Many Indians intellectuals who don’t believe in supernatural gods or powers fail to separate their non-belief from the ‘Hindu’ identity. The desire to belong to a dominant cultural group is so strong in us that these so-called ‘Hindu Atheists’ invent the most convoluted justifications for their acceptance of the Hindu label. But does it really make sense to call oneself a Hindu Atheist? What does one truly mean by the word Hindu in this context? The object of this article is to get rationalists and atheists from India who identify themselves as ‘Culturally Hindu’ to question this label with which they are associating themselves.

To make my position clear at the outset, I will state my fundamental claim below. Read the full story

I intend to respond to some of the criticisms leveled against the view I expressed in my article “Why I criticize Hinduism the Most” - the most prominent being the comments posted by Kafir in this website. I have also received a few responses, mostly favorable, from the readers of the ezine I bring out, Bangalore Skeptic. The favorable responses I happily ignore!

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Are anti-blasphemy laws really on the rise? Consider this: Since the founding of the UN in 1948 till the year 1992, there was no mention of blasphemy in any form under the Declaration of Human Rights. The articles 7, 21, 18 and 19 could have been interpreted to reject the idea that blasphemy is a crime. Jump to half a century later; every year from 1999 to 2006 has seen new resolutions to restrict “Defamation of Religion” introduced through the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by member nations, mostly Islamic. Since 2005, the UN General Assembly has passed a similar resolution every year. I’ll come back to the UN resolutions in a bit, but first I’d like to consider some recent developments in India.

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Shah Rukh Khan was one of my favorite Bollywood stars, growing up in the 90s. It has been a couple of years since I’ve watched a Hindi movie (Slumdog Millionaire doesn’t count). But when I read something today that Shah Rukh said in an interview about religion and Islam’s role in terrorism, it made me realize how much of a negative influence film actors can have over the culture of our society. The interview was scattered, so I took it apart to see what the film star was actually saying. I’m presenting my thoughts on it here. Keep in mind that this interview was done in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks by Muslim terrorists, and that the questions were in that context.

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