Secularism can't be taught through crash courses: Javed Akhtar

Jaipur, Jan 15 (PTI) Secularism can't be taught through crash courses, it's a "way of life" that comes naturally, lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar said at the inaugural day of the 19th Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) on Thursday.

Akhtar said secularism, in recent times, has been reduced to a "four-letter word" but secular values do not take root through formal instruction or theoretical lessons.

"Secularism should be a way of life because everyone around you is living like this, and then it comes to you automatically. If one day you are given a lecture and you remember points A, B and C after listening to it, that is fake, that is artificial. It can hardly last.

"But if it is your way of life -- the way you have seen your elders, the people you respect and admire, living -- then it comes within you," he said, addressing a packed audience in his session, titled "Javed Akhtar: Points of View".

Reflecting on his childhood, Akhtar, who is an atheist, said he was raised in a household of agnostics and atheists where religion rarely entered daily life.

The only family members he ever saw praying were his maternal grandparents. He recounted a personal anecdote about his grandmother, an illiterate woman, but who possessed a sensibility that he wished "even one-tenth of today's leaders had".

During Akhtar's childhood, when his grandfather tried to persuade him to memorize religious verses by offering 50 paise -- no less than a "fortune" for him at the time -- his grandmother angrily intervened, insisting that no one had the right to impose religion on another.

"That was the end of my religious education. Yes, that time, I was not very happy with her because I lost the opportunity to earn 50 paise. But in retrospect, I think of her as a woman who could not even write her name, (but) she had this sensibility. I wish our leaders had one-tenth of this sensibility," he explained.

Akhtar often had his audience in splits with his trademark wit.

When session moderator Warisha Farasat introduced him as someone whose writing carries the best traits of literary greats including Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni, and his father, Jan Nisar Akhtar, he quipped, “I have nothing of my own.” Moments later, when, in a brief pause between questions, Farasat requested that he recite a poem, Akhtar shot back without batting an eyelid, “You can’t think of the next question?” — sending the audience into peals of laughter.

Akhtar also challenged the notion that the younger generation today is uniquely flawed, observing that such complaints have existed since time immemorial: “The golden era is never the present era.” "You can find it on Google. Even Aristotle was very unhappy with the younger generation. Around 360 or 350 years before Christ, it was written that the younger generation had no concentration. They had no manners. They were completely spoiled. This complaint has always existed,” he added.

He argued that times keep changing, bringing a mix of both good and bad.

To illustrate his point, he spoke about the film industry today, which, like other fields, is often criticised for not being what it once was.

"Today things in the film industry are much more streamlined than ever... I remember when I was an assistant director and first joined the film industry, the position of assistant director was so disrespectable. What was our job? Bring madam’s shoes quickly. Where is the hero’s coat? Where is the jacket? We used to do all this. We used to say, ‘I am an assistant director.’ "Today’s assistants, however, are on first-name terms with the stars. I get scared when I see them. The assistant director is calling the hero by his name, we could never have imagined that." The five-day literary festival will host more than 350 celebrated authors and scholars including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, Chess legend Vishwanathan Anand, British actor and author Stephen Fry and former diplomat-writer Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Sahitya Akademi Award-winner Anuradha Roy, veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya, and celebrated authors Manu Joseph, Ruchir Joshi, and KR Meera.

The festival will come to an end on January 19. PTI MG BK BK