When rationalist leader Dr Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated, seven years ago, conspiracy theories about his mistaken murder were feverishly circulated on social media. One theory claimed that someone other than Dr Dabholkar was to be shot in the morning hour of August 20, 2013. The hypothesis added to the climate of suspicion. Even as the assassination was being investigated, unresolved till date, conflicting views were put forth by unrelated people at unsuspecting junctures. The popular, often baseless, views clogged communication channels. Family members of Dr Dabholkar were not just hurt by the theories, but they wished the popular mind wasn-t so hyper receptive, so eager to believe every WhatsApp forward, so unknowingly irresponsible while reinforcing rumours and fake news. Mob psychology was in full display, and little could be done to control the traffic of unnecessary misleading information.

Vinod Shirsat, the editor of Sadhana Prakashan the executive editor when Dr Dabholkar helmed the publishing house felt the need to bring out a book that captured the confusion created by firmly held popular beliefs, not just in the case of assassination mysteries, but in the context of the wayward swaying of the popular mind in all realms—be it an impending cyclone, an election, a pandemic outbreak and the resultant overhyped demand for ginger as a magic panacea. Coincidentally, he zeroed in on a 1978 text written, rather crafted, by Vishwas Patil who passed away in 2002, who summarised two well-known searing books—the English version of French polymath Gustave Le Bon-s 1895 The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, and American philosopher Eric Hoffer-s The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements 1951.