Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chennai
Facing severe backlash over his recent Hindu extremist remarks, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan on Friday claimed that the very term ‘Hindu’ was not a native description, but only a foreign coinage.
Neither the Alwars nor the Nayanmars, the famed Vaishnavite and Shaivite saints, had made any note on ‘Hindu,’ he said in a statement uploaded on Twitter.
The citizens were identified only as ‘Indians’ and confining it to religion was “erroneous,” he said.
“There has been no mention of ‘Hindu’ by the 12 Alwars or Nayanmars. We were christened Hindu by Mughals or those (foreign) rulers who predated them,” he said.
The British, who ruled the nation, “endorsed” that coinage, he said.
“While we have so many of our own identities, it is ignorant to have something given to us by non-native as name and faith,” he added.
While the identity “Indian is recent,” it was “eternal”, the MNM chief said.
“It is erroneous, in terms of commerce, politics and spirituality, for us to try to confine our vast country into religion,” Haasan said.
“To put it in layman’s terms, living in harmony has a million benefits,” he said referring to a Tamil saying.
Earlier, stoking a controversy, Haasan had said “free India’s first extremist was a Hindu”, referring to Nathuram Godse, who shot dead Mahatma Gandhi.
“I am not saying this because this is a Muslim dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. Free India’s first extremist was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it (extremism) starts,” he had said in bypoll bound Aravakurichi.
The remarks had resulted in a major row, with the BJP and AIADMK tearing into Haasan, even as cases were filed against him in Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
However, the Congress’ state unit and rationalist outfit Dravidar Kazhagam backed him.
Haasan also said he was not afraid of being arrested but warned any such action would escalate tensions.
The MNM founder said the remarks made during the Aravakurichi Assembly segment bypoll campaign meet on Sunday were not made for the first time, even as he asserted that “every religion has its own terrorists” and “this shows that all religions have their extremists”.
The actor-politician, who had filed an anticipatory bail after an FIR was registered in Aravakurichi in Karur district for his remarks, said he had made similar comments in Chennai during the Lok Sabha election campaign but it was being taken note of now by those people “whose confidence is dipping”.
“Let me tell you terrorists abound all religions…every religion has its own terrorists and we cannot claim that we are sanctimonious and we have not done that. History shows you that all religions have their extremists,” he told reporters here, adding that his focus on Sunday’s campaign speech was on maintaining harmony.
Asked if he had filed an anticipatory bail plea in the Madras High Court fearing arrest, Haasan replied in the negative.
“I don’t fear arrest but I have got campaigning to do. Let them arrest…but if they arrest me tensions will escalate. This is not my request but an advice,” he said.
With regard to police denying permission for him to undertake campaigning in Sulur Assembly constituency in Coimbatore, the MNM chief said if there was a problem then why the bypoll cannot be postponed.
