bribes like everyone else did, or I would have to fight back. Gandhi often said that the real battles are fought within one’s heart and not out there in the public. I decided that if forced to, I would fight back nonviolently using the basic principles of Satyagraha. However, Satyagraha required that I must first reform myself by practicing certain codes of conduct, which would stand me in good stead during my struggle just to live in India as an honest citizen. I knew too well that it was beyond me to adopt principles of Satyagraha in my own life except in their most diluted form. For example, I could neither be a vegetarian nor a celibate. I had no delusion of starting a movement to “root out corruption” in the community I was going to live in.

Codes Of Conduct For A Satyagrahi

Failures in life are often due to all too common human weaknesses. I mentioned in my earlier articles that mental blocks such as passivity (inability or unwillingness to act) and fear of authorities are at the root of most people’s suffering in India. I had identified these in myself as well as in Indians I met in the U. S. After several years of ceaseless contemplation, I adopted the following seven basic principles in my personal as well as professional life to counter common human weaknesses I had identified in myself, and attempted to practice them diligently in all my dealings on a daily basis. I decided that no matter what happened in India, I would stick to these principles.

1. I shall not tell others to do what I cannot do myself. (This was to counter my hypocritical tendency)
2. I shall not indulge in personal attacks against people I disagree with. (This was nonviolence in its most diluted form)
3. I shall do exactly what my conscience dictates me. (This was to counter my fear of criticism, which often hindered me from doing the right thing)
4. I shall not indulge in loose talk. (This was to counter my tendency to handle truth lightly)
5. I shall neither enter politics nor seek public office. (This would curb my hunger for power)
6. I shall reduce the gap between what I say and what I do. (This was to counter my tendency to talk big and do little).
7. I shall always admit my mistakes. (This was to make me a little humble).

I observed these seven highly diluted Satyagraha principles during the next eighteen months I spent in India in my dealings with a large number of common people and bureaucrats. Let me share with the readers the result thereof.

Introduction To The Great Indian Bureaucracy

It did not take long for me to encounter one roadblock or another. When I applied for a simple license to drive a motorcycle, I started getting the runaround. I knew that Indian bureaucracy was corrupt to the core, but I did not know then that it was such a well-oiled system of oppression that could dishearten even the most determined citizen. No matter what I did, I was unable to get my license to drive the motorcycle without the help of a broker. I was not ready to tell them that I would drive without a license, as I knew that I would create intolerable stress on all my relatives living in the town. I was new in town and everyone was apprehensive about what I might do to bring disgrace on them. I paid Rs. 45 as the bribe for obtaining the license, which ordinarily cost just five rupees. Thus my first experiment was an utter failure. However, the bribe I paid was not all a waste. I got to know firsthand how the corrupt Indian government worked. My frustration and anger spilled over in a stern letter I wrote to the chief minister Gundu Rao, a thoroughly corrupt man himself. He forwarded my letter to Mr. Nizamuddin, who then ran the R.T.O. This man disbarred brokers from all R.T.O (which was published in a newspaper) and wrote a letter to me that the problem would be tackled soon. By now I knew better.

Forming A Core Group

I sent a copy of the newspaper article and Nizamuddin’s letter as evidence of some success to ten people, and requested that we meet and see if we could tackle this problem at the grassroots level. The truth was we had no idea what were getting into. I gave a press release saying that we had launched a forum to address consumer’s concerns in Udupi Taluk. The minutes of our first meeting became the first issue of our newsletter, which some time later became a newspaper. When people came to know about the Forum, they came in droves with their complaints. We held public meetings to address problems with specific government departments, which were packed with people who had infinite grievances. We educated people to demand service from local officials without having to pay bribes. We did not hinder people who wanted to pay bribes and get legitimate or illegitimate services because it would be impossible to prove anything without cooperative witnesses.

