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Beating Irrationality, Inequality and Fear
Chandana Chakrabarti I feel greatly privileged in being asked to deliver the fourth Premanand Memorial lecture. I have had the privilege of knowing Premanand from the eighties when I was in CCMB. I have had the pleasure of interacting with him on several occasions in the intervening years. The last I spoke to him was…
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Re-reading Rabindranath’s Iran Travelogues
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya A Rabindranath Tagore’s later travelogues seem to be a cross between a diary and a philosophical notebook. While visiting various places in a foreign land, he keenly observes what is shown to him, records his itinerary and at the same time writes down his impressions and reflections based on his newly earned experience.…
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Science versus Miracles: Miraculous Appearance of Answers on Paper When It Is Dipped In Water
B Premanand The tantrik asks his customer to write his personal problems on a piece of paper without showing it to anyone and keep it safe in his pocket. He takes another piece of blank paper and immerses it in water and chants mantras for a few minutes. Then when the paper is taken out…
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The Use of Myths – Stories about God – II
AN Moorthy Rao It is possible that at least some of the myths mentioned above have a symbolic meaning. Whether the authors off these stories really meant to convey that meaning or they were stuffed with the significance later, it is difficult to say. Our innocent ancients did not write essays about what they learnt…
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Dhule Violence: Changing Anatomy of Communal Violence
Ram Puniyani The violence in Dhule Maharashtra seems to be the new face of communal violence in India. As per the report of a major national daily (Jan 26, 2013), the evidence with the newspaper shows the evidence of police looting and destroying the property. The video clips in possession of the civil society groups…
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Science versus Miracles: Predicting Question through Your Ears!
B Premanand It is believed that Kama Pishachini Devi can sense everything through her ears – seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing and touching. She also sees through everything – even the minds of people. The oracle gets possessed by Kama Pishachini Devi and the devotees write their personal problems on pieces of paper distributed by the…
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Viswaroopam: Kerala Shows The Way!
One of the most redeeming scenes we have witnessed during the current Islamist protest against the screening of the Kamal Hassan film Viswaroopam is the protection offered by the public to the theaters when the film was screened in various parts of Kerala. The Hindu reports that when the ultra-fundamentalist Social Democratic Party of India…
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Shinde on Hindutva Terror: Terminological Confusions
Ram Puniyani Protests are being organized and threats to stall the proceedings of next Lok Sabha session are being dished out to oppose the Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s statement about the Hindu terrorism, its links with BJP and RSS. (23 Jan 2013). There are two major components of this statement. One is the use…
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Science versus Miracles: Ghostly Fires at Night
B Premanand While walking through fields at night, suddenly one sees fire of 6 to 12 feet high which is considered to be poltergeist phenomena. Experiment: 92 Effect: Ghostly fires at night. Props: Kerosene, a cloth swab on a stick, matches. Method: Learn to blowout water in minute spray from mouth. Then fill the mouth…
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Stories about God – I
AN Moorthy Rao So far we have considered how the common man has answered the question: ‘Who is God?’ (Or, what is God?) Let us now examine the nature and antecedents of these deities on the basis of the stories put together by people. From the list of deities that we considered above, we may…
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Science Versus Miracles: Smoke From One’s Fingers
B Premanand To prove that when they concentrate heat comes from their body, persons with the so-called ‘psychic powers’ rub their thumb and index finger and smoke comes from them. Experiment: 90 Effect: Smoke from one’s fingers. Props: Yellow phosphorous and carbon disulphide solution (1:6) Method: Apply a drop of the above solution and rub the finger with…
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Science versus Miracles: Lighting Candles by Prayers
B Premanand On Madras television, Rev. Dinakaran, a CST evangelist, lighted candles with his prayers. Experiment: 88 Effect: Lighting candles by prayers Image: Courtesy: Wikipedia Props: Solution of yellow or white phosphorus in carbon disulphide (1:1), and a new big candle. Method: Dip the candle wick in the phosphorous solution and keep it on the candle stand.…
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Poltergeist Phenomena – How Hutments Catch Fire Suddenly?
