For the last few weeks Humanists, rationalists and human rights activists have been waging a huge battle against the forces of fundamentalism in Andhra Pradesh in South India. This is a battle that involves all sections of society, including the media, the police, the justice system, aggressive fundamentalists, the Dalai Lama as well as Humanists and rationalists.

Child abuse is universal. It has no national, regional or local boundaries. It is recognised as a crime. Recruiting children for wars, using kids for sex and trafficking, mutilation of female genitals in young girls, making children work as labourers and similar issues are declared as violations of the rights of the child by the UN. There are acts to prohibit child marriage.

Two people have been reported killed in riots against Humanist writer Taslima Nasrin in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The rioters were protesting alleged "anti-Islamic" statements made in a local newspaper article attributed to Dr. Nasrin.

The notions of astrology – be it Hindu astrology or that being practised in the west - are false as they have no basis in reality. Astrology has so far not been able to predict anything correctly: no astrologer in the world could predict clearly and accurately the September 2001 terror attacks on the US, or the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The history of Indian Radical Humanist Association can be traced back to 1920 when M N Roy, the founder of the new Humanist Movement in India started his long and arduous efforts from Moscow to give a social content to the Nationalist Movement for India’s freedom from British rule.

Learning that he had terminal cancer of the stomach, and knowing that Basava Premanand, the 79 year old doyen of Indian rationalism, did not have much time left to live, I went to visit him in Coimbatore in South India earlier this year.

For the last few weeks Humanists, Rationalists and Human Rights activists have been waging a huge battle against the forces of fundamentalism in Andhra Pradesh, India. This is a battle that involves the media, the police, the justice system, aggressive fundamentalists, the Dalai Lama, as well as the Humanists and Rationalists. It is a battle that is being watched with keen interest by millions of homes as it unfolds on live TV, in newspaper articles and through public discussions.

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.

[Subtitled video now available] In a speech to the 12th session of the Human Rights Council on 16 September, IHEU representative Roy Brown called on the Council to do more to combat violence and discrimination against religious minorities, citing the recent murders of Christians in Pakistan, Somalia and Nigeria, the still unresolved massacre of Muslims in Gujerat, and mob violence against the Muslim Uighurs in China earlier this year. He also criticized non-violent discrimination practiced in many Western countries against religious minorities. He reminded delegates that it is individuals, believers and non-believers that have human rights - not their religions or beliefs.

India became a nation under the British regime after 400 years of Mughal rule. Despite many changes during this long period, one unchanging phenomenon was caste discrimination.