CHARVAKA DESK
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Marx and the Materialist Tradition in Indian Philosophy
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The title of the paper may sound odd to some, for Marx, in spite of his encyclopedic learning, was not at all conversant with the Indian philosophical tradition. Yet there are a few points in Marx’s works that may be of use in relation to the reconstruction of the materialist tradition in Indian…
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Ancient Indian Materialism
Dipak Nandy (This essay first appeared in Marxism Today in its January 1962 issue) The Vice-President of India, Mr. Radhakrishnan, recently stated that “the characteristic of Indian thought is that it has paid greater attention to the inner world of man than to the outer world”. Indeed, the course of Indian thought, as told in…
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Women’s Day Musings
Narendra Nayak When I was asked by the lady of the house(not to say that of my life too!) to go and speak to students, in her place about women’s rights on the 6th March, it was partly my responsibility to do so! When the NSS officer of a college had telephoned the previous evening,…
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8th FIRA National Conferance – A Report
V Kumaresan VIII National Conference of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) was held at Nagpur, Maharashtra on 11th and 12th February 2012. FIRA constitutes 83 Rationalist Associations from different states of the country. The Conference was held at Hindi Bhawan Ram Gopal Maheswari Subagraha, Rani Jhansi Square, Sitabuldi, Nagpur. The Conference was hosted by…
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Standing on Two Swords without the Feet Getting Cut
B Premanand (Warning: Some of the tricks detailed in this series “Science Versus Miracles” should be performed only under the guidance of experts/professional magicians) Experiment: 30 Effect: Standing on two swords without the feet getting cut. Props: Two swords of the same size, one stool and some fruits or vegetables. Method: The sharpness of the…
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Piercing Tongue or Cheek with Needle or Trident
B Premanand Experiment: 28 Effect: No pain or blood when the tongue or cheek is pierced with a sharp needle or trident. Props: One very sharp needle or trident, tincture of iodine, cotton. Method: An activist of Periyar Dravida Kazhagam, Coimbatore at the 8th FIRA National Conference in Nagpur a) Pull the tongue out and,…
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Terror Acts’ Investigations and RSS
Ram Puniyani Supreme Court slammed the RSS Sarsanghchalak, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat for stating that Karakre had told him that he was under tremendous pressure to nail the RSS in unsolved cases of terror acts like, Malegaon, Ajmer, Samjhauta Express blast (Feb 28, 2012). As per the Chief of RSS, he knew Karkare well and Karkare…
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Lokayata Materialism
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya [This essay was first published as part of a collection of essays, Indian Thought – An Introduction, edited by Donald H Bishop, and published in 1975. Background Lokayata Epistemology Social Ethics Consciousness Lokayata and Indian Materialism] I. Background It is generally assumed that Indian materialism can be discussed today only on the basis of…
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The Norm of the Patriarch
Ram Puniyani During middle of February 2012, BJP ruled Karnatka’s two ministers, Laxman Savadi and C C Patil were watching the porn clip on the mobile belonging to another minister Krishna Palemar. All three had to resign the job and BJP huddled in to a Chintan baithak (Meeting for Introspection) to do the damage control. Whether these BJP…
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Rise of Intolerance in India
G Vijayam The National Conference of the FIRA is taking place at the critical juncture of modern Indian history. It is crucial for the country as to which road we take-the tolerance or the Intolerance. Dr G Vijayam addressing the FIRA conference Our country is known for the comity of the nations and for its…
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Gujarat: A Decade of Carnage 2002
Ram Puniyani India has witnessed many an acts of communal violence. Starting from the Jabalpur riot of 1961 to the last major one of Kandhmal (August 2008). Many an innocent lives have been lost in the name of religion. Amongst these the Gujarat carnage is a sort of marker. It came in the backdrop of…
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A Code of Conduct for Rationalists
Prabhakar Kamath* A rationalist’s approach to educating the deluded masses should be rational and not emotional. Dr Prabhakar Kamath Many rationalists are so incensed by the behavior of the religious fanatics that they become emotional in their retort. Emotional reaction invariably diminishes the logic of the rationalist. Very often the rationalists have their own emotional…
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The Rise of Intolerance in India
V Kumaresan V Kumaresan The rise of intolerance seems to be alarming at present. The peculiar feature of it is that all voices of intolerance are not one and the same. Tolerance to inhuman practices is a age old phenomenon in this society. Human beings who have to be rational must be intolerant to irrational…
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Gita: Not a Religious Book?
Ram Puniyani Srimad Bhagwat Gita or Bhagwat Gita or Gita has been in the news recently for various reasons. Few months ago, the matter came up when a Siberian Court in the Tomsk City of Russia was to decide about the ban on the translation of Gita by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad Swami, the founder of…
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Stifling the Freedom of Expression: Beyond the Obvious
Ram Puniyani The whole fiasco of Salman Rushdie not coming to Jaipur Literary Festival, JLF, (Jan 2012) has been a great shame on Indian democracy. With the news that Salman Rushdie will be coming to JLF, Deoband seminary issued a protest against Rushdie’s coming to India to attend the same. This was due to the…
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The Rise of Intolerance
Narendra Nayak As we progress in material terms and with the rise of technology one would expect the society to become more tolerant, liberated and open to all points of view however much they differ from what we hold. But, we see that the opposite is happening. The success of a democracy is measured by…
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Madhya Pradesh: Path Way to Hindu Rashtra
Ram Puniyani Recently (December 2011) M.P. Government’s Gau-Vansh Vadh Pratishedh (Sanshodhan) Act (Bill for Protection of Cow Progeny) got the Presidential clearance. As per this act punishment for slaughtering the cow or its progeny, transporting them to slaughter house, eating and storing beef, is punishable with a fine of R 5000 and prison term up…
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Time to Move On
Narendra Nayak While Ajitha’s death was a very sad one and there are no reasons to suspect any foul play, it is time for us to introspect and move on. Ajita Kamal with James Randi I have been associated with Nirmukta before the site was started and I think I have been the most prolific…
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BJP: Hypocrisy on Political Chessboard
Ram Puniyani This year 2011 was very eventful as far as the political arena is concerned. This year also exposed the duel attitudes of BJP on most of the issues yet again. The various issues, Anna Hazare’s movement, Government trying to bring in FDI in retail, bill for rationalization of fuel price and the deletion…
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Ajita Kamal
Ajita Kamal, founder of www.nirmukta.com With deep sorrow, we inform our readers the untimely death (on January 9, 2012) of our beloved comrade, Ajita Kamal, the founder of www.nirmukta.com, the best online network of rationalists in India. In the absence of full details, we reproduce a write-up posted on the facebook page of nirmukta. With…
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Why I am a Materialist
JBS Haldane When I say that I am a materialist I mean that I believe in the following statements: 1. Events occur which are not perceived by any mind. 2. There were unperceived events before there were any minds. And I also believe, though this is not a necessary logical deduction from the former…
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Pulling a Chariot with Hooks in the Back
B Premanand In one of the recent Kumbh melas, a naked Naga Baba walked in the procession with a hook on his penis skin dangling a 35 kg stone. This came on the National Television and most of the newspapers and journals published the photograph. When interviewed, he attributed his feat to yogic power and…
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Pakistan and Islamism – An Year after Salman Taseer’s Murder
Pervez Hoodbhoy We reproduce an essay written by Dr Pervez Hodbhy, who teaches Nuclear Physics at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. This essay, slightly different versions of which appeared in The Express Tribune (January 2, 2012) of Pakistan and The Hindu (January 4, 2012), narrates the hellish life that the people of Pakistan experience…