Actor Kamal Haasan, who has been flirting with the idea of entering politics and has promised that he will make an announcement to this effect on his birthday next week, is also a columnist with the popular Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan.
The fifth in his series of columns -- titled The storm that is centred in me: You cannot anymore say there is no Hindu extremism -- is all about his much-publicised visit to the Ennore coastline off Chennai which has been overrun by factories and industrial effluents.
The column ends with a question posed to the actor by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (Haasan had called on him in Thiruvananthapuram in September).
The CM asks: Of late, sectarian tendencies and regressive ideologies are trying to gain a foothold in Tamil Nadu, the infiltrating forces of Hindutva are weakening Dravida principles. As a social observer what is your view?
Haasan replies: Always, as now, that prosperity is accompanied by foolhardiness can be seen worldwide by the attraction fascism holds for a few. This attempt to make the world turn right is not going to win, I believe it is a temporary fashion, like hairstyle, and won’t last long.
Those of the old generation who are upset at society becoming equal (specifically the upper castes among them) are trying to sugarcoat their outdated traditions and restrictions and feed them to the young generation.
They are spreading their old thoughts through culture, festivals, worship, music and arts. The right-wingers from other religions too set out to dispute their claims and oppose them. This is the case not just in Tamil Nadu but I see it as a national regression.
Science, knowledge, the natural attraction that progress holds for the human race, will ensure that the ranks of the rationalists will exceed those who oppose them. But the youth of Tamil Nadu, rather than wait for this universal rule to take effect, are actively engaged in the task of saving Tamil Nadu.
The old will give way to the new. The traditionalists, instead of highlighting the praiseworthy features of an ancient culture, are engaged in concealing them.
Destroying agriculture, trying to sell underground natural gas deposits, or attempting to project the ancient epics as history is the evil deeds they have been perpetrating for years on end.
The many festivals which were conducted peacefully have today become noisy and raucous, as commerce trumps piety. The people of Tamil Nadu have been seeing this for many years now.
At a time when an entire generation has grown up without awareness of caste differences, these traditionalists have infiltrated modern arenas inhabited by this generation to preach their caste differences.
You can see it in the open listing of cine artistes on the basis of caste on the internet.
Earlier such Hindu right-wingers would not indulge in violence with other religionists, but through their arguments and counter-arguments provoke them into violence.
Once this old strategy started losing out, they have started doing through muscle power what they couldn’t through cunning. They have also started indulging in violence.
‘Show me one Hindu extremist!’ is a challenge they cannot extend anymore, for extremism has spread so much in their ranks.
This extremism is no victory or progress for those who call themselves Hindus. The motto ‘Truth alone triumphs’ being replaced by ‘might is right’ will make savages of us all.
Change is the only constant. Regardless of how many are trying to push it on a backward path, the world’s force will take it forward.
The day is not far off when Tamil Nadu will once again be beacon of social reform.
Today it is Kerala that is the prime example of social reform. My greetings to you on it.
IMAGE: Actor Kamal Haasan with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan at the latter's official residence in Thiruvananthapuram on September 1, 2017. Photograph: PTI Photo.
