Sanal Edamaruku in BBC World Service

Click and hear Sanal Edamaruku on BBC
about the Great Tantra Challenge

TV Swamy Ramdev and his cures!

Sanal Edamaruku calls: Stop Swamy Ramdev

Swami Ramdev expects a revenue of 40 million dollar this year. Selling India’s ancient, pre-scientific notion of health care and cure – repackaged as his very special brand – is good business. Thanks to his all-out marketing, Pranayama (ancient exercise in breath control) and ayurveda are big hits with the ever-growing and prospering Indian middle class. His daily early morning show has allegedly 20 million viewers. His 500 hospitals in the country are said to register 30,000 patients per day. His new headquarters in the “holy city” of Haridwar may soon be world’s largest center for yoga and ayurveda.

S wamy Ramdev

Swami Ramdev’s breathing routine as such may be as harmless as useless. But it comes with the stunning claim to cure all kinds of illnesses including cancer and HIV/Aids. His brand of yoga, so runs his pseudo medical argument, increases the CD4 count – the number of cells attacking the HIV virus. Such baseless and irresponsible claims, luring a vast number of patients in need of medical treatment into a false sense of security, turn Swami Ramdev’s yoga ministry a disastrous venture.

“Swami Ramdev is a dangerous man”, said Sanal Edamaruku in a press statement. ’It is high time that the authorities put a stop to his activities. Claiming such absurdities is against the law. The magical remedies act of 1954 was brought in to stop people such as Baba Ramdev from promoting dangerous ideas about curing cancer and the like. But the political class is running scared of him and of the backlash that his legal prosecution might unleash."

Quoting Sanal Edamaruku, the following article appeared in The Guardian.

TV swami offers a cure for all ills

Yoga evangelist has millions in his thrall,
but critics claim devotees are being duped

Randeep Ramesh
The Guardian, Saturday June 14 2008

At 5am beneath the Shivalik hills in northern India, Swami Ramdev sits cross-legged swaddled in saffron robes commanding the rapt attention of 500 devotees of his brand of yoga. The crowd is made up mostly of middle-class Indians, many suffering from chronic conditions for which traditional medicine has little to offer but comfort.

Each "patient" has paid 7,000 to 40,000 rupees (£90 to £500) to be among the first to spend a week at the swami's newest venture: a village of 300 bungalows offering spiritual retreat in the shadow of eucalyptus trees. Swami Ramdev's pitch is that pranayama, the ancient Indian art of breath control, can cure a bewildering array of diseases. "Asthma, arthritis, sickle-cell anaemia, kidney problems, thyroid disease, hepatitis, slipped discs and it will unblock any fallopian tubes," he tells his audience in the yoga village, who line up to have their blood tested and receive herbal remedies.

Although India has a long tradition of mystical gurus, Swami Ramdev represents a new phenomenon: the television yoga evangelist. Almost all his congregation have been drawn through his shows on India's Aastha channel. Every morning, the swami appears on television chanting prayers and explaining that ailments, physical and mental, can be treated by what looks like little more than sharp intakes of air and painful-looking body contortions. More than 20 million tune in each day in India alone. The television guru, who is also known as Baba Ramdev, is also available across the world - including Britain. He has just finished teaching on a yoga cruise from India to China, which even after attracting corporate sponsorship still charged disciples £1,000 a ticket. Last year he appeared in Westminster to give British politicians a chance to sample his yogic wisdom.

Ludy Mantri, a housewife from Mauritius, has paid 40,000 rupees and travelled 4,000 miles to see "her swami" in the Haridwar yoga village in the hope he can help her find a cure for diabetes.

"I have been on medicines every day for the last 12 years. The chanting of Om has an amazing effect and the words of Ramdev energise one through the day."

Born into a farming family in north India he retains a common touch, making rustic jokes in chaste Hindi. The guru combines this with a gentle manner and a knack for public relations. The swami sells himself as a one-person health service. He says he only charges the wealthy and that the poor get his medicines for free. He has 500 hospitals in India serving more than 30,000 a day.

It is no surprise that many sections of the Indian elite - including judges, ministers and Bollywood stars - have visited his camps. Such is his popularity that the Indian army incorporated Ramdev's techniques claiming it made for a "deadlier fighting force".

Ramdev often speaks less of spiritualism and more of the need to develop his country through yoga, portraying himself as an Indian nationalist. He attacks multinational companies for seeking to drain India of profits. He calls Coke and Pepsi good only for "toilet cleaning".

In a country where renunciation is seen as almost a divine virtue, Ramdev announces that he has long ago given up sex - because "it is not love". The adoration he inspires was seen in 2006 when Indian communists accused the guru of using human bones and animal parts in ayurvedic drugs produced by his pharmacy. His followers rioted and attacked the party headquarters. The Communist party backed down when it saw where public sympathy lay.In an interview with the Guardian, Ramdev said that the problem with communists was that they did not have "faith in spirituality and are philosophically against religion. My cures are clean but the communists have an agenda."

There is little controversy about his basic assertions. He says that following his yoga teachings for 30 minutes a day, along with a vegetarian diet of raw or lightly boiled food and no alcohol or tobacco, clears clogged arteries, reduces blood sugar and lowers blood pressure.

But the swami defended his more extravagant claims that yoga could cure terminal illnesses such as cancer. He also said he had evidence that breathing exercises could help Aids patients recover by enabling a rise in the number of cells that the HIV virus destroys.

Ramdev has an explanation for his success with cancer - that yoga oxygenates the blood which kills the tumour. "Yoga is self-healing and self-realisation. I have many cases of cancer which I can provide where patients have recovered. We have cured blood, throat, ovarian, uterine and throat cancers with yoga."

In the case of HIV, he says scientists "have not understood [it] properly". He says that "through yoga and lifestyle changes people increase their CD4 count [the cells the HIV virus attacks]. The truth seen for the first time does appear like a miracle."

Such claims have angered many doctors. Mohammed Abbas, The president of the Indian Medical Association, said that although yoga is "good exercise, it cannot be used to make ridiculous claims about curing HIV or cancer. This is false hope for ill people."

The swami says patients are tested and improvements measured by "independent" doctors. Asked whether he has run any tests to analyse treatment, he offers a ook of testimonies from disciples convinced they have been cured of cancer, cirrhosis and kidney failure.

Some have called for the swami to be prosecuted for "peddling quackery of the highest order".

"Claiming such absurdities is against the law," said Sanal Edamaruku of the Indian Rationalist Association. "The magical remedies act of 1954 was brought in to stop people such as Baba Ramdev from promoting dangerous ideas about curing cancer and the like.

"The political class is running scared of this man and the backlash that such a prosecution might unleash."

Godmen on the run

Kerala: Sweeping out Pandora’s box

The southern Indian state of Kerala is busy cleaning up. Target of the ongoing rigorous sweep is a new brand of godmen and astrologers, who managed to build up flourishing business during recent years without coming to public attention. In fact, most Keralites had not been aware that there was any 'living god’ in their state – except the hugging 'world star’ Mata Amrithanandamayi. But suddenly Pandora’s box sprang open.

It started with a media report in a prominent Malayalam weekly 'Kerala Sabdam' in the first week of May about a red corner notice, issued by Interpol in the United Arab Emirates about a Keralite with the name Santhosh Madhavan. Investigation by the local media turned the spotlight on godman Amrutha Chaitanya and his palatial ashram in the port city Kochin, where he received local politicians, film stars, businessmen and senior police officers. Chaitanya alias Madhavan was identified as the man, who had duped a rich businesswoman in the UAE. The Kerala police – under pressure – arrested the godman and raided his ashram and flat. Besides various illegal-possession-items like sandalwood, ganja, a tiger skin and a police uniform, they found a collection of porn CDs that recorded his raping of minor girls living in a charitable protectory run by him. Nine minor girls complained that they had been raped by him. Investigations of Madhavan’s financial circumstances brought to light that he was operating a dubious real estate business worth many million dollars, in which he acted as a front man for some so far unknown prominent personalities.

Santhosh Madhavan had been a school dropout and small time temple priest. In the late 90s, he familiarized himself with astrology, grew an impressive beard, and started a lucrative career as a godman. In a short span, he managed to cultivate a celebrity clientele and to secure political patronage. He enjoyed quasi immunity, till the furious public pressed for his arrest.

After Madhavan, rationalists and media exposed more under-cover godmen and astrologers with high connections and persumed criminal background. For one month now, the media is reporting godmen scandals nearly every day. Meantime some 60 people have come under the scanner. Some of them absconded. It is reported that they meet their clients now abroad.

