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Beautiful article. Please bear with my thread with somewhat disconnect thoughts: https://twitter.com/ranjini_basu/status/1329169873767784448
So many of the names of activists and scholars here are Maharashtrian! Maharashtra is very understudied in the areas of modernity and religiosity. If we paid more attention to it we could have a more complete understanding of faith and reason in India, challenging our politics.
The rationalists did irreplaceable work in the public disproving of miracles. There is so much value in shaking people out of the habit of falling for obscurantism and sophistry. We should at least try when we can.
Side rant: this fight existed under relatively secular governments and it exists now. The idea that the evil of a Hindutva state cannot be defeated temporarily without winning the fight against conservatism is ridiculous. Sorry for not being polite about this.
To win political battles of urgency - to prevent mass death and incarceration - you have to build coalitions and engage with people who are unwilling to give up conservatism. This is really simple and doesn't need to be confounded.
