Dr Narendra Dabholkar was fatally shot while on his morning walk in Pune two years ago. Yet Dabholkar lives on in many ways.
On Thursday morning, the doctor-turned-rationalist, progressive thinker and anti-superstition campaigner was on the minds of hundreds as they gathered at 7.55 am near the VRS Bridge, the time and place he was killed, to begin a protest march. Shaila Dabholkar, his widow, led the march. Their children Mukta and Hamid were there too. So were others whose near and dear ones were murdered in the last few years, including Smita Pansare, daughter of the late Comrade Govind Pansare, whose killing in February this year was eerily similar to that of Dabholkar.
It was a reminder to the government of Maharashtra, once hailed as a progressive state for its rich tradition of social reformers, progressive thinkers and intellectuals, that two years later, there is not a scrap of information about Dabholkar’s murderers, the masterminds and their motives. It was a comment on the visible lack of seriousness and intent to get to the bottom of this case.
Arrests of babas
Dabholkar lives through the law he inspired. The Maharashtra Eradication of Black Magic, Evil and Aghori Practices Act, 2013, commonly called the Black Magic Act, is quietly at work as it challenges the multi-crore industry spawned by men and women claiming godly or otherworldly powers. Radhe Maa, the self-styled religious leader now under the Mumbai Police scanner, may be a case fit to be tried under the law if only the police invokes its provisions.
Across Maharashtra, more than 150 such self-styled religious leaders have been arrested in the last 20 months, according to the records with the Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Association for Eradication of Superstition) which Dabholkar founded and led for nearly 20 years. Attempts to confirm this with the state police were futile.
Among the more recent arrests was that of a baba in Daund, near Pune, called “Tomatowale Baba” because he used “a special tomato juice” to cure diseases and conditions that called for immediate medical help. The law was used to file a complaint against actor and popular icon Amitabh Bachchan too, for propagating the existence of ghosts through the film “Bhootnath Returns” and an advertisement based on it.
The list of cases where the law has been used would have satisfied Dabholkar: tantriks who claimed to cure incurable diseases, men and women who used black magic rituals ostensibly to scare away ghosts and spirits, people who sacrificed children as part of rituals (in one instance a pit was dug to put the selected children in, but the police landed in time to rescue them),a baba who promised riches in return for sexual favours from women, a woman tantrik who burned tongues to remove ghosts from people’s bodies, among others.
For each arrest made, there are at least three self-styled religious leaders hoodwinking people, stripping them of their money and even killing them, who roam free, says Hamid Dabholkar. “The law should not be limited to Maharashtra,” he asserted. “The time has come for India to have such a law. We have seen its deterrent effect already though I believe that it needs to be popularised a lot more. It is not anti-religion at all, it is anti those who misuse religion and religious beliefs. Babas of all religions have been caught.”
Inspiration for many
Dabholkar lives on through the Samiti, now a network of 300 units spread across all 35 districts of Maharashtra, and in the untiring efforts of its 3,000 committed activists who tour the state to educate people about the Act and break superstitious beliefs. It includes the second generation of Dabholkars, the self-effacing civil engineer and determined campaigner Avinash Patil who has been the Samiti’s executive president, Dabholkar’s trusted old aides like the redoubtable Shyam Manav, and thousands of youngsters who are drawn to the organisation’s rational thought.
Together, they want to make superstition “not cool” among people, especially younger Indians. They want to popularise the anti-superstition campaign in other parts of the country. They want to do their bit to spread rationalism and scientific temper in an era that is tech-led but becoming socially conservative, even orthodox. “It is a tall order in today’s India when the self-styled religious leader is seen as a legitimate and ‘cool’ entity and even enjoys the sanction of the politically powerful,” said Hamid.
Dabholkar must be on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s mind too. The lack of progress in the murder investigation must be embarrassing for Fadnavis because, while in the opposition when the murder happened, he had taunted the then Congress-led government for failing to prevent the crime. Under his watch as the state’s home minister, Pansare was murdered while on his morning walk in Kolhapur. It was the turn of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party to return the taunts to Fadnavis.
Nothing is gained by trading taunts, certainly not the ideals and purpose that men like Dabholkar stood for, fought for all his life and, dare we say, died for. But the political blame game helps to take the focus away from the question: Who killed Dabholkar?