Perception Of Being A Principled, Fearless And Selfless Organization

We put into practice every single principle I mentioned above in all our dealings with the people as well as bureaucrats. We listened to people’s complaints with much empathy and humility. We kept publicity to a minimum and depended upon the word of mouth for our work to be known to people. Within a few months, Consumers’ Forum of Udupi became well known across the state as a principled, selfless and fearless organization, which taught people how to fight nonviolently for their rights. Several small as well as big towns established their own Forums. We knew that many of these organizations would not last long since people leading them knew little about the basic principles of Satyagraha, which guided the conduct of Udupi Forum. In Mangalore, Professor Narendra Nayak started Consumers’ Agitation (Balakedarara Chaluvali) and a newspaper by that name.

The Goal

The fundamental goal of the Forum was to educate and empower people who did not want to pay a bribe to obtain services that were their due. We taught them to give up their passivity by refusing to do anything for them except to educate, guide and be available to people as a supportive organization. We insisted that they do the legwork themselves. This forced them to become active in their own cause. We countered their fear of authorities by standing by them during their struggle and using the newspaper to publicize their cause. By means of these two tactics, we empowered them to look the officials in the eye and demand service. We merely supported them and mobilized public opinion on their behalf. We gave wide publicity in our newspaper to the struggles of people who fought for their rights. We made sure that we printed nothing but truth. We avoided attacking officials personally no matter how corrupt they were. We never threatened officials; and never abused them verbally. We demanded justice and did not take no for an answer. We merely reported what they did. We avoided making mistakes. When we did, we humbly apologized for the same. We refused to support people who were in the wrong. Regardless, we heard that many local officials asked for transfer to other areas of the state.

This Was Just A Test

The truth was that I was like an amateur scientist who wanted to test if he, too, could split atom if he followed the guidelines laid down by a highly respected scientist who had already split it. I had neither the ambition to expand the movement to other areas, nor the inclination to make great sacrifices needed to do so, nor the financial resources to sustain me. My test proved to me beyond any doubt that Satyagraha could get results when applied diligently even in its most diluted form by an earnest activist. In the final analysis, the reform of a society begins with the reformation of the leader himself. As I wrote in my previous article, one must put a leash on one’s deep-rooted weaknesses such as hatred, greed, jealousy, hubris, etc. before venturing out to apply Satyagraha principles in the social context. This requires years of contemplation and on-going training. The leading activist is the weakest link in this chain. For, once the leading activist succeeds, he/she could easily fall prey to weaknesses such as greed, hunger for power, haughtiness and the like. Once the public sees these traits in the activist, the organization he leads dies quickly.

Case Study: In the previous article I gave two examples of individuals using Satyagraha method to get justice. Let me end this article by giving an example of how a person of “weak section” gave up his passivity and fear, and looked corrupt authorities in the eye and demanded service without paying a naya paisa of bribe. Here is his story as I described in my book titled, Servants, Not Masters.

Sheena Naika, a Girijan (hill tribe) laborer, had been sanctioned a so-called HUDCO 5 Loan of Rs. 3,000 by the Taluk Development Board (T.D.B.) of Udupi for building a small cottage on his three cent plot. This plot of land had been granted to him by the Government according to law. To get the first installment of the loan he went to the office of the T.D.B., which, by the way, has a reputation for corruption comparable to that of the Taluk Office. The T.D.B. clerk told him that in order to get the first installment he would have to part with 10% of it.

While working as a laborer at the hardware shop of Shanbhag, an activist, Sheena Naika had heard about the Forum. He now sought Shanbhag’s guidance in the matter of getting the loan without having to suffer the ‘cut’ of 10%. One should note here that, in India, it requires extraordinary courage for a poor, backward class person to refuse to pay a bribe. Sheena Naika had apparently hoped that Shanbhag would talk to the T.D.B. officials and ‘fix things up’ for him. He was not prepared for the reply he got from Shanbhag: “Sheena, this is your battle, and only you should fight it. We will stand by you and offer you guidance. We will make sure that no harm will come to you. If you don’t succeed, we will fight for you till our last breath. You have got to trust us.” But Sheena Naika was ‘not ready’ yet. A disappointed Sheena Naika went to the T.D.B. office to receive only 90% of the first installment of the loan.

Several days later, Sheena Naika came back to Shanbhag. He was somewhat ashamed that he had not accepted Shanbhag’s counsel earlier. He was now ‘ready’ to do whatever Shanbhag might ask him to do. Shanbhag urged him to demand 100% of the second installment from the clerk and to threaten that he would report against him to the higher official if there was any cut. Thus encouraged by Shanbhag, this time around Sheena did exactly as he had been advised, but was quite taken aback by the clerk’s challenge: “Go, tell my boss. Who cares? He too gets a share of this!”

