Dr Malleshappa Kalburgi
Following
a knock on his front door, secular scholar Malleshappa M. Kalburgi greeted two
unidentified visitors, who shot him in the head and the chest on Sunday, August
30. Kalburgi became the third critic of religious superstition to be killed in
the country in three years in a throwback to the situation in neighbouring
Bangladesh where more than half of dozen free-thinking intellectuals have been
killed by radical groups in the last two years.
A scholar of Vachana Sahitya and
academic who served as the vice-chancellor of the Kannada University in Hampi,
Kalburgi was known for his bold and liberal opinions.
The attack sent a chill through the Indian civil society, stoking
worries about religious intolerance and prompting an outpouring of condemnation.
“This incident should not have happened. It is highly condemnable,”
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the media. Authorities are hunting
for two men, who according to Kalburgi’s daughter, arrived on a motorcycle at
their home Sunday, knocked on the door and fired two shots that killed her
father, Inspector S.S. Hiremath said. He declined to elaborate.
Police are investigating whether Kalburgi’s murder was connected to
death threats he had received last year from angry right-wing Hindu groups
after he criticised idol worship and superstitious beliefs of the Hindus. He
was provided police security about two weeks ago at the scholar’s request, the
police said. “Everyone has the right to express his opinion,” the actor had
said. Director Girish Karnad said. “If this grows in Karnataka, we are in
trouble.”
Columnist Nitin Pai, who founded a think tank in the southern city of
Bangalore, said on Twitter: “Shocked at the murder of M.M. Kalburgi. Disgusted
that his killers have apologists among us.” India has long held secularism to
be a keystone of its constitution – and a necessity for keeping peace among
disparate cultures defined by caste, clan, tribe or religion, including Islam,
Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism Earlier
this year, unknown attackers gunned down another anti-superstition crusader,
Indian writer and communist politician Govind Pansare, as he and his wife were
taking a walk in a western Maharashtra state. In another daytime attack in
2013, two assailants gunned down Narendra Dabholkar, a 68-year-old
doctor-turned-activist, while he was out for a walk in the Maharashtra city of
Pune, near Mumbai.
Police have arrested two suspects in Dabholkar’s murder. He had received
years of death threats and demands that he stop giving lectures in villages
across Maharashtra state promoting rationalist thought and discouraging superstitions,
religious extremism, black magic and animal or human sacrifice. The
Maharashtra’s government later passed long-stalled legislation that Dabholkar
had worked on banning religious exploitation and fraudulent medical workers.
Activists have said the legislation does not go far enough since it only
allows complaints from victims and their families, not from third parties,
which they say limits the law’s effectiveness because most victims are invested
in superstitious beliefs and are not likely to complain.
Reacting to Kalburgi’s murder, co-convenor Bajrang Dal’s Bantwal
cell, Bhuvith Shetty, triggered a controversy on Sunday by welcoming the
assassination of scholar MM Kalburgi. Members of Left and progressive groups
protested outside Karnataka Assembly against “snuffing out of freedom of
expression” in a secular society.
Condemning the killing of Prof Kalburgi, he said, “Rightist forces must
realise that killings of those with whom they differ will in no way put an end
to rationalist thinking and scientific spirit of enquiry. Intolerance and
attack on freedom of expression will definitely recoil on those who
practice them,” the party said. (From the Statesman/Asia News Network)
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