Bal Thackeray: Identity Politics to the Fore

Ram Puniyani The declaration of demise of Bal Thackeray (November 17, 2012) has brought the Mumbai city to a complete halt. Most of the news channels are relaying his death procession round the clock and having discussion about his tall stature most of the time. His grip on the city had been more or less complete from last three decades in particular. The methods he employed had some supporters on one side but for others it filled the people with fear, as his followers had been openly indulging...

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The Ontology and Epistemology of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya  What are the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata? They may be stated as follows: The whole of the material world, including the human body, is made of four basic elements, namely, earth, air, fire and water; there can be no consciousness without the living body; the spirit has no extracorporeal existence and, far from being imperishable, it perishes with the death of the body. As a natural corollary to this ontological position, all...

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What the Cārvākas Originally Meant: More on the Commentators on the Cārvākasutra

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya  Abstract: This essay proposes to review the problems of reconstructing and interpreting ancient texts, particularly philosophical commentaries, in the context of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata system of India. Following an overview of the Indian philosophical text tradition and the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvākas, three cases are discussed: (1) when there is no invariance in the text and the commentary, (2) when commentators differ among...

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Perversity of Religious Belief

It is often asserted, even in the face of contrary evidence, by the believers of course, that the ‘truly religious’ people do not do any ham to others; that the terrorists are a misguided lot; that those who incite communal violence are in the grip of momentary passion; that the believers who commit human sacrifice and those who refuse to provide proper medical assistance to their nears and dears on religious ground are illiterate people; that these ‘aberrations’ cannot be used as a yardstick...

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Science versus Miracles: Ringing a bell without its rod

B Premanand A godman in Madras, Pandrimalai Swami (now dead), was caught with 76lakhs of rupees unaccounted money in 1976. He was a clerk in the Registrar’s office and resigned when he found that it is more paying to be an astrolo­ger and a tantrik. No one goes to them unless he has a problem. When people approached him, he told them that their stars were in very bad position. So unless they propitiated the Nava Grahas (9 planets) they would suffer. To see if his prediction was correct he...

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Abraham Kovoor’s Case Diary: Resurrection of Vasanth Babu Rao

Abraham Kovoor The following news item appeared in many Indian newspapers:- "Vasanth Babu Rao, 48, of Poona was a consumptive and a diabetic. On January 6th 1965 he had a severe chest pain, and was rushed to a nursing home in the city, but died shortly after admission. The doctor at the nursing home certified that the death was due to cardiac failure. Later in the evening, the brothers of Rao removed the body in a taxicab. About one mile outside the city the taxi experienced...

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