Sheena Naika returned to Shanbhag in great anguish, asking what he was to do now. Shanbhag said to him, “Go to the Taluk Development Officer himself and report the matter to him. Ask him if it is true that he receives a share of the ‘cut’.” Back went Sheena Naika, mustering all his courage, and did exactly as he had been advised. The T.D.B. Officer almost fell off his chair, as he had never before had anyone talking to him like this. Not knowing what to make of it, he called his clerk into his office and instructed him to give Sheena Naika his full installment immediately. Obviously the superior official wanted to cut his losses and hush-up the matter. When he received the second installment of the loan in full, Sheena Naika’s joy knew no bounds.

But this joy was short-lived. That very evening the obstinate clerk paid a surprise visit to Sheena Naika’s house. Upbraiding Naika for his temerity, he threatened him with dire consequences, such as withholding of the license to build his cottage, if he continued to be rebellious. Poor Sheena Naika was quite frightened; he had not expected all these complications when he agreed to fight for his rights. Back he came to Shanbhag, asking for more advice. Reassuring him that all would be well in the end, Shanbhag quietly drafted for him a letter addressed to the T.D.B. Officer. It contained a detailed account of the threat the clerk had made, and it asked for the officer’s immediate intervention, failing which Naika would go to the higher officials. The letter made it very clear that a copy of it had been mailed to the Forum for publication.

The letter had a devastating effect on the T.D.B. Officer. Apparently there are very strict special laws against the harassment of backward classes by government officials. The Officer was now faced with the prospect of his nefarious activities being exposed; moreover, there was the likelihood of a reprimand from his superior officers. He had to disassociate himself quickly from his clerk’s malfeasance. So he called in his clerk for a thorough dressing down right in front of Sheena Naika. He threatened the clerk with dismissal if this matter appeared in the columns of the Forum’s newsletter. The clerk, now almost in tears, apologized to Naika for his behavior and begged him not to go to the higher officials or to the Forum. He promised to make restitution of the ‘cut’ made earlier in his loan.

Now Sheena Naika was no longer the meek-mannered underdog that he used to be, but a resolute citizen. He not only got his money back, but also prevailed upon the clerk to make restitution of the ‘cuts’ in the loans to his neighbors. He told the clerk that he would not be able to restrain the Forum from publishing his letter to the T.D.B. Officer. Thereupon the clerk, terribly nervous and in tears, came to me and begged me not to publish the story in the Forum’s newsletter – for the sake of his little children, as he put it. Denying that he had ever asked for a bribe, he said that he had accepted it only because it had been offered to him. I assured him that I knew full well all that was happening in his office. “Don’t bother to deny anything,” I said to him politely. “But, don’t ever again get caught with your pants down either.” I offered him tea and assured him that the story would not appear in our newsletter. At first he would not believe me. He kept begging of me to destroy the file itself. I assured him that we had no file on him and that he had nothing to worry about. I reassured him that I was not going to deprive him of his livelihood. The grateful clerk left my house with his eyes moist.

The news of Naika’s triumph spread like wildfire in the Girijan community, which had suffered untold harassment at the hands of the T.D.B. officials. Good old Sheena Naika had suddenly become their beloved Sheena Anna (elder brother), the leader. They came in droves to seek his counsel and pay him their respects. When they complained to him about their own difficulties at the T.D.B. office, he urged them to do exactly what he had done. “If you have any problems there,” he told them, “tell them that I sent you!”.

At the Forum’s first anniversary function, guess who inaugurated Consumer Education & Protection Foundation, Udupi? None other than Sheena Naika himself!

Soon people from different parts of the State began to inquire about the happenings in Udupi. Letters started coming in from Bangalore, Hubli, Bijapur, Mangalore, Basrur, Sullia… Almost overnight the Forum had blossomed into a viable instrument of the people’s will.

