| Sri Lankan
professor and Rationalist who gained prominence after retirement
for his campaign to expose as frauds various Indian "god-men"
and so-called paranormal phenomena. His direct, trenchant criticism
of spiritual frauds and organized religions were enthusiastically
received by audiences, initiating a new dynamism in the Rationalist
movement, especially in India.
Born
at Thiruvalla in Kerala, Kovoor was the son of Rev. Kovoor Eipe
Thomma Katthanar, Vicar General of the Mar Thomma Syrian Church
of Malabar. He was educated at Bengabasi College, Calcutta. After
working briefly as a junior professor in Kerala, he spent the
rest of his life in Sri Lanka, teaching botany in several colleges
before retiring in 1959 as a professor at Thurston College, Colombo.
After retirement Kovoor devoted his life to the rationalist movement.
He spent most of his time building up the Ceylon Rationalist Association,
and was elected in 1960 as its president, a title he retained
until his death.
He
edited an annual journal, The Ceylon Rationalist Ambassador. In
1961 he traveled in Europe and established contact with the World
Union of Freethinkers. Under the pseudonym Narcissus, he wrote
newspaper and magazine articles about his encounters with the
paranormal. These articles were translated and published in India,
initially in Malayalam by Joseph Edamaruku (Kovoor’s pseudonym
‘Narcissus’ was no longer used), and later in other
Indian languages.
Kovoor
traveled in India several times during 1960s and 1970s, addressing
hundreds of meetings. His brilliant oratory, enlivened with a
scientific approach and critical thinking, worked like magic in
Indian villages and towns. During four Miracle Exposure lecture
tours in India, all organized by the Indian Rationalist Association,
Kovoor challenged and exposed ‘miracles’ performed
by godmen. During his last journey to India in 1976 Kovoor visited
Sai Baba's ashram and challenged him to face a test. The baba
refused.
A
controversy arose when Kovoor was awarded an honorary doctorate
by the obscure (and now defunct) Minnesota Institute of Philosophy,
calling itself the theological seminary of a "Church of Materialism."
Kovoor had never visited the US. A strong critic of fake diplomas
and doctorates used by charlatans, he later returned the honorary
doctorate.
Abraham
Thomas Kovoor died on September 18, 1978. "I am not afraid
of death and life after death", he wrote in his will. "To
set an example, I don't want a burial." He donated his eyes
to an eye bank and his corpse to a medical college for anatomical
study, with instructions that his skeleton eventually be given
to the science laboratory of Thurston College. All of these wishes
were honored. |
