An anti-superstition campaigner and medical doctor has been assassinated by unknown gunmen in India just days before after his anti-superstition and black magic law was accepted to be tabled before parliament.

From indiatoday.in

Narendra Dabholkar, a well-known rationalist pushing for a law against superstition in Maharashtra, was shot dead outside a temple in Pune on Tuesday morning.

Dabholkar, a doctor, was at the forefront of a campaign to persuade the Maharashtra government to pass an anti-superstition and black magic bill. Right wing Hindu groups including certain sections of Warkari sect and political parties have been opposing to the bill.
Dabholkar gunned down by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants around 7.30 a.m. near Omkareshwar Temple, when he was on a morning walk, police said.

The two gunmen fired indiscriminately at Dabholkar and sped away, leaving him in a pool of blood.

He was rushed by other co-walkers to Sassoon Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Pune Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol said they were investigating the motive.

Police claimed to have got some leads on the killers, adding that at least four bullets found their target in the victim's neck and back.

Dabholkar was the founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Committee for Eradication of Blind faith) that aimed to change social mindset and inculcate scientific temper.

Dabholkar's murder comes days the state government promised to introduce the long-pending Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill in the current assembly session.

Dabholkar, who was in his 60s, began working against widespread superstition in 1983 and in 1989 founded the committee.

He also wrote many books on superstition eradication and confronted tantriks and seers who promised miracles.

He was also the founder of a de-addiction centre in Satara and also edited Marathi weekly Sadhana.
Condemning Dabholkar's killing, state Home Minister R.R. Patil vowed that his killers would be nabbed at the earliest and police were working in this direction.

A rationalist known for his bold views and sustained campaign against superstitions for over three decades, Dabholkar had rubbed many people the wrong way.

He led agitations against superstitions, animal sacrifices and even water pollution.

Dabholkar's killing has been widely condemned by people from all sections of society, most vocally on social media.

[img]http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/images/stories//2013aug/dabholkar_350_082013104126.jpg[/img]

RIP Dr. Dabholkar.

May your death inspire others to take up your cause here in Nigeria, and all over the world.

We need more of his kind here in niaja...superstition and tribalism is killing d black race.........RIP

Tayeni: We need more of his kind here in niaja...superstition and tribalism is killing d black race.........RIP

The best we have is Leo Igwe.

He's the founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and has done good work in rescuing children accused of witchcraft from their crazy, abusive parents. He has also been beaten, threatened and arrested several times for his work. A few years ago some thugs broke into his house and beat up his father so badly that he lost an eye.

He doesn't get anywhere near the recognition as he deserves.

Which kind of jazz relies on physical bullets? They couldn't use 'thunder'

In before it wasn't the jazz crowd that killed him. Considering the bill coming up, and the level of bufoonry involved, it likely was

And yes, folk like bola igwe don't get the recognition in this environment they well deserve. Excuse him for being socially conscious and even worse, rational and humanistic

This is a wake-up call of some sort for all of us.

The good doctor has paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The question is:

Is it wort it?

Is it wiser to just live your own life and let ignorant people wallow in their blissful ignorance?
Just look at the amount of effort we exert trying to persuade supposedly educated people on this forum!

Perhaps better to let the society come around in its own time?

Atheists are no better..if not even worse. You also kill people for their beliefs...and there are millions and millions of examples.

Besides, why is it such a problem if life on earth is just a random occurence with no purpose?

Maybe the killers were just being part of that randomness.

Evil is evil...but why do Atheists believe anything can be evil?

Who defines what is evil?

GOOD HE GOT WHAT HE DESERVES FOR PREACHING AGAINST SO-CALLED "Black Magic" in a PAgan Nation.

He should go mind his own business.

turnstoner:

Is it wiser to just live your own life and let ignorant people wallow in their blissful ignorance?
Just look at the amount of effort we exert trying to persuade supposedly educated people on this forum!

Perhaps better to let the society come around in its own time?

No. That will b a painfully slow process...what we need are catalysts. Strong personalities like dt to b vocal...what would hv happened to blacks in d US if Abe Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr had not come along. Or to Twins if Mary slessor had not happen.

italo: Atheists are no better..if not even worse. You also kill people for their beliefs...and there are millions and millions of examples.

