Martyr Davolkar Light House Of Rational Thought

Martyr Davolkar Light House Of Rational Thought

                             Sankar pal

The killing of a reason, an attempt to suppress a scientific thought today, on August 20, 2013. On this day, Raja Rammohan Roy formed the Brahmo Samaj by fighting against religious bigotry. And on that day, when the country was at the peak of progress using science, it was killed by fanatical miscreants. Doctor, philanthropist, rationalist, leader of anti-superstition movement, Narendra Achyut Dabholkar. He wanted to remove superstitions from the society and make people scientifically minded. Seeing his activities, religious workers were amazed, the blood of a rationalist was dyed in the hands of fanatical Hindus. They thought The rational thinking may have been over, but soon proved wrong, the streets of that day saw a wave of protest in the entire city of Pune.

The way Davalkar thought about the society, maybe the people who fought for livelihood were afraid to walk on that path, many people chose the life of compromise. Davalkar's path of struggle widened the path of his life. In 1980, Dabholkar fully engaged himself as a social worker. He became associated with the justice movement on the ideology of "Baba Adva" - "Ek Gaon Ek Panotha" (One village - One well) and gradually became the main face of the anti-superstition movement and with the "Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti". Later in 1989, he established 'Maharashtra Andhasraddha Nirmoon Samity'. How many hypocritical saints deceive the weak minded, superstitious and superstitious people through hypocrisy in the name of religion and salvation. His organization started working to resist them, prevent the spread of superstition in the society and eliminate superstitions and develop a scientific mindset. Dabholkar started 225 such centers across Maharashtra in 25 years.

Wherever he got news, he used to reach the place of jharfunk, mantra and tantra and used to tear the veil of that understanding. For almost three decades, he unmasked these hypocritical paternalism. A social work center named 'Parivartan' was established in Satara with the aim of empowering the people of the marginalized sections of the society with interests, protection status and better life practices. In 2010, Dabholkar's 'Maharashtra Andha Shraddha Nirmulan Samiti' drafted the Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Bill. But Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena opposed the party. The reason being said it would be against Hindu cultural norms and traditions. But Dabholkar made it clear in a press conference that there is nothing about God and religion in this bill, the bill is not against the fundamental right of worship given in the constitution, it is to prevent deception and exploitation in the society. But surprisingly the ordinance was passed within four days of his murder. After this, his organization managed to pass another emergency bill to take away the powers of the 'Jat Panchayat'.

Narendra Dabholkar was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri in 2014 by the Government of India in recognition of his contribution as a philanthropist. The All India People's Science Network (AIPSN) has decided to observe Davolkar's death anniversary (August 20) as the National Science Temper Day.

Finally one word can be the death of a person but not the death of rational thought. The light of consciousness in that thought creates many more rational people in the society. Therefore, Davalkar is expressing that thought by becoming a lighthouse. May this be the promise on his Martyr's Day only if the superstition of the society is destroyed and the light of reason shines. It will be beneficial for the renaissance of the society.