Let me remind the readers here that all that happened here was that I merely tested the basic principles of Satyagraha in their mostdiluted form to tackle an all-pervasive problem plaguing India in a small geographical area. Imagine how potent this weapon of mass empowerment could be when a greater person than I wields it deftly in the service of modern India. In my opinion the benefit and efficacy of Satyagraha in resolving India’s problems far outweigh those of all other methods advocated by some of the readers.

(To be continued)

Related posts:

1. The Basic Principles of Satyagraha
2. Derren Brown’s ‘Crowd Experiment’: A Response from two Social Psychologists

The order of priority has changed at different times in my public life spanning three decades. However much I try to keep them separate, I do sometimes carry the baggage of one into the other! Like the other day when I told the man who came to me with a complaint about adulterated ghee being sold for burning in lamps before idols in temples -”What difference does it make? Anyway you are burning it!” That was an off the cuff remark and I apologised for it. We then did take up the issue and the sample turned out to be adulterated! When people ask me about my achievements in life I say that I can boast of two things – I have not spent a paisa on religious ceremonies or bribes so far in my life!

Of course it is a qualified statement – so far in my life – but it is probably too late to start doing these things now. Sometimes it is very difficult to keep up. For example when we took my mother’s body for cremation the attendant of the crematorium asked me for fifty rupees. I asked him for a receipt for the amount and he gave me one for five rupees. I told him that it was all I would pay. Then he replied that it was a low-paying job and he had to collect bribes to survive. I replied that if that was so he should quit. He asked me whether I would give him a job if he quit. I told him giving him a job was not my business and I would pay only the prescribed fee and not a rupee more. All this with my mother’s body lying there- an occasion for grief when one would not mind paying anything.

One of the most (in)famous dens of corruption is the registrar’s office where documents of transactions of immovable property are registered. This write-up is about the procedures at the sub-registrar’s office in the state of Karnataka and my experiences there. Of course one can say that I am a noted personality and therefore could get away with the way I behave at such offices, but I have been acting like this from before when I became ‘noted’!

We tend to forget that government servants are paid from taxpayer money and have been appointed to serve the citizens. The office of the sub registrar who registers documents of properties, wills, trust and partnership deeds etc., is known to be one of the most corrupt of the government offices. It is said that even a paper will not flutter in the breeze there unless a bribe is paid. It also dominated by certain lawyers and so-called ‘document writers’. My first brush with the registrar was about 31 years ago when I got married. The registrar was brought to my father-in-law’s house for the registration of my marriage. Various amounts of money were demanded. There were receipts for each payment, except for an amount of Rs. 5/- which they said was to be paid as transport allowance, although had been taken there in someone’s car! No other payment was made. The registrar was probably free, as it was during Rahu kalam, a very inauspicious period. Hence no registrations would take place during this time and there was no ‘document writer’ involved in the process!

My next such event came when I had to pay a visit to the place for registering the purchase deed of a shop. This was done for all the purchasers at the same time and therefore there was probably no occasion to pay a bribe. Either that, or its possible that the promoter had already paid some amount; in any case I did not pay anything extra.

The next occasion came when I had to purchase a flat in 1998. I went for registration with the promoter of the project. The sub registrar was one Mr. Manjunath! When I saw him, he sounded familiar. He had been a sub registrar in the same place earlier and had been transferred elsewhere. During his previous stint he had refused to register a marriage and we had complained about this to the higher officials. An enquiry had been held and during that time we had a heavy exchange of words! He had probably manipulated to come back to Mangalore since it is a very ‘profitable’ posting! When he saw me he almost jumped out of his chair and glared at me! I put forward the documents and he said the property was under evaluated – it was in fact undervaluation- a flat whose declared value according to government was about Rs. 5,50,000 was being sold to me for Rs. 2,50,000. There was no other payment involved because there had been a court decree to that effect. We had been tenants of a house at the plot where the flats were built and the promoter had promised us a three bedroom flat for that amount so that we would vacate the premises immediately. This had been recorded by court decree! I explained this to him but he kept saying that it was beyond his powers. I told him to reject the document but state it in writing and I would not pay him a paisa. He replied that he had not asked me for any but since it was beyond his powers to register the document as it was, he was sending the same to the district registrar who was the higher authority. After some days I got a letter from the district registrar asking me to come and meet him. When I went at the appointed hour, he said that he did not know the location of the property. I told him that the address had been made available and that it was his headache. He told me that I had to take him to see the place and I replied that he had better use the government car which is provided to him for such purposes. He was furious and said that he would decide without seeing the place. I told him to go ahead and do whatever he wanted. It was obvious that he wanted to be ‘taken’ to the place and ‘convinced’ – both things which I was not willing to do. So, after few days I got a notice to pay the additional amount of duty on the undervalued deed and I did that. When the process was over I asked the clerk whether I had to pay anything more. He said I could give him something if I wanted. I told him that I was paying him his salary every month and asked whether he was not happy with that. He was taken aback and said that he did not want anything! So, that was the end of that story.