After rationalists and progressive media set the trend, youth organizations of the political parties jumped on the bandwagon and started to hunt enthusiastically for godmen – preferably for those close to their competitors. The Hindu-conservative BJP saw to it that Muslim godmen and Christian faith-healers were not spared either. As a result, the spiritual morass has been drained considerably. The great survivor - so far - is the hugging 'goddess'. However, Amrithanandamayi too has decided to play safe and left Kerala for an extensive trip abroad.

Tantra fails in live TV programme

The Great Tantra Challenge

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill Sanal Edamaruku with the “ultimate destruction ceremony” on live TV. Sanal Edamaruku agreed and sat in the altar of the black magic ritual. India TV observed skyrocketing viewership rates.

Everything started, when Uma Bharati (former chief minister of the state of Madhya Pradesh) accused her political opponents in a public statement of using tantrik powers to inflict damage upon her. In fact, within a few days, the unlucky lady had lost her favorite uncle, hit the door of her car against her head and found her legs covered with wounds and blisters.

India TV, one of India’s major Hindi channels with national outreach, invited Sanal Edamaruku for a discussion on “Tantrik power versus Science”. Pandit Surinder Sharma, who claims to be the tantrik of top politicians and is well known from his TV shows, represented the other side. During the discussion, the tantrik showed a small human shape of wheat flour dough, laid a thread around it like a noose and tightened it. He claimed that he was able to kill any person he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. Sanal challenged him to try and kill him.

The tantrik tried. He chanted his mantras (magic words): “Om lingalingalinalinga, kilikili….” But his efforts did not show any impact on Sanal – not after three minutes, and not after five. The time was extended and extended again. The original discussion program should have ended here, but the “breaking news” of the ongoing great tantra challenge was overrunning all program schedules.

Now the tantrik changed his technique. He started sprinkling water on Sanal and brandishing a knife in front of him. Sometimes he moved the blade all over his body. Sanal did not flinch. Then he touched Sanal’s head with his hand, rubbing and rumpling up his hair, pressing his forehead, laying his hand over his eyes, pressing his fingers against his temples. When he pressed harder and harder, Sanal reminded him that he was supposed to use black magic only, not forceful attacks to bring him down. The tantrik took a new run: water, knife, fingers, mantras. But Sanal kept looking very healthy and even amused.

After nearly two hours, the anchor declared the tantrik’s failure. The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. “No, I am an atheist,” said Sanal Edamaruku. Finally, the disgraced tantrik tried to save his face by claiming that there was a never-failing special black magic for ultimate destruction, which could, however, only been done at night. Bad luck again, he did not get away with this, but was challenged to prove his claim this very night in another “breaking news” live program.

During the next three hours, India TV ran announcements for The Great Tantra Challenge that called several hundred million people to their TV sets.

The encounter took place under the open night sky. The tantrik and his two assistants were kindling a fire and staring into the flames. Sanal was in good humour. Once the ultimate magic was invoked, there wouldn’t be any way back, the tantrik warned. Within two minutes, Sanal would get crazy, and one minute later he would scream in pain and die. Didn’t he want to save his life before it was too late? Sanal laughed, and the countdown begun. The tantriks chanted their “Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili….” followed by ever changing cascades of strange words and sounds. The speed increased hysterically. They threw all kinds of magic ingredients into the flames that produced changing colours, crackling and fizzling sounds and white smoke. While chanting, the tantrik came close to Sanal, moved his hands in front of him and touched him, but was called back by the anchor. After the earlier covert attempts of the tantrik to use force against Sanal, he was warned to keep distance and avoid touching Sanal. But the tantrik “forgot” this rule again and again.

Now the tantrik wrote Sanal’s name on a sheet of paper, tore it into small pieces, dipped them into a pot with boiling butter oil and threw them dramatically into the flames. Nothing happened. Singing and singing, he sprinkled water on Sanal, mopped a bunch of peacock feathers over his head, threw mustard seed into the fire and other outlandish things more. Sanal smiled, nothing happened, and time was running out. Only seven more minutes before midnight, the tantrik decided to use his ultimate weapon: the clod of wheat flour dough. He kneaded it and powdered it with mysterious ingredients, then asked Sanal to touch it. Sanal did so, and the grand magic finale begun. The tantrik pierced blunt nails on the dough, then cut it wildly with a knife and threw them into the fire. That moment, Sanal should have broken down. But he did not. He laughed. Forty more seconds, counted the anchor, twenty, ten, five… it’s over!

Millions of people must have uttered a sigh of relief in front their TVs. Sanal was very much alive. Tantra power had miserably failed. Tantriks are creating such a scaring atmosphere that even people, who know that black magic has no base, can just break down out of fear, commented a scientist during the program. It needs enormous courage and confidence to challenge them by actually putting one’s life at risk, he said. By doing so, Sanal Edamaruku has broken the spell, and has taken away much of the fear of those who witnessed his triumph.

In this night, one of the most dangerous and wide spread superstitions in India suffered a severe blow.

The whole program is video-recorded and is available. If you want a copy, please contact: info_desk@rationalistinternational.net

Email: Click here for contacting Sanal Edamaruku by email.

Great Tantra Challenge

“Reason has won the day”
Now click & watch

the Great Tantra Challenge online!

The story of Sanal Edamaruku challenging India’s top tantrik Surinder Sharma on live TV to demonstrate his magic powers on him raised enthusiasm and curiosity all around the world. Our website got nearly two million hits in two weeks. We received hundreds of appreciative letters and congratulations every day. One of the first reactions came from James Randi: “Sanal! My congratulations for this excellent demonstration of rationality over superstition”, he wrote, “reason has won the day”.

The story appeared on SWIFT (web page of the James Randi Educational Foundation) and on Richard Dawkins’ website, to name the two most prominent. Meantime it has been overtaken by hundreds of sites and blogs and is touring the Internet in many languages.

Superstition about Hypnotism

Sanal Edamaruku exposes “New Age Hypnotic Guru” Sivanand on Live TV

Click this picture for viewing a video clip of the program
(with English sub-titles)

After the “Great Tantra Challenge”, it was the turn of a New Age guru. On the evening of 15th March 2008, India TV invited “New Age Hypnotic Guru” Sivanand for a show. As pre-planned, Sanal Edamaruku was posted initially in the audience.

After the viewers got warmed up with a video clip full of confusing images, pendulum swings and psychedelic music, with artificial smoke fumed up on the podium from both sides, Hypnotic Guru Sivanand started his show. Spotting Sanal in the front row, he tried to take advance bail and said that his hypnosis was no tantra or mantra but a New Age scientific way to ensure instant strength and stamina. It will make the person intelligent, clever and physically powerful, he claimed. His clients always got power and intelligence in seconds after he hypnotized, the Guru asserted.

Hypnotic Guru touched their foreheads and told them to relax and fall into deep sleep. He counted up to three, and they both were seen sleeping. They slept standing till he put them down on two chairs. From then onwards, he would switch continuously between talking to the anchor, the audience and his subjects. Very soon the lady became the sole focus of attention, while the role of the man was limited to a sleeping decoration piece throughout the program.

His customers, Hypnotic Guru explained, came to him to get strength and confidence, to loose tension and to develop their will power and mind control, and he had a success rate of 90 per cent. In between his sentences, he addressed the lady with commands like “you become stronger … and stronger… now… one, two, three”, “power… power” etc. After some time, he asked her to raise her arm, and she did. She seemed to understand clearly which out of all his sentences were meant for the anchor, which were meant for the audience and which were for her. The Hypnotic Guru even allowed the anchor to ask her to narrate her experience about sea and mountains, and alas, she did it!

The Hypnotic Guru then began his grand finale. The lady was put flat down on two chairs, the middle part of her body remaining straight without support. This was the Hypnotic Guru’s ultimate proof. “This is only possible under hypnosis!” he declared triumphantly, as hypnosis could unleash unimagined capacities of the human body. To crown his success, he called a boy from the audience and asked him to climb up and carefully stand on her thighs. She remained stable. After half a minute, the boy was taken down.

Sanal Edamaruku walked up to the podium at this moment and announced: “This has nothing to do with hypnosis.” He said: “It is a normal capacity of the human body and I can show you the same exercise without any hypnosis!” Upon his request, a middle aged man volunteered for the show. Sanal positioned him on three chairs, the first for his head, the second for his hip, and the third for his legs. “Be confident”, Sanal said to him and removed the middle chair that was under his hip. To everyone’s surprise, the man remained stable without falling down. “He is not hypnotized”, said Sanal. Human hips have this strength and only we need confidence to remain on two chairs without falling down.”

