Religion: Greatest fraud played on mankind

I WAS born in an Iyengar family but my father was a progressive thinker. He kept his distance from the closeknit agraharam, the clusters of houses in a village where Brahmins live.

Since he was a freedom fighter, he was imprisoned with a Muslim, named Hassan, after whom he named his progeny — Charu Hassan, Chandra Hassan and Kamal Hassan. He even asked my mother to start wearing a white sari, depicting widowhood, inspired by Kasturba.

After qualifying as a lawyer, and enlisting in the Communist Party, I wanted to fight injustice in the manner of Che Guevara. I even opposed my father, a practising lawyer, in court.

I heard Periyar speaking many times and believed that his philosophy is: Nature is God. But when a mob threatened to break an idol in a temple close to my house, I was sent for by the priests. I challenged the mob to defile the idol first before breaking it or pass on the challenge to me. They dispersed after muttering about my insolence under their breath.

I believe that religion is the greatest fraud played on mankind.

(As told to T.K. Srinivas Chari) — CHARU HASSAN is an actor and lawyer