No clue about killers
At 68, Dabholkar had only one purpose in life. It was to see that the Bill that he and his colleagues, including Shyam Manav, had drafted in the 1990s would become law. Such a law would go a long way to break the stranglehold of self-styled gurus, babas, munis and spiritual mothers over unsuspecting people who implicitly trust them only to be intellectually and financially cheated and deceived, he would argue.
Dabholkar, Manav and the band of campaigners from the Samiti would travel to cities, towns and villages calling the bluff of the self-styled babas and their miracles, asking people to cultivate scientific temper. “That law does not change society is only half true,” wrote Dabholkar. “That a society does not change without a law is the complete truth.”
Dabholkar was most definitely on the mind of Prithviraj Chavan, the former chief minister, as he brought in the Ordinance along the lines of this Bill within three days of the murder. Four months later, Chavan pushed the Bill, rephrased from the Samiti’s draft, in the winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra finally had a law against superstition and black magic, though it had lost one of its finest men who upheld its progressive tradition.
But lost to whose bullets? The family waits to hear a concrete development from investigators about the murder. They have spent considerable time keeping up pressure on authorities so that the murder investigation is done properly. They find that they are received well, given assurances but not a stone moves in the investigation.
Failure of multiple agencies
“See the high calibre of those who have investigated – Pune Police, Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch, the Anti-Terrorism Squad and finally the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] since May 2014,” said Mukta. “But the probe is a failure. It only means they do not want the trail to reach the murderers. It took the CBI four months to only translate papers from Marathi and a year to release sketches of suspects.”
Mukta sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because the CBI is a central agency. “For a year now, we are waiting for that appointment,” she said.
Dabholkar had been threatened and attempts had been made on his life before the fatal one two years ago. It implies that there were people or organisations who considered him their natural enemy. “His work unsettled some people,” Mukta said. “Should the needle of suspicion not be on them? But to question them, the cops said they need evidence. But they are unable to gather evidence. The motorcycle on which Doctor’s murderers fled was parked bang in front of the police chowky, which was barely 40 metres from where he was shot. Yet, the investigation had yielded nothing.”
Their father, they say, relished debate and ferocious arguments from the other side. That such a man was shot at from behind and his murderers should roam free is a telling comment on our times. “In Bangladesh, where secular/atheist bloggers have been killed, the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation has been called in for investigation. Do we want that situation here?” Mukta asked.
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On Thursday morning, the doctor-turned-rationalist, progressive thinker and anti-superstition campaigner was on the minds of hundreds as they gathered at 7.55 am near the VRS Bridge, the time and place he was killed, to begin a protest march. Shaila Dabholkar, his widow, led the march. Their children Mukta and Hamid were there too. So were others whose near and dear ones were murdered in the last few years, including Smita Pansare, daughter of the late Comrade Govind Pansare, whose killing in February this year was eerily similar to that of Dabholkar.
It was a reminder to the government of Maharashtra, once hailed as a progressive state for its rich tradition of social reformers, progressive thinkers and intellectuals, that two years later, there is not a scrap of information about Dabholkar’s murderers, the masterminds and their motives. It was a comment on the visible lack of seriousness and intent to get to the bottom of this case.
Arrests of babas
Dabholkar lives through the law he inspired. The Maharashtra Eradication of Black Magic, Evil and Aghori Practices Act, 2013, commonly called the Black Magic Act, is quietly at work as it challenges the multi-crore industry spawned by men and women claiming godly or otherworldly powers. Radhe Maa, the self-styled religious leader now under the Mumbai Police scanner, may be a case fit to be tried under the law if only the police invokes its provisions.
Across Maharashtra, more than 150 such self-styled religious leaders have been arrested in the last 20 months, according to the records with the Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (Association for Eradication of Superstition) which Dabholkar founded and led for nearly 20 years. Attempts to confirm this with the state police were futile.
Among the more recent arrests was that of a baba in Daund, near Pune, called “Tomatowale Baba” because he used “a special tomato juice” to cure diseases and conditions that called for immediate medical help. The law was used to file a complaint against actor and popular icon Amitabh Bachchan too, for propagating the existence of ghosts through the film “Bhootnath Returns” and an advertisement based on it.
The list of cases where the law has been used would have satisfied Dabholkar: tantriks who claimed to cure incurable diseases, men and women who used black magic rituals ostensibly to scare away ghosts and spirits, people who sacrificed children as part of rituals (in one instance a pit was dug to put the selected children in, but the police landed in time to rescue them),a baba who promised riches in return for sexual favours from women, a woman tantrik who burned tongues to remove ghosts from people’s bodies, among others.
