Taslima Nasreen: Without criticizing religion, society would not change much, it might remain as a stagnant pool

Aamir Khan's 'PK' may have set the cash registers ringing at the Box Office, but the controversy around the film's so-called contentious content continues to intensify. While right-wing outfits like Bajrang Dal and Hindu Sen have alleged that 'PK' has been disrespectful to Hinduism which is why they are demanding a ban on the film, Aamir Khan's supporters don't think it has hurt religious sentiments. We recently spoke to Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen about the same. Excerpts from her interview:

Do you think the Censor Board has been intelligent in refusing to delete objectionable scenes from 'PK'?

Yes, of course. The scenes that are objectionable to some people, may not be objectionable to others. The worst enemy of censorship is curiosity. The more you ban or boycott, the more you create curiosity among people. Curious people will find out any whichever means to watch objectionable scenes. It might even so happen that people would watch only the objectionable scenes, not the whole cinema. As a banned and hugely censored writer, I know that many readers read only the objectionable parts of my books, not the whole texts.

Writers, artists, filmmakers should not self-censor themselves. People should learn how to tolerate those ideas and thoughts that are different from their own. A society, where plurality of thoughts are not celebrated, definitely sinks into darkness. There, it is a nightmarish situation to even wish that nothing would be objectionable and everything would be acceptable.

What can be done to make people understand that religion can't be destroyed, ruined or harmed by its cinematic portrayal?

Since childhood, people should learn about free thoughts and tolerance. Education helps. Cinematic portrayal may not destroy religion, but there are hundreds of reasons behind the death of many ancient religions. Existing religions will become extinct someday.

You recently tweeted, "We created a society where illiterate mullahs decide which books we shouldn't read,& uncultured babas decide which films we should not watch". Don't you think we are caught in a situation for which we alone are responsible? So we shouldn't blame others, right?

We should blame ourselves for the mistake of making a system that encourages irrational faith-heads to grow. Building religious schools and allowing indoctrination of children with religious principles are wrong, because these may create monsters who would not accept any rational thoughts, and rather grow up to prefer fanaticism to secularism, barbarism to humanism, tradition to innovation, past to future.

We should use science and education to fight superstitions.

Could any other filmmaker apart from Rajkumar Hirani be able to deal with a complex issue like religion so brilliantly?

I believe there are some talented atheist filmmakers in India who can make films on irrationality of religion. Without criticizing or mocking religion, society would not change much, it might remain as a stagnant pool forever.