I ’m a non-believer. I’d like to say “atheist”, but for some reason, that word has acquired connotations well beyond its original, humble origins in Greek: ‘a theos’, without god. So let’s just say that I don’t believe in the existence of an omniscient deity or even an all encompassing, vaguely termed “energy” or “shakti” that pervades the universe and also has a peculiar interest in our lives. And I have a problem. Well, not an earth-shatteringly important problem, but a problem nevertheless.
My lack of belief is not respected. There. I’ve said it, but let me clarify. It’s not respect in the 1990s Kollywood potboiler-style Mariyaadhai sort of respect that drives heroes towards righteous violence. It’s more of a my-kind-does-not-really-exist sort of a deliberate oversight that peeves me to no end. But some background first.
In the West, atheism is a divisive term, a word that separates Darwinian, liberal, science lovers and Bible-thumping Christian conservatives. In India, however, the situation is far more obscure. While atheists in America publicly proclaim their lack of belief in an often angry, all-powerful, personal god and engage in public debate over the separation of religion and state, Indian atheists are, for most part, a rather small bunch, usually grizzled old men, usually from Kerala, content with forming “Rationalist” societies and exposing scams involving godmen and other con artists.
Does this mean that religion’s grip on the Indian populace is far stronger than in the west? Perhaps yes, but what is really odd is that one would assume that atheism as a personal philosophy would be better tolerated in pantheistic societies than in strongly monotheistic faiths like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. And India in particular has had the influence of early Buddhism, which interestingly is a faith that does not require the belief in an all-powerful anthropomorphic entity. Of course, over the millennia, Buddhists have ignored most of Gautama’s advice and ironically enough, deified the man himself, building temples and ritualising the faith to the point where his original message (“Question
everything”) has, more or less, been lost. Even more ironically so, the Charvaka school of Hindu philosophy is essentially an non-theistic school of thought. But we digress here. Let’s get back to our original point about why I, as an
Indian non-believer feel ignored.
But we must first try and understand the role of a non-believer in an ardently religious society like India. Unlike in the west, non-believers on an average are not militant. Barring the obvious polemic exceptions of E V R Periyaar who felt that breaking temple idols to prove the deity’s lack of omnipotence was a very radical thing to do, the average Indian non-believer does little more than voice his or her concern with a decibel volume that is rarely audible outside of his or her family and friends.
Don’t waste money on astrologers, numerology, vaastu or a thousand other religiously motivated pseudosciences is pretty much a summary of the Indian non-believer’s scope of operations on a daily basis. And families and friends usually pay no attention. And it is precisely this that peeves me. Here I am, just trying to point out that perhaps numerology is, scientifically speaking, bunkum, and all I ask for is a reasonable hearing, leave alone a rational debate.
For most part, family and friends rarely identify me as a non-believer, let alone call me the A-word. Apparently, non-believers are ignorant.
While in the west, it’s the “atheist, liberal elite”, back here, the general tone tends to be — “Oh. He’s not old enough to understand the spiritual significance of this Ganapati homam”.
I’ve had it. Let’s say I go to a temple, and stretch out my left hand to accept the teertham, I would usually get a look that suggests — “How dare you disrespect god with your sinistral limb?”.
So is it acceptable for me to get offended when there is an automatic, almost implicit assumption that I am religious? Can I say to the next person who offers me a vibhuti from a famous temple — “How dare you assume that I believe in the transfer of benison from deity to mortal through
sacred ash dispensed by a priest?”
Probably no, that would be ridiculous, and I suspect that I’ll continue to be ignored as long as I think so.