Narendra Nayak: award-winning humanist with secular values

PROFESSOR NARENDRA NAYAK

Narendra Nayak works full-time as a propagator of the scientific spirit and an exposer of religious and pseudo-scientific myths, diverse Indian superstition and guru fraud – especially alleged miracles. He is constantly on the move throughout India visiting branches of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, of which he is the National President. Under its umbrella are several scores of rationalist, humanist and atheist groups in India. For this work he received this year a top award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Since he retired from his university post in 2011 to devote himself to the national rationalist effort he has been making unprecedented progress in training potential future leaders of his organization – not only in schools and colleges but with organizing rationalists, skeptics, free-thinkers, secularists and atheists who are becoming public speakers, researchers, and public demonstrators of fraudulent guru methods. He is also the head of the Indian Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

His services are in such great demand from across the subcontinent that he is seldom at home for long. His remit also occasionally includes countries around the world, either in personal visits, talks and demonstrations or in the shape of appearances on international TV and other media. Among the many programs are his demonstrations of fraud on the Discovery Channel, and Is It Real? by National Geographic, The Secret Swami by the BBC and dozens of Indian channels (originally from Mangalore,he  fortunately speaks nine languages). He was inspired by his predecessor, founder of the Indian Scepti, Basava Premanand, whose own efforts earned him a national award.Premanand was a major whistle-blower on Sathya Sai Baba’s involvement in sexual abuse, murders, bogus miracles and many other deceptions of the public.

A postgraduate in Medical biochemistry, Narendra Nayak was an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Centre for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore until the 25th November 2006 when he quit the job to continue full-time his work in the field of the rationalist movement. He is the founder of Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association and has been its Secretary since 1976.