Sanal then asked the same boy to stand on the man’s thighs. Yes, it worked without hypnosis. The volunteer did not fall down. He explained that he was feeling fine. There was spontaneous great applause from the audience. More people wanted to try. And while the game went on, Sanal Edamaruku explained his proof that Hypnotic Guru was a charlatan.

Firstly, there was a long list of flaws and mistakes in his “hypnosis”, which contradicted medical knowledge and experience and proved his demonstration a drama. A psychiatrist in the audience supported this observation and added some points. And secondly, Sanal Edamaruku continued, the subject of his demonstration was not freely chosen, as pretended, but well known to him, prepared for the show and was acting. Sanal Edamaruku and some others had witnessed the over-enthused young lady telephoning some friends before the beginning of the program and proudly announcing “her show”. Moreover, from these phone conversations they understood that she was an amateur actress who had just passed the entrance test of the Delhi School of Drama!

The Hypnotic Guru Sivanand had no medical or psychiatric education and was practicing this quackery on several thousand people over the years.

Though the two and a half hour long program ended there, the audience did not want to go home, but thronged Sanal Edamaruku to congratulate him for the exposure and to bombard him with so many questions they had always wanted to ask but did not know whom to ask.

"Miracles" of Satya Saibaba

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During the 69th birthday bash of Satya Saibaba, he "materialised" a golden necklace. Click the image above to see the video that explains how he did it.

More clippings from Satya Saibaba

(Click the links below to view videos that expose the god-man)

Satya Saibaba "producing" holy ash (1)

Satya Saibaba "producing" holy ash (2)

Satya Saibaba "producing" holy ash (3)

Satya Saibaba "materialising" linga from mouth (1)

Satya Saibaba "materialising" linga from mouth (2)

Sand for the Thirsty - Sanal Edamaruku on conversions

Reproduced from "New Humanist", journal of RPA (London) January / February 2007

Last October, India's dalits – the so-called "untouchables" from lower caste Hindu families celebrated the golden jubilee of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism. There seemed a great deal to celebrate. After all, Ambedkar, the icon of dalit dignity and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, had inserted anti-discrimination provisions and quota systems in the country’s law to promote dalit upliftment. Moreover on October 2, 1956, he formally broke the shackles of the Hindu caste system and embraced Buddhism, together with some 380,000 of his followers. Since then, legions of dalits have followed suit – two and a half million in 2006 alone.

Ambedkar was a declared atheist and rationalist. His decision to take "diksha" and be reborn a Buddhist was made just two months before his death. It was an unfortunate, even disastrous and to a signficant career. By suggesting that the dalits need to adopt an alternative religious identity to fight for justice and equality, he weakened the movement and its prospects of achieving genuine equality.

Fifty years later dalit mass "dikshas" are gimmicks, head counts of poor people herded together. The untouchables are used as colourful extras, exploited by a whole range of political and religious special interests. The mass conversions help political leaders to bargain for maximum seats to contest in India’s multi-party, multi-level election system. They are not only celebrated by the Buddhist world (cited as evidence of inexorable growth), but also, suspiciously, by the Indian Bishops Conference. Why? Anti-conversion laws in several Indian states – welcomed by rationalists – prohibit conversion "by use of force or allurement or by fraudulent means". So far no mass "diksha" has been stopped by them, but they tie the hands of Christian missionaries. Since neither the Catholic church nor Evangelicals, Baptists, Anglicans or Pentecostals can hope for much support to loosen them, they promote the "dikshas" to make conversions appear acceptable.

India’s 175 million dalits (16 per cent of its 1.1 billion population) are twice as likely to be unemployed or living under the poverty line as the national average. Nevertheless, Ambedkar’s constitutional provisions did improve their lot. Over forty years they doubled the number of dalit girls in urban schools, allowed dalits to study and teach in universities, serve in the civil service, police and army, and sit in legislatures up to the national parliament, which reserves 8 per cent of the seats for them. Even the highest political positions are not closed. Famously, former Indian President KR Narayanan was born a dalit, as was the newly appointed Chief Justice.

According to Article 17 of the Constitution, untouchability is long abolished. But while it has withdrawn from the light of the cities, it has not lost its fury in the darkness of politically neglected rural India. In September 2006, in the village of Khairlanji in Maharashtra, a dalit family was brutally murdered. Sureka Bhotmange and her 17-year-old daughter Priyanka, a brilliant student who wished to join the army, were dragged out of their house, paraded naked around the village and gang raped by a dozen high caste Hindus before their genitals were mutilated with sticks and knives. Sureka’s sons Sudhir and Roshan were tortured and their genitials were cut off, when they refused to rape their sister. After more than an hour of torture, all four were hacked to death. Only the father escaped. Some days before, Bhotmange and his family had witnessed in court against fifteen high caste villagers, who had brutally beaten a dalit policeman. The guilty were arrested but were out on bail when they took their revenge.

That the Bhotmanges were Buddhist converts did not protect them. Despite a public outcry at the time, the murderers could well escape conviction. This is not an isolated case. Between 1999 and 2004, 4,435 cases of atrocities against dalits have been reported in Maharashtra alone – the tip of the iceberg. Only 220 of them have led to convictions.

Ambedkar’s heritage has helped to integrate many dalits into modern Indian society. There are now quotas which guarantee dalits jobs in educational institutions and the civil service. But this may also have contributed to sustaining the very caste system that it tries to overcome.

Though many dalits are able to use these quotas to get education and jobs that would otherwise be unreachable, they are viewed with derision by many upper caste students. And since access to higher education and jobs is limited to the legislated quota, many dalits feel their opportunity is still artificially limited. The Indian Supreme Court recently pointed out that while a lucky few benefit from the quota system, the really deprived are left out.

Today, quotas are a "holy cow", an alibi for lack of political will. Meanwhile a recent survey throws new light on the state of India’s Muslims. Statistics describing their educational, economic and social situation look much like dalit statistics. Should Indian Muslims be entitled to quotas too, many are now asking.

Indian Rationalists have already proposed a solution. It lies in a secular quota system, based on new criteria beyond religion and caste. It has to benefit the needy, the deprived and the left-out in Indian society without trapping them forever in their caste or religious past. 

Sanal Edamaruku is a journalist and broadcaster and President of the Indian Rationalist Association .

Conversion Controversies - By N. Kunju

One of the threats faced by Hindus is supposed to be conversion that could reduce their numbers and increase the population of other religions. The conversion to indigenous religions does not matter because the converted remain more or less in the Hindu cultural mould. The occasional ritual conversions of Dalits to Buddhism are more out of political vendetta than due to a genuine change of mind or ideological differences. The follower of Buddha, Mahavira or Guru Nanak could remain a Hindu without any hindrance or opposition from Hinduism. When Dr. Ambedkar converted Dalits en masse to Buddhism, it was a symbolic political protest; he knew neither their status nor outlook radically changed.

In fact, the fear of the reduction of Hindu population due to conversion is unfounded. The proportional increase in the number of Muslims is not due to conversion to Islam. Conversion to Islam had taken place mostly by force; there is no scope for forceful conversion in free India. The increase in Muslim numbers is due to backwardness and unchecked breeding The Sachar Commission has rightly given the statistics to prove the fact. But the Government's remedy to overcome their backwardness by reservation and special concessions is wrong because unlike the Hindu backward castes, Muslim have not suffered any social historical oppression or lack of opportunities.

In fact, historically Muslims had been pampered for the past 1000 years, first during Islamic rule and later by the British regime. Muslim rulers openly discriminated against Hindus even levying special taxes on them and favoured Muslims by giving them high posts in the hierarchy of the administration. It was during their rule Muslims grew from zero to the sizeable population in India, so much so, they could ask for a separate state at the time of independence.

The British had a love-hate relationship with the Muslims. It was hate at the time when the Muslims were rulers and in the transition period to British rule. This was because they had to fight the Muslims to gain power and the 1857 mutiny was at least notionally led by the Mughal "Emperor", Bahadur Shah Zafar.

The British should be given the credit for not going out with the sword to convert Hindus to Christianity as the Muslims had done. Mostly they kept political power and proselytizing agenda separate. The latter, they left to the Christian missionaries. Therefore very little conversion took place in the North except in tribal pockets where indigenous faiths were of a primitive nature.

The story of conversion from Hinduism to Christianity and Islam in the South was different. This has mostly happened before the British came. The story of St. Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ, coming to Kerala is more fable than fact. But the Portuguese, the Dutch and German missionaries and before them the Syrian and other Eastern churches had established on the Western coast. Some of the high caste Hindus had embraced Christianity because of the influence of the missionaries. Today the Syrian Christians of Kerala take more pride in saying their ancestors were Brahmins than they are the followers of Christ!

