Narendra Dabholkar - the man who challenged my beliefs

Today morning (20th August) I woke up reading the shocking news of the assassination of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar. Some unidentified men gunned him down in Pune, this was more shocking because it happened in Pune, the place where I was born and grew up, the place which is considered very progressive and tolerant, an educational capital of Maharashtra.

For me, he was the man who challenged my beliefs and my faith when I was a teenager. I came to know him through his books. I never met him personally in my life but knew him only through his books, his social movements, and his organization, Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Maharashtra blind faith eradication committee). I was born and brought up in a neighborhood where superstitions were very common and regularly practiced. This was going on for years so as a part of our culture and tradition, everyone thought it was our duty to follow it. No questions were asked, and no explanations were offered. I was also one of many who followed things as instructed, blindly without asking any questions. I was scared of bad omens, prayed regularly, was proud of my caste, and used to think that I was superior to girls just because I was a boy, the list can go on and on. However, as a teenager when I read his books for the first time, I was taken aback, I was shocked, and I thought, what the heck this man is talking about? Why is he trying to destroy our culture and traditions? Why is he not talking about any other religions? But when I looked around me carefully, I realized that whatever this man was saying did make sense, whatever questions he was asking were very logical, and whatever explanations he was offering sounded logical. After initial hesitation and struggle, I started understanding this man. Due to the influence of those books on my thinking, I started questioning almost everything around me. My questioning made many people uncomfortable and angry. Some even started hating me but my questioning never stopped, when I didn't get any answers from people around me I tried to find them on my own, and it started my journey of self-realization. This man initiated it and it's still going on.

People say all superstitions are not bad, and many are harmless. I agree with this, but his fight was not only against those superstitions but was also against that mindset that forbids questioning. The mindset that crushes any objections raised against established beliefs. He fought against this along with his coworkers for more than three decades in Maharashtra on all levels. The power of his movement was so great that even the state government, not willing to touch anything that is even remotely concerned with religion for fear of hurting people's sentiments has been considering (for a long time now) bringing anti-superstition law and relentless efforts of Dr. Dabholkar and his team on all levels was one of the main reason for this development. He was about to achieve what was considered an impossible thing to do (to force the government to form a law to stop exploitation in the name of religion and God). In this whole process, he made a lot of friends as well as a lot of enemies. Some people continuously abuse him and his organization, they brand him anti-Hindu, and anti-God. They want to preserve inhuman practices and rituals in the name of culture and tradition, for them, he was their number one enemy. But as they couldn't defeat him intellectually and couldn't answer his questions, they wanted to shut him up, and stop him from asking more uncomfortable questions, finally they did it by killing him. But people like Dabholkar don't die, they live through their ideas and thoughts. His physical presence is not required to carry on his mission. He has empowered many people who can fight against this social evil.

I am really sad due to his murder, but he was a fighter and he died like a fighter. This was the man who challenged my beliefs and my faith, made me angry, shook me, educated me about superstitions that were very common around me, then, ultimately changed my outlook. He shaped my thinking and taught me to ask questions. I am sure like me he changed many others. His murder is a slap on the progressive movement in Maharashtra, it's a real shame that such a thing happened in the state that calls itself progressive, the state that produced reformists like Phule and Karve. As a Maharashtrian, I am really ashamed. Those antisocial elements who were scared of his ability to expose lies gunned him down, as they couldn't defeat him intellectually so they killed him like a coward, the same as some people did to Mahatma Gandhi. His spirit won't die, there are 100s of Narendra Dabholkars now, how many they can kill?

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this incident.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

Links:

1. Anti-superstition leader Narendra Dabholkar shot dead

2. http://antisuperstition.org/