CHARVAKA DESK
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Investigating Acts of Terror: Adopting Unbiased Approach
Ram Puniyani Hidden in the back pages of some major dailies, there was news that the third Samjhauta bomber was held in MP (16, Dec 2012). National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Rajender Choudhary, near Ujjain in MP. He has been named as one of the bombers in the supplementary charge sheet submitted by the agency.…
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What is Meant by Svabhava: Chattopadhyaya and Needham
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya’s Science and Society in Ancient India (1977) impressed Joseph Needham very much as had his Lokayata (1959). But there was one point on which Needham had some reservations. A series of letters relating to the doctrine of svabhava (lit. own being) and further discussions in person (when Chattoapdhyaya visited Needham in Cambridge)…
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Materialism in Indian Philosophy – Part I
M N Roy In India also, the dissatisfaction with the Vedic Natural Religion gave rise to speculations about the origin of things. Some of the earlier Upanishads are fragmentary records of those speculations. But for reasons stated in a preceding chapter, early Indian speculations about the origin of things developed directly into metaphysics and a…
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A Survey on International Atheist Community
Dr. Tom Arcaro, Professor of Sociology, Elon University, US and his team are conducting an online survey on international community of atheists. It is an exercise in understanding the community of non-believers the world over. Though it is designed to be an international survey, so far it has elicited responses mostly from US and Canada. Since…
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Commentators on the Cārvākasūtra: A Critical Survey – Part II
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Reverting to the other commentators on the Cārvākasūtra, it may be said that Aviddhakarna, like Udbhata, attempted to interpret the Cārvāka aphorisms from the Nyāya-Vaiśesika point of view, perhaps without being converted to the Cārvāka. Since it is not possible at the present state of our knowledge to determine whether they were Cārvākas…
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Signs in the Sky: The Irrationality of Astrology
JV Narlikar With the New Year just around the corner, most people will now be taking stock of their performance in the current year and will be busy making fresh resolutions for the New Year. Anxious to perform better than in the past, they hope to foresee their future. Instead of making a rational assessment…
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Possession and Trance
William Sargant States of Trance and so-called possession form the core of many experiences which seem spiritual, mysterious and Supernatural. All through history men have thought that in trance contact could be made with an order of reality lying behind the everyday world, an order of reality with which we are not in touch in…
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Babri Demolition: Two Decades Later
Ram Puniyani Twenty years ago (December 6, 1992) on this fateful day, Babri Mosque was demolished. This demolition remains a major blot in the history of India. It was the act of demolition by communal forces which reflected the changing polity of India and it in turn further changed the polity in a very adverse…
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Science versus Miracles: Burning a Ghost
B Premanand Experiment: 83 Snapshots from the BBC Documentary Guru Busters Effect: Burning a ghost 95% possession syndrome is found among girls, married women and old women, and only 5% among males. This possession syndrome is the effect of problems at home where the do not get enough attention and love from the family. And…
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Commentators on the Cārvākasūtra: A Critical Survey – Part I
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya A recent essay by Karin Preisendanz (2008) set me thinking about the commentary tradition of the Cārvākasūtra. In spite of the fact that the mūla-text is lost, we have a number of fragments of the commentaries written by no fewer than four commentators, namely, Kambalāşvatara, Purandara, Aviddhakarņa, and Udbhata (Bhattacharya 2009, 65–68). The…
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Science versus Miracles: Joining Two Jute Threads without Leaving a Knot
B Premanand Experiment: 81 Effect: Joining two jute threads without leaving a knot. A tantrik promises to bring a squabbling husband and wife together when they are on the verge of divorce. Most Indian wives, being economically dependent on their husbands, rush to a tantrik or godman to save their marriage. To prove that he…
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Bridey Murphy and Simandini: Hypnotic Regression and Rebirth
Abraham Kovoor Believers in reincarnation often try to prove that their belief is neither blind nor silly by citing certain so-called scientific evidences. On such evidence, they say, is through hypnotic regression. They put great emphasis on certain alleged rebirth stories revealed through hypnotic regression. Two such “authentic” cases often cited by them are those…
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Gujarat: Who Will Muslims Vote For?
