Rationalist Dr. M. M. Kalburgi shot dead . Hindu fundamentalists suspected

The shocking murder of 77-year-old Kannada writer, scholar and rationalist Dr MM Kalburgi on Sunday morning sent ripples through the Indian literary community, particularly since this is the third instance in two years where a rationalist author has been killed, ostensibly for his views.
In February this year, CPI leader Govind Pansare — whose biography of Shivaji titled Shivaji Kon Hota riled a handful of groups in Maharashtra — was killed after two unknown assailants fired at him and his wife in front of their house in Kolhapur district.

Narendra Dabholkar, the founder-president of Maharashtra-based Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti — an organisation set up to eradicate superstition, was killed in August 2013, but his killers remain at large.
Kalburgi’s daughter, Roopadarshi, was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “There was a threat to my father from groups that couldn’t digest his views on caste and communalism”.

Dr. M. M. Kalburgi

So who was Dr. Kalburgi?
The former vice-chancellor of Hampi University, Kalburgi is credited with having authored over 100 books and 400 articles.
He has also been the recipient of numerous national and state-level awards for his works, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Janapada Award, and Basava Puraskara.
A regular target of his writing was the Lingayat community, which is the single largest group in Karnataka and the BJP’s largest support base in the state, of which Dr Kalburgi himself was a member. He received threats to his life in 1989 after Marga One, a compendium of his research articles on Kannada folklore, religion and culture was published.
Kalburgi’s exploration of the life and relationships of patron saint of the Lingayat community Basavanna had attracted the ire of radicals in the community”.
In one of the articles, he wrote that Channabasava, who is also a Lingayat seer, was born from a relationship between Basavanna’s sister and a cobbler. In another, he raised questions over Basavanna’s relationship with his wife.
As a result of the death threats, he reportedly conducted his lectures at Karnatak University under police protection. And even as a group of 43 Kannada writers and academics formed a committee in support of the book, as pointed out by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, he scrapped — albeit defiantly; dubbing it ‘intellectual suicide’ — controversial sections from his book.
In June last year, Dr Kalburgi courted controversy and invited the wrath of the right-wing once again. Fellow Kannada author UR Ananthamurthy had alluded to urinating on stone idols as a child. A few days later, Dr Kalburgi, himself a staunch opponent of idol worship, had said at a function that “there was nothing wrong in urinating on idols”. The police filed cases under sections 295A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code against both writers.
A senior police official in Dharwad as said, “Stones were pelted at Dr Kalburgi’s residence and he was provided police protection. The protection was withdrawn a few months later at the request of Dr Kalburgi, who said he was unable to interact freely with his research students.”
Fifteen days after the police withdrew its protection, Dr Kalburgi was shot at point blank range at his Dharwad residence.
He was in the process of editing a volume of ‘over 2,500 selected vachana poems to be published in 20 different languages’.
Following his murder, the Bajrang Dal’s Bantwal co-convenor Bhuvith Shetty took to Twitter to weigh in with his comments:

Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India condemns the cowardly attempt of religious terrorists to silence free speech and rationalist thought with the sound of a gun.  When a Bajrang Dal activist tweeted that he wanted someone else dead, there has been no condemnation or denunciation of the statement by its leadership, nor was he expelled.
Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India also filed a complain against Bhuvith Shetty.

Shetty’s Twitter account (@GarudaPurana) was shut down soon after that and the Mangalore rural police registered a case against him under sections 506 and 153A of the Indian Penal Code.

Jnanpith award winner Girish Karnad, along with writers K. Marulasiddappa , Gauri Lankesh and members of RHFI, protests against the murder of renowned Kannada researcher Dr M.M. Kalburgi, in Bengaluru on 30 Aug 2015.

Arkaprava Baul’s organs save 5 on Organ Donation Day

When Manorama Baul stood before her son’s hospital bed amid the mechanical beeps and thumps of the machines that were keeping him alive, a group of doctors waited with bated breath. Would she sign the papers that would pull the plug on her only son and give new life to others? The mother didn’t hesitate. She quietly nodded. The day was August 13, Organ Donation Day.

