Composite Culture in a Multicultural Society

14

The Syntax of Secularism in Hindi Cinema

Javed Akhtar

I am not a scholar, or a sociologist, or a political scientist. But I am a practitioner. I am an insider; I work in the Indian film industry. And I have been there for almost thirty-five years. I have been working as a script writer and a lyricist for the last twenty years. For a long time the Indian film-industry people have been treated as untouchables by the Indian intelligentsia elite. However, in recent times we seem to be gaining some kind of acceptance and respectability. This volume is an opportunity for me, a film person, a film writer, to present my viewpoints on the topics of composite culture and multiculturalism.

I see that generally the elite and the intelligentsia in India ...