Narendra Dabholkar, Dabholkar Trust
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A profile
The Times of India, Jun 11, 2016
Ganesh Kumar, Radha Udayakumar
Atheist and rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar was shot in the back of the head from close-range and in broad daylight by motorcycle-borne assailants when he was on his morning walk. He was 67.
It was only in June 2016 that the CBI made the first arrest in this murder case, when it took Virendrasinh Tawde - a doctor and a member of the right-wing organization Hindu Janajagruti Samiti - into custody.
At the time of the murder, no one claimed responsibility for the attack and no eye-witnesses came forward. Still, there was wide speculation that Dr Dabholkar - who had received threats from right-wing groups - had become the target of religious fundamentalists. If he had, it wouldn't have been surprising. The website of a prominent organization that he founded lists astrology, vastu shastra and reincarnation as superstitions. Dr. Dabholkar was a veteran activist who dedicated his life to the eradication of social evils, religious superstition, and the caste system. He organized "innumerable campaigns to confront and expose hundreds of babas, buvas, tantriks, mantriks, ammas, matas and bogus doctors and brought them to book", his organization's website says. He also edited a magazine, Sadhana, a Marathi weekly.
The CBI says it found "strong" evidence of Virendrasinh Tawade's guilt. Investigators say they have proof that Tawade was communicating by e-mail with Sarang Akolkar, a fugitive who was implicated in the 2009 Goa bomb blast case, and who - like Tawade - is a member of the Sanathan Sastha - an organization that has been accused of aiming to set up a Hindu state in India, and that both the AAP and the CPI have said should be banned. When the murder occurred, Dr. Dabholkar was profiled in prominent newspapers and magazines - including the Economist and the New York Times - but he'd been largely forgotten, until Friday, that is. Who was this man that allegedly so irked so-called religious fanatics?
Driven by conviction
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar hailed from Satara, Maharashtra. In an autobiographical essay published on the website of his organization, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, the activist wrote that he had trained to be a doctor, and had had also been a national and international kabbadi player. No specific event had pushed him to take up social work, he said. He was driven by his own "convictions," and believed in "perseverance" and in using "pure and clean means" to achieve his ends. During his time, this tireless advocate of rationalism made some influential enemies. When he asked that women be allowed to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, he faced "a backlash from right-wing political groups and finally ended in court", a Hindu report said in 2013. It added that such groups often "disrupted" his press conferences. "In this movement, even expressing a thought is sometimes a fight," the doctor is quoted as saying in the report. In April, the Shingnapur temple agreed to allow women into the inner sanctum, breaking a four-century old tradition.
The crown in his legacy
Perhaps Dr. Dabholkar's most valuable contribution to Indian history was an unprecedented Maharashtra state law against black magic and other superstitious practices. The 2013 Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act was promulgated a day after the veteran activist was murdered, and an entire decade after he had first drafted the Bill in 2003. The Bill had been altered 24 times since it was first introduced, and had faced opposition in the past, even from some political parties. However, it was hailed in 2013 as "a fitting tribute to Dabolkhar" by Prithviraj Chauhan, the then-Maharashtra chief minister. Within eighteen months of its enactment, the law was invoked in as many as a 150 cases, most of which involved female victims.
The details of some of these cases are chilling. -A Nashik family was caught red-handed trying to bury their children to unleash the power of a mantra.
-A girl was sexually assaulted by a Nagpur baba promising to cure a disease with his supernatural powers.
-A woman suffered sexual explotation at the hands of a Malegaon baba, who also tempted her with the prospect of vast riches - for a goodly sum of Rs 3 lakh, of course.
An ongoing struggle
Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) - which Dr. Dabholkar founded in 1989 - is still active. Its website contains articles on superstitions and the scientific temper, and describes the organization's ongoing fight against irrationality and psychological exploitation: MANS publishes books, and conducts exams, and training sessions to help children think scientifically, promotes inexpensive wedding ceremonies in Jotirao Phule's Satyashodak tradion, and continues to work with educational institutions, the media, and political bodies to expose charlatans and self-ordained godmen.
"It has been a long struggle to imbibe rationality in the minds of people. But we have made a start, thanks to the sacrifice of Narendra Dabholkar," activist and eminent scholar Vidya Bal told a convention of MANS workers in 2015.
Parivartan Trust
Kimaya Café
As in 2023
Anuradha Mascarenhas, May 24, 2023: The Indian Express
“Me… I am like this only… the battle still on in my own mind… I stand in one corner… waiting for justice — a helping hand, perhaps.” These lines, written in Marathi, is a cry from the heart of 34-year-old Lalit Deshmukh, who lives with schizophrenia and has been encouraged to use poetry as a form of therapy.
A year ago, Deshmukh’s collection of 34 poems was published by Parivartan Trust, which was founded by anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar who was killed in 2013 and is now being run by his son Dr Hamid Dabholkar.
Today, the Trust has given Deshmukh a new responsibility, along with three others battling the same severe mental disorder: running its newly set up Kimaya Cafe in the heart of Pune.
Formally launched on Tuesday, this small cafe near the Pune Municipal Corporation building, with the wall leading to it plastered with motifs of helping hands, serves packaged snacks, water bottles, and tea and coffee. Also on the menu: infuse a sense of self-confidence among persons with schizophrenia and help them deal with day-to-day jobs and manage an enterprise.
“We wanted to ensure that the project is a sustainable one that can help them run the show,” Hamid Dabholkar, a well-known mental health professional, told The Indian Express.
The backbone of the cafe is the Kiran support group under the Trust, which for the past six years have enabled more than 200 persons with mental illness to find jobs at bakeries and shopping malls. “But we felt a need to further boost the recovery of these patients by helping them support an independent venture,” said Hamid.
