Where atheists walk on coals. (Vijayawada, India's Atheist Center)

"They are firm in their Islam," said the man dressed in white Indian khadi, nodding at the house of his Muslim neighbors and smiling crookedly. "They are firm in their Christianity," he continued, pointing toward the Catholic seminary down the road. "And we, we are firm in our atheism." He opened his arms to the low, thatched roofs of the Atheist Center, in the south Indian city of Vijayawada, of which he--a man known as Lavanam--is director. I had just arrived. It seemed a good moment to tell Lavanam about the results of a recent Gallup survey: Indians grant religion more…