A. B. Shah
A. B. Shah (1920–1981) was the founder-president of the Indian Secular Society. The organization had its headquarters in Pune in Shah's lifetime but has now shifted to
Biography
A. B. Shah was born in 1920 in a Digambar
Indian Secular Society
The Indian Secular Society is a non-political organisation, which works for promoting secular human values in Indian Society. Shah has paid much attention to Islam and to the problems of Indian Muslims in his works. Hamid Dalwai played an important role in the formation of the organization. The foundation-conference of ISS was presided by Prof. G.D. Parikh, who was an associate of M. N. Roy, a prominent Indian humanist of Twentieth Century. As elaborated by A.B. Shah himself, the Indian Secular Society works mainly at the level of ideas and communication. It has tried to document and discuss secularist and obscurantist trends in Indian society. Shah was also opposed to
Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal
In 1970, Hamid Dalwai and A.B. Shah, founded Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal in co-operation with the Indian Secular Society. This organisation provided a forum for secular Muslims for reforming and modernising Muslims in India. Dalwai was opposed to the notion that religion could help in encouraging modernisation and secularism. He considered "religious reformation" as an anachronistic concept. He wanted religion to be confined to its "proper sphere", that is, the personal relationship between the individual and his God. According to Dalwai, trying to justify social reform in the name of religion was counterproductive and would only strengthen those who were in a position to claim traditional authority to interpret the scriptures. Hence, Dalwai was in favour of making a clear distinction between religious revivalism camouflaged as a reform movement, and a renaissance based on reason and knowledge. Both Shah and Dalwai faced threats from conservative Hindus and Muslims for the reform-work they were doing.
Some publications of the Indian Secular Society
A. B. Shah, Religion and Society in India
A. B. Shah, What Ails Our Muslims?
Narsingh Narain, A Commonsense Humanism and other Essays
V. K. Sinha (ed.), The Reason Case
Jawaharlal Nehru, What is Religion?
Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian
A. Solomon, Rationalism and the Humanist Outlook
Paul Kurtz (ed.), A Secular Humanist Declaration
Finngeir Hiorth, Introduction to Humanism
Finngeir Hiorth, Atheism in India
Finngeir Hiorth, Introduction to Atheism
Finngeir Hiorth, Ethics for Atheists
Books by A. B. Shah
Scientific Method (Bombay: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,1964)
Religion and Society in India (Pune: Indian Secular Society, 1981)
What Ails our Muslims? (Pune: Indian Secular Society, 1981)
Challenges to Secularism Planning for Democracy and Other Essays
References
- ^ "Humanist Manifesto II". American Humanist Association. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
Hiorth Finngier. Introduction to Humanism (Pune: Indian Secular Society, 1996)
Sinha V. K. "Indian Secular Society: The Founding Years 1968-1972" in The Secularist, no. 145, January–February, 1994)
"A. B. Shah" in Rationalism, Humanism and Atheism in Twentieth Century Indian Thought by Dr. Ramendra