How to prevent another Hathras? Our Constitution holds the answer

“When encouraging blind faith to gain electoral victories becomes more important than people’s lives, God will keep dying again and again even in his own country,” wrote journalist Gauri Lankesh in her column for Bangalore Mirror on April 11, 2016. She was referring to a stampede at the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala.The reason to revisit her thoughts is yet another stampede, this time in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, that claimed 121 lives.The stampede, which according to some accounts was triggered by devotees of Bhole Baba rushing to collect ‘holy’ mud touched by the tyres of the car he was leaving a ‘satsang’ in, has once again sparked a debate around superstitions and, of course, better crowd management.While better crowd management techniques and a robust regulatory framework is necessary (in Hathras, over 200,000 devotees were allowed into a venue meant for just 20,000 and the ‘satsang’ was solely managed by Baba’s private army with no involvement of the district administration), what is also necessary is a deeper introspection into what brings people in such large numbers to such events. We must seek long-term solutions to prevent such human losses and progress towards a safer and more rational society.The Constitution of India guarantees the freedom to practice a religion of one’s choice and participate in activities — whether individual or collective — connected to it. This freedom is enshrined in Articles 25 to 28. But then enshrined in the same Constitution is also the promise of building a nation that is led by scientific temper and a culture of healthy inquiry. medium111637918For decades now, as India has developed into a society that takes pride in its technological advancements and dreams of putting an Indian on the moon, it has also become a country of ‘godmen’ and ‘godwomen’ who claim, among other ‘chamatkars’, to be able to bring the dead “back to life” and order the sun to rise at a “specified time”.Jawaharlal Nehru addressed this dichotomy and its remedy through the cultivation of scientific temper in his seminal work, The Discovery of India, where he wrote: “Very different is the method of religion (from scientific method). Concerned as it is principally with the religions beyond the reach of objective inquiry, it relies on emotion and intuition. And then it applies this method to everything in life, even to those things which are capable of intellectual inquiry and observation. Organised religion, allying itself to theology and often more concerned with its vested interests than with things of the spirit, encourages a temper which is very opposite to that of science. It produces narrowness and intolerance, credulity and superstition, emotionalism and irrationalism. It tends to close and limit the mind of man, and to produce a temper of a dependent, unfree person.”At the 47th session of the Indian Science Congress, Nehru observed: “My own main interest in science arises naturally from the social consequences of science than science itself. We have to face major political, economic, and in the main, social problems of a growing country and of raising the level of hundreds of millions of our people. It is clear we cannot solve these problems without taking recourse to science and its application.”India is the first and the only country in the world to sanctify scientific temper through its Constitution. Article 51A states that “it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of enquiry and reform”. medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/efhkkpN9FoI?si=CY1UXOkccUjPpw-hRationalist Narendra Dabholkar, who devoted his life to find answers to why religion holds such a sway over such a large number of people, wrote: “What is true religion? What is merely a pretence of faith? What is the substance and what is the surface? Which conceits should we let go of? While we may acknowledge the benefits of faith, can we not see that it is harmful to completely lose yourself in religion? In fact, all these questions have been answered eloquently by saints and social reformers. Saint Tukaram did not say ‘pilgrimages mean nothing. God is in behaviour’ for no reason. Saints of all religions have appealed to people to look beyond ritual-fasting and prayers, towards the religion of humanity.”Dabholkar also drew a contrast between the true practice of faith and “bogus money-making schemes”. “The journey of a religious life goes through the stages of practicing the faith, trying to be closer to God, living spiritually, seeking to attain salvation and, in some cases, renouncing everything for it. This is a deeply personal and challenging path. One needs to think a hundred times before taking each step. But this sort of adherence to religion is rare, and there is immense pressure to not point this out. Even the best get fooled into believing in bogus money-making schemes that masquerade as noble religious pursuits. When devotion becomes a commodity on display, all common sense is left behind.”Dabholkar also clarified that the anti-superstition movement has never worked for or against any particular religion or community. “We take offence to harmful practices and superstitions in every religion. We sincerely respect morally motivated religious behaviour.” medium111637999Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalists Association, believes education is the only answer to superstitions and irrational behaviour. “No legislation can be a substitute for education. To develop a scientific temper we need education, but in the true sense of the word, and not the literacy passed off as education today,” he said.“Teaching the younger generation to think rationally, and question received wisdom would be the best solution. We have engineers, doctors, lawyers and scientists who are literate and rather knowledgeable in their professional fields, but who do not think rationally about what they encounter in the other aspects of their lives.” He explains that all religions have dogmas which are beyond questions and that itself is a negation of human rights.Nayak follows the legacy of Kerala-based sceptic B Premanand who was known as ‘godmen debunker’. Nayak says that the nexus of godmen, politics and corruption is an open secret. “We do not need messiahs of any type to solve our problems, even if people believe we need one desperately. It is necessary for us to undergo an evolutionary process by which the citizen becomes more proactive and conscious of their rights and duties.”A curious nature and the ability to think will encourage one to question and not believe anything without evidence or a reason. It will, then, inculcate scientific temper and push people to follow humanism, respect social justice, and support freedom of expression and secularism as enshrined in the Constitution.There are numerous initiatives across the country promoting rationalism. The Breakthrough Science Society, The All India People’s Science Network, The Federation of Indian Rationalists Association, Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, Marathi Vidnyan Parishad and Rationalist Foundation are only some of them.Controlling crowds or arresting a few so-called ‘godmen’ will remain a short-term solution for preventing a tragedy like Hathras. It must all start in school.