Irreligion in India

India has produced some notable atheist politicians and social reformers. Around 0.7 million people in India did not state their religion in the 2001 census and were counted in the "religion not stated" category. They constituted 0.06% of India's population. Their number has significantly increased four times, from 0.7 million in the 2001 census to 2.9 million in the 2011 census (0.24% of India's population) at an average annual rate of 15%. According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were non-religious, 3% were convinced atheists, and 3% were unsure or did not respond, while a demographic study by Cambridge University Press in 2004 found that around 2-6% of Indians identified as atheists or irreligious.

Indian History

Ancient India

Several śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-Mahavira), and these influenced both the āstika and nāstika traditions of Indian philosophy. Martin Wiltshire says that the Śramaṇa tradition grew in India over two stages: the Paccekabuddha stage was the tradition of the individual ascetic, and the Savaka stage was the tradition of the disciples. Buddhism and Jainism eventually grew out of these two stages as different religions. These traditions drew upon already established Brahmanical concepts, states Wiltshire, to formulate their own doctrines. Reginald Ray concurs that Śramaṇa movements already existed and were established traditions in pre-6th century BCE India, but disagrees with Wiltshire that they were nonsectarian before the arrival of Buddha.

Schools of Philosophy

In Indian philosophy, there are six major orthodox (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta, and five major heterodox (nāstika) schools of Śramaṇa —Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Ajñana, and Cārvāka. The four most studied Nāstika schools, those rejecting the doctrine of Vedas, are Jainism, Buddhism, Cārvāka, and Ājīvika.

Charvaka

There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world, Nor do the actions of the four classes, orders, etc., produce any real effect.

— from the Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha, attributed to Bṛhaspati

The Cārvāka school originated in India around the 6th century BCE. It is classified as a nāstika school. It is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement in ancient India. Followers of this school only accepted pratyakṣa (perception) as a valid pramāna (evidence). They considered other pramāna like śabda (testimony), upamāna (analogy), and anumāna (inference) as unreliable. As a result, perception could not support the existence of God or the soul (tman). They also considered everything to be made of four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The Cārvāka pursued enjoyment of life and the elimination of physical pain. So, they can be considered hedonistic. All of the original Cārvāka texts are considered lost. A much-quoted sūtra (Barhaspatya sutras) by Bṛhaspati, who is considered the founder of the school, is thought to be lost. The Tattvopaplavasiṃha by Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa (8th century CE) and the Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha by Madhavacarya (13th century) are considered important secondary Cārvāka texts.

Sāṃkhya

Sāṃkhya is an āstika school but has some atheistic elements. Sāṃkhya is a radically dualist philosophy. They believed that the two ontological principles, puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (matter), were the underlying foundation of the universe. The objective of life is considered to be the separation of pure consciousness from matter (kaivalya). The reasoning within this system led to the Nir-īśvara Sāṃkhya (Sāṃkhya without God) philosophy, which deemed the existence of God as unnecessary. There is the opposing reasoning that accepts God, called Sesvara Sāṃkhya (Sāṃkhya with God). Samkhya Karika (c. 350 CE) is the earliest known systematic text of this philosophy.

Mīmāṃsā

Mīmāṃsā (meaning exegesis) is also an āstika school. They believed the Vedas to be author-less and self-authenticating. They did not accept the Vedas as being composed by any ṛṣi (saint), they considered them to not be authored by anyone (apauruṣeya). They accepted the minor deities of the Vedas but resisted any notion of a Supreme Creator (Brahman). They only concentrated on upholding the ṛta (order) by following the duties of the Vedas. The foundational text of this school is the Mīmāṃsā Sutra by Jaimini (c. 200 BCE – 200 CE).

Ājīvika

Ājīvika is yet another nāstika school with an atheistic outlook. None of their scriptures survive, and there is some question as to whether or not the accounts of them in secondary sources (often hostile) are accurate. They believed in a naturalistic atomic theory and held that the consequences of natural laws led to a deterministic universe. They denied karma but upheld the ātman. They lived in ascetic communities and existed in southern India until at least the 14th century.