Besides, why is it such a problem if life on earth is just a random occurence with no purpose?

Maybe the killers were just being part of that randomness.

Evil is evil...but why do Atheists believe anything can be evil?

Who defines what is evil?

What kind of heartless person is this? Someone died and because you assume that he was an atheist, you go on to bash atheists.


Are you being a good christian with such a comment?

It is very important that I share this, hence my 'return'..

I'm on a mobile device right now.. Anyone who can should help post the article from this link on this thread

kafila.org/2013/08/21/assassination-of-an-activist-who-killed-dr-narendra-dabholkar/

Truth is death is scary and in Nigeria, it takes guts to go against the norm. As Africans, the Christianity and Islam we rail about today wouldn't have been so successful if not for the death of the saints and their audacity. If we really want Africans to move forward, a few of us would have to step up like Leo Igwe has done over the years. that's the bitter truth.

Consider NL's religion section. Time has made more converts than reason, and will continue to do so, but we must continue to stir these discussions until our country has a rationalist media organisation (radio, tv and web) that can influence our system. We must get our people reasoning right once again, rather than sit back and watch the Oyedepos, Adeboye's and other religious charlatans hold sway.

@ Muskeeto

I'm also posting on my phone. I hope it doesn't mess up the formatting.

Assassination of an Activist : Who Killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar?
Posted by subhash gatade
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a. miracle.”
- Albert Einstein
Words have an uncanny ability of impinging on the receiver with clinical detachment. It is upto the receiver to unpack them or try to derive meaning out of them. It is still difficult to get over the sense of grief and shock one experienced when one received the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on Tuesday 20 th August.
For Punekars – residents of Pune – Omkareshwar temple on the banks of rivers Mula-Mutha happened to be the place where the dead are taken for last rites. It was a strange coincidence that Dr Dabholkar, was on his morning walk near
Omkareshwar bridge when assailants riding on a motorcycle fired at him from close range, two of which hit him in the back of his head and he immediately fell on the ground. He was rushed to Sasoon hospital where doctors declared him
dead. Police found a photograph and a cheque in the name of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS-Committee for the Eradication of Superstition) from his wallet . Perhaps after his walk he was planning to go to the office of ‘Sadhana’ – a magazine he was editing for the last eighteen years – as has been the practice whenever he use to be in Pune.
Spontaneous demonstrations have been reported from different parts of Maharashtra. And in his hometown Satara thousands came out on the streets to pay tribute to this 70 year young man who was loved and respected for his
campaign against superstition and self-appointed godmen. A bandh call has been given by all political parties in Pune on Wednesday to protest the premediated murder of Dr Dabholkar.
It was only last night that he was on a channel (Sahyadri) discussing the role of the caste panchayats and the way they have made life miserable for many people. The panel discussion was taking place in the backdrop of a murder of a girl by her own father one Kumharkar in Nashik- on the instruction – of the caste panchayat as she had dared to marry outside the boundaries of caste. Intervening in the discussion Dr Dabholkar was telling how they had recently organised a conference to promote intercaste marriage and have released a manifesto on the same issue. Looking at the fact that couples who go for intercaste marriage face tremendous problems at the hands of the communities they belong he was suggesting that special measures be taken by the police to protect them. Little could anyone had premonition that it is
going to prove his last such panel discussion.
A multifaceted man – a medical doctor by training, writer-editor by aptitude and a campaigner by choice – he was a leading light of the rationalist movement and was engaged in fighting superstition and black magic through the
organisation he led ‘Andhashradha Nirmoolan Samity’ with a network of its 200 branches spread in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Very few people would remember today that he was an accomplished Kabaddi player in his college days and won medals for the Indian team then. Although he started his social life by taking up medical practice he soon got attracted towards the ‘One Village, One Well’ campaign initiated by well known socialist leader Dr Baba Adhav. The work to eradicate superstition was more than two decades old.
In one of his writeups on the theme entitled ‘Rationality Mission for Success in Life’ wherein he ‘aims to encourage the participants to follow four action plans to begin with and thereby bring the desired change in the society’ he had said :
The age old superstitions consisting of traditions, rituals, mind boggling procedures require money, labour and time of the individual as well as society. The modern society can’t afford to waste these valuable resources. In fact the
