Killing a Rationalist: Silencing Reason
Ram Puniyani
The killing of Professor Maleeshappa Madhivallapa Kalburgi on 30th August
2015 came as a severe jolt to all those who are for an open, liberal
society, who uphold the values of reason and are against blind faith.
Prof. Kalburgi was a renowned scholar with over 100 books to his credit.
He had brought to fore the ideology of Basavanna; the 12th Century
poet saint of Kannada; and had supported the idea that Lingyats, the
followers of Basavanna be given the status of religious minorities as
they do not belong to the Vedic tradition. His study of Vachanas, the teachings contained in the verses of Basavanna, was a profound contribution to the rational though.
It
was his forthright reminder of Basavanna’s teachings, criticism of idol
worship and Brahmanical rituals, which earned him the wrath of Hindutva
groups like Bajrang Dal. As there are many traditions within the broad
pantheon of Hinduism, the atheist tradition has its own existence from
centuries, Charvak being the one from ancient times. Even opposition of
idol worship is not new to Hindu traditions as Swami Dayanand Sarswati,
founder of Arya Samaj, had given the call to stop the idol worship.
Incidentally
as we are receiving the news of this killing, the neighboring Bangla
Desh has witnessed the murder of three young secular bloggers in recent
times (2015). In Syria a Scholar Khaled al-Assad has been put to death
by ISIS fanatics. Maharashtra was shaken by the murder of a rationalist
of repute Dr. Narendra Dabholkar nearly two years ago. He was
instrumental in getting the law against black magic and practices
related to blind faith passed in Maharashtra. Another well respected
activist, Comrade Govind Pansare was killed just a year ago. Pansare was
working on many issues; anti-blind faith campaign being one of them. He
is also the author of well known tract on Maharashtra’s revered king
Shivaji. Contrary to the communal presentation of Shivaji as anti Muslim
king, Pansare shows that Shivaji was the king who was very sympathetic
to the farmers (rayyat) and that he was respecting all religions. This interpretation of Shivaji is a great eyesore to the Hindutva politics.
On the back of the murders of these two rationalists, comes the murder of Dr. M.M. Kalburgi on 30th August
2015 in his home in Dharwad. Prof Kalburgi was a very well accomplished
man, ex Vice Chancellor of Kannada University in Hapmi, and recipient
of National and Karnataka Sahitya Academy Awards for his writings. The
learned professor had deep study of Virshaiva, Basavanna tradition
amongst others. The opposition to him was due to his criticism of idol
worship, Brahmanical rituals and ritualization of Basavanna tradition by
Lingyats. Controversies followed him and so did the threats from
conservative forces. The first one of which, was the publication of
Marga treatise on Kannada folklore including articles on Virshaiva,
Basavanna. Due to the death threats to him time and over again police
protection was given. This police protection was withdrawn on his
request recently. He supported U.R. Anathmurthy on the issue of stopping
idol worship. When he invited VHP leaders and the pontiff of Vishveshra
Tirtha Swami for a public debate; another controversy followed. His
support to Karnataka bill against practices of superstition invited
anger of Bajarang Dal and associate organizations and he had to face
protest; where his effigy was burnt.
There
is a pattern in the murders of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi. Though
there are some differences in the broad range of field of their social
engagement, the similarity is very striking. They were rational, they
made their voice abundantly clear and many threats were received by
them. Another stark similarity is that all these three murders took
place in early mornings by those who came on motor cycles, one person
driving the bike and the second one pumping bullets. Strangely despite a
long lapse of time the killers of Dabholkar and Pansare have not been
nabbed so far.
After the murder of Kalburgi one Bajrang Dal activist Bhuvith Shetty tweeted, ***"Then
it was UR Ananthamurthy and now MM Kalburgi. Mock Hinduism and die dogs
(sic.) death. And dear KS Bhagwan you are next" .*** This tweet was
later withdrawn. Also many a person’s related to Hindu right wing
organizations started saying that Kalburgi had insulted Hindu gods, so
anger among Hindus and so such murders. This is a subtle justification
of the intolerance which our society is being gripped with. As such the
attitude of communal elements in different religions is very similar.
One recalls the threat to Salman Rushdie, the type of intolerance shown
to Taslima Nasreen and the murder of bloggers in Bangla Desh and also
murder of Salman Taseer in Pakistan. Taseer had stood in defense of a
Christian woman who was accused of blasphemy.
The
opposition to the voices of reason has been going on in History all
through. One can as well begin with Charvak, who opposed the Brahmanical
understanding about the world, divine nature of Vedas in particular.
Charvak said Vedas are manmade, social in nature, and was persecuted.
Gradually with the power of clergy the imposition of faith on society
became more institutionalized. Even teachings of Gautam Buddha, who was
agnostic, and talked about the social nature of human problems, were
attacked. This had led to the wiping out of Buddhism from India. The
medieval Bhakti saints were also more for rational thinking, critical of
the imposition of various social practices-rituals in the name of
faith. Many saints like Tukaram in Maharashtra had to face persecution
at the hands of those who were close to social power, the clergy.
