[Anyone who is familiar with the writings and positions of various Kafila authors will see, we do not subscribe to or share many of the views expressed by Shivali Tukdeo in this essay. Several of us have our own fairly strong critiques of the processes of colonial and post-colonial knowledge formation which condemned a whole host of practices, and the lifeworlds in which they were located, as “andhvishwas”. However there is also a simultaneous extremely interesting history of efforts at the inculcation of a “rational temperament” that used emergent discourses of science and modernity to question traditional hierarchies of caste and so on. Maharashtra is an especially vibrant locale for such experiments and their location within long histories of oppressed caste mobilizations. Recent violent assertions by the Hindu Right on the grounds of “tradition”, as evidenced in the tragic murder of Dr. Dabholkar, further complicate the terrain within which these questions arise. So we are carrying this essay as an offering and opening to what we hope will be a spirited conversation around reason, science and faith of all varieties – andh, kana and trilochan. AS]

This is a guest post by SHIVALI TUKDEO

In what can only be termed as an ultimate irony and deep embarrassment, the Maharashtra police allegedly resorted to relying on planchet tricks of a self-claimed god-man to investigate the brutal murder of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist and organiser of Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANS)—Committee against Eradication of Blind Faith[i]. The ‘supernatural intervention’ in this high-profile murder case is painfully damaging, no doubt; however, it is neither an isolated instance nor is it confined to the police department alone. As reportage in the aftermath of the case reveals, police departments routinely subscribe to such practices. Moreover, the widespread practice of offering prayers to Thirupathi before a space launch or the decision to conduct excavation based on a Sadhu’s dream aptly illustrate the powerful hold superstitions have. Such instances also point to the deep and long standing crisis in India’s education.

Formal education has been a sphere that has been talked about immensely over the last century and it possessed enormous hope in the early years of independence. In this regard, the search for a national system of education was to lead the realisation of a unique Indian destiny. Being a moral project, formal education also possessed tremendous transformative potential for a society bound by numerous caste-clan rigidities and influenced by diverse beliefs and practices. Evolving a national system, therefore, meant re-inventing “our own traditions, suited to the life, needs and aspirations of our people” (Naik, 1979: 3). While de-colonising knowledge is an enormously difficult project, the Indian “national science” was caught between the irrecoverable indigenous traditions, implausibility of culturally embedded, heterodox sciences and a powerful ascent of the global, western science along with its material consequences. The massive expansion of science and technology education and the resources poured therein have done little to reduce the inadequacies and inconsistencies in the process of scientific learning. As scholars of post-independence India observe, the scientific modernization took place alongside a strong “cultural re-traditionalisation” (Nanda,2005). The strange Hindu confluence of machine and mysticism rests on an imagination that sees no necessary continuity between scientific tenets and practice. What appears to be an indifference to the standard cannons of scientific practice (logic, evidence, inference, proof, falsification) or its selective application is advanced by maneuvering three distinct strategies. First, a clear cognitive separation is imagined between scientific learning and age-old beliefs and the two are rarely made to intersect. Second, several cultural beliefs are retained and some are even re-invented since they are part of the collective social habit. While culturally embedded practices are central to our social life and not all cultural knowledge is necessarily un-scientific, no distinction is made between out-of-date, mundane cultural beliefs and the potentially harmful ones. Third, scientific learning is confined to mastering technical content and is rarely extended to understand social reality.

A disconnect between scientific knowledge and practice is most visible in our educational institutions through activities of teaching, learning and research. Inaugurating the National Physical Laboratory in 1950, Nehru called attention to the ritualisation of science:

I often wonder if science is not going to meet the same fate as religion, that is to say, people talked in terms of religion, but they seldom behaved as religious-minded people. Religion became a set of ceremonials and forms and some kind of a ritual worship. The inner spirit left the people. Large numbers of people talk glibly about science today and yet in their lives or actions do not exhibit a trace of science……

Cited in Ramesh (2011)

 

In the same speech, he goes on to state that science offers ‘something more’– a perspective to understand the world around us. As a result, developing scientific method and scientific temper are more valuable than an actual discovery. Unfortunately, the trajectory of the much celebrated, powerful scientific institutions in the country shows a decisive move away from scientific methods and temper. The ‘Big Science’ has eschewed engaging with our contradictions, inconsistencies and unquestioned beliefs. Our science education rarely looks at ‘how’ the scientific knowledge is produced. In a rather reductive manner, it connects to social issues by posing an immense faith in technologies to work.