superstitions ensure that the poor and downtrodden will remain in the same state forever and ever without giving any opportunity to come out of poor conditions. Let us take a pledge not to follow any of the superstitions and waste the resources. We will collectively oppose the authorities who spends tax payers money on the festivals and ceremonies like
Kumbh Mela, temples/mosques/church maintenance, local festivals etc and allocate the funds for infrastructures like water, power, communication, transport, health-care, primary education and other welfare and development activities.
Tributes have been paid to him by political leaders, social activists from all walks of life. No doubt, it was a preplanned murder, meticulously planned to the last detail.The police has formed eight teams to track down the actual murderers and one should expect that they would be able to make a breakthrough in the near future. The police said they would also scrutinise allegations that he had received threats from extremist groups such as Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. According to his family members he received threats often but refused to seek police protection. His son Hamid said “He thought this was a struggle to end ignorance, and he did not need weapons to fight it,”
Who might have killed Dr Dabholkar ?
Many possibilities exist. It is true that he did not have any personal enemies but his relentless work to fighting superstition, must have created a band of adversaries, who would have wanted to see him dead. Status quoist forces
within politics also did not feel comfortable with his work. A measure of the resistance offered by all such elements to the work he and his organisation had undertaken can be had from the fact that for years together a anti-superstition bill called ‘Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic’ put forward by them is pending before the Maharashtra assembly – the only one of its kind in India. There was a strong opposition from Hindu extremists’ organisations and Warkaris to the bill, but Dabholkar was determined to get the bill passed and he stated that he was not against anybody’s faith, but was against superstition. It was barely two weeks ago that Dabholkar had criticised chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at a press conference in Pune for not tabling the draft legislation in the recently-concluded monsoon session of the state assembly.
Without getting entrapped in the argument of defining faith and blind faith the proposed bill talks of tackling most common superstitions prevailing in Maharashtra. The list included, to perform Karni, Bhanamati, to perform magical rites in the name of supernatural power, to offer ash, talisman, charms etc. for the purpose of exorcism and to drive out evil spirits or ghosts, to claim possession of supernatural powers and to advertise this claim,to defame, disgrace the names of erstwhile Saints/ Gods, by claiming to be there reincarnation and thus cheating the gullible and God-fearing simple
folks, to perform so called black magic and spread fear in society. Such practices would be made an offence under this act and to serve as a deterrent it is proposed to provide for a stringent penalty and punishment, making such a practice a cognizable and non-bailable offence. The Bill also provides for the appointment of vigilance officers to detect and prevent such offences and collect evidence against the offenders. The idea is that it will help to prosecute the offenders effectively.
Now that the leading campaigner for this bill is dead, and looking at the dilly dallying going on for all these years, one does not know what will be the future of the bill.
In the end, it was late seventies when I had the opportunity of listening to him at a study camp of ‘Vishamata Nirmulan Samity’ – a loose coalition of organisations, individuals working for social change then, in Pune for the first time. One still remembers the passion with which he spoke then. Perhaps it was this passion for broader social transformation which never deserted him that he could sustain many odds which were an integral part of the work he had undertaken as a mission for life.
As has been rightly said his untimely death has been a severe blow to the rationalist movement in this country. This movement, which is facing tremendous challenges with the ascendance of rightwing forces in the society, has lost one of its commanders today. And it is a loss to everyone concerned with progressive change in India. It remains to be seen how all of us together are able to turn the tremendous grief which has come our way into new determination and resolve to fight the forces of ignorance, irrationality and reaction – a cause celibre for which Dr Narendra Dabholkar lived and died.

[url] kafila.org/2013/08/21/assassination-of-an-activist-who-killed-dr-narendra-dabholkar/[/url]

Thanks EB, it did a bit.. on my PC now So I'll repost...

Words have an uncanny ability of impinging on the receiver with clinical detachment. It is up to the receiver to unpack them or try to derive meaning out of them. It is still difficult to get over the sense of grief and shock one experienced when one received the news of the assassination of renowned rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar on the streets of Pune on Tuesday 20 th August.