We have also registered organisations. In 1984 we had to register a trust called the Consumers Education Trust of Mangalore and one of our trustees who was a chartered accountant had drafted the deed. But, when we took it to the sub registrar for registration, he rejected it saying that it had no signature of the person who had drafted it. He said the rule was that such deeds could be drafted only by a document writer or a lawyer! We had decided to go back, but we saw a lawyer who was known to us. He signed the deed as the person who drafted it and it was accepted.

A few years ago I had decided to buy a plot of land at place called Guruvayankere near Mangalore and the whole process went through without any bribe to the sub registrar as I had specified when I purchased the land from a friend of mine.

The latest incident took place on the 30^th July 2011, when I had gone to register our ‘Aid Without Religion Trust’. The trust deed had been drafted by my cousin, a chartered accountant. I wanted to get the same registered on the particular day considered to be the most inauspicious in Mangalore and at the most inappropriate time ‘rahu kalam’ which is an all-India phenomenon. When I went to the Mangalore city sub registrar’s office at 9.45 am some of the people were already ensconced in their chairs – a wonder indeed for a government office. But remember, this is no ordinary government office but that of the sub registrar, supposed to be one of the most lucrative of posts!

They had a token system in place and I told the concerned person in charge that mine should be number 1 as I was the first person in. He agreed. When I was showing him the papers, the lady sitting at the next table got irritated and told me that I should take a group photo when everything was over. I asked her whether she had objections to taking photos and that I would continue to take photos even if she objected because it was a government office, a public place and not her personal property. Then she asked me for the camera when I queried why, she said she wanted to take my photograph. I told her that I had no objection at all to taking mine but she should do that with her personal camera and not mine! Then we waited for the sub registrar to turn up and she was late by 30 minutes. As soon as she came in the owners of the document of token number 2 were at her table. I protested and asked them what was the point in giving the token numbers if it is not followed. So, the papers of token # 2 were removed and mine put on the table. Then I asked the sub registrar what the office timings were. She said the office opened at 10 and everyday she was on time and she apologised for the delay. It is probable that this must have been the first time in the history of the office that someone had questioned their time! So, the entire task of registering a trust went on without paying a paisa as bribe, without budging an inch and in time! By that time one of the TV channels had come to record this event. I went to the lady who had objected to my photography and told her that I was apologising for taking only still photographs. The TV cameraman would set things right by taking video footage. I could sense the rage in her looks!

So, it is possible to register documents without paying a paisa as bribe, taking the help of a ‘document writer’ or lawyer and getting things done on time. In fact, the documents must be returned to the registering person the same evening after completing the formalities! Since most of us are unfamiliar with the procedures we fall prey to the machinations of the staff of the office who are hand in glove with the ‘horde of brokers’ usually seen outside the premises, acting as though they are the official agents of the government.

Related posts:

1. Introducing The Bihar Rationalist Forum
2. Swine Flu Campaign by the Indian Rationalist Organizations
3. Indian Rationalist Movement- The Challenges Ahead
4. Rationalist Club Of Periyar Maniammai University
5. Narendra Nayak’s Rationalist Tour of India- Part IV
6. A Rationalist’s Dilemma: Thoughts On The Future Of The Rationalism Movement

It was not that after six months we had formed a solid cohesive group and were confident in taking the plunge to organize a full fledged programme with presentations et al; but we did take the plunge and oh what an experience it was! We had booked a hall at Hotel Park View (Hotel Park, not too far into the future, Srinivasan Madhavan). The meeting was scheduled for 3 pm, but we took some time to set up the projector, screen and camera. Slowly the room filled up and we had to ask for extra chairs! There were about 25 of us and quite a few new faces at that. Balasubramaniam gave a brief introduction and thankfully made the point that those who were making the presentations were not experts but just wanting to share what they know and what they feel passionately about. Reminded me of Carl Sagan saying in his ‘Demon Haunted World’:

“Not explaining Science seems to me perverse. When you are  in love, you want to tell the whole world.”