B Premanand In many villages hutments catch fire and get gutted suddenly which is claimed to be the handiwork of poltergeist or ghosts. Experiment: 85 (Note: This image of a huton fire has nothing to do with poltergeist phenomenon) Effect: Poltergeist phenomena. Hutments catch fire suddenly. Props: Wet cow dung, yellow phosphorus. Method: In Indian villages…
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Rising Shadow of Trident: Modi’s Victory in Gujarat
Ram Puniyani The recent electoral victory of Narendra Modi, his third consecutive one (Dec 2012), has drawn lot of applause from a section of society and he is being projected as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. It’s another matter that BJP, itself is in shambles as far as electoral arena is concerned and its NDA…
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India’s Rape Culture: Urban versus Rural
Ram Puniyani While the horrific rape of Damini, Nirbhaya (December16, 2012) has shaken the whole nation, and the country is gripped with the fear of this phenomenon, many an ideologues and political leaders are not only making their ideologies clear, some of them are regularly putting their foots in mouths also. Surely they do retract…
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Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan: Heinous Attempt to Intimidate Smt.Pushpa Bhave
Maharashtra Government, Police machinery and Shiv Sena have joined hands to intimidate Smt.Pushpa Bhave, well-known public intellectual, who protested against the decision to give the name of Bal Thackeray to the stage of upcoming Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan session at Chiplun. In response to her statement rightly opposing Sahitya Sammelan’s decision, Shiv Sena leaders…
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My Pakistan Trip
Ram Puniyani The invitation The invitation to attend the seminar on South Asian Minorities in Islamabad, Pakistan and other meetings in Karachi, promised to be an exciting affair, as apart from other things it might have been an opportunity to see the ‘enemy country’ in person. I thought of combining the visit to Islamabad and Karachi…
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Rape and the Ideology of the Religious Right
In these days when we are flooded with reports of rape and other savage attacks against women in India, we thought people would stop, at least for the time being, blaming the women themselves for atrocities committed against them. But we were wrong. Barely a few hours after the ashes of the Delhi rape victim…
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Materialist Philosophy of Kanada and Kapila (Materialism in Indian Philosophy – Part II)
M N Roy The spiritual revolt represented by the Indian materialists eventually culminated in the rise of Buddhism which all but liquidated the Vedic natural religion and freed India from Brahmanical domination for several hundred years. Internal evidence proves that the Vedanta Sutras were composed for combating Buddhism. Therefore, they could not be regarded as…
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Preventing Crimes against women: are Stringent Laws the only Solution?
Ram Puniyani The death of the Delhi gang rape victim in Singapore (Dec 28, 2012) has created a massive wave of anger and protest. As such after this ghastly act, which took place nearly two weeks ago, the anger and protest of the people came to the streets and one witnessed the unfortunate police action.…
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In Defence of Rationalism
What is Rationalism? In Epistemology (the branch of philosophy studying the nature, sources and limits of knowledge) “Rationalism” is “the theory that reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge”. Those who accept rationalism in this epistemological sense assert that knowledge is gained a priori (prior to experience) and it is often contrasted with Empiricism, which is…
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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 examines the intellectual debate between Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya and Joseph Needham on the Indian concept of svabhāva. Analyzing classical Sanskrit and medical texts alongside Chinese parallels (Tao), he demonstrates that svabhāva encompasses both causality and accidentalism (yadṛcchā), challenging its oversimplified equation with deterministic “laws of nature.”
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Materialism in Indian Philosophy
M. N. Roy traces ancient Indian materialism from Vedic rebellions to its culmination in Cārvāka thought. Challenging priestly orthodoxy, early naturalists developed Kaṇāda’s atomist Vaiśeṣika and Kapila’s empirical Sāṃkhya systems. By grounding reality in matter, perception, and mechanistic natural laws, these rationalist currents dismantled Vedic theology, paving the way for Buddhist Enlightenment.