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Spirits and demons are only projections of man's own emotional impulses. (Totem and Taboo, Freud, 1913)
Failure in love, evil-eye of the enemy, lack of progeny, loss in business, alcoholism of husband, dispute of property, daughters marriage, neighbours' envy … all problems solved! Contact the famous Tantrik Mia Abu Hasan aka Bangali Baba! In town just for ten days.
Pamphlets, wall writings and announcements on a megaphone like the above are fairly common not only in little moffusil towns and villages dotted across the Indian sub-continent, but in big metropolitan towns with glitzy malls, multiplexes, MacDonalds and information technology (IT) centers. The Drugs and Magic Remedies Act enacted doubtless as a result of the pernicious Western influence lies in a corner, and from all accounts babas, tantriks, pirs are flourishing as people flock to seek solutions.
It is not just ignorant masses flocking, scientists can be found performing pujas at the time of eclipses pleading for Shani (Saturn) to release the moon. The radical science-teaching program started by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Kishore-Bharti in central India with the hope that the scientific temper inculcated in children would lead them to a questioning of social inequities, found that pre-dominantly the curiosity remained compartmentalized and did not result in a movement for egalitarian social change.
Nehru's vision of modern India with his famous “dams are modern temples” is reflected in the fundamental duty of every citizen to develop a scientific temper and spirit of enquiry under the Constitution. Dozens of engineering colleges, science institutes, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), medical colleges, research bodies are scattered through the length and breadth of India along with temples, mosques, dargahs and gurudwaras. Mythology and history coalesce in secular India. At times, archaeological evidence looks like a bit player in comparison to the power of myths and legends.
The Government of