It’s a no-profit no-loss initiative built with help from CSR funds, mainly from Pune-headquartered Bajaj Auto, says Reshma Kachare, coordinator of the Trust. “The main aim is to bring them back into the mainstream. This is why we had a formal launch ahead of World Schizophrenia Day (May 24),” she said.
“We do not describe them as Manorugna (mentally ill) but as Manas Mitra (friends of the mind),” said Brahmanath Neelkanth, a support officer who helps identify employment opportunities for those under the Trust’s umbrella.
Kimaya, in Marathi, means miraculous or magical. And at the cafe, Kachare points to the poet Deshmukh, who “has come a long way” since he dropped out of school as a “troubled” 13-year-old boy. “His mother had a less severe form of schizophrenia and so his family could immediately start treatment. But it took a long time for him to stop the voices inside his head. Medication can treat the symptoms but what is needed is a platform that can encourage social interaction and bring them back into the mainstream,” Kachare said.
Deshmukh started participating in activities of a daycare centre run by the Trust, with his father, a retired bank manager, accompanying him to the bus stand every day and waiting for his return. “Now I take the bus on my own to the cafe. I even go to shops to purchase material required at the cafe,” said Deshmukh as he proudly signed his collection of poems “Majhiya Mana” (My Mind) and placed it on the counter to be sold for Rs 50.
His colleague Nilesh Panse says he learned to face labels early in life. “I was referred to as the boy who was angry all the time,” said Panse with a wry smile before getting up from his stool to attend to a customer.
Panse’s father Shrikant, who is an active member of the support group, says his son had to quit jobs at IT firms every two years due to lack of adherence to medication. “When the symptoms got worse, the Trust played a huge role in giving parents like me deeper insight into the illness and how to learn to live with this condition. Going to work has given Nilesh a routine that has helped him focus better,” said Shrikant.
For 41-year-old Shilpa Dhamande, a divorcee living with schizophrenia, it was not easy moving from Nagpur to Pune. But with her brother’s family standing strong, she has found a new life and routine: Step out at 7 am, take the No.110 bus to the cafe — and turn on the gas stove for the first cup of morning tea at Kimaya Cafe.
Hamid Dabholkar, meanwhile, prefers not to talk about his own story of loss and recovery.
His father was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants in Pune on August 20, 2013. Following a CBI investigation, charges were framed in September 2021 against five accused including an ENT surgeon and a Mumbai-based lawyer. All these accused, according to the CBI, are allegedly linked to the radical outfit Sanatan Sanstha. The case is currently being heard by a special court in Pune.
The 2013 murder and the 2024 verdict
Vishwas Kothari & Aseem Shaikh, May 11, 2024: The Times of India
Pune: Pulling up CBI and Pune Police while pronouncing the verdict in the Dabholkar murder case, special judge Prabhakar P Jadhav said “they have to introspect whether it is their failure (to nail the mastermind) or deliberate inaction on their part due to influence by any person in power”.
The special Pune court found Sachin Prakashrao Andure (33) and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar (28) guilty of shooting Dabholkar (69) to death around 7.20am on Aug 20, 2013. He was on his morning walk through Vitthal Ramji Shinde bridge near Omkareshwar temple in Pune’s Deccan Gymkhana area. Besides getting a life term, the killers were convicted under Section 3 (25) of the Arms Act and fined Rs 5 lakh each. Apart from ENT surgeon Virendrasinh Sharadchandra Tawde, the court acquitted Mumbai lawyer Sanjiv Gajanan Punalekar and Vikram Vinay Bhave, both of whom were accused of assisting the shooters.
“The prosecution has not established beyond doubt the allegation of conspiracy against Tawde and, hence, he is acquitted. There was suspicion about Bhave and Punalekar, but there is no evidence against them. Hence, they are also being acquitted,” special judge Jadhav said.
“Admittedly, except for ideological differences with deceased the accused Nos 2 (Andure) and 3 (Kalaskar) didn’t have any personal enmitywith him. The murder was committed with a very well-prepared plan and exe- cuted by accused Nos 2 and 3. Considering the economic and social status of accused Nos 2 and 3, they are not the masterminds of the crime. The mastermind of the crime is someone else.”
The court termed the approach of the chargesheeted accused and the defence counsels in prolonging the trial “very strange and condemnable”. “From unnecessary and irrelevant lengthy cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses, and even in the final argument, an attempt was made to tarnish the image of the deceased. At the same time, the approach of the defence was to justify the killing of Dabholkar by labelling him anti-Hindu,” the verdict states.
The court held that the charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act had not been proven, and there was negligence on the part of the authorities in granting sanction under the legislation.
Special public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi, who represented CBI, told TOI, “We will challenge Tawde’s acquittal in HC and take a call on challenging Bhave and Punalekar’s acquittal after examining the Pune court’s order.” S R Singh, who was CBI’s investigating officer in the case but has since retired, said, “CBI should file an appeal as the Pune court’s judgment will have a bearing on the murder cases of rationalists Govind Pansare, M Suryanshu Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.” Punalekar’s lawyer Suvarna Avhad-Vast said there was “no evidence against our client, but still he was falsely implicated”. The counsel said “his innocence now stands proved”.
Defence lawyers Virendra Ichalkaranjikar and Prakash Salsingikar, too, said they would move HC against the conviction. “The three acquittals show there was something wrong with CBI’s investigation. We will be challenging the convictions on the grounds of insufficient evidence. We have reasons to believe that the evidence against the shooters is fabricated,” Ichalkaranjikar said.
In a nutshell
From: May 11, 2024: The Times of India
See graphic:
The 2013 murder of Narendra Dabholkar and the 2024 verdict