Kerala Muslims too, except those forcibly converted during Tipu Sultan's invasion, are of Arab origin. The Arabs came for business in spices and exquisite cloth and they settled and intermarried with the locals. At that time, the Hindus were reluctant to go abroad because of superstitious beliefs and the ruler of Malabar, the Samoothiri (Zamorin) had asked some of his soldiers to convert to Islam so that he could have a navy. And he did have a strong naval force under the command of Kunjali Marakkar who fought the European fleet and won wars on the waters. The Indian Navy has honoured his memory by naming one of its important establishments INS KUNJALI.

The Hindu traditional oppression of the low castes too contributed to the conversion into Christianity and Islam. Why should a man remain an untouchable serf (almost a slave) when another religion promised him to make him a brother? The promise of course mostly proved false; Christian and Muslim orthodoxy never accepted the low-caste converts as equals. But the enticement worked and many low caste Hindus were lured by the two religions. Today those who were converted from low castes are demanding their rights of reservation and other concessions as applicable to the Hindu backward castes. So much for the brotherhood promised by Christianity and Islam!

But it should be conceded that the Christian missionaries had done commendable work in the field of education. Unlike Hindu orthodoxy that exhibited its prosperity by building magnificent temples, the Christians built temples of learning. They might have had the ulterior motive of winning over Hindus, but there was no compulsion. And many Hindus who studied in Christian institutions didn't convert, though they acquired an admiration to Christian modernity. Of course, the missionaries did lure the low castes by special favours to them if they got converted. It is a fact that brilliant boys from backward castes benefited, had higher education and got high jobs and got out of the social stigma.

There is the interesting story narrated to the Indian Express by India's first Dalit Chief Justice Konakuppakkattil Gopinathan Balakrishnan about his father: ...Gopinathan was not one to take the socially assigned Dalit route. Yearning to go to school, Gopinathan was told that Dalits were not particularly welcome in most local government schools. Christian missionaries ran the remaining schools and Christians were preferred. So he changed his name to a Christian one, Kunhachan Marcos, and managed to get into a school run by the Church of South India. Borrowing books from classmates, often going without food, Marcos passed his final school examination - but no one gave him a job. Years later Marcos finally went through 'purification' rite and reverted to his old self, as Gopinathan. It was even later that he managed to get a lowly job of a copyist in the court... (Indian Express Dec. 25, '06).

However, after conversion to Christianity, very few Hindus underwent Sudhi to return to the Hindu fold like Gopinathan. It was not because of any threat from the Christian community, but the beneficiaries of conversion reconciled to the new environment and they did not have the ideological mooring in the Hindu culture for returning to Hinduism.

The case of those who were forcibly converted to Islam was different. Most of them were from the high castes and they cherished the Hindu ethos and culture, but were prevented from a 'come-back' both by the Muslim and the Hindu orthodoxy. To the Muslim, abandoning Allah and Prophet Mohamed was blasphemy, and the punishment for blasphemy was death. So a converted Muslim can go back to his original religion only at the risk of his life. Even if he overcame the Islamic threat, the Hindu orthodoxy would not take him back. To them he is permanently impure and can't be purified.

Interestingly, the only instance of converted Muslims undergoing Shudhi and rejoining the Hindu fold in their original caste too has happened in Kerala. They were the Nairs converted forcibly by Tipu Sultan's hordes in Malabar. These converts abandoned Islam after the death of Tipu in the battle at Srirangapatam with the British. But they were not fully accepted by the upper castes and were rebuked as Chelat (circumcised) Nairs and were considered outcastes by Brahmins and fellow Nairs. (The ritual of conversion to Islam was circumcision, cutting off the foreskin.) A bold social reformer, Chandu Nambiar, worked hard to break the barrier to integrate Chelat Nairs into the Hindu Nair mainstream and succeeded in removing the stigma. (Joseph Edamaruku in his Malayalam book "Ivar Mathanishedhikal")

Surprisingly, according to the Koran Sunnath Society founded by the noted Islamic theologian of Kerala, Chekanur Maulavi, circumcision has no place in Islam. Majid Cheruvati, the secretary of the Society writes: What is done in the name of religion is a punishment to the boys. At an age when they know nothing about religion, the boys are subjected to physical and mental torture. Nowhere in the Holy Koran this ritual is mentioned... (Keralasabdam weekly 9-11-06).

The intolerant Islamic fundamentalists who were enraged by the views of Chekanur Maulavi got him murdered. The CBI is still investigating the murder case. Now circumcision becomes useful for Islamic terrorists to separate men whom they suspect to be Hindus from a mixed crowd.

Coming back to conversion from circumcision, in the anti-conversion law enacted by some states the condition of inducement for changing religion is meaningless. No one will allow himself to be converted without gaining anything. It could be either material gain or promises of gains by the grace of another god. Both ways, conversion is undesirable and could only help in social tensions.

However, the scare that Hindus will become a minority because of conversion to other religions is unfounded. Christians who are accused of converting Hindus could not do much to increase their numbers; there is no increase in their percentage of the total population of free India. Muslims do register an increase, but that is not because of conversion from Hindus. The reason is unchecked proliferation due to illiteracy and backwardness. Irrespective of their religion, the prospering middle class in India has adopted the policy of limiting their family for their own well-being.

The policy of competitive population increase by Hindus by having more children is not advisable; it may take India to the first position in the world in strength of numbers surpassing China. But it will make India weaker and poorer as a nation.

N. Kunju is a National Council member of Indian Rationalist Association

Satya Sai Baba and President A P J Abdul Kalam!

India deserves a (more) dignified and responsible President

Sanal Edamaruku
President, Indian Rationalist Association and
Rationalist International


The poet-President & the “creator of the universe”

India’s President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has been the chief guest during the glamorous birthday show of controversial godman Sai Baba on 23rd November 2006. It is shameful and outrageous that the Indian President pays respect to a saffron charlatan, who exploits the gullible by claiming that he can produce ‘holy ash” from thin air, cure all illnesses, has created the universe and other nonsense more. It aggravates the case against President Kalam that he did not content himself with performing a kind of public relations routine, but went out of his way praising and glorifying the charlatan.

“I have immense love for Sai Baba”, Dr. Kalam said in his speech at Sai Baba’s headquarters in Puttaparthi . “I penned a poem in my mother tongue to greet Sai Baba on his birthday.” And he was not ashamed to read his poem (in a Telugu translation of the Tamil original) publicly to the cheering crowd of Sai Baba devotees. The rather embarrassing piece glorified Sai Baba as a glittering lighthouse and symbol of goodness. Because of Sai Baba’s presence, the President of India rejoiced, the earth was the most blessed planet in the solar system.

This is not only extremely silly and in bad taste. It is moreover irresponsible and undignified to a degree that is not compatible with the august office of the Indian President. President Kalam has misrepresented India and betrayed the trust of her people. India deserves a (more) dignified and responsible President.


The scientist-President & the exposed miracle man

It is deplorable that there are still many poor people in India, who are deprived of basic education and who don’t have any opportunity to develop scientific literacy. They are easy prey for frauds, fanning their fears and raising their hopes with “miracles” and promises of magical solutions for all problems. Miracle mongers and faith healers are inflicting a dangerous disease upon the weakest section of Indian society and have to be stopped by all means. It has to be one of the primary tasks of human development in India, to help the victims of superstition and blind belief to break the shackles of their archaic mindset and join the twenty first century.

Besides being the Indian President, Dr. Abdul Kalam is seen as one among the most prominent scientists of India and has raised great hopes for a better future, guided and protected by science. His concept “Vision 2020” promises to lead India smoothly into the orbit of the developed world. If a man of this stature and position uses his influence to come to the rescue a scandal-tainted godman, he commits a serious and unpardonable betrayal.

The children’s President & the alleged child abuser

In recent years, Sai Baba has hit international headlines as the center of another scandal. The aging godman stands accused of sexual abuse of minors among his devotees. Numerous cases of victims from India and abroad have come to light. Though Indian authorities seem still far away from opening a trial against the well-connected offender, too many victims and witnesses - mainly from Europe and USA - have broken their silence to further ignore his crimes. Some of their statements are recorded in articles that appeared in the London based The Daily Telegraph and in the film documentary "Seduced by Sai Baba", produced by the Danish State Television. In 2000, UNESCO washed its hands off Sai Baba by deciding neither to sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been planning to organize along with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India.