Globally
one can see the same pattern in Europe. In Europe the scientists,
rational thinking had to face the opposition from organized Church,
which condemned Galileo to hell for stating that the Earth is round etc.
Similar was the fate of many scientists who had to face inquisitions
and punishments of various types. Clergy hid behind the façade of
‘divine authority’: faith, and tried to stall the process of social
change and halt the scientific thinking. The society over a period of
time overcame the opposition to the rational thinking and so we saw the
rooting of science and scientific inquiry. Clergy had maintained that
they are the repository of whole knowledge; as knowledge is already
there in our ‘Holy books’. This is a part generalization and it
manifested in different cultures and religions in diverse ways. In
Pakistan, some Maulanas asserted that the problems related to power can
be solved by doing research on djinns, who are power houses of infinite energy; this was presented as part of the religious knowledge.
In
India with freedom movement, those standing for social change and
transformation did stand for rational thinking and critiqued the
scriptures from that angle. The traditionalists, who wanted to retain
the old social equations; resorted to ‘our glorious heritage of
knowledge’. Faith based understanding was counterpoised against the
spirit of scientific inquiry. With independence, with Nehru being at the
helm of affairs, the notion of ‘scientific temper’ came up in a big way
paving the way for establishment of institution of higher learning and
research; leading to the national growth and transformation towards
democratic structures. This was the time when the nation was looking
forward to all round progress and rational thinking was duly promoted.
The national science resolution; based on reason and logic was passed
unanimously in 1958.
Things
start changing in the decades of 1980s. The politics in the name of
religion came up in a very assertive manner and faith not only continued
to be the emotional support system in the times of social anxiety but
some political forces started asserting identity politics, faith based
politics. Identity issues and faith based politics started getting more
legitimacy. The social conservatism and undermining of rational thought
went hand in hand. Incidentally it is around this time also when the
groups promoting rational thought, scientific temper, groups to oppose
blind faith, came up. The most prominent of these groups was Kerala
Sastra Sahitya Parishad. Later in Maharashtra Narendra Dabholkar took
the lead to establish Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Committee to oppose
Blind faith).
This
took the Maharashtra conservative elements by storm as the volunteers
of this organization started going from village to village and started
demonstrating the science behind the magic tricks which were being
practiced by hoards of God men and other of their tribe, who were taking
full advantage of the social insecurity of poor villagers and
exploiting them. Pansare, in addition to opposing blind faith was also
disseminating the values of Shivaji, presenting him as a person
respecting all religions, which Shivaji was. The right wingers could not
stomach it; neither could they oppose the logical formulations
presented by him. In Karnataka individual like U.R. Ananthmurthy
articulated against idol worship and blind faith. Kalburgi not only
supported U R Anathmurthy; he also went on the support the bill against
the practices promoting blind faith. He did author papers/books to
disseminate his ideas.
Slightly
back in time when the first NDA Government came to power with Dr. Murli
Manohar Joshi as the MHRD minister, he introduced the courses like
ritualism (paurohitya) and astrology (jyotish shastra) in
the universities. This gave a big boost to the ‘faith’ based groups who
were politically close to the politics in the name of Hindu religion.
With the new Government coming to power (2014) again now the mythology
is being promoted as history, the Pushpak viman,
‘plastic surgery in ancient India’ etc. is being promoted; at the same
time so called fringe elements, which as such are part of the Hindutva
politics, are becoming more assertive. The liberal open space is
shrinking and the place of debate is being taken by physical violence.
The liberal values which accept the validity of differences is being
eliminated by force, intimidation and even partly by state support. The
murder of these ‘saintly’ figures , Dabholkar, Pansare and
Klaburgi, just goes to show that we are landing in a situation where
those entrenched in the conservative values are becoming dominant and do
not want the rational thinking to exist in our society.
The
aggressive stance by the Hindutva right wing on those who are putting
forward the rational thought, criticizing the ills of caste system, idol
worship etc. is ideological supplement to the politics of Hindu right
wing. The march of this politics in recent years has been built around
identity issues like Ram temple or cow slaughter. Their whole assertion
is built around the Brahmanical Hinduism, which upholds the caste
hierarchy. The ideology being propounded by the likes of Dabholkar,
Pansare and Kalburgi stands closer to the ideology for liberation from
the caste hierarchy, which is the root of HIndutva politics. This
politics does target the religious minorities, while ironically Hinduism
is so diverse with contradictory tendencies within same religious
umbrella. Kalburgi’s murder is part of the larger scheme of things where
the ideologies opposed to the present status quo are being hounded along with persecution of those who are struggling to uphold these values.
On
the other hand there has been a tremendous opposition to these brutal
acts. The social groups upholding pluralism and rationalism have been
agitating against these murders and the ideology of those involved in
these killings. Opposition of sections of society to the murders of
Daholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi shows that there are still large numbers
of people who are willing to uphold rational values and that gives a ray
of hope for the times to come. In last couple of years after the murder
of Dabholkar, various social groups have been coming together with a
determination not only to oppose the intolerant conservative aggressive
right wing politics, but also to take up the unfinished task of these
slain pioneers committed to social change.
