Nirmukta

Nirmukta is an organization in India founded in 2008 that promotes scientific thinking, rational thinking and secular humanism. Nirmukta is a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to "liberated."

History and work
Nirmukta was founded in 2008 by evolutionary biologist Ajita Kamal. It was originally a website and by 2012 it had become an organization with regional groups in 8 major Indian cities. The online forum Indian Atheists, which has more than 27,000 followers on Facebook, started as an activist arm of Nirmukta. Because of recent attack on atheists in India, the organization adopts strict checks before allowing new members.

Nirmukta regularly conducts workshops in collaboration with other rationalist organizations to promote scientific temper and create awareness about pseudosciences. Nirmukta has an annual event called thinkfest that takes place in January, with past speakers including Prof. Dayanandan, Narendra Nayak, Babu Gogineni (2011), Dr.Thangaraj, S.Anand (2013), Dr.T.V.Venkateswaran (2014), Namit Arora, Kalpana Karunakaran (2015). The organization also has a blog on the Freethought Blogs network, which was co-founded by PZ Myers.

In May 2011, Nirmukta hosted a rationalist challenge to Indian astrologers with Narendra Nayak to predict the 2011 election. Nayak is a regular contributor to the website. Among the other regular contributors are Srinivas Kakkilaya and Dr. Vinod Kumar Wadhawan, Raja Ramanna fellow at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. In October 2011, Nirmukta organized an Eye donation campaign and has been running an organ donation drive on its website. It organized India's first "Hug an Atheist Day" event in India on 7 June 2013. It has also been participating in Pride marches in those cities.

When Nirmukta's founder Ajita Kamal died in January 2012, PZ Myers wrote that Kamal was "A leading promoter of science and freethought in India."

Positions
The organization supports social justice movements like feminism, LGBT rights, and rights of people with disabilities and has a zero-tolerance policy against harassment. They have also taken a strong stand against casteism in India.