It is with great sadness that we report the death of Premanand, the leading Indian campaigner against superstition. He died on Sunday 4 October 2009 after a long battle with cancer, which he fought with grim determination. Roy Brown writes: “Premanand was an inspiration to the entire Humanist movement. I will never forget the first time I saw his anti-superstition show – in Mumbai at the World Humanist Congress in 1999, It was truly sensational.
“Premanand dedicated his life to the elimination of superstition. He exposed the tricks of the godmen by demonstrating that they were no more than simple conjuring with a little applied science. His exposure of Sai Baba would have led to that charlatan’s arrest, trial and conviction in any country where the politicians and judicial system were not mired in the very superstition Premanand fought to eliminate.
“He was the founder of the Indian anti-superstition movement and of FIRA: the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, now so ably led by Narendra Nayak, which grows from strength to strength the length and breadth of India.
“Premanand’s work lives on and will continue to be an inspiration to all those working to liberate India from the Dark Age of the godmen.”