This article originally appeared in the March 2010 edition of Himal Magazine.

The defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India’s general elections last year was greeted with relief by secularists and democrats everywhere. Not entirely unreasonably: they read the fact that the BJP lost a solid 3.4 percent of its previous poll share as evidence that Indian voters had rejected the majoritarian politics of Hindu pride and prejudice, peddled by the BJP and the rest of the Sangh Parivar. The general consensus is that the ideology of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, has lost its appeal among the urban youth and middle classes - that secularism has won and “God has left politics,” to borrow the elegant title of a recent essay by Delhi journalist Hartosh Singh Bal. Market reforms and globalisation emerge as the stars of this saga. Both the friends and critics of the BJP agree that it is the fervour for making money in India’s roaring economy that doused the flames of Hindu nationalism from the hearts of the middle classes. But that is not all. The ‘free’ market, we are told by a section of influential Dalit intellectuals, will not only free India from the menace of communal violence, but will also lift the curse of caste oppression. It is fair to say that the gospel of globalisation is gaining ground in India. Read the full story

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(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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Dates: 6-7 March, 2010

Location: Mulali Juba Kendra Hall near Moulali crossing close to Sealdah station, Kolkata.

The Science & Rationalists Association of India ( Bharatiya Bigyan O Yuktibadi Samity) has completed 25 fruitful years. There will be a  celebration of the silver jubilee on 6-7 March 2010. The annual conference will also be held during the two days with delegates attending seminar, workshop and interactive session during the day. The program on the evening of March 7, 2010 will be open to all. For more details about our activities you may visit our website, www.srai.org.

The program on the 7th will start from 5 pm with songs and discussion by the veteran Bengali folk song maestro Sri Swapan Basu, followed by our anti-superstition demonstrative show “Aloukik noy, Loukik”.

You are invited to attend the function and make it a grand success!

Prabir Ghosh
[G.S. Juktibadi Samiti]

Sumitra Padmanabhan
[President, Juktibadi Samiti]

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Reaching out to the younger generation is our priority number one. All our efforts are to reach out to this generation. The older generations with their fixed mindsets they are either with us or against us. Some fence sitters may need a push or pull from us to come our way. But, most of the times it is preaching to the converted or nonconvertible! Read the full story

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A group of activists, academics and leaders of the Freethought Movement have come together to propose the foundation of a well-organized, non-profit, freethought organization in India.

Summary: This is a proposal for a management-oriented approach to a Nirmukta organization. It is in three parts- (1) establishing why such an approach is needed, (2) presenting a mission statement and (3) proposing clear objectives to be implemented immediately.

Introduction

Nirmukta had its first online “meeting” on Saturday the 23rd of January, 2010. The members of the Nirmukta team who participated in this meeting include Prof. Narendra Nayak president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), Dr. Prabhakar Kamath, Pankaj Kulkarni, Siddharth Singh, Ajita Kamal and Kedar Kulkarni. We also had a guest panelist, Blair Scott, the National Affiliate Outreach Director for American Atheists, to help bring us a unique perspective from an established freethought organization in the United States. While the meeting was beset with technical problems, some avoidable by refining protocol and familiarizing ourselves with the format, and some unavoidable (such as the bandwidth issue), we were still able to come up with some good ideas and share them with the group. Read the full story

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Indian Skeptic is the magazine that reports on the Rationalism Movement in India. This movement is spearheaded by the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), under its president Professor Narendra Nayak. The magazine was founded and for many years published by eminent rationalist and debunker Basava Premanand, along with with Prof Nayak. That original Indian Skeptic was retired after Premanand’s death. Recently, a new avatar of Indian Skeptic was born at the 2009 National level FIRA conference. The magazine still deals with issues concerning rationalists and skeptics of supernatural claims, particularly in India. The editor and publisher of the new Indian Skeptic magazine is T.V. Manoj. Read the full story

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Introduction:

Every so often when reading books of non-fiction written by great thinkers you come across one that you find yourself hoping is wrong about the multitude of depressing facts it presents. Line after line, this is the emotion that Meera Nanda’s latest book, “The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu”, evokes. Beginning with post-independence India, Nanda walks us forward in time, pausing at influential points in the story to build a bullet-proof case for her central assertion that- in her words- “Globalization has been good to the Gods in India”. While it is a fast and thoroughly engaging read with all references relegated to the back pages, the sheer quantity of facts is still overwhelming at times.

Since my position on Nanda’s work is familiar to most followers of this website, I will present this review in an unconventional format. I will first describe the structure and content of the book. Then I will present some popular criticisms. Read the full story

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(Note: This article is an update on this story that we reported on a few days ago. Briefly, A 7-year old girl from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is being hailed by Buddhist leaders as the next reincarnation of a Buddhist Goddess. Rationalist groups led by a group of dedicated activists including Babu Gogineni, International Director of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, have been protesting this abuse of the rights of children in the name of religion.)

A number of us approached the State Human Rights Commission and the Judge ordered for an inquiry into the antecedents of those behind the child and the parentage of the child. Meanwhile, the Commission ordered that police be posted to accompany the so-called caretakers. The case is at a crucial stage now.

The following are the entire contents of the petition presented to the State Human Rights Commission. Read the full story

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(This article was first published in the Souvenir brought out commemorating the 7th National Conference of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations held in Chennai on 26 & 27 December 2009)

What is Rationalism?

In Epistemology (the branch of philosophy studying the nature, sources and limits of knowledge) “Rationalism” is “the theory that reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge”. Those who accept rationalism in this epistemological sense assert that knowledge is gained a priori (prior to experience) and is often contrasted with Empiricism which is “the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses”. Read the full story

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We have reported on many of the past challenges issued by rationalists to purveyors of supernatural beliefs. The challenger in many of these cases (1,2,3,4,5), Mr Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Rationalist Associations of India, has a long-standing challenge issued specifically for astrologers. Here it is in his own words:

“We shall provide the date, time and place of birth of 10 individuals along with the appropriate solutions. The challenger can cast the horoscope and state the following within 90% limits of accuracy- is the individual male or female, dead or alive. ” Read the full story

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