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Indian scholar who criticized idol worship murdered at home

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prasad1

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Following a knock at his front door, an Indian scholar greeted two unidentified visitors and was shot in the head and the chest, becoming the third critic of religious superstition to be killed in the country in three years.


The attack on Malleshappa M. Kalburgi sent a chill through Indian civil society, stoking worries about religious extremism and intolerance and prompting an outpouring of condemnation as the 77-year-old author and academic was cremated Monday in his hometown of Dharwad, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
"This incident should not have happened. It is highly condemnable," Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters.
Authorities are searching for two men who according to Kalburgi's daughter arrived on a motorcycle at their home Sunday, knocked on the door and fired two shots that killed her father, Inspector S.S. Hiremath said. He declined to give further details about the attack.
Police are investigating whether Kalburgi's murder is connected to death threats he received last year from angry right-wing Hindu groups after he criticized idol worship and superstitious beliefs by Hindus. He was provided police security after the threats but it was removed about two weeks ago at the scholar's request, police said.
The attack was widely condemned.
"Everyone has the right to express his opinion," actor and director Girish Karnad said. "If this grows in Karnataka, we are in trouble."
Columnist Nitin Pai, who founded a think tank in the southern city of Bangalore, said on Twitter that he was "Shocked at the murder of M.M. Kalburgi. Disgusted that his killers have apologists among us."
India has long held secularism to be a keystone of its constitution — and a necessity for keeping the peace among its cacophony of cultures defined by caste, clan, tribe or religion, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.
Earlier this year, unknown attackers gunned down another anti-superstition crusader, Indian writer and communist politician Govind Pansare, as he and his wife were taking a walk in western Maharashtra state.
In another daytime attack in 2013, two assailants gunned down Narendra Dabholkar, a 68-year-old doctor-turned-activist, while he was out for a walk in the Maharashtra city of Pune, near Mumbai.
Police have arrested two suspects in Dabholkar's murder. He had received years of death threats and demands that he stop giving lectures in villages across Maharashtra state promoting rationalist thought and discouraging superstitions, religious extremism, black magic and animal or human sacrifice.
Maharashtra's government later passed long-stalled legislation that Dabholkar had worked on banning religious exploitation and fraudulent medical workers.
Activists have said the legislation does not go far enough since it only allows complaints from victims and their families, not from third parties, which they say limits the law's effectiveness because most victims are invested in superstitious beliefs and are not likely to complain.


Hindutva apologist read and weep. Is this the India you wanted, or it has turned into a Frankenstein monster.

http://news.yahoo.com/indian-scholar-criticized-idol-worship-murdered-home-100804468.html
 
"Everyone has the right to express his opinion," actor and director Girish Karnad said.
/QUOTE]
But later learnt that to exercise the freedom of speech in controversial topics, one has to be within the four walls.
To express any opinion in open, one should have some back ground of supporters/ followers/ 'men of his own' around him.
 
So the Gun is mightier than the pen.

I feel extremism is on the rise..so the best is just let people believe in anything they like...whether they want to be superstitious..just let it be as long these believes are not causing harm to self or others.
 
They also want to ban the death penalty in India. An underdeveloped country with myriad problems can ill afford to do away with the death penalty.

Without a strong deterrent, criminals will be loose on the streets.
 
Religion is like opium, even far more potent than opium, for the gullible masses. Trying to teach them some sense is a very risky affair, like trying to play with a king cobra!

Fortunately for this forum, and its "believing" audience (call it those with 'SraddhA') we will now have 'scholarly discussions'. Hence this forum at least may not have any Kalburgi, let us hope. Our efforts should be to pander as much as possible to the superstitions and religious 'beliefs' without any logical base, just like in one old hindi film some character talks about "swadeshi vehm" and "Videshi vehm" etc!

Even Late Shri Kalburgi should remind us of vehms only not anything else.
 
Religion is like opium, even far more potent than opium, for the gullible masses. Trying to teach them some sense is a very risky affair, like trying to play with a king cobra!

Opium is good in small doses, a pain killer and an approved medicine in aurveda and many english doctors carried it in their kit till post victorian days. So is religion, if the teaching, practice and anushtanams are as intended, and as majority of hindus are living.


The west is considering leagalising some narcotics
 
Thought the killing was a henious crime committed by some fanatics, who must be punished severely, he was criticized for speaking against Idol worship, in respect of Hinduism only.

This needs verification.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thought the killing was a henious crime committed by some fanatics, who must be punished severely, he was criticized for speaking against Idol worship, in respect of Hinduism only.

This needs verification.

Yes. He did not include christians in his criticism.
 
These rationalists including the couple in the forum will talk about only about perceived ills and superstitions in hinduism. Edamurukku, a rationalist who proved that the tears of mary in a bombay church was nothing but sewage water was threatened and is now in exile in europe. None of the murders of so called anti hindu rationalists has been solved till date even though all happened when secular congress ruled. Reasons are many - 1. the culprit may not be a hindu or a sanghi; 2. murder is for a mundane affair like money or property dispute. 3. If the culprit is from a minority community, attack on hindus cannot be continued. All church and nun attacks in the past 2 years were traced to minority faith criminals.

Everyday there are a few incidents of rape and abuse by minority religious leaders, church officials and principals of orphan homes, but they are buried. Asaram babu and sadhvi pragnya have been in prison for over two years without bail and without any charge sheet. And even sc has found that charges are without base.

Media and legal system have to answer a lot.
 
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