Ram Puniyani Gujarat is going to have the assembly elections in December 2012. As per the surveys and the claims of BJP and Narendra Modi himself, the ruling Chief Minister, will be winning with great majority. The media has created a larger than life image for him, Modi’s own media management firm has been creating…
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Persistence of a Sore: Communal Violence Today
Ram Puniyani The events taking place in different parts of the country in October-November 2012 have been very disturbing to say the least. It is the continuance and recurrence of communal events, communal violence in different parts of the country, in UP, Assam and Hyderabad in particular. In UP since the Akhilesh Yadav Government has…
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Witchcraft: A Panel Discussion
Abraham Kovoor This is the transcript of a panel discussion on Witchcraft – Fact or Fiction broadcast by CBC (Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation) on March 23,1971 in its feature “Forum of the Air”. Participants: Dr. Nandasena Ratnapala (Moderator), Lecturer, Vidyodaya University. Mr. Abraham Kovoor – President, Ceylon Rationalist Association. Mr. George Ondaatjie – Member, Ceylon Rationalist Association. Prof. C.E.C. Bulathsinghala – an astrologer and palmist.…
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Bal Thackeray: Identity Politics to the Fore
Ram Puniyani The declaration of demise of Bal Thackeray (November 17, 2012) has brought the Mumbai city to a complete halt. Most of the news channels are relaying his death procession round the clock and having discussion about his tall stature most of the time. His grip on the city had been more or less…
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The Ontology and Epistemology of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya What are the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata? They may be stated as follows: The whole of the material world, including the human body, is made of four basic elements, namely, earth, air, fire and water; there can be no consciousness without the living body; the spirit has no extracorporeal existence…
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What the Cārvākas Originally Meant: More on the Commentators on the Cārvākasutra
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Abstract: This essay proposes to review the problems of reconstructing and interpreting ancient texts, particularly philosophical commentaries, in the context of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata system of India. Following an overview of the Indian philosophical text tradition and the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvākas, three cases are discussed: (1) when there is no invariance…
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Perversity of Religious Belief
It is often asserted, even in the face of contrary evidence, by the believers of course, that the ‘truly religious’ people do not do any ham to others; that the terrorists are a misguided lot; that those who incite communal violence are in the grip of momentary passion; that the believers who commit human sacrifice…
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Science versus Miracles: Ringing a bell without its rod
B Premanand A godman in Madras, Pandrimalai Swami (now dead), was caught with 76lakhs of rupees unaccounted money in 1976. He was a clerk in the Registrar’s office and resigned when he found that it is more paying to be an astrologer and a tantrik. No one goes to them unless he has a problem.…
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Abraham Kovoor’s Case Diary: Resurrection of Vasanth Babu Rao
Abraham Kovoor The following news item appeared in many Indian newspapers:- “Vasanth Babu Rao, 48, of Poona was a consumptive and a diabetic. On January 6th 1965 he had a severe chest pain, and was rushed to a nursing home in the city, but died shortly after admission. The doctor at the nursing home certified that the…
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Science versus Miracles: Making words appear miraculously on paper dipped in milk
B Premanand In 1984 at the international Occult Conference held at Delhi and chaired by the then Supreme Court Justice VR. Krishna Iyer, one Balti Baba asked some person from the audience to write down a question each and keep the paper in their pocket. Balti Baba then immersed similar pieces of paper in a…
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Struggle to eradicate Caste: Hidden Agenda of Samajik Samrasta
Ram Puniyani Caste is a phenomenon deeply entrenched in Indian society and the struggle against it began in the late 19th century. Despite the social movements, initiated around the ideas of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and many such legendary figures, it continues to pervade in the Indian society like a malignant cancer, refusing to die easily. There…
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Atheist-reformist movement that preceded ‘Periyar’
B Kolappan Many decades before ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramsamy launched his self-respect movement (1925) and propagated atheism, the erstwhile Madras presidency had seen a well-organised atheist-reformist movement (1878-88), which later faded into oblivion. The Hindu Free Thought Union, a movement launched in 1878, took inspiration from the London-based Anti-Church Movement of Charles Bradlaugh. In the middle of 1886, it was renamed Madras…