Kochi: There were stories that Joseph Edamaruku, the great rationalist, had prayed to god before he died. It is a lie, says Sanal Edamaruku, his son, president of Rationalist International, living now in Finland, because of life threats and possibility of arrest in India. Joseph had died in his sleep in Delhi, healthy and active till his last day. “He slept happily, and when found in the morning dead on his bed, he had a smile on his face,” writes Sanal, in an email interview. He is going to have an online session on Saturday (April 22), at the Free Thinkers Meet 2017, being held in Thiruvananthapuram. Sanal had been living away, ever since he investigated and explained the ‘Mumbai crying crucifix miracle’. There were 17 cases filed against him accusing him of hurting religious sentiments.
There were public calls on Internet forums for killing him. He even heard about a plan to mobilise a hired crowd to attack him if he reached any court. “I was advised about abduction and torture or even murder. So I had to live nearly three months away from my home. All my media interviews those times explaining about the dangerous situation that I was in, was from my hiding places, protected by friends and supporters.” But he hadn’t planned to remain away for long. He had travelled to Finland in 2012 with a return ticket. With a series of lectures in European countries, he kept postponing the return, until one day his friend and rationalist, late Narendra Dhabolkar, offered him security in Mumbai.
“Four days later I heard about the assassination of Dabholkar. It was then that I decided to stay longer in Europe as I believe living and doing the best possible with my life, is a better option than becoming a martyr.” Sanal knew of the other killings later on, of rationalists Govind Pansare and Kalburgi earlier and the recent one of the Tamil Nadu activist Farook. “The victims have been killed because they asked questions and provoked others to think. They were promoting scientific temper, something that the Constitution asks all citizens of India to take up as their Fundamental Duty! It is shocking that nobody in the top political leadership has pointed this out, to promote the ethos of modern India.”
The fabric of tolerance in India, has been eroding the past two decades, he says, beginning with the street violence and subsequent ban of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses before the first copy even reached the country. “Since then, we have seen growing intolerance against writers, thinkers and artists. One of the most prominent victims was M.F. Hussain, who had to leave the country to save his paintings and himself.” But when Sanal left, he continued his work, taking up assignments of lecturing and teaching.
“I am organising the second (since I left India) International Rationalist Conference in May 2017 in Helsinki. I am busy writing books, travelling, delivering lectures.” Sanal, who grew up in Thodupuzha, Kerala, has also been vocal against the superstitions in his homeland, against godmen. But he believes the dependence on godmen have not grown in recent years. “They have become more centralised and concentrated as big operators emerged, sidelining and decimating smaller operators. While hundreds of smaller temples need support for their survival and day-to-day functioning, Guruvayoor and Sabarimala emerged as the monopoly centres. Smaller local superstitious rituals gave way to a more centralised Ponkala at one concentrated area. It’s like big corporations monopolising an earlier decentralised market place.”
