For over three years now, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of the Indian Rationalist Association, has lived in Helsinki, ever since he challenged the Church and had to flee the country facing a case of blasphemy as well as several death threats. Speaking over the phone from Finland, Edamaruku says M M Kalburgi’s murder and the threat to his own life are an outcome of growing intolerance in India to critical enquiry, with extremists from across religions becoming “increasingly aggressive and increasingly violent”. [related-post] “This has started to happen in, say, the past five years. My father wrote a book on the Quran in 1981 that was extremely critical, and two years before that he wrote a book which questioned some aspects of the Church. He lived long and without threats. Even in 1995, we went on an 18-month trip to 100 villages across India speaking against ‘godmen’ and superstition. Once I spoke in front of a Hanuman temple. After I finished my speech, one man who I was sure was going to attack me came up, and embraced me. As a society, there used to be still space for questions unless you were vitriolic,” Edamaruku says. He still gets threatening messages, Edamaruku adds. “One such message says that if I don’t apologise to the bishop, I will die a very painful death.” The government can send a message, he believes. “The simple thing is for the national political class to issue a statement. If the Prime Minister was to say that critical, scientific temper and rationalism are part of our ethos, and that the attacks on rationalists will not be tolerated, it would be a good beginning. But I have seen no such statement.” Edamaruku now keeps in touch with members of his organisation through Skype, and they continue to hold meetings, though discreetly. “We still do work at schools and so on, and try and spread the word.”