For Punekars – residents of Pune – Omkareshwar temple on the banks of rivers Mula-Mutha happened to be the place where the dead are taken for last rites. It was a strange coincidence that Dr Dabholkar, was on his morning walk near Omkareshwar bridge when assailants riding on a motorcycle fired at him from close range, two of which hit him in the back of his head and he immediately fell on the ground. He was rushed to Sasoon hospital where doctors declared him dead. Police found a photograph and a cheque in the name of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS- Committee for the Eradication of Superstition) from his wallet . Perhaps after his walk he was planning to go to the office of ‘Sadhana’ – a magazine he was editing for the last eighteen years – as has been the practice whenever he use to be in Pune.


Spontaneous demonstrations have been reported from different parts of Maharashtra. And in his hometown Satara thousands came out on the streets to pay tribute to this 70 year young man who was loved and respected for his campaign against superstition and self-appointed godmen. A bandh call has been given by all political parties in Pune on Wednesday to protest the premediated murder of Dr Dabholkar.



[size=20pt]It was only last night that he was on a channel (Sahyadri) discussing the role of the caste panchayats and the way they have made life miserable for many people. The panel discussion was taking place in the backdrop of a murder of a girl by her own father one Kumharkar in Nashik- on the instruction – of the caste panchayat as she had dared to marry outside the boundaries of caste. Intervening in the discussion Dr Dabholkar was telling how they had recently organised a conference to promote intercaste marriage and have released a manifesto on the same issue. Looking at the fact that couples who go for intercaste marriage face tremendous problems at the hands of the communities they belong he was suggesting that special measures be taken by the police to protect them. Little could anyone had premonition that it is going to prove his last such panel discussion.
[/size]

A multifaceted man – a medical doctor by training, writer-editor by aptitude and a campaigner by choice – he was a leading light of the rationalist movement and was engaged in fighting superstition and black magic through the organisation he led ‘Andhashradha Nirmoolan Samity’ with a network of its 200 branches spread in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Very few people would remember today that he was an accomplished Kabaddi player in his college days and won medals for the Indian team then. Although he started his social life by taking up medical practice he soon got attracted towards the ‘One Village, One Well’ campaign initiated by well known socialist leader Dr Baba Adhav. The work to eradicate superstition was more than two decades old.

In one of his writeups on the theme entitled ‘Rationality Mission for Success in Life’ wherein he ‘aims to encourage the participants to follow four action plans to begin with and thereby bring the desired change in the society’ he had said :

[size=20pt]The age old superstitions consisting of traditions, rituals, mind boggling procedures require money, labour and time of the individual as well as society. The modern society can’t afford to waste these valuable resources. In fact the superstitions ensure that the poor and downtrodden will remain in the same state forever and ever without giving any opportunity to come out of poor conditions. Let us take a pledge not to follow any of the superstitions and waste the resources. We will collectively oppose the authorities who spends tax payers money on the festivals and ceremonies like Kumbh Mela, temples/mosques/church maintenance, local festivals etc and allocate the funds for infrastructures like water, power, communication, transport, health-care, primary education and other welfare and development activities.
[/size]


Tributes have been paid to him by political leaders, social activists from all walks of life. No doubt, it was a preplanned murder, meticulously planned to the last detail.The police has formed eight teams to track down the actual murderers and one should expect that they would be able to make a breakthrough in the near future. The police said they would also scrutinise allegations that he had received threats from extremist groups such as Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. According to his family members he received threats often but refused to seek police protection. His son Hamid said “He thought this was a struggle to end ignorance, and he did not need weapons to fight it,”

Who might have killed Dr Dabholkar ?

Many possibilities exist. It is true that he did not have any personal enemies but his relentless work to fighting superstition, must have created a band of adversaries, who would have wanted to see him dead. Status quoist forces within politics also did not feel comfortable with his work.

A measure of the resistance offered by all such elements to the work he and his organisation had undertaken can be had from the fact that for years together a anti-superstition bill called ‘Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic’ put forward by them is pending before the Maharashtra assembly – the only one of its kind in India. There was a strong opposition from Hindu extremists’ organisations and Warkaris to the bill, but Dabholkar was determined to get the bill passed and he stated that he was not against anybody’s faith, but was against superstition. It was barely two weeks ago that Dabholkar had criticised chief minister Prithviraj Chavan at a press conference in Pune for not tabling the draft legislation in the recently-concluded monsoon session of the state assembly.

