Poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar on Monday asserted that he believed he was “doing something right as long as both” Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists were abusing him, his comments coming against the backdrop of the West Bengal Urdu Academy withdrawing its invitation to him for an event titled 'Urdu in Hindi Cinema' being held from August 31 to September 3.
"I get hate mail from both sides,” Akhtar told The Telegraph Online. “I believe as long as both [(Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists] are abusing me, I am doing something right. My name, Javed Akhtar, has nothing to do with Islam. Both the words are Persian. It is only in India that names are associated with religion.”
Akhtar also expressed his love for Kolkata and its liberal, progressive values.
“Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor, was a Christian. I feel very happy when I am in Kolkata. I am an atheist. For me the Boi Mela is a pilgrimage. There are thousands of people who attend the boi mela only for books. It makes me believe the world is not as bad as some say it is.”
At the event titled 'Urdu in Hindi Cinema', organised by the state-run Urdu Academy, the screenwriter was invited as the chief guest to preside over a mushaira (poetry recital gathering) on Monday.
Two religious organisations had reportedly objected to Akhtar’s invitation. The academy reportedly said the event was postponed due to "unavoidable circumstances".
“West Bengal Urdu Academy (which does not have the word 'Muslim' anywhere in its name) pandered to the fundamentalists and promptly withdrew its invitation,” said a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, sent on Monday by a group of Urdu enthusiasts and liberal Muslims.
The signatories were Mudar Patherya, Zeeshan Majeed, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Taiyyeb Ahmed Khan, Zahir Anwar, Palash Chaturvedi, Mueen Ud Din Hameed, Smita Chandra, Spandan Roy Biswas, Navin Vohra, Zahid Hossain, Abhay Phadnis and “thousands of others.”
The letter listed out eight reasons for disappointment.
“Connecting Urdu with “Muslimness” undermines the secular nature of the language and reduces the Academy to a religious organisation when it is meant to be cultural and the incident reinforces the notion that secularism means ‘appeasing Muslim fundamentalism and intolerance’,” read the letter.
It also highlighted that the religious beliefs of a poet were given precedence over the subject of his talk, which had “nothing to do with religion” and it dented the city’s image as a bastion of liberal values.
“From now onwards, it will be usual for any Kolkata organisation of any credibility to issue any protest to achieve any outcome – and get away with it on the grounds that ‘religion is in danger’….your government should have stepped in and directed the West Bengal Urdu Academy to reverse its decision, which it never did,” said the letter.
The letter concluded: “We are disappointed that this has transpired in a liberal Bengal with you as Chief Minister. I am sure that we Urdu-loving signatories are joined by thousands in spirit who would have liked to see you uphold freedom of expression.”
Activist Shabnam Hashmi also offered to organise the programme in Kolkata.
“This is the beginning. I have been shouting from the rooftop, telling my fellow senior activists and the young ones to stop legitimising platforms run by the Muslim right,” Hashmi said.
“I have been systematically pushed to a corner within the Delhi civil society because I refused to share platforms with Muslim right wing organisations while a large number of senior activists are fooling themselves in the name of fighting against majoritarian politics," she added.