Indian Scholar Who Criticized Worship of Idols Is Killed
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Version 0 of 1. NEW DELHI — An Indian scholar whose criticism of idol worship had angered religious groups was fatally shot Sunday, the police said. The killing of the scholar, Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi, drew immediate comparisons to the 2013 murder of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, who spent decades debunking gurus, sorcerers, healers and godmen. Two men entered the home of Mr. Kalburgi on Sunday morning, opened fire and fled on a motorcycle, according to Ravindra Prasad, the police commissioner in Dharwad, a town in the state of Karnataka in southern India. A neighbor, Nagaraj Tigade, said he helped take Mr. Kalburgi, 77, to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. The police said they did not yet know the motive behind the killing. “Right now there is no breakthrough,” Mr. Prasad said. Mr. Kalburgi, who taught classes in the Kannada language at Kannada University in northern Karnataka and was a former vice chancellor of the university, became the target of protests and threats last year, when he spoke out against idol worship and superstition at a public event. A religious activist filed a complaint in June of last year accusing him of “offending religious sentiments,” according to Hindustan Times. In 1989, Mr. Kalburgi angered some followers of the Lingayat Hindu sect over his assessment, in a scholarly work, of the sect’s founder. As the criticism escalated to denunciations and then threats, Mr. Kalburgi eventually renounced his findings. According to The International Business Times, an Indian publication, Mr. Kalburgi said at the time: “I did it to save the lives of my family. But I also committed intellectual suicide on that day.” Mr. Tigade said that Mr. Kalburgi had been under police protection for a time after rocks were thrown at his home on several occasions. Mr. Kalburgi discontinued the protection several months ago, and had not expressed concern lately, Mr. Tigade added. But Mr. Prasad, the commissioner, said that Mr. Kalburgi had refused police protection altogether. Told that a neighbor had seen officers keeping watch over Mr. Kalburgi’s home, Mr. Prasad refused further comment. Dr. Dabholkar, 67, had received numerous threats from Hindu far-right groups and been beaten by followers of angry gurus. In August 2013, he was walking across a bridge in Pune, where he lived, when he was shot at point-blank range by two men who then drove off on a motorbike. No one has been charged with his murder. |