Note: This article is an update on this story reported earlier. The author is the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations.
Disclaimer: This report is about an allegedly paranormal phenomenon reported in media. The report is the result of the visit of a team of rationalists to the place where the alleged ‘miracle’ has been taking place. It is part of an attempt to investigate happenings, under the section 51 AH of the constitution of India which outlines the duties of a citizen. It is not an attempt to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments or cause any friction between any groups belonging to the same or different religions. The team consisted of officebearers of FIRA and KYS.
After the statues of Mary shedding tears and blood it is the turn of flex prints now! In the St.Mary’s Jacobite Chapel, Kattachira flex prints of Mary 
with Infant Jesus have started discharging an oily liquid with an aromatic smell. On the 6th March some of us had the opportunity to visit the place, after our request was acceded to by Mathew Theodosios Metropolitan of the Kollam Diocese, under which the chapel is located. It may be recalled that this so-called miracle had hit the headlines in a section of the media in Kerala around October, 2009.
On reaching the place, we were taken to meet with the cor episcopal Abraham Mannikarottu and his group of priests and devotees, where there were heated debates about the Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham’s campaign, matters of faith and various such issues. Finally at around 12.30 we were taken around the place by the cor episcopal and his group. What happened is as follows in the form of a statement issued to him. Our opinions are expressed separately. Read the full story
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(Professor Narendra Nayak has been traveling into the rural areas of India, promoting rationalism on the ground for over 30 years. His rationalism tours include demonstrations and training sessions for young rationalists in schools and colleges across the country. He is the successor of Basava Premanand, the world famous skeptic and rationalist, in his role as the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations)
This is a brief account of some of my visits to the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh. It is neither a chronicle of events, nor a comprehensive report of our work there. It is a write-up about some of the incidents that have taken place in the region, which I can recall. We have been working in this area for quite some time now.
Itarsi, a town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is an important railway junction that connects the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western parts of India. During my train journeys I would take what are known as a ‘break journeys’ in this town, while on my way to other places by rail. The prominent Indian rationalist, Premanand and I have been there together quite a few times. Read the full story
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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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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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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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This is the story of N.K. Singh, Senior lecturer, National Institute of Visually Handicapped School, Dehradun. While most of those who lose their eye-sight blame it as a curse for the sins committed in their previous birth and spend this life singing praises of god so that they could be normal in their next, the attitude of N.K. Singh is totally different and praise worthy. He lost his eyesight due to conjunctivitis when he was a toddler. His father tried his best to get him treated. The treatment was to collect seven types of stones from different roads and throw them into a well after waving them around the child’s head. The higher level of treatment was repeating the same with seven different flowers! When wisdom finally dawned upon the father he took him to a eye hospital at Aligarh where some medicine was prescribed but not purchased because he could not afford the six rupees needed! After all that when the child was finally taken for proper treatment to Delhi, it was too late as the optic nerves had atrophied. Read the full story
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In this sequel to what I had written about my last trip to Uttarakhand, I am reporting on my latest visit to this state. This is my third visit to this area; the first was in 2006 when I had been to Kotdwar and Pithoragarh and the second was in April,2009 when I had been to Uttarakashi and Hardwar.
Like the previous two this visit is also to train youngsters in developing scientific temper in connection with what we call as our “Miracle Exposure Program“. We have been conducting hundreds of these in collaboration with various organizations, mainly the National Council for Science and Technology Communications, popularly called the NCSTC. This organization had started supporting our mentor Premanand in his training programs and had already published a book called “Seeing is not Believing” in Hindi and English. They had also made a kit for presenting the same, and have been engaged in such activities for nearly three decades. Read the full story
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While it is not very difficult to be theoretical about one being or not being a Hindu, for those of us who are out in the field, sometimes faced by an audience of thousands, questions do get asked about what we are doing and/or whether we are the narrow end of the wedge being used by the missionaries to convert people to their religions. There are queries as to when we question the miracles and/or the articles of faith of Hindus- which is not very difficult to do- and make them lose their faith, if there will be a spiritual vacuum into which the Christian missionaries would step into and convert the lot to their faith. While this would seem to be totally illogical to anyone who has an idea of what our movement is, it is also a fact that most of the audience does not know anything about our movement except the programs which are conducted for the public-generally the miracle exposure programs. So, this most popular face of the movement get projected as the only face of the movement visible to the people. Read the full story
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As our movement grows in terms of involvement of people as well as increase in the number of organisations, we face new challenges and changes in the older ones. If we are to survive and progress as a movement we have to face up to these and modify our strategies accordingly, failing which we shall be consigned to the dustbins of history. We as a movement have always risen up to these and I am sure that we will too in the future. But, what we have to remember is that we should have a very clear strategy and plan to face these and get over them. Read the full story
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These challenges were released to the Nepal press on the occasion of a press conference at Kathmandu on the 25th of October and the same are applicable to those in India too! Read the full story
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with Infant Jesus have started discharging an oily liquid with an aromatic smell. On the 6th March some of us had the opportunity to visit the place, after our request was acceded to by Mathew Theodosios Metropolitan of the Kollam Diocese, under which the chapel is located. It may be recalled that this so-called miracle had hit the headlines in a section of the media in Kerala around October, 2009.