Buddhism and Jainism

Jainism rejects the idea of a creator deity responsible for the manifestation, creation, or maintenance of this universe. According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents (soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion) have always existed. Along with this, as 'universal natural laws govern all of the components and actions, an immaterial being like God cannot create a material being like the universe'. Jainism offers an elaborate cosmology, including heavenly beings (devas), but these beings are not viewed as creators; they are subject to suffering and change like all other living beings and must eventually die. Jains define godliness as the inherent quality of any soul characterised by infinite bliss, infinite power, Kevala Jñāna (pure infinite knowledge), and perfect peace. However, these qualities of a soul are subdued due to the karmas of the soul. One who achieves this state of soul through right belief, right knowledge and right conduct can be termed a god. This perfection of the soul is called kevalin. A soul thus becomes a liberated soul—liberated of miseries, cycles of rebirth, the world, karmas, and finally of the body as well. This is called moksha.

Gautama Buddha rejected the existence of a creator deity, refused to endorse many views on creation, and stated that questions on the origin of the world are not ultimately useful for ending suffering. Buddhism instead emphasises the system of causal relationships underlying the universe, pratītyasamutpāda, which constitutes the dhamma and source of enlightenment. No dependence of phenomena on a supernatural reality is asserted in order to explain the behaviour of matter.

Philosophers and ancient texts

Ajita Kesakambali was a materialist philosopher. He is mentioned in the Samaññaphala Sutta. He rejected gods, an afterlife and karma. Payasi is a character, referred to as a prince, who appears in the Buddhist text Digha Nikaya in the Payasi Sutta. He did not believe in rebirth or karma. He debated with Kassapa, a disciple of Buddha, and lost according to Buddhist sources.

Jabali's speech from the Ramayana

In the Hindu epic Ramayana (in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa), when Bharata goes to the forest to convince Rama to return home, he was accompanied by a sophist called Jabali ("जाबालिः"). Jabali uses nihilistic reasoning to convince Rama. He also says that rituals are a waste of food and scriptures were written by smart men so that people will give alms. Rama then calls him a deviant from the path of dharma ("धरमपथात"), refuses to accept his "nāstika" views and blames his own father for taking Jabali into service. He also equates the Buddha to a thief. On hearing Rama's retort, Jabali retracts his statements, saying that he was merely arguing like a nihilist. However, these verses referring to the Buddha are considered a later interpolation, as those verses use a different metre.

The Carvaka incident in the Mahabharata

A character described as a Carvaka briefly appears in the Mahabharata (in the Shanti Parva). As Yudhishthira enters the city of Hastinapur, a brahmin, referred to as Carvaka, accuses him of killing his own kinsmen and says that he would suffer for it. The accuser is revealed to be a rakshasa in disguise, who was a friend of Duryodhana. He had existed since the Satya Yuga by virtue of a boon from the god Brahma, that he could only be killed when he is showing contempt towards brahmins. He was killed by other brahmins by the chanting of sacred hymns and Yudhishthira was assured that his actions were within the kshatriya code. This event may be a possible denigration of the Carvaka philosophy.

Medieval India

In the 9th century CE, Jain philosopher Jinasena wrote the Mahapurana. The book contains the following often quoted words,

Some foolish men declare that a creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before creation? If you say he was transcendent then, and needed no support, where is he now?

This quote was also featured later in Carl Sagan's book, Cosmos. In the 14th century, philosopher Madhavacarya wrote the Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha, which is a compilation of all Indian philosophies, including Carvaka, which is described in the first chapter.

Modern India

19th century

Between 1882 and 1888, the Madras Secular Society published a magazine called The Thinker (Tattuvavivesini in Tamil) from Madras. The magazine carried articles written by anonymous writers and republished articles from the journal of the London Secular Society, which the Madras Secular Society considered itself affiliated to.

