A showcase speaker for the “Skeptics in the Pub”, an Oxford-based group of atheists which meets regularly, Sanal Edamaraku is a remarkable character with considerable influence in India. So much influence, in fact, that he has angered the wrong people and is now fleeing arrest abroad, with the prospect of years in jail facing him if ever he goes back to his homeland.
The reason for his imminent arrest was his debunking of the widely believed “miracle” of a water-dripping crucifix at the Velankanni church of Mumbai. Sanal showed that the crucifix was dripping water not due to its divine nature, but due to a plumbing problem which led to condensation collecting on the toes of Jesus and water then dripping off. The Catholic Church was angered and local policemen issued an arrest warrant – but Sanal had already left the country.
Speaking to a small audience in the Wig & Pen in Oxford, he explained his work and his aims in fighting superstition and spreading rationalism. Contrary to the opinion of many who might think of superstitions as quite harmless, like throwing salt over your left shoulder for luck, not stepping on the cracks between paving stones, or avoiding walking under ladders, Sanal discussed superstitions unique to India which are as widespread as they are harmful.
Sanal gave many examples of superstitions which still command great respect and are followed to a tee. There is the practice of dropping babies from the tops of temples and mosques, who are caught by sheets held below. Parents pay for Gurus to stand on children in some regions of India in order to give the child total immunity against all ailments. Strange scratches appeared on people’s faces in a village in Kerala, believed to be caused by black magic, and this led to riots in which five were killed. Despite the manifest danger the belief in the positive consequences of these superstitions trumps the reality of their negative consequences. The messages spread by self-proclaimed gurus can be incredibly dangerous: one particularly bad case was that of a guru who claimed chewing a certain type of leaf would protect one from contracting HIV/AIDS.
Sanal started by emphasizing India’s recent incredible economic growth, based on a “great constitution” and increasingly efficient institutions. “Everybody in India has a mobile phone,” he says – this shows the increasingly independent initiatives building the 21st century India. But India is also undergoing a “silent revolution” – the economic growth is accompanied by a “growing out of blind beliefs and superstition,” which Sanal is trying to accelerate.
The Rationalist Centre which he founded in New Delhi holds regular conferences, and sells books that aim to enlighten in order to cover its costs. As part of the International Rationalist Association, which Sanal is also president of, he welcomes famous rationalists such as Richard Dawkins to speak in New Delhi.
The superstition problem is complicated by the fact that the gurus and beliefs they perpetuate have a following which transcends caste and can convince those in the highest positions of authority – the chief of the Indian Space Institution himself consulted an astrologist before launching a satellite.
Sanal is trying to replace these irrational beliefs with a scientific approach: through his Inspire Camps, he teaches children in villages across India how to replicate the “miracles” they see gurus perform on TV, and gives them a kit to take home and show friends and family how to be gurus themselves. This empowerment starting at the grassroots level with children, Sanal hopes, will lead to further enlightenment spreading throughout India. The problem is first and foremost one of education, and by educating the rationalists tap at the root of the demand for gurus and magical powers – the children educated by Edamaruku and his team will not be duped in future.
His efforts to debunk phoney gurus culminated hilariously in a live TV show-down between Sanal and famous tantric guru Pandit Surinder Sharma. The former challenged the latter to kill him using only tantras and mantras – Pandit had previously boasted he could kill a person in three minutes using his magic. The show-down lasted hours during which Sharma chanted his famed “killer” mantra to no avail. Sharma was humiliated, having been exposed as a phoney on national TV. “I laughed the tantric out of power,” wrote Edamaruku later. Indeed, Pandit Suriner Sharma had to mortgage his properties in India and sell his island in Scotland after his humiliation resulted in a drop in his popularity. The extravagant lifestyle of the gurus is very telling: any entrepreneurial “guru” can “become a billionaire under the umbrella of holiness.”
The Rationalist Centre’s activities used to be focused solely on village visits in order to educate at the local level. However, the spread of television throughout the country has made the task easier for rationalists: Edamaruku’s appearance on over 240 TV programmes in 2009 could not have been missed and an increasing number of people have been exposed to his philosophy. He has become an icon representing the alternative to the idolised gurus – an icon of rationalism. The Centre’s successes include the closing-down of the Mantra Healing Centre, a centre launched by the Minister of Health of Delhi, in which patients were made to eat paper on which mantras had been written, in order to be cured. The guru who “cured” children by standing on them has also been jailed thanks to the Rationalist Centre’s efforts.
Especially in a country in which media is such an important industry, and information is spread increasingly fast, even to the poorest, Sanal’s message spreads quickly and points to a future where the dangers of superstitions will be avoided. Indeed, he is gaining an increasing following among TV-watchers and media teams throughout India – on one vote during a live TV show, 87.3% of respondents voted for Sanal not to be arrested.
When I ask him whether he believes some superstitions have a value just from the comfort they bring people – a kind of placebo effect, he answers by arguing that any positive effects coming from these beliefs are vastly outweighed by the negative consequences. Believing good things come from miracles, deluding yourself as to the agency you direct in your life, is clearly dangerous, especially when it leads to willingly letting one’s baby be stepped on or dropped from heights. However, the need people feel for something to believe in, especially when they live in abject poverty, is so strong as to exceed the bounds of rationalism. If the gurus sell hope and magic, it is because they know there’s a market for it. By hitting both the supply side (debunking and punishing the phoneys) and the demand side (educating future generations) Sanal is well on the way to spreading his rationalist philosophy in India. However, his staunch atheism may be less well received – he should be careful to stay sensitive to the main strands of religion in India, while debunking the phoneys.
“Religions are keeping people in compartments,” concludes Sanal. “Our organization is not just another compartment, but a catalyst for change.”
“The problem is the non-believers are not organised,” he announces, and his aim for his tour is to raise awareness of the issues the Rationalist Centre is addressing, and to get believers in rationalism as organized as other belief groups. His tone can itself seem evangelist at times, but his main aim, of protecting people from unnecessary harm caused by false beliefs, is admirable.
Sanal Edamaruku will be speaking in Plymouth, Cambridge and London, before moving on to South America. More information about his journey can be found on his blog: http://sanaledamaruku.blogspot.co.uk.
