User:Allecher/Sanal Edamaruku

Sanal Edamaruku is the founder-president of Rationalist International. and the president of the Indian Rationalist Association. He is the editor of the internet publication Rationalist International, author of 25 books and numerous articles. In 2012, he was charged with hurting religious sentiments for his role in examining a claimed miracle at a local Catholic Church.

Early life
Edamaruku was born in 1955 in Thodupuzha, Kerala, India to Joseph Edamaruku, an Indian scholar and author, and Soley Edamaruku. Born in a Christian-Hindu mixed marriage, he was brought up without any kind of specific religious influence. At his parent's insistence he was the first student in India whose official school records listed "no religion".

He became a rationalist-atheist activist at the age of 15, after seeing a neighbourhood athlete's death after her family refused medical treatment because they believed in faith-healing. In 1977, he obtained a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Kerala. Afterwards, he got master's degree in philosophy from the department of South Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in international studies. While writing his thesis towards his doctorate, he began working for the Afro-Asian Rural Reconstruction Organization. He gave up his job in 1982 to focus more on the Indian Rationalist Association and publishing his own works. He also has a diploma in Journalism.

Rationalist activism


Edamaruku has been active in the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA) from the age of 15. Before becoming the president in 2005 he served as the General Secretary since 1983, and has been the editor of its mouthpiece Modern Freethinker. His many books and articles deal mainly with rationalistic thoughts and against superstition, which is prevalent in India. His writings in Rationalist International are translated into English, French, German, Spanish and Finnish.

He has carried out investigations which helped expose frauds, mystics and god men as well as conducting campaigns against superstition in Indian villages. These investigations have attracted the attention of print and television media throughout Asia. The documentary film Guru Busters features Edamaruku and a team of rationalist campaigners on the road in Kerala giving public demonstrations of how to perform supposedly supernatural stunts. He is a regular TV commentator on various Indian TV channels explaining superstitions and blind belief and is a major voice in defense of reason and scientific temper in India. He has also delivered lectures in various countries including the US and many European countries. He has helped to build the Indian Atheist Publishers, which is now Asia's largest free thought publishing house. He convened the three International Rationalist Conferences held in 1995, 2000, and 2002.

In February 2011 Edamaruku was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and is an honorary associate of New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists and Rationalist Association of UK (formerly Rationalist Press Association.) whose past members include Bertrand Russell, H G Wells, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Francis Crick.

The Great Tantra Challenge
On 3 March 2008, while appearing on a panel TV show, Sanal Edamaruku challenged a tantrik to demonstrate his powers by killing Edamaruku using only magic. The live show on India TV where the tantrik chanted mantras and performed a ceremony to kill Edamaruku received a large boost in ratings. After his attempts failed the tantrik reported that Edamaruku must be under the protection of a powerful god, to which Edamaruku responded that he is an atheist.

Blasphemy Case
In March 2012 Edamaruku investigated a report that a crucifix at Our Lady of Velankanni church in Mumbai was dripping water from the feet. His research indicated that the dripping was caused by capillary action from a clogged drain.

In April 2012 the Catholic Church in Mumbai filed a complaint under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code in several police stations around the city. Enacted in 1927, section 295A says:
 * Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of [citizens of India], [by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to [three years], or with fine, or with both.

The Archbishop of Mumbai has asked Edamaruku to apologize in exchange for dropping the charges but the All India Catholic Union says the law is being applied incorrectly. Colin Gonsalves, the founder of the India Center for Human Rights and Law, stated his opinion that there was no criminal offense. Other famous Indians have spoken in his defense publicly, such as Vishal Dadlani. On 31 July 2012, it was reported that Edamaruku had moved to Finland and had been staying there for the past 6 months. At present, he is campaigning in defense of free speech and against blasphemy laws in several European cities.

In popular culture

 * The Australian writer Greg Egan used the story of Edamaruku, the Indian Rationalist Association and the Tantra Challenge in his novel Teranesia.
 * Edamaruku also appears as a character in Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's novel French Lover.
 * Angela Saini's book Geek Nation has a chapter "Chariot of Gods" that describes Edamaruku's work.