[size=20pt]Without getting entrapped in the argument of defining faith and blind faith the proposed bill talks of tackling most common superstitions prevailing in Maharashtra.The list included, to perform Karni, Bhanamati, to perform magical rites in the name of supernatural power, to offer ash, talisman, charms etc. for the purpose of exorcism and to drive out evil spirits or ghosts, to claim possession of supernatural powers and to advertise this claim,to defame, disgrace the names of erstwhile Saints/ Gods, by claiming to be there reincarnation and thus cheating the gullible and God-fearing simple folks, to perform so called black magic and spread fear in society. Such practices would be made an offence under this act and to serve as a deterrent it is proposed to provide for a stringent penalty and punishment, making such a practice a cognizable and non-bailable offence. The Bill also provides for the appointment of vigilance officers to detect and prevent such offences and collect evidence against the offenders. The idea is that it will help to prosecute the offenders effectively.[/size]

Now that the leading campaigner for this bill is dead, and looking at the dilly dallying going on for all these years, one does not know what will be the future of the bill.

In the end, it was late seventies when I had the opportunity of listening to him at a study camp of ‘Vishamata Nirmulan Samity’ – a loose coalition of organisations, individuals working for social change then, in Pune for the first time. One still remembers the passion with which he spoke then. Perhaps it was this passion for broader social transformation which never deserted him that he could sustain many odds which were an integral part of the work he had undertaken as a mission for life.

As has been rightly said his untimely death has been a severe blow to the rationalist movement in this country. This movement, which is facing tremendous challenges with the ascendance of rightwing forces in the society, has lost one of its commanders today. [size=20pt]And it is a loss to everyone concerned with progressive change in India. It remains to be seen how all of us together are able to turn the tremendous grief which has come our way into new determination and resolve to fight the forces of ignorance, irrationality and reaction – a cause celibre for which Dr Narendra Dabholkar lived and died.[/size]

PAGAN 9JA:
GOOD HE GOT WHAT HE DESERVES FOR PREACHING AGAINST SO-CALLED "Black Magic" in a PAgan Nation.

He should go mind his own business.

SMH. people like u will be shouting if Muslims do the same

Wrong. I dont assume he was an Atheist. I only assume he was killed by people of faith for his belief or unbelief (whatever it might be).

I was responding to to those who seized it as an opportunity to talk about the evil that people of faith do.

Why is it wrong for me to point out that there are evil people of all creeds?

What would you have me say, Atheist? "RIP?"

And why are sad that he is dead when you would have had no problem if he was murdered 2 seconds before his birth?

But you dont believe anybody rests in peace after death.

Logicboy03:
What kind of heartless person is this? Someone died and because you assume that he was an atheist, you go on to bash atheists.


Are you being a good christian with such a comment?

italo: Wrong. I dont assume he was an Atheist. I only assume he was killed by people of faith for his belief or unbelief (whatever it might be).

I was responding to to those who seized it as an opportunity to talk about the evil that people of faith do.

Why is it wrong for me to point out that there are evil people of all creeds?

What would you have me say, Atheist? "RIP?"

And why are sad that he is dead when you would have had no problem if he was murdered 2 seconds before his birth?

But you dont believe anybody rests in peace after death.

Assumptions- the mother of all fockups

Logicboy03:



Assumptions- the mother of all fockups

Ignore and respond to my first post.

musKeeto:

Ignore and respond to my first post.

Ehem.....yes....so....


Please, my bb is having problems. So bear with me.

musKeeto:

Ignore and respond to my first post.

Also please.....be active in the facebook humanist page....something big is coming up


I know, we gotta do something like Leo Igwe

Ah! You are suddenly against abortion you believe Iin the afterlife?

You are beginning to sound more religious than many religious people.

Logicboy03:



Assumptions- the mother of all fockups

italo: Ah! You are suddenly against abortion you believe Iin the afterlife?

You are beginning to sound more religious than many religious people.

Smh...keep projecting and strawmanning.

Precisely what you're doing.

Logicboy03:


Smh...keep projecting and strawmanning.