But all this seems not enough to stop President Dr. Abdul Kalam from publicly praising the fallen saffron star to the skies and lending him the shield of national honor to cover his shame. It is a shocking and somewhat macabre picture to see President Kalam, who loves to show himself in the company of children and cultivates an image of the great friend, promoter and protector of India’s youth, quite unperturbed and in such cordial relations with the man, who is held responsible for using his godly image to commit cruel and inhuman sexual abuse against hundreds of helpless minor devotees.

Philanthropy? A letter to the Indian President

Tainted and defeated, Sai Baba found a new avatar. One year back, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, fans announced his transformation from miracle-man to philanthropist. Sai Baba's trust , which claims to be "the biggest NGO in the world after the United Nations", has allegedly spent millions of Dollars for drinking water, hospital and school projects around Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh) and in Bangalore (Karnataka). His down-to-earth development work is winning Sai Baba "even the hearts of non-believers", hoped his supporters.

In December 2005, I have written a letter to President Dr. Abdul Kalam, which was never answered. It demanded criminal investigations against Sai Baba. "If Sai Baba's social development projects are meant to be indulgence to nullify his crimes, this procedure is unprecedented and unacceptable", I wrote. "It is a shame for India that well-founded accusations and numerous reputed witnesses against Sai Baba are ignored without any investigation. Do saffron clothes make an offender untouchable for the law? Do we have to tolerate that political protectionism raises its head so boldly, mocking India's democracy?" I asked in my letter.

Spending a part of the great fortunes, swindled out of the gullible by pretending to have supernatural powers, for social development around his ancestral village doesn't make Sai Baba a great philanthropist. It is a well-known strategy of dacoits and gangsters, to build themselves a strong support base and a safe haven by winning the total loyalty of "their" villagers at home. Hasn't the cocaine mafia in Colombia done the same with their comparatively modest means? By the way, isn’t it a matchless irony that Sai Baba spends money, obtained by claiming the power to cure all illnesses, for super-specialty hospitals? Sai Baba himself, when he recently fell ill, preferred to be treated in one of his modern hospitals instead of relying on his own magic.

The people of India have a basic right to receive drinking water, appropriate medical care, education etc. It is the duty of any government to provide these essential goods. And it is an utter humiliation, if people are forced to receive their dues as alms from the hands of a "philanthropist" who expects them to bow theirs heads in front of him and praise his generosity. The situation becomes worse, if the government leaves the citizens in dependency of a "philanthropist", who is a criminal and a megalomaniac, and claims that he has supernatural powers and even created the universe. Sai Baba's birthday has become a day of national shame for India with a section of leading politicians, scientists and artists at the feet of a charlatan and alleged child abuser. If they express their devotion, because they are personally weak and gullible people, we have to ask ourselves why we don't elect confident, efficient, strong and intelligent politicians instead. If they do so because they want to celebrate the "benevolence" of a politically well-connected fraud and alleged criminal, they are deeply corrupt.

Also visit www.rationalistinternational.net

Rationalists welcome Tharoor pulling out

Saibaba man Tharoor out of race for UN top post

Indian Rationalist Association expressed relief as Shashi Tharoor, the controversial Indian candidate for the post of secretary-general of the United Nations pulled out of the race after South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon won the latest straw poll. Mr Tharoor got three negative votes of which one was from a permanent Security Council member. The formal election for the secretary-general is due on 9 November.

The rationalists in India reacted strongly against the hasty decision of the government of India to nominate Tharoor as he is a Saibaba man and a hardcore propagandist of obscurantism, miracle-belief and all kinds of superstitions. During his career as the UN undersecretary-general for public information, Tharoor raised his voice in the international media in favor of paranormal claims and in praise of godmen and miracle mongers.

To read the article of Sanal Edamaruku asking the government of India to withdraw the nomination of Shashi Tharoor to the UN top post, click the links below:

English / Deutsch / Français / Suomi

New "miracles" in India - Rationalists respond successfully

Wave of superstition in India!

Sanal Edamaruku leads major media campaign in response

India is facing a series of mass "miracles" these days. One by one, they are breaking out like epidemics, throwing changing segments of the population into frenzy. Sanal Edamaruku is leading the greatest rationalist counter campaign that has ever been fought, cutting the heads of the hydra as they appear. The battleground is the Indian television scene, especially the Hindi language channels, where "miracles" are bombing in as "breaking news" from all over the country.

What is happening? It started 18th August Friday night at Mahim near Mumbai. Young Muslims, after the Friday prayers visiting the Mahim Dargah, burial place of a Muslim saint at the seaside, discovered that the water in the Mahim Creek had turned sweet. The news spread like wild fire and within hours hundreds, soon thousands, of gullible came to see Allah's great miracle. They jumped into the allegedly sweet sea water and started drinking it! A dangerous situation emerged as the water in the Mahim Creek is among India's filthiest and most contaminated waters. 1000 million liters of sewage are flowing every day into the creek and the water is absolutely not potable. But people gulped it in hysterically, fed it even to little babies.

In the night itself, at 1.30 a.m., Sanal Edamaruku started a non-stop television campaign for reason. He warned people from drinking the dirty water, called upon the authorities to stop the access to the creek, explained the reasons for the change of taste (which occurs during every Monsoon) scientifically. At noon, the tide started to turn. By evening, the hysteric crowds had melted down to a small group of fanatics. The "miracle" that may have caused longtime health damage to thousands of people, was over.

But the next day, the Hindu temples in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi celebrated their own miracle. The statues of the Hindu gods started drinking milk again as they did in 1995! When the new milk miracle subsided under the weight of Sanal Edamaruku's explanations and demonstrations in the TV channels, it was the turn of the Christian miracle mongers. Virgin Mary started shedding tears in a church in Cochin, Kerala. Soon, the image of the Hindu saint Shirdi Sai Baba (not the curly haired god-man!) appeared in the seepage spots of a multi-storied building wall in Surat (Gujarat). Last night, an olive tree in a monastery in Madhya Pradesh started flowering and two young girls got possessed in Uttar Pradesh.
In permanent action, Sanal Edamaruku has been debunking the various paranormal claims blow by blow during day and night in more than forty special television programs this week, most of them live, many repeated several times. There may not be many among the millions of TV watchers, who did not see him several times explaining, demonstrating, warning and encouraging to overcome all transcendental temptations.

So far, we have not been able to keep track with the running TV events and inform our readers in time. Today we can announce a major TV discussion with Sanal Edamaruku about the new miracle wave in India. (Also India's two leading astrologers and a scientist participate in the discussion).

Don't miss.

Live in Sahara National (Rashtreey)
Saturday, 26 August 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. (IST)

Mukabla in NDTV Hindi
Saturday, 26 August, 10.00 – 11.00 p.m. (IST)

Sunday
Sunday, 27 August, NDTV Hindi 2.30 – 3.30 (IST)

Tuesday
Tuesday, 29 August, NDTV Hindi (time to be announced)

Indian Rationalists call for the withrawal of India's UN secretary-general candidate

India should withdraw
Shashi Tharoor’s nomination

Sanal Edamaruku
President, Rationalist International
President, Indian Rationalist Association

I am shocked to hear that the Government of India has nominated Shashi Tharoor as its candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General. Shashi Tharoor - despite his carefully nurtured image as a suave and balanced intellectual - is a hardcore propagandist of obscurantism, miracle-belief and all kinds of superstitions, who does not miss a single opportunity to raise his voice in the international media in favour of paranormal claims and in praise of godmen and miracle mongers.

India has to be ashamed of Shashi Tharoor and his avowed positions. A progressive and forward looking country striving for a leadership position in a modern world would do itself a disservice by fielding a man to highest international positions, who has made it his program to promote ignorance and gullibility, the very scourges that held India back for centuries. The Indian Constitution declares scientific temperament as a fundamental duty of all citizens. How can India afford to nominate a man to the top UN post, who has ridiculed scientists and rationalists by defending the Ganesh milk drinking frenzy in 1995 as a real miracle?

When the world media came out to expose Indian godman Satya Saibaba, and his so-called miracles as well as his outrageous behavior towards many young devotees were documented in television clippings, the UNESCO distanced itself from Saibaba and cancelled a planned common project with him. Shashi Tharoor, however, did not hesitate to rush to the godman's rescue by singing his praise in international newspapers. In International Herald Tribune (dated 3 December 2002), Tharoor declared Saibaba’s conjuring trick of “producing holy ash” to be a miracle. He certified that Satya Saibaba did materialize gifts for his devotees from thin air and boasted that he himself was the recipient of a gold ring with nine embedded stones. The secret of the godman’s magic was already exposed by rationalists and his hand-sleight tricks were caught red-handed by television cameras and shown in television documentaries around the world. But Shashi Tharoor remained his staunch defender.