Away from the power of supporting institutions, several rationalist movements have emerged over the last few decades out of varied conditions and constituencies and they have taken on the uncomfortable questions. Situating themselves in the interstices of society and science, the legacy of ‘small science’ involved espousing the values of rational humanism—i.e. leading one’s life by privileging reason, justice, equality and empathy. Connecting itself to the rich and diverse development of a people’s science in India, ANS began by focusing on the economy of superstitions and its exploitative contours. As an off-shoot of several progressive, issue-based campaigns, ANS started out as a loose network of organisations emphasising rational literacy and exposing the miracles of self-proclaimed god-men. In many ways, the rationalist movements of the 1960s opened up the field of action for ANS, especially the work of the likes of Abraham Kovoor and B. Premanand. Throwing open challenges to the miracle workers, for instance, Kovoor had made the much provoked proclamation:

He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook; he who does not have the courage to investigate a miracle is a gullible; and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool!

(Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, 2014)[ii]

Since their formation in the late 1980s, public challenges to miracle-makers became a regular part of ANS’s activities. Their acts of exposing god-men made them very popular, but detractors conveniently construed their engagements as an insult to Hinduism, an attack on faith and disrespect to devotees. ANS was active beyond miracle-exposure and had a strong organisational base and a sustained presence throughout Maharashtra. With more than 180 branches across the state, ANS organised thousands of public talks and teach-ins every year. Schools, in-service and pre-service teachers, students and administrators were part of their educational initiatives that spanned from teacher education to science experiments, and mobile labs to health camps. Of particular significance are their three long term engagements: The first would be the formation of ‘social gratitude fund’ that enabled financial support to activists and full time workers associated with social movements. Second, ANS started a series of dialogic exchanges between Dr. Narendra Dabholkar and Dr. Shriram Lagoo on atheism, rituals and a rationalist tradition of thought. The jugalbandi would involve Lagoo’s negation of God or any super-human power in his invocation for the need to ‘retire God’ and Dabholkar’s fine distinction between faith and superstitions, harmless and harmful superstitions. Together, they sought to reconstruct the Indian tradition of nastik-thought and reason without falling into the binary of the indigenous Indian and the imported western. Finally, over the course of last two decades, ANS has been involved in drafting and campaigning for the eradication of supersitions bill, which eventually became the much watered down ‘anti-black magic bill’. All the major political parties opposed the first draft of the bill in the 1990s and the Hindutva outfits such as Sanatan Sanstha went on to spew fear and vitriol[iii]. Within a week after the assassination of Dr. Dabholkar, an ordinance was put forward and later in December 2013 the “Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act”, popularly known as the anti-black magic act was passed.

In his book, Timiratuni Tejakade (From Darkness To light) , Dr. Dabholkar chronicles the movement and presents its ethical stance on various issues. Writing with empathy, and based on several distressing cases handled by ANS, he analyses the reasons why most people turn to blind faith: (a) alienation from the world (b) fear of the unknown (c) commodification of everything, including mental peace (d) absence of meaningful spaces/customs of support outside rituals and rites (e) absence of affordable healthcare, which pushes the disadvantaged to seek solace in quacks and god-men. Of late, ANS focused its attention on caste panchayats, their diktats and re-invention of honour killings in Maharashtra, thereby inviting anger and resentment from certain sections[iv]. ANS activists have been assaulted numerous times over the last couple of decades. The hooliganism of the fringe groups and the silence of academic, scientific institutions are both implicated in this orchestration of violence.

Even without the planchet gaffe, the Government of Maharashtra has done enough damage to the investigation of this murder, which has encountered many blocks. The fact, however, remains that Dr. Dabholkar’s death and the turns of investigation are not simply matters of ‘law and order’. Some of the vicious reactions following his death bear testimony to the violent march of unreason[v]. In death, Dr. Dabholkar reminds us to revisit rational, humanistic and democratic ideals and reclaim the spaces of learning.

References:

Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (2014) Abraham Kovoor. Retrieved from: http://antisuperstition.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130&Itemid=103

Nanda, M. (2005) The Wrongs of the Religious Right: Reflections on Science, Secularism and Hindutva. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective

Naik, J. P. (1997) The Education Commission and After. New Delhi: APH Publishing

Ramesh, R (2011) Nehru’s Scientific Temper Recalled. Science and Culture. Vol.27. No.7. Retrieved from: http://www.scienceandculture-isna.org/July-aug-2011/01%20Jairam%20Ramesh.pdf

 

[i] See an investigative piece by Ashish Khetan: [http://www.outlookindia.com/article/Murder-Search-My-Soul/291281]

[ii] See: http://antisuperstition.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130&Itemid=103

[iii] Sanatan Sanshta has been active since the 1990s in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat and has convened annual Hindu Awakening conferences. The organisation publishes a daily called ‘Sanatan Prabhat’ and owns a television channel, ‘Sree Sanskar’.

[iv] See Anand Teltembade’s piece ‘Dabholkar is Done a Gandhi’ [www.countercurrents.org/teltumbde230813.htm]

[v] The very next day after the murder of Dr. Dabholkar, Sanatan Prabhat went on to declare that it was a result of his Karma.