From Buddha to Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the nation’s history is replete with examples of common folk embracing and worshipping spiritual reformers even if they use harsh language and methods of admonition. But the rationalist movements of the recent past, led by the likes of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar and writer M.M. Kalburgi have resulted in more antipathy than sympathy. The killings of Dabholkar in Maharashtra and Kalburgi in Karnataka are worthy of unreserved condemnation. Both campaigned for decades against practices and ideas that they deemed to be superstitious and
...more
