KOZHIKODE: Despite threatening calls and opposition from staunch religious followers, over three hundred people gathered at the Mananchira Sports Council Hall to attend the first ever ‘Maha Sammelanam’, conducted by the social media religion, ‘Dinkoists’ here on Sunday.
The programme was started with a ‘Nayaprakhyapanam’, which explained the goals and intentions of the parody religion Dinkoism. The programme was conducted by thirty active ‘Dinkoists’. Though there is no official registration, the parody religion caught its attention entirely through Facebook.
Rakesh Usha Raghunath (‘Samoosa Thrikonadhyaya’, his ‘religious’ name), one of the coordinators of the event, said that Dinkoism is not just a satirical religion but also a socio-political movement that introduces a alternative system through activism and political intervention.
“We even received many threatening phone calls from countries like Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and other places. Fundamentalists are really afraid of this new wave which may rephrase all the conventional thoughts of the current religions,” says Rakesh.
This is not their first public appearance coming out of the walls of Facebook.
“We have already conducted a ‘Mooshikasangamam’ and a procession to a restaurant in Kochi,” Rakesh added.
The programme was started with an introduction speech by a dinkoist, followed by ‘Chakkayeru’ where participants throw paper balls to a jackfruit. A satirical lecture on ‘Dinkopanishad’ and ‘Tapioca Song’ were also conducted in the function.
Now, the Facebook ‘religion’ has more than one lakh of followers. The followers of the religion claims that Dinkoism is widely accepted in foreign countries also. United Nation Environment Programme Disaster Risk Education chief Murali Thummarukudy is one of the followers among the other eminent personalities.