Kawaljeet Kaur

Atheist Activist

Dr. Kawaljeet Kaur is the Managing Trustee of the Buddhiwadi Foundation, a registered, non-profit, educational trust for promoting rationalism, humanism and atheism. She is one of the founder members of Bihar Buddhiwadi Samaj (Bihar Rationalist Society), which is a membership organization affiliated to the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). Dr. Kawaljeet is presently the General Secretary and Treasurer of Bihar Buddhiwadi Samaj. She has represented the organization at the 14th IHEU World Congress held at Mumbai, India, from 10 to 14 January 1999. She delivered a talk at the Congress on "Cultural prerequisites of Freedom". Among other things she has clearly declared in her talk:

"Traditional religious ideas like god and fate, which deny freedom and responsibility, are not compatible with the culture of freedom... We must adopt logical and scientific thinking, and get rid of erroneous ideas like god and fate if we are to develop a culture of freedom."

Several letters, reports, articles and interviews of Dr. Kawaljeet have been published in different popular magazines and newspapers, including leading newspapers published from Patna. She is a regular contributor to Buddhiwadi, the Hindi quarterly published by Buddhiwadi Foundation. In one of her articles titled "How I became a Rationalist" she says:

"Many a times in past, when I declared that I was an atheist, people used to ask whether I believed in good human conduct or not! I was very much amused by such questions. I believe that blind belief in god obstructs the growth of knowledge and morality. Ethics ought to be independent of religion. A person can become good only if she or he is free from the fear of god."

Dr. Kawaljeet's brief biography and her articles "Cultural prerequisites of Freedom" and "How I became a Rationalist" are available on the web site of the Buddhiwadi Foundation. It is also possible to search for her through Yahoo.