In the same article that appeared all around the Western world and is proudly reproduced in Tharoor's personal web-site, he expresses his position about India:

In the 1950s, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared dams and factories
to be "the new temples of modern India." What he failed to recognise was that the
old temples continued to maintain their hold on the Indian imagination. The software programs of the new information technology companies dotting Bangalore's "Silicon Plateau" may be the new mantras of India, but they supplement, rather than supplant, the old mantras. …. Saibaba and Infosys are, in fact, emblematic of an India that somehow manages to live in several centuries at once.

If a person who has such sinister views about India and propagates them with arrogance can contest as India’s nominee for the UN top office, it is shameful for all progressive-minded Indians.

Shashi Tharoor does not limit his miracle mongering to his godman Satya Saibaba alone. In another article he writes about another “holy” figure:

She took to standing in a crucified position, and blood appeared spontaneously
on her hands and feet — the stigmata of Christian lore. Like Saint Teresa of
Avila centuries earlier, she suffered seizures during which she levitated:
neighbors would come to her family home on Fridays to see her suspended high
against the wall in a crucified pose.

Shashi Tharoor's nomination is bound to become a major embarrassment for India as he is an articulate and avowed propagator of blind faith and superstition, and ridicules the scientific outlook of India’s policy, enshrined in the Indian Constitution. If he becomes the UN Secretary-General, he will moreover cause serious damage to the reputation of the august world organisation.

I call upon the Government of India to withdraw the nomination of Shashi Tharoor.

Why Rationalism? By Sanal Edamaruku

WHY RATIONALISM?

REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW TRENDS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RATIONALIST MOVEMENT

By Sanal Edamaruku
President, Indian Rationalist Association
President, Rationalist International

Looking back on the last two centuries, humanity can celebrate the triumph of reason, progress and emancipation. The tyrant gods have been exposed as paperboard monsters. The cruel and violent forces that governed throughout the dark ages in their name have been driven out of a major part of the world and of human minds. The wheels of progress are rolling with enormous speed. Scientific research and technology are improving our lives and extending our horizon and potential. These achievements have been possible under the influence of a strong and irrepressible rationalist movement that braved harassment and backlashes to break one by one the chains of mental slavery and make us the masters of our destiny.

But there is no time to rest on rationalist laurels. The victory lasts only as long as we are watchful and ready to defend and extend the empire of reason.

Religion has a tendency to creep back into liberated territory in ever new shapes and to try and recapture lost bastions. Once cornered and weakened, it can hibernate and return in fundamentalist, sectarian and neo-religious strings. With the Iranian revolution, Islamic fundamentalism went political and tried to recapture parts of the world, provoking and encouraging Christian fundamentalism and Hindu fundamentalism. The weakening traditional Christian churches in secular Europe and America sprouted a multitude of zealous evangelical missionary movements to target the developing world. Revival movements like the hyperactive Pentecostals, born-again Christians, hysteric faith-healers and bizarre cults came up. In India, fading Hinduism reared in a fanatic Hindu nationalist movement besides becoming fertilizer for thousands of colorful and scurrile god-men, who are increasingly drawing rich devotees from the spirituality hungry west.

Despite the multitude and sometimes wildness of religion’s new faces, Rationalism has established itself as the general frame of reference in today’s world. There have been many excellent and courageous individuals and determined and dedicated movements, who contributed significantly to today’s achievements.

Reaching out to the masses

Ingersoll and the RPA: Two outstanding landmarks in the history of modern rationalism are the lectures of Robert Green Ingersoll in the USA and the publications of rationalist books by the Rationalist Press Association (RPA) in Britain. Ingersoll with his great oratory skills and outspoken views about religion romanticized heresy and became an inspiration for thousands of people not only in the USA but all around the world. His direct and trenchant criticism of religion, his great desire for a rational and liberal reformation of the social order, and the charm created by his fine and touching language enlivened with passion and humor were unique and not heard of till then. Ingersoll became so popular that he was considered a suitable candidate for the office of the president of the USA. His example shows that bluntly speaking out against religion and its institutions can meet with overwhelming public response.

In Britain, the RPA started more than one century ago to spread rationalist thoughts in classical and contemporary books of high standard. The "Thinker's Library" and the "Cheap Reprints" reached far off places and opened up new horizons for progressive movements in many parts of the world, making a lasting impact on the history of the rationalism.

Fighting for social and political progress

The Indian example: It was under the direct influence of these two great heritages that the rationalist movement in India, emerging in the beginning of the 20th century out of ongoing social struggles against priesthood and religion based oppression, grew and sharpened its intellectual weapons. Thanks to an uncompromising determination deeply rooted in its fighting origins, it developed over several decades into an influential factor in transforming the mindset of one of the most tradition-bound societies in the world. The Indian rationalist movement is considered one of the most vibrant and most successful movements of its kind and has been in recent years highly appreciated by western observers.

Bill Cooke in his book The Blasphemy Depot admires its "practical rationalism in action" and wonders "what Indian rationalism can teach the West". He feels that "in India the malevolent consequences of irrationality are better understood" than anywhere else. Paul Kurtz, in his speech "The Momentous Significance of Rationalism Today”, during the International Rationalist Conference 2002, expressed the belief that the Indian rationalist movement has a "special and perhaps momentous role" to play in helping "to bring India into the twenty-first century" and congratulates the Indian Rationalist Association "for the leadership role it has played".

These are not only good words. In fact, the Indian rationalist movement has become an inspiring example for many western rationalists to awaken, activate and rejuvenate their own organizations (see also: Caspar Melville: UNMASKED! India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Cover story of 150th year special issue of the New Humanist, the journal of RPA, Nov 09, 2005).

*** *** ***

Paul Kurtz describes rationalism as ‘the single most important contribution to human civilization’. Rationalism strives to influence society towards secularism and to liberate individuals from the influence of religion, superstition, dogma and priesthood. It promotes liberty of the individual and human dignity, fights for the fulfillment of human rights, for freedom of expression, the right to criticize traditional religious dogma and all arbitrary assumptions of authority. Above all, it raises powerfully the voice of reason to expose all pseudo-science and baseless fantasies imposed upon people.

The salient point of any rationalist movement is its fighting spirit and its determination to defend what it stands for against all odds. Rationalism commits the liberated individual to reason even if it is uncomfortable. Every step towards progress, freedom and equality has been influenced by the voice of reason, resisting efforts to silence and strangulate it.

The fruits of modern civilization did not just fall from trees; they are the achievements of courageous people defying the established order and the parasites protecting it.

Resisting "humanist" missionaries

History twist: In the middle of the last century, a dangerous trend emerged in several pockets of Europe. It threatened to steam-roll the progressive movements joining in the broader rationalist stream - predominantly the rationalist, freethought and atheist groups - by a soft and system-friendly "humanism". Humanism is a historic forerunner of rationalism that dethroned all gods and declared human the centre of the universe before enlightenment dawned. Preparing the ground for rationalism and anticipating many of its later achievements and aims within the limits of its historic position, humanism was always considered a precious and honored heritage of the rationalist movement that appeared to have melted into its own identity.

Adopting the old term from the period of Renaissance, however, the post-enlightenment "humanism" of the 20th century played host to a dangerous cancer that aimed at turning the course of the rationalist movement from within. Not all the humanist groups were equally affected, but some became instruments of an attempt to pervert and damage the movement. The new ambiguity of the term "humanism" created much confusion.

Quite against the grain of history, the new reactionary "humanist" movement answered the quest of some non-believers for a new "religion without god and revelation" and got instant support by some European establishments. This looks like a simple under-cover operation, misusing a trusted label to try and guide the anti-religious movement back to religion.

The leaders sought and received state sanction, often even a share of the tax money for their activities, putting them at par with established churches. The Norwegian organization was presented as the crown jewel and celebrated for its fantastic success. It had specialized on the performance of "alternative rituals", blissfully unperturbed about the fact that Norway was governed (till recently) by a priestly prime minister under the auspices of a powerful Evangelical state church that stands accused of violating its subjects' human rights. This is exactly the crux that makes these "humanists" so useful and supportable for governments and Christian churches. They paralyze the fight for transformation of society as a whole and rest, instead, content with serving those who have already come out of religion, herding them together in communities that share much of the features of religious associations, except belief in the supernatural. Celebrants conduct the "rites of passage" in name giving, marriage and funeral functions and confirmation celebrations for the youth. Even songs and dress are proposed. Some groups call themselves straightly "humanist churches" and ordain "humanist pastors".

