Key facts
- Akhtar declared all Indians are his 'qaum', not any religious group
- Reiterated he is an atheist in his response to a troll
- Exchange went viral on social media
Javed Akhtar, one of Hindi cinema's most celebrated lyricists and a longtime public intellectual, fired back at a social media troll who had apparently sought to define him by religious identity. In a sharp, measured response, Akhtar declared his 'qaum' — a word meaning community or people — to be all Indians, cutting across religion, caste, and region.
Akhtar, who has consistently described himself as an atheist, used the occasion to restate that position unambiguously. His pushback was characteristically direct: he neither softened his atheism nor accepted any narrower communal identity being projected onto him by his critics online.
The exchange quickly spread across platforms, with many users applauding the clarity and confidence of his reply. Akhtar has long been a vocal critic of religious orthodoxy and communal polarisation, and this latest episode fits a pattern of frank public engagement that has defined his persona well beyond his filmmaking work.
The moment lands at a time when questions of identity, belonging, and national versus religious loyalty are fiercely contested in Indian public life. Akhtar's willingness to engage trolls directly — rather than ignore them — and to state his worldview without hedging continues to make him one of the more distinctive voices in mainstream Indian cultural discourse.