India at a crossroads, next step to define country’s future: Kamal Haasan

Releasing a collection of essays by former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, India and Her Futures, actor-turned-MP Kamal Haasan said on Saturday (March 14, 2026) that the country is at a crossroads. “We have to choose a path. And the direction we choose will determine our character and our nation for generations to come,” he said, adding that the far-right is getting strengthened across the world.

Appreciating Mr. Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, for coining a phrase, hatriotism, Mr. Haasan said he has been a regular user of the word. “Hatriotism is rooted in fear, exclusion, and diminishes, not only the pride, but the nation itself,” he said adding that the question before our country is whether we join the chorus of nations exporting division as politics or remain true to the extraordinary, ethical, and moral imagination that created India.

‘Book is a signpost’

Mr. Haasan said the former administrator’s book is a signpost, a guide in a confused situation, where we can regain opposition, and become a beacon of the Global South.

Mr. Gandhi said the world is in the midst of a war, the most unusual and unprecedented kind. “We have become a callous people in callous times in a callous world,” he said and added that the war in West Asia has resulted in police guarding LPG cylinder depots in India. “The war has come to our doorsteps. But that war is not just the war that we are talking about in literal terms. It is the war that has been created by a sense of us and them, we and they, us and the other,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi said no one really has the right to speak for India as a whole. “The history of India is about the plurality of India and the plurality of India is in its future,” the former diplomat added.

‘A secular newspaper’

Reflecting on the names of various newspapers, Mr. Gandhi commented on The Hindu, saying it is probably the most secular newspaper in the whole world, and it completely justifies the choice of its name because to be Hindu is to be completely open to all the currents of the world and thoughts.

Addressing a session on the book, Rajya Sabha member John Brittas said migration has helped expand civilisations. He said people of Kerala have been migrating across the globe for centuries and there have been attempts to target the pluralistic culture of the State. Former chairperson of Prasar Bharti Mrinal Pande chaired the session.