There have been systematic efforts to woe and win rationalists, freethinkers and atheists to this line of building up a new religion without god. The Indian organizations have been over years the special target of "humanist" missionaries. Their efforts are still on. Only some months back, they sponsored a small conference with the name "From Rationalism to Humanism" to cast out their nets.

Former Pentecostal leaders came to the leadership of the "humanist" movement and argued for the use of a uniform symbol corresponding with the Christian cross or the Jewish star and for a special uniform usage of the term "humanism" as if it was patented. Proposed in the name of greater strength and efficacy in a united worldwide fight for "common goals", this was an attempt to streamline autonomous and heterogeneous organizations, freely assembled under a wide umbrella, and to transform them step by step into branches of a multinational "humanist" company. In fact, one observed a few cases of “rebirth" of traditional groups under new names and new leaderships and engaged in some sponsored new projects. But finally, the policy of "humanist" colonization has not been very successful.

Rationalist agenda for the 21st century

Beyond equality: The rationalist movement has not only survived the attempt to pervert it, it has even gained new strength and extended its influence far into "humanist" territory. The challenge gave opportunity to reconsider and refocus positions and policies and to consolidate rationalist work. In fact, the repulsive and unenthusiastic example of dull and meaningless club culture revived the inspiring vision of rationalism breaking open all prison doors of ignorance, superstition, exploitation and oppression. Rationalists of all names insisted that rationalism, atheism, freethought and even humanism is not just another way of life or one among other religions. It does not accept to be reduced to the level of playing its part in the symphony of a religion oriented / dominated society – it wants to transform this society and free it from religion. It does not fight for equality in conformity – it aims at a radical change of the status quo.

Imagine a small "equalist" group in South Africa holding the view that people with black and white skin are equal. In order to be ‘positive’ and to avoid the idea of fighting apartheid, they limit their aims to seeking acceptance for their own view as another way of life, equally justified as that of the racists! Or a group of “white jackets", uncorrupt government employees, who come out and claim their right to refuse to take any bribe. They would not like to be accused of "corruption-bashing", and only insist that their way of life is just as respectable as that of the corruption Mafia! Surely both these groups would be as happily welcomed by racist or corrupt regimes as the “humanists” by church loyal governments and state churches. Such self-centered movements have the potential to bind and chanalise all possible resistance against the oppressors. Despite their seemingly progressive positions they are therefore in effect reactionary.

Rationalist International: In the USA there has been resistance against the perversion of humanism. The new term "secular-humanism" was created to mark the difference between the progressive humanist tradition and its namesake. Promptly, the leaders of the "humanist" mission, who started behaving like the rightful owners, banned the use of any adjective in connection with "humanism". But secular-humanism firmly established itself and represents since then the progressive humanist tradition. Secular-humanism is rationalism with a slightly different focus.

Even within the contemporary humanist movement, the perverted string took slowly the back seat. Today, more than half of the groups identified as "humanists" are clearly rationalist, freethought, atheist or secular-humanist groups. The criterion is not only the name. Even among the "humanist" groups there are several, who share all rationalist positions and are equally committed to social and political change as many rationalists.

In the 90’s, for example, the Canadian Humanist Association has been vehemently attacked for its "abolitionism" (read: for actually fighting for a society without religion) and scolded as "unsuccessful" humanists. Under the leadership of its former president Dr. Henry Morgentaler, however, they had managed to establish the human right of reproductive freedom firmly in the Canadian society as well as in the law of the state. A country, where abortion had been completely banned, turned under their determined and dedicated influence into one of the most liberal in this matter - a respectable and admirable success indeed!

Rationalism started historically as criticism of religious texts and challenge against religious establishments and their influence on society and individual. During the last centuries, it underwent an evolution. “The great challenge today is to resist lethargy and hidebound traditions and extend the methods of reason and critical thinking to all areas of human interest,” writes Paul Kurtz.

Modern rationalism strives for a post-religious society. It investigates and exposes traditional and new (age) paranormal and other claims of supernatural and miracles. It asks for a secular society where state and religion are absolutely separated and religions are not promoted or supported. It condemns fundamentalism and acts of violence and intolerance, and tries to help preventing them. It encourages free thinking and free inquiry and self-determination, and helps individuals to break the chains of mental slavery. It promotes fulfillment of human capacities and wishes and encourages imagination and fantasy and strong emotions guided by reason. In its broad stream, it includes and accommodates all movements that focus single or special aspects of rationalism, contributing to the common line of emancipation of human mind - atheist groups, denying the existence of divine powers and empowering human instead, freethought and secular-humanist groups focusing social and political issues, skeptic groups dedicated mainly to the exposure of paranormal claims - and any other movement in this frame that may eventually emerge in future responding to new challenges and problems. The Rationalist International, founded in 1995 during the first International Rationalist Conference at New Delhi as a forum for rationalist ideas and positions with world-wide concern, could become a vanguard of the movement, giving inspiration, clarity, strength, courage and solidarity to many rationalists in different parts of the world. Responding to new challenges of irrationalism and intolerance and identifying and encouraging the use of new ways and methods of influencing change, including Internet, television and any other new achievement of information technology, rationalist movements in all parts of the world have to grow and grow together into a force capable, courageous and determined to influence the course of human history.

Sanal Edamaruku on the Rationalist Agenda for the 21st century

RATIONALIST AGENDA FOR THE NEW CENTURY

Speech delivered during the Second International Rationalist Conference held at Trivandrum, India: 17-21 January 2000

Sanal Edamaruku
Founder President, Rationalist International;
Secretary General, Indian Rationalist Association

Moving forward the wheel of human progress has been the task of the rationalist movement from its early beginnings at the dawn of history. Meeting the challenges of nature and improving the conditions of human life, nurturing knowledge and spreading education, lightening the spirit of freedom and self-determination, of growth and development of the individual, encouraging creativity, cultivating responsibility, compassion, fraternity among humankind, guarding the ideals of justice and equality and human rights.

Understanding the conditions of their time and the needs and limitations of the society which they were destined to serve, rationalists had to meet different challenges through the ages. From the Lokayatas, the first known rationalists in ancient Asia, to our present time at the beginning of the third millennium of our chronology, the rationalist movement has come a long way. To raise to the demands of today's planetary society, this multifaceted, interrelated and interdependent community, a new global agenda for the rationalist movement, if it is to correspond with the complexity of the real world, has to be developed on a broad information base and in a wide frame with careful considerations and balances. Much has been analyzed and proposed and discussed and worked out by rationalist leaders over the last years to develop a solid theoretical concept for the work to be done. And I am very happy that Prof. Paul Kurtz is with us during this conference, who has the merit of bringing the fruits of this long common discussion process into a form which reflects systematically all its general aspects and remains all the same very readable. The document, which he has set up, has met with appreciation and broad consents and has been endorsed by a wide specter of leaders of the movement, among them many who are with us in this conference - including myself. The document has the name "Humanist Manifesto 2000". But it is, in fact, in the true sense and without any reservation, a rationalist manifesto. There is no contradiction in this. Rationalists, as we want to use the name, include of course all those rationalists who for technical or traditional reasons call themselves humanists, atheists, secularists or freethinkers.

While not all humanists etc. are necessarily also rationalists (for example religious humanists are not), rationalists do certainly subscribe to the ideals of humanism and they are freethinkers and secularists and strong atheists. While appreciating that we have reached a broad consensus about our common agenda within the international movement, a look back to the passed century shows that it will depend on various different factors, if we shall be able to use our historic chances and to realize our aims. Not to deviate from our course, we need to understand the undercurrents and carefully watch the winds. We need to take the bearings and to implement course control whenever it proves necessary. We have to be alert and vigilant.

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Fear of conflict is a crippling weakness. In the known history of humankind every single step forward has been determined by men and women who had the courage and the strength to move against the prevailing tide. The wheel of progress has through the ages been rolled by those who would not submit to overcome power structures, traditions and taboos, who were ready to face obstacles and fight resistance to move forward and further freedom and advance civilization. Resistance came - vehemently, often with unimaginable brutality - from those, who enjoyed the fruits of the existing order, privileged minorities, equipped with authoritarian philosophies and military powers - and everytime in good company of religion. It has, indeed, never been easy to move the wheel and thousands of courageous rationalists have paid the attempt in the torture chambers of the Inquisition. But heresies of yesterday often turned into accepted worldviews when they met the necessities and incensed the imagination of their times - and humankind made another leap forward.