20th century

Twentieth century India too experienced multiple spiritualism activism trends which weighed in favor of spirituality over religion and rituals.

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973) was an atheist and rationalist leader of the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. His views on irreligion are based on the eradication of the caste system, thinking religion must be denied to achieve its obliteration.

Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (1902–1975), better known by his nom de guerre "Gora", was a social reformer, anti-caste activist, atheist and disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. He and his wife, Saraswathi Gora (1912–2006) who was also an atheist and social reformer, founded the Atheist Centre in 1940. The Atheist Centre is an institute working for social change. Gora expounded his philosophy of positive atheism as a way of life. He later wrote more about positive atheism in his 1972 book, Positive Atheism. Gora also organised the first World Atheist Conference in 1972. Subsequently, the Atheist Centre has organised several World Atheist Conferences in Vijayawada and other locations.

Abraham Kovoor (10 April 1898 – 18 September 1978) was an Indian professor and rationalist who gained prominence after retirement for his campaign to expose as frauds various Indian and Sri Lankan "god-men" and so-called paranormal phenomena. His direct, trenchant criticism of spiritual frauds and organized religions was enthusiastically received by audiences, initiating a new dynamism in the rationalist movement, especially in Sri Lanka and India.

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), India's first Prime Minister was a Hindu agnostic and a self-styled scientific humanist. He wrote in his autobiography, Toward Freedom (1936), about his views on religion and superstition.

Meghnad Saha (1893–1956) was an atheist astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha ionisation equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars.

Bhagat Singh (1907–1931), an Indian revolutionary and socialist nationalist who was hanged for using violence against British government officials, was a staunch atheist. He laid out his views in the essay "Why I Am an Atheist", written in jail shortly before his execution.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) was an eminent Hindu nationalist leader of the Indian independence movement. He was also an atheist and a staunch rationalist who disapproved of orthodox Hindu belief, dismissing cow worship as superstitious. Being Hindu, for him, was a cultural and political identity (conceptualised in the form of Hindutva).

Joseph Edamaruku (7 September 1934 – 29 June 2006), popularly identified by his surname Edamaruku, was a journalist and rationalist from Kerala. He was the Delhi Bureau chief of the Malayalam magazine Keralasabdam for more than twenty years, and the founder-editor of Therali, a rationalist periodical in Malayalam. He was president of the Indian Rationalist Association from 1995 to 2005.

Khushwant Singh (1915–2014), a prominent and prolific writer of Sikh extraction, was avowedly non-religious.

Founded in 1984 Tarksheel Society (Rationalist Society) is a rationalist group based in Punjab, India.

Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Committee for Eradication of Blind Faith, CEBF) is an organisation dedicated to fighting superstition in India, particularly in the state of Maharashtra. It was founded by Narendra Dabholkar in 1989.

In 1997, the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations was founded.

21st century

Amartya Sen (born 1933), an Indian economist, philosopher and Nobel laureate, is an atheist and he holds that this can be associated with one of the atheist schools in Hinduism, the Lokayata.

Sunday Sapiens, the successor of Maharashtra Rationalist Association, is actively involved in developing scientific temper and eradicating superstition.

In 2008, the website Nirmukta was founded. It later became an organisation aiming to promote free thought and secular humanism in India.

In 2009, historian Meera Nanda published a book entitled The God Market. It examines how Hindu religiosity is gaining more popularity among the rising middle class, as India is liberalising the economy and adopting globalisation.

In March 2009, in Kerala, a pastoral letter addressing the laity was issued by the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council urging the members to not vote for political parties which advocate atheism. In July 2010, another similar letter was issued.

On 10 March 2012, Sanal Edamaruku investigated a so-called miracle in Vile Parle, where a Jesus statue had started weeping and concluded that the problem was caused by faulty drainage. Later that day, during a TV discussion with some church members, Edamaruku accused the Catholic Church of miracle-mongering. On 10 April, Angelo Fernandes, President of the Maharashtra Christian Youth Forum, filed a police complaint against Edamaruku under the Indian Penal Code Section 295A. In July while on a tour in Finland, Edamaruku was informed by a friend that his house was visited by the police. Since the offence is not bailable, Edamaruku stayed in Finland.

