India Dissents: 3,000 Years of Difference, Doubt and Argument by Ashok Vajpeyi

Author:Ashok Vajpeyi
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9789385755972
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Publishing Pvt Ltd
Published: 2017-06-11T18:30:00+00:00

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NArendra DAbholkar

A rationalist and an author from Maharashtra, Narendra Achyut Dabholkar (1945–2013) founded and became president of the Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANiS) in 1989. He vigorously campaigned against superstitions and self-styled god men and made several failed attempts to get an anti-superstition law passed in Maharashtra. A victim of several death threats and assaults, Dabholkar was murdered on 20 August 2013 while out on a morning walk.

Faith and Superstition

The whole movement of eradication of superstition, Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANiS) revolves round this subject and all the brickbats and bouquets that are showered on us are related to it. Some consider our activities to be quite purposeful, beneficial and reasonable, while others take them to be just the opposite. Unless superstitions are eradicated we will not be successful in the twenty-first century, say some while others think that eradication of superstitions is actually a facade for destroying God, religion and traditions. What is superstition after all? They ask. It is much the same as blowing the ash that gathers on a burning piece of charcoal. Once blown the charcoal shines again. Therefore, it is necessary to blow away the ash i.e., superstition, occasionally but taking care at the same time, not to blow out the fire itself.

Relativity of Faith

Why are there so many opinions about eradication of superstitions? The reason is that one person’s faith is a superstition for another and what a third person considers to be a superstition is a very strong faith, almost a question of life and death for a fourth one. It thus becomes necessary to clarify what is faith and what is superstition. However one faces a difficulty here, because as we have already seen before faiths vary with times and individuals. All of us know what happened in Deorala some years back, where one woman committed ‘Sati’ and the whole country was agitated because people with personal stake tried to glorify the act. In fact the law banning the act of Sati has been passed long ago. But now people are incensed when a woman is burnt alive on the pyre of her dead husband. They demand strict implementation of the law; not only are committing Sati and abetting the act cognizable offences but even being present at the occasion in order to ennoble it, is a grave crime. Today everyone admits that the tradition of Sati is an out and out superstition. But was it so in the 19th century? When Lord Bentinck bravely saved the life of a woman from committing Sati, people of Banaras marched in a huge procession to protest against him. Who is Lord Bentinck to stop the woman from committing Sati? they demanded. The pious act of a woman committing Sati after her husband’s death is our religious faith and we have the right to follow it. Our wise Shastris and Pandits challenged Lord Bentinck in the Allahabad High Court when he passed a law banning Sati. East India Company, they maintained, had no right to interfere with our religious faith.

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