For each arrest made, there are at least three self-styled religious leaders hoodwinking people, stripping them of their money and even killing them, who roam free, says Hamid Dabholkar. “The law should not be limited to Maharashtra,” he asserted. “The time has come for India to have such a law. We have seen its deterrent effect already though I believe that it needs to be popularised a lot more. It is not anti-religion at all, it is anti those who misuse religion and religious beliefs. Babas of all religions have been caught.”
Inspiration for many
Dabholkar lives on through the Samiti, now a network of 300 units spread across all 35 districts of Maharashtra, and in the untiring efforts of its 3,000 committed activists who tour the state to educate people about the Act and break superstitious beliefs. It includes the second generation of Dabholkars, the self-effacing civil engineer and determined campaigner Avinash Patil who has been the Samiti’s executive president, Dabholkar’s trusted old aides like the redoubtable Shyam Manav, and thousands of youngsters who are drawn to the organisation’s rational thought.
Together, they want to make superstition “not cool” among people, especially younger Indians. They want to popularise the anti-superstition campaign in other parts of the country. They want to do their bit to spread rationalism and scientific temper in an era that is tech-led but becoming socially conservative, even orthodox. “It is a tall order in today’s India when the self-styled religious leader is seen as a legitimate and ‘cool’ entity and even enjoys the sanction of the politically powerful,” said Hamid.
Dabholkar must be on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s mind too. The lack of progress in the murder investigation must be embarrassing for Fadnavis because, while in the opposition when the murder happened, he had taunted the then Congress-led government for failing to prevent the crime. Under his watch as the state’s home minister, Pansare was murdered while on his morning walk in Kolhapur. It was the turn of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party to return the taunts to Fadnavis.
Nothing is gained by trading taunts, certainly not the ideals and purpose that men like Dabholkar stood for, fought for all his life and, dare we say, died for. But the political blame game helps to take the focus away from the question: Who killed Dabholkar?
No clue about killers
At 68, Dabholkar had only one purpose in life. It was to see that the Bill that he and his colleagues, including Shyam Manav, had drafted in the 1990s would become law. Such a law would go a long way to break the stranglehold of self-styled gurus, babas, munis and spiritual mothers over unsuspecting people who implicitly trust them only to be intellectually and financially cheated and deceived, he would argue.
Dabholkar, Manav and the band of campaigners from the Samiti would travel to cities, towns and villages calling the bluff of the self-styled babas and their miracles, asking people to cultivate scientific temper. “That law does not change society is only half true,” wrote Dabholkar. “That a society does not change without a law is the complete truth.”
Dabholkar was most definitely on the mind of Prithviraj Chavan, the former chief minister, as he brought in the Ordinance along the lines of this Bill within three days of the murder. Four months later, Chavan pushed the Bill, rephrased from the Samiti’s draft, in the winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra finally had a law against superstition and black magic, though it had lost one of its finest men who upheld its progressive tradition.
But lost to whose bullets? The family waits to hear a concrete development from investigators about the murder. They have spent considerable time keeping up pressure on authorities so that the murder investigation is done properly. They find that they are received well, given assurances but not a stone moves in the investigation.
Failure of multiple agencies
“See the high calibre of those who have investigated – Pune Police, Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch, the Anti-Terrorism Squad and finally the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] since May 2014,” said Mukta. “But the probe is a failure. It only means they do not want the trail to reach the murderers. It took the CBI four months to only translate papers from Marathi and a year to release sketches of suspects.”
Mukta sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because the CBI is a central agency. “For a year now, we are waiting for that appointment,” she said.
Dabholkar had been threatened and attempts had been made on his life before the fatal one two years ago. It implies that there were people or organisations who considered him their natural enemy. “His work unsettled some people,” Mukta said. “Should the needle of suspicion not be on them? But to question them, the cops said they need evidence. But they are unable to gather evidence. The motorcycle on which Doctor’s murderers fled was parked bang in front of the police chowky, which was barely 40 metres from where he was shot. Yet, the investigation had yielded nothing.”
Their father, they say, relished debate and ferocious arguments from the other side. That such a man was shot at from behind and his murderers should roam free is a telling comment on our times. “In Bangladesh, where secular/atheist bloggers have been killed, the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation has been called in for investigation. Do we want that situation here?” Mukta asked.
