Rationalist thinkers under attack in India
Youth Congress members protest against the killing of M M Kalburgi
By Sudha Ramachandran on October 5, 2015 in Asia Times News & Features, South Asia
Rationalists in India are under fire from Hindu right wing organizations. A little over a month ago, noted litterateur and rationalist, Malleshappa M Kalburgi was shot dead at point-blank range at his house in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Kalburgi had several run-ins with Hindu groups over his remarks on idol worship.
A few days later, another rationalist in Karnataka, K S Bhagwan received a letter threatening him with death for his derogatory remarks on the Bhagawad Gita. In February this year, Govind Pansare, a progressive public intellectual, was shot dead in Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Two years ago, Narendra Dabholkar was gunned down in Pune. A doctor-turned-activist, Dabholkar campaigned in rural Maharashtra against religious superstitions and black magic.
Violence targeting rationalists, progressive artists and intellectuals who challenge the narrow conservatism of fundamentalists or criticize their bigotry has grown in India over the last couple of decades, especially in recent years. The rising influence of Hindutva (literally Hinduness), an ideology that believes that India should exclusively follow the laws and principles of the majority Hindu faith, since the early 1990s and the decisive victory of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in general elections last year appear to have given a fillip to such violence.
Activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, which are constituents of the Sangh Parivar, a family of Hindu organizations of which the BJP is a part, have been brazen in their celebration of the killing of rationalists.
http://atimes.com/2015/10/secular-thinkers-under-attack-in-india/