ABSTRACT
The battle to decide how empirically observed phenomena, processes and events emerge as oppositional in practice—one representing scientific rationality, the other pre-logical or irrational—is being wrestled with in a broader public arena. Among the most prominent are the many rationalist, atheist, sceptic, secularist and scientific organisations in India. Their broad commitment is towards developing ‘scientific temper’ and humanism, promoting tolerance and critical thinking, as well as campaigning for women’s rights, secularisation, and freedom of expression, and fighting against the caste system, superstition, pseudoscience, and child marriage. The focus lies with Chhattisgarh’s Andh Sraddha Nirmulan Samiti or the Blind Faith Eradication Committee, and its founder and president Dr Dinesh Mishra. His local organisation replicates those rationalist societies found all over the globe engaging in ‘secular social work’. The Hindi word andhvisvas (superstition) is unpacked to show that local understandings shift between the certain and the questionable. Thus, when rationalists ‘stage science’ they do not inevitably reveal ‘truth’ as the opposite of trickery. The fight to inculcate ‘scientific temper’ to rid Chhattisgarh of superstition and witchcraft accusations sits alongside the current resurgence of ‘unscientific beliefs’ being promoted by the current government of India.
