On August 3, 2025, Tamil actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, speaking at an event organised by the Agaram Foundation, declared that “education is the only weapon that can break the chains of dictatorship and Sanatan." He urged students to fight “majority fools" using knowledge and education, an unsubtle attack on what he described as Sanatan Dharma, equating it to tyranny and oppression.

This was not an offhand remark. It was part of a long-standing pattern of statements and actions that betray Haasan’s deep ideological hostility toward Hinduism. Behind the façade of progressive intellectualism lies a deeply troubling Hinduphobic streak that seeks not reform but erasure