Secularism cannot be taught through short-term instruction and must be lived as a daily practice, lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar said on Thursday at the inaugural day of the 19th Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).

Addressing a packed audience during his session, titled Javed Akhtar: Points of View, Akhtar said secularism in recent times has been reduced to a “four-letter word”, but argued that secular values do not take root through formal lectures 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.

Reflecting on his childhood, Akhtar, who identifies as an atheist, said he was raised in a household of agnostics and atheists where religion rarely figured in everyday life. He said the only family members he saw praying were his maternal grandparents.

Akhtar shared a personal anecdote about his grandmother, whom he described as illiterate but deeply principled. Recalling an incident from his childhood, he said his grandfather once tried to persuade him to memorise religious verses by offering 50 paise, which he described as a “fortune” at the time. His grandmother, however, intervened forcefully, 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 said.

Akhtar’s session was punctuated by humour, drawing frequent laughter from the audience. When moderator Warisha Farasat introduced him as a writer who carried the finest traits of literary greats such as Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni and his father Jan Nisar Akhtar, he responded wryly, “I have nothing of my own.”

Later, when Farasat asked him to recite a poem during a brief pause, Akhtar retorted, “You can’t think of the next question?”, prompting loud applause and laughter.

He also pushed back against the idea that today’s younger generation is uniquely flawed, saying complaints about youth have existed for centuries. “The golden era is never the present era,” he said, adding that even philosophers in ancient times voiced similar concerns.

“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.”

According to Akhtar, every era brings a mix of progress and decline. To illustrate his point, he spoke about changes in the film industry, which is often criticised for having lost its past standards.

“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,” he said, recalling that assistants were once expected to run personal errands for stars. “Today’s assistants, however, are on first-name terms with the stars. I get scared when I see them.”

The five-day Jaipur Literature Festival will feature over 350 authors and scholars, including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, chess legend Vishwanathan Anand, British actor and author Stephen Fry, former diplomat-writer Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anuradha Roy, veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya, and writers Manu Joseph, Ruchir Joshi and KR Meera.

The festival will conclude on January 19.