Аннотация:This article provides an overview of the history and the aims and activities of organised atheism in India. Most of the contemporary atheist, rationalist, and humanist groups form part of a larger movement, despite the different labels used. Most of the groups have direct forebears in nineteenth-century England and in the social and religious reform movements of nineteenth- and twentieth-century India. Drawing on a year of ethnographic fieldwork and using the example of the Atheist Centre in Andhra Pradesh, I compare the current aims and activities of atheistic groups in India with those of like-minded groups in the West. I argue that the distinguishing characteristic of the Indian atheist movement is its strong engagement with social and political activism.