The modern rationalist movement made its first steps in the beginning of the last century. On the foundations established by Thomas Paine, Robert Green Ingersoll and Charles Bradlaugh, inspired by Renaissance and Enlightenment, rationalism - not withstanding its nomenclatures - emerged powerfully and broke open new avenues of thought. The authority of religion was challenged, social systems and hierarchies were questioned, unheard-of alternatives were discussed. The clarion of liberty called in dramatic changes in the hitherto known world order. The French Revolution and the ideals it had brought forward, the growing anti-colonial movements around the world and above all the everywhere arising resistance against the old social orders, against the dominance of religion over political structures, against oppression based on racial discrimination or caste systems - all these provided fertile ground for the growth of a new human species, a species that transcended frontiers of nations and borders of colonies and awakened thinking minds everywhere.

Science emerged as a great force of liberation. Technology shortened distances and experiences. Information, freed from the treasure boxes of the former elite, became accessible for everybody. Communication broke monopolies and created new alliances. The horizon broadened. The world of gods and ghosts and the terrain of churches and empires shrinked. The great leap forward shook the power structures of the past and threatened to break them. And the cracking forces of reaction answered with all-out efforts to save their old position. And we have to admit that those efforts have been partially successful. They diluted the spirit of the great leap.

The begone century has seen the raise of despotism, world wars, agonies and pain. Fascism emerged powerfully, with vigor supported by the Pope in distress. The holy symbiosis paid off for both sides: Mussolini presented the Pope generously with the Lateran Treaty, which granted him a special status for the Vatican. The Hitler Concorde offered him unprecedented privileges in the German Reich. Pious XII, in return, recognized the fascist states and used his authority to give them political and moral backing. He did not only look the other way when millions of humans were slaughtered, he blessed and awarded the slaughterers for their great services for Christianity - after all, the Jewish and Orthodox victims had the wrong religion.

The rule of fascism did not last its thousand years. But it lasted long enough to have a disastrous impact on Europe. The forces of progress suffered a hard blow. The movement was practically dissolved. To combat the fascist onslaught it had partly merged with resistance or communist movements and exhausted itself. There were countless victims, who paid their conviction with their lives.

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Time went by. The rationalist movement consolidated. But it was a weak Phoenix, which had rose from the ashes. Despite great moral authority on its side and despite widespread optimism - sometimes even enthusiasm - for a new start into a better world, the historic chance to powerfully take up the spirit of the great leap and unite the world against the forces of reaction remained unused. The fascists lost the war - the Pope did not. There was no trial, the Vatican was never held responsible for its crimes. It continued to enjoy the fruits of collaboration and emerged a respected global political negotiator. Fury evaporated, memory faded, wounds healed. Thirst for a new world had to be quenched with softdrinks. Public memory, if not supported, is weak.

The rationalist movement that had once been able to shake and brake the adversaries, grew and flourished again, but it had lost much of its determination and strength. The broad horizon, which once had been opened, moved out of reach and out of sight, the vision of a new world order got lost.

Fear of conflict took its toll, force of habit and lure of comfort and the little advantages which use to reward the obedient: corruption. Here and there symptoms of degeneration became visible and spread like an ailment. Armchair humanism developed in some parts of the movement, satisfying itself on Sunday afternoon with sweeping statements or just enjoying the tickling of playing cards on Sabbath. Feel-good humanism established hermitages in the wonderful world of the happy humans club (for members only).

The process of degeneration was, needless to say, promoted and used by the forces of reaction. The movement perverted there, where apologists took the lead and celebrated the "essentially integrative aspects" and the "ethical qualities" of religion. The idea to build up a new religion - a humanist religion - caught the imagination of many. The "ethical baby" should not be thrown away along with the religious bathwater, they warned, conveniently forgetting that the "ethical baby" has been growing in the crate of civilization, from where organized religion tried to steal it only. The champions of the new religion pleaded for equal status with the established religions and a chair at their table, some of them very proud, if accepted by real bishops.

In some countries, national organizations got trapped in a fix. They had successfully managed to secure a share of the tax money, which their respective states would reserve for funding of religious communities. Such payments would, of course, be dependent on co-operative behavior and could stop any moment, if they attacked their paymasters or the church, which happened in some cases to have the status of a state church - a quite delicate situation.

Phoenix tried to fly with clipped wings. Since the Christian homefront seemed in some countries taboo or hopeless, other fields of useful work for the course of progress had to be identified. The sprouting neo-religious movements, the so-called sects, came under attack. The situation in the developing countries and the victims of non-Christian religion moved into the focus of attention and sometimes even action. These evading strategies had some positive outcome: sailing in less controversial waters, these organizations use to appeal to a wide specter of the population and can score high membership numbers. Since the majority of their members are "also"-humanists without necessarily cutting their ties with religion, this success does, however, not prevent the church to step forward. So it has, for example, happened that quasi over night a new law emerged forcing state-religious education on all school children, and despite enormous membership and great efforts there was nothing which could be done about it.

Despite the still powerful position of the Vatican and occasional attempts of the Christian churches to push forward and reconquer lost ground, the situation in the Western hemisphere is by far not so hopeless as many in the movement seem to feel - and are only too ready to accept. Organized religion had to loosen its grip considerably. Today more and more people take religion lightly and consider it no longer the guiding force of their day to day life. The influence of bishops and other religious leaders is diminishing. The rationalist movement - despite some clipped wings - has been growing and broadening its base. Rationalist ideas and arguments are taken up by wider forums. The very good example that the Rationalist Press Association went practically out of business because the main stream publishing took over the task shows the broad acceptance of the views which once had been banned in the poison-chest of history.

The weakening of the traditional religions has, on the other side, orphaned a major section of religiously oriented people. No longer able to find relief in their old religion, they look for new ways to fulfill their urges. Some of them end up in rigid dogmatic offsprings of the old religion with aggressive and intolerant leadership. Such fundamentalist groups - which can be seen in Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism - show extreme views and high psychological tension and find a new dimension with political aspirations to bring back the lost glory, if necessary by force. A major section of others, in polarization, does not want to change reality at all. They just want to close their eyes and ears and find solace in one of the mushrooming new mystic religions, faith healing, charismatic prayers or submission to a guru.

Growing fundamentalism and boomtime for gurus and faith healers may create the impression that religion makes a powerful comeback. But one has to see that the monolithic powerblocks of established religions are crumbling and giving way to a colorful exotic multitude of neo-religions - a quasi-Indian scenario. In this frame, competition keeps the newcomers in control and weakens the traditional religions. More than the rationalists, the established religions have to worry about this development. Threatened by a multitude of "illicit" competitors, they have a vital interest to stop them. In their struggle for survival, some of their leaders don't hesitate to adopt a somewhat progressive attitude in order to garner rationalist support. The basic question whether we should collaborate with them to fight out the newcomers seems to divide the movement. The bishops' new friends, who lobby for the "essentially integrative aspect" of religion (which means everytime: established religion) stand on one side. We stand on the other.

We would not let the old enemy of civilization escape so easily. Our fight against the new exotic religious phenomena is only one inseparable aspect of our fight against the greatest evil that blocked the progress of humankind. The apologists have tried to brand this position as "abolitionist" and predicted it was, damned to be unsuccessful, heading for the scrap yard of history. Working with the probably largest and most vibrant and visible rationalist movement in the world, I can assure: they are wrong. More: the agenda of the rationalist movement, as long as it deserves its name, has to be based on the determination to shackle not only the superstructure but the very foundations of organized religion and help more and more people to come out to freedom. We shall not build a new prison house for those who come out. Let the liberated have free air, let them enjoy the fruits of their new freedom and learn to value life without religion. If we try to make a new religion, a new prison house for the m in competition with gurus and faith healers, the rationalists of the coming generations should take up the cudgels of their armory against the new rationalist and humanist bishops. We have no right to survive if we emerge as a new religion. All religions the world has ever seen asked for submission demanded surrender and wanted to orient our views. The place of the rationalist movement is at the forefront of the avowed march of civilizations. Let civilization take us forward with a beacon light.

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Loosing their grip in Europe, the Christian churches have turned East. On his recent visit to India, Pope John Paul II signed the document "Ecclesia in Asia", which will serve as a blueprint for the activities in the new millennium. The language does not leave any scope for interpretation: "Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted in the soil of Europe, and in the second in that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the third Christian millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent". The evangelization of Asia had to be an "absolute priority", the Pope said, and the Asian Synod was "an ardent affirmation of faith" and a "call to conversion". The Pope spoke under a historic map, marking the route of Vasco da Gama to India.

Besides the Roman Catholic church there are others in the race: Protestants, Evangelical church, Baptists, Pentecostals - they all are trying hard to get the best piece of th