The Atheist

Last month, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that while the Constitution confers on an individual the fundamental right to choose not to “profess any particular religion or for him to believe in God”, a certificate declaring him an atheist “would be of no consequence”. Dismissing Ravi’s plea, Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa said that “there would be no requirement in law for him to be issued a certificate to such effect”.

The 33-year-old had moved the court after the Fatehabad district authorities in April withdrew the ‘No God Certificate’ they had issued only a week earlier, citing “wrong interpretation of civil court orders” by the tehsildar office. Ravi has now decided to challenge the verdict before a division bench.

Ravi contends that just like a religious person, an atheist should be vested with the right to be issued a certificate declaring that he does not believe in any caste, religion or God.

At his unplastered, two-room house in Tohana, Ravi, who dropped out of college in his first year and who now takes on carpentry and house-painting jobs, says that as a child, his search for God often ended in disappointment. “My grandfather would say Krishna Bhagwan lives within us but when I was beaten up by children in school, no one saved me. People would also say Laxmi Pujas done during Diwali brought prosperity. My mother has been very particular about her pujas, but I have never seen any Laxmi or prosperity here. We would also buy Laxmi Bumper lottery tickets but we never won anything,” he says, adding that’s when the realisation dawned — “Mehnat se sab hota hai (Hard work makes everything possible)”.

Ravi’s father, a carpenter, works at a factory. The family does not own any land.

It was in 2017 that Ravi decided to get “Atheist” tagged to his name in official records, starting with his Aadhaar card. “I had to get a document signed from the municipal committee, the market committee and some others before I got them to add ‘Atheist’ to my Aadhaar card,” says Ravi.

Ravi next got a resident certificate with his name as ‘Ravi Kumar Atheist’ and moved the civil court in Tohana for a change of name in his secondary school certificate. After the court cleared his lawsuit in 2018, he approached the district authorities for a ‘No Caste, No Religion & No God’ certificate, which too was granted to him.

To get the certificate, Ravi submitted his Aadhaar card, domicile certificate, date of birth certificate and the new school certificate to the district authorities. “They conducted an inquiry and then gave me the certificate. However, they soon withdrew it accusing me of forgery… Let them prove it. They issued the certificate after verification,” he says.

Officials at the Tohana tehsildar office, who did not wish to be identified, say that the court order was wrongly interpreted as the decree was only to add ‘Atheist’ to his secondary school certificate, and not for the ‘No Caste, No Religion & No God’certificate.

Ravi says his determination to shun religion came with its share of troubles. “Almost everyone called me names — I have heard the word paagal (mad) so many times, it has to be a world record,” he laughs. “My family was embarrassed about my ideas.”

“People would talk about him, call him nastik (atheist). We would be worried.” says his father Inder Lal, adding that he was once so upset with his son that he left home threatening to kill himself on the rail tracks. He returned on his own after sometime. “We have now started to understand him… I have also stopped going to the temple now.”

At Ravi’s home, there are no idols or even pictures of any deity. “I have stopped going to the temple too. I only pray for my ancestors sometimes,” say Ratni, Ravi’s mother.

Ravi, who belongs to the Khati (OBC) caste, says he is inspired by B R Ambedkar, and also has a picture of him in his room. “I have been seeing the caste-divide since I was a child. The upper caste people feel jealous when some one from a lower caste does well”, he says.

Ravi says that his ideas also got into trouble outside of home. “In 2018, I was working as an attendant at a veterinary hospital in Tohana, where some 200 buffaloes died in a span of five months. Since it had become known that I was an atheist, people thought I was responsible for it. I could not handle the harassment and had to quit the job,” he says.

The 33-year-old says that his belief in atheism has convinced him that religion is the cause of much of the problems the country. “India verus Pakistan, lower caste versus higher caste — religion and caste are to blame for all this tension. I think there is a need for atheism today more than ever before,” he says.

For now, besides fighting for the No-God certificate, Ravi faces an immediate challenge — find a girl who will be ready to marry him. “I can only marry an atheist and that too in court because I cannot have any religious function,” he says.