Ram Puniyani The brutal killing of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar (20th August 2013) is a big jolt to the social movement against blind faith and superstitions. During last few decades the tendency for promotion of rational thought parallel to social change came up as Popular Science movement. In Maharashtra it took shape in the form of a movement, Andh Shraddha Nirmoolan…
Shinie Antony The down town North railway station yawns with studied boredom. The pearls-and-pumps travelers delicately dodge the poor-and-perspiring passengers. All are scurrying by; catching, leaving, or meeting trains that chug in and out of the Station with routine indifference. But when a certain man walks – no, strides into the platform, all eyes follow…
R.A. Jahagirdar We publish this essay by Justice RA Jahagirdahr (1927-2011) on the Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the context of the 8th National Conference of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) held in Nagapur on 11-12 February 2012. The official souvenir brought out during the conference had a photograph of Vinayak Savarkar with the astonishing…
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…
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…
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…
Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), an apex body of more than 75 rationalist, skeptic, secularist organizations in India, has instituted an award in memory of its founder-convener, B Premanand. This award will be given to people who have given valuable contribution towards secularism, scientific temper, skepticism, rational inquiry etc in India. For this year’s…
The 8th National Conference of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) will be held at Nagpur, Maharashtra, on 11th and 12th February 2012. FIRA, an apex body of more than 75 rationalist, atheist, skeptic, secularist and science organisations in India., is committed to the development of scientific temper and humanism in India.. The Federation is…
Prof Narendra Nayak and Mr VB Rawat from India were conferred with the Distinguished Service to Humanism Award by the World Humanist Congress held in Oslo this month. The other awardee this year is Mr David Pollock of UK. The award was instituted by International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a world umbrella organisation embracing Humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, skeptic,…
The house of U Kalanathan, patron of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, was attacked by miscreants yesterday (July 3, 2011). It is reported that these miscreants were angered by Kalanathan’s suggestion during a television debate that the treasures (estimated to be more than Rupees 100,000 crores) discovered at Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapura, Kerala, should be used…