Bangaluru: MM Kalburgi, an outspoken Indian rationalist scholar and college professor who had drawn the ire of right wing groups for denouncing superstition and idol worship as “meaningless ritual” and was shot dead on Sunday at his home.
During a seminar, in June 2014, Kalburgi had denounced idol worship as a “meaningless ritual”, angering Sangh parivar elements.
He further added, “One can even urinate on idols”, while quoting from a distinguished Kannada scholar Professor U.R. Ananthamurthy’s work.
In the work, the Jnanpith award winning litterateur, Ananthamurthy had narrated how he had pissed on an idol to prove that the idol had no powers and to rid himself of the fear induced by his traditional upbringing.
Kalburgi’s daughter Roopadarshi told the Hindustan Times newspaper that “There was a threat to my father from groups that couldn’t digest his views on caste and communalism. The role of these groups should be probed.”