Today A R Rahman - “Madras Mozart” wins Oscar for “Slum dog Millionaire”. Along with billion plus people of India I am also proud that, a person from my country - India, my state - Tamil Nadu, my city - Chennai(Madras) made to this exclusive league at the entertainment capital of the western world - Hollywood. It is mind blowing to see A R Rahman speaking in Tamil. As so many bloggers are writing on this event on entertainment industry perspective let me put forward my thoughts on a much different perspective - A R Rahman as a symbol of Indian Secularism.

India’s founding father’s, when drafting the constitution of India made clear India will remain a secular country where every citizen has a right to follow and preach the religion he profess. This enlightened clause is the bedrock of Indian constitution. This may look simpler for long established western democracies, but in South Asia where there are countries in which a person can be stoned to death for changing his religion this clause is quite revolutionary. Truly this demonstrated Jawaharlal Nehru’s belief - “Unity in Diversity”.

A R Rahman serves as a brand ambassador of Indian Secularism. There are lots of prominent personalities from minority community excelling in every field of Indian Society - Science and Technology - A.B.J. Abdul Kalam; Sports - Cricketer Azhar / Tennis Sania; Entertainment - Amir / Salman / Sharukh Khan’s; Business - Azim Premji - WIPRO; Politics - Abdullah’s.

So why are we singling out Rahman as a champion of Indian Secular Democracy?

Because most of these personalities listed were born Muslims. But Rahman’s story is little different - his story serves as much stronger point considering the fact that he was not a Muslim by birth. He born in a Hindu family and raised Dilip Kumar. He and his family went through lot of hard ships due to his father’s untimely death. At a point in time he found solace in a religion totally new to him - “Islam”.

We need to understand Islam is a minority religion in India professed by roughly 13% of the population. Its following is even lesser in Tamil Nadu (Rahman’s home state) where the following is less than 5% of the population.

But still Rahman knows in a secular India a person is evaluated only by his character and skills rather than by the caste they born in to or the religion they profess - In a tolerant, secular India what can be achieved by “Dilip Kumar” can also be achieved by “Rahman”. And he was right!!!

True to its nature Indian film industry adored Rahman and gave credits which he truly deserves. Starting from his first movie “Roja” most of his breaks came from majoity community produced / directed movies. On his part Rahman gave a great gift to his country in its 50th Independence Day - “Vande Mataram” album which made National Song of India more appealing to country’s youth. Hope in the days to come Rahman will bring even more glory to India.

Congrats to Resul Pokutty and A R Rahman for achieving this milestone!!! Long Live Indian Democracy! Long Live Indian Secularism!

PS: I guess we discussed on a too heavy topic for too long time. So let us end this article in a lighter note. Is Rahman the only one recent convert to champion Indian secularism? No!!! Definitely not! In terms of popularity, 21st Century’s “Laila-Majnu” Chand Mohammed-Fiza will beat Rahman hands down.

Today as I was watching BBC news, I was shocked to see shoes being hurled at US president George Bush at a press conference in Iraq. Though I am not a big fan of “Bush Doctrine” it was outrageous to see the “President of world’s oldest democracy” and “Leader of the free World” dodging shoes hurled at him in an open press conference. After an initial shock I tried to recollect whether any other world leader suffered similar humiliation in a foreign land. All of a sudden an event closer home flashed in my mind. Yes, the clubbing of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Sri Lankan navy honor guardsman at Colombo in 1987.

At the moment, “Muntadar al-Zaidi”, Iraqi T.V. journalist yelling and hurling shoes at US president will be making headlines in news channels across the world. But how many remember similar fate suffered by our then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Colombo, Sri Lanka some 21 years ago? So a recap of events happened on July 30, 1987 at Colombo.

July 29, 1987 - the “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” was signed. This was opposed by both sides of the civil war torn island nation. Both the “Tamil” and “Sinhalese” extremists were against this pact, the latter in particular were more vocal.

July 30 1987 - the immediate next day, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was inspecting a Guard of Honor. All of a sudden a young Sri Lankan honor guardsman - “Wijayamunige Rohana” clubbed the Indian Prime Minister. But Rajiv was lucky enough to duck and fend off the blow. Thank God, “Rajiv Gandhi” – “Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy” was physically unharmed; the event broadcasted to the world “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” is not as rosy as it was presented.

So what went wrong for “US President” in “Iraq-2008″ and “Indian PM” in “Sri Lanka-1987″? Failure to read the mood of the nations they decided to intervene. Their intelligence agencies with “Super Power” ego had the tendency of urging their political bosses to intervene to be hailed as “liberators”. But often these intelligence agencies prove to be “COUNTER” yes “COUNTER” intelligence. They will be very poor in reading the prevailing mind set of the people. This we saw in “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” where “Indian Government” and “Sri Lankan government” signed a treaty to end the ethnic conflict ignoring the “Tamil extremists” the actual party involved in the conflict. Almost similar scenario is witnessed now in Iraq, where as “Barack Obama” rightly pointed out “US forces” does not know a role to play in the fighting as there is a civil war going on in that country between “Shia-Sunni religious ethnicities”.

Let us hope in future the world leaders learn from these incidents and take much more measured steps to avoid these embarrassments.

update(09/15/2009):- “Muntadar al-Zaidi” had been released from Iraqi prison. Good to see Iraq functioning as a democracy.