Sanal Edamaruku new president of Indian Rationalist Association

Sanal Edamaruku

Mr Sanal Edamaruku, well known campaigner against superstition and miracle claims and spokesperson of rationalism and scientific temper, has been elected new president of the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA).

Indian Rationalist Association is one the largest and most vibrant freethought organizations in the world, with several branches and thousands of members. Mr.Edamaruku has been serving the association as general secretary since 1983 and spearheaded the anti-superstition march that covered thousands of villages in the 1990s. He received national media attention for exposing and explaining several sensational "miracles" that had caught the imagination of major sections of the population, including the milk drinking Ganesh statues and the monkey man.

Mr Edamaruku lives in New Delhi and had education at the University of Kerala and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.

Mr. Edamaruku has been convener of three International Rationalist Conferences, held in India in 1995, 2000 and 2002 and is a frequent speaker in international conferences in Europe and USA. Since 1998, he is president of the Rationalist International and editor of the Rationalist International Bulletin with online editions in English, French, Spanish, German and Finnish.

The Indian Rationalist Association has been founded in 1949 at Madras. Its leaders included Dr R P Paranjpye (former vice-chancellor of Bombay University), S Ramanathan (former education minister of Madras), M N Roy, C N Annadurai (former chief minister of Tamil Nadu), Avula Sambasiva Rao (former chief justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court), H Narasimaiah (former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University), M V Ramamurthy (veteran lawyer from Andhra Pradesh) and Joseph Edamaruku (eminent writer and journalist from Kerala).

Indian Rationalist Association’s council meeting elected a new national council comprising of 45 members, and a 9 member executive committee. The new national secretaries of the national council are K G Gopal (Uttar Pradesh), Reghu Lathur (Maharashtra) and Kalliyoor Prasannaraj (Kerala).