Bengal engineer Arkaprava Baul, 26, who worked with Infosys in Chennai, was declared brain dead in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday. He was an accident victim. By 9am, doctors had removed his corneas, lungs, heart, liver and kidneys, which were then transplanted on patients who had been waiting for the life-saving organs for years. “My son would often tell us that when he dies we should ensure that his organs are used to save the lives of those dying. I would scold him for talking rubbish. Which mother would like to see her child die before her? But my son is gone. So, I immediately consented to donating his organs.”

Arka was a native of Ranaghat in Nadia. An alumnus of Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, he had joined Infosys Chengelpet Kancheepuram, near Chennai, just two years ago. “He was supposed to come home today (Independence Day-Eve),” said Manorama. Instead it was his body that arrived. An avid reader who had won several awards for creative writing, Arka is remembered by family and friends as a kind-hearted soul, who would protest any cruelty against any living creature. Arkaprava had gone to look at apartments for rest on August 9. He was run over by a speeding bus while crossing the road at 6.30pm. An autorickshaw driver picked up the critically injured techie and rushed him to SRM Hospital, from where he was shifted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai.

Despite every effort to save him, he slipped into a coma and eventually into an ‘irreversible brain death’. His mother Manorama and maternal uncle Pranab Kumar Biswas, professor of gynaecology at Calcutta National Medical College, rushed to Chennai. The doctors told them that Arka would not recover and suggested they donate his organs. “As a medical professional, I understood brain death and that my young nephew’s organs would be good for transplanting in other patients. But I was a little worried for my sister as Arka was her only child. I was surprised when she did not blink an eye and gave her consent to pull Arka out of life support and signed the documents to donate his organs,” said Biswas. It was 3am on August 13 when doctors declared Arka brain dead. By 9am the organs had been removed.

The family is in mourning but proud of the young man. “I lost my son but his organs have saved the lives of sons or daughters of some mothers. This very thought brings solace to me and my family. Yes, my son would have been the happiest person if he had any means of knowing this,” Manorama said. The Tamil Nadu government was so moved by Arka’s family that it took care of all the arrangements to send his body to Kolkata.

WE BOW DOWN OUR HEAD IN RESPECT FOR THE MOTHER, MANARAMA BAUL.

Atheist Blogger Niloy Neel Hacked to death by Islamist Fundamentalist

Free-thinker writer, blogger, and activist Niloy Neel has been hacked to death. Niloy Neel was involved in various social justice movements and was the founder of the Bangladesh Science and Rationalists Association.

 

Assailants, posing as prospective tenants, entered his home at North Gorhan after Juma prayers.

Police said they used machetes to hack Niloy haphazardly on his throat and neck in a chilling similarity of attack carried out by Islamists in previous killings of writers and bloggers.

His wife was in the flat but she was confined to another room.
Niloy Neel’s death follows three such murders earlier this year. On February 26, machete-wielding religious fundamentalists hacked US-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy to death. He was promoting his book “The Virus of Faith” in Dhaka.

On March 30, another blogger, Washiqur Rahman was killed for being openly critical of religious hardliners. On May 12, 31-year-old Ananta Bijoy Das was murdered.

On May 15, 2015, Niloy had been followed by some people when he was returning from participating in a protest rally for the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das. When he realized what was happening, he had gone to the police station to file a General Diary (GD). His GD was not accepted. He posted in detail about this incident on Facebook, where he expressed fear that his life was under threat. With his life he has proved that people who are atheists, non-religionists, secular, anti-fundamentalist, and pro-freedom-of-speech are not safe in Bangladesh; as if they have no other choice than to leave their country.

Ansar Al Islam, the Bangladesh branch of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for murdering Niloy Neel.

The statement from Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent can be read as follows

Bangladeshi government must be held to account for their failure to safeguard their citizen. Too many have been butchered as it is, with the Bangladesh government seemingly unable to stop these brutal deaths by Islamic fundamentalists. Both  BNP as well as  Awami League continues to please the fundamentalist Islamic group.

We urge United Nations to intervene so that the Government of Bangladesh ensures security of free-thinkers, brings those responsible for the murders, to justice and act to ensure that all Bangladeshis can enjoy freedom of expression and all other human rights without fear.

This is a horrendous tragedy and our heart goes out to Neel’s family and friends.

By: Debashis Rationalist
General Secretary, Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India