We started the programme with an ‘invocation’ – to Science, actually, by watching Alom Shaha’s video ‘Why is Science important?’ This was followed by a skillful and informative presentation on Social Equality by Dr.Ezhilan Naganathan of Youth.org. Geetha Tg made a presentation on ‘Does Science rob us of our Sense of Wonder?’ Dr.Ganesh Veluswami made a thought-provoking and entertaining presentation on ‘Is Astrology a Science?’ Sanjay Kumar made an interesting presentation on ‘Is Quantum Physics a mystical subject?’ Bala Subramaniam made a neat and scholarly presentation on ‘Is Evolution a theory or a fact?’ Bala Bhaskar could not attend the meeting and make his planned presentation as he had to go outstation on an urgent work.

Geeta Charusivam has written a wonderful review of the presentations and has given highly useful suggestions which I assure would be taken into account in the future.

This was followed by a lively discussion and what was heartening was that first timers like Geeta Charusivam, Johny, Johnson and Habeeb Rehman participated and put forth their views. When Johnson detailed the questions on Evolution that he frequently faced from theists and wanted to know how he could tackle them, he was asked to check out talkorigins.org from where he could get the resource material. When Johny said he was an agnostic and he was looking for answers to several questions he was encouraged to continue with his search for truth. It was a touching moment when a member confided that he was estranged from his family as a consequence of his atheism and the group responded saying that he had a family in them and that he could ask for any help any time. The discussion went on for more than an hour and it was nearly 8 pm when we reluctantly wound up the show- but not before Udhav Naig talked about ‘the elephant in the room’ – The Rebecca Watson-Richard Dawkins episode. Of course each one of us held different views and Sanjay pointed out that the incident proved that for the world atheist community, atheism might be the only common thing and  it could be seen that some of us were sexists, racists, etc., He was told that we do not claim to be Chennai Atheists but Chennai Freethinkers and hence we need to base our world view only on ‘science, logic and reason.’

I do not know if the meeting could be termed a grand success. Those making presentations were obviously novices – we fumbled for a word here and rushed with our words at times. But the experience has made us more responsible – we were able to point out the strength and weaknesses in our presentations to each other and we resolve to take steps to better ourselves. We realize that we were facing a mostly sympathetic crowd this time but in future we may face a hostile crowd and it is then that our thorough preparation would matter – to face the onslaught of criticisms and counters.

But then we have already started planning for our next meet – Neethi Seenivasagam’s family (their daughter is the youngest freethinker in our group) has extended an invitation to hold our August  meeting in their house. And so we make plans for tomorrow – how we can ask the obviously intelligent youngsters like Einstein Deepak Raj, Girish Shankar, Blaise Leslie, Johnson, Udhav Naig, Johny and Habeed Rehman to either make presentations on various topics or share more about their experiences; how we can ask Geeta Charusivam to share with us her experiences in social activism and devise means to reach out to children; how we can benefit from the expertise of Dr. Jagan and Dr. Nagalekshmi, and so on.

Thank you, Chennai Freethinkers – we sure have a long way to go, but the journey promises to be fun and interesting.

Related posts:

1. The BANGALORE FREETHINKERS Monthly Meet (Pics)
2. Delhi Freethinkers’ Meet – Sunday, March 27, 2011
3. Chennai Freethinkers’ Thinkfest 2011 – A Report
4. Delhi Atheists Meet – A Brief Report
5. A Secular (“Priest-less”) Marriage Ceremony At Shimoga, Followed By A Rationalists’ Meet!
6. Freethought News: Nirmukta Forums, SEA-Atheists, Meet Narendra Nayak (Poll)