On Friday 7 July 2013, the first "Hug an Atheist Day" was organised in India by Nirmukta. The event aimed to spread awareness and reduce the stigma associated with being an atheist.

On 20 August 2013, Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist and anti-superstition campaigner, was shot dead by two unknown assailants, while he was out on a morning walk.

According to Sultan Shahin of progressive New Age Islam, more Indian Muslims are now questioning their own religion, some consider themselves just cultural Muslim and some consider themselves even as ex-Muslims.

Nastik Nation, an organization was started in the year 2015. This organisation has translated and published the international bestseller, God Delusion and The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins in many Indian languages.

On 17 March 2017, H. Farook, an ex-Muslim atheist, was murdered by Muslim radical group in Coimbatore. The murders of Farook joined their close and hidden ex-Muslim organization pretending to be ex-Muslims who has understood the hollow falsehood of Islam and Quran. Later one day they called Farook saying that one of their bikes was out of petrol and needed him to come with some. They attacked in a group and murdered him. It is reported that the group involved practiced thefts and plundering at night and distributed a share of it to the nearby slums.

On 9 January 2021, E.A.Jabbar, freethinker, atheist, and rationalist from Kerala and Islamic preacher M.M. Akbar were engaged in a debate on the Quran. Both sides claimed to have defeated the other debater even as there was no clear verdict.

In August 2021, Abdul Khader Puthiyangadi, an Indian citizen and rationalist from Kerala, was arrested by the UAE police in 2021 without bail and sentenced to prison in the UAE for three years for criticizing Islam on social media in his native language Malayalam.

On 10 January 2022, ex-Muslim rationalist Aneesh Jasy from Tamil Nadu was arrested without bail over his Facebook posts against Islam.

Rise of ex-Muslims of Kerala

In 2021 in Kerala, several ex-Muslims formed an organisation called Ex-Muslims of Kerala. It is an organisation founded in 2021 by E. A. Jabbar, Liyakkathali CM, Arif Hussain, and a few others who left Islam in Kerala. The organisation gives support to those who left Islam, a minority that is facing persecution from the Islamic community because of their leaving. The organisation conducts debates with Islamic scholars and fundamentalists on various topics. Ex-Muslims of Kerala observe 9 January as ex-Muslim day as the remembrance of E. A. Jabbar's debate with Islamic preacher M. M. Akbar, by conducting seminars on atheism and Islam.

Liyakkathali–Rahul Easwar debate - Slavery in Islam

In August 2025, a controversy arose over organizing a debate on slavery in Islam between members of the Ex-Muslim community and Islamic groups in Kerala. Members of the Ex-Muslim collective, including Liyakkathali C. M., were initially challenged by Abdullah Basil of the Wisdom Islamic Group (associated with Salafi–Wahhabi circles) to participate in such a debate. Arif Hussain expressed willingness to debate, but only in a public setting, while Basil’s team proposed holding the discussion exclusively on their own online platforms. Liyakkathali rejected an online debate, arguing that moderation would not be neutral, and instead suggested a neutral studio. The Wisdom group, however, insisted on their own studio in Pullikkal, Malappuram, leading to a stalemate. Liyakkathali had openly invited and challenged Islamic preachers in Kerala to participate, none came forward, reportedly out of concern that such a public debate might encourage more individuals to leave Islam

To ensure the debate took place, Liyakkathali eventually invited Indian public intellectual and activist Rahul Easwar, who was already engaged in discussions on jihad and Islamic apologetics. On 23 August 2025, a public debate between Liyakkathali and Rahul Easwar was held at the Wagon Tragedy Memorial Town Hall in Tirur, Malappuram district, Kerala on the topic on Slavery in Islam.