It was a celebratory atmosphere at the Siddhartha Nagar graveyard on Friday with hundreds of people, most of them Dalits and also from socially and economically downtrodden sections, converging to commemorate Mahaparinirvan Divas of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and to reassert their struggle against blind faith and superstitious practices in society.
The people gathered at the Moudya Virodhi Sankalpa event, organised by the Vidyarthi Bandutva Vedike, prepared food at the graveyard and had their lunch there.
Sarangdhar Deshikendra Swami of Sarang Mutt in Srisailam participated in the unique event conveyed the message that death was a certainty and no superstitious belief should be attached with it. A graveyard should be freed of social stigma and superstitious beliefs, he added.
“The event was organised in a graveyard for the first time in Kalaburagi. We are inspired by the movement led by the former Minister Satish Jarkiholi, who continued to create awareness against superstitions through such movements,” Bandutva Vedike president Dinesh Doddamani said.
The day-long event included deliberations by religious heads and activists interspersed with the revolutionary songs rendered by cultural troupes,
Dalit leader Vital Doddamani said that blind faith can only be overcome through education and developing the scientific temper and mere legislation is not enough.
“Superstitions are harmful since they inactivate the reasoning capacity within us. we need to be vigilant and guard ourselves against such superstitions. We can pay the best tributes to Dr. Ambedkar only by following his ideologies and liberating society from social evils and exploitation,” Mr. Doddamani added.
Nagendra Jawali and Suresh Badiger said that the vedike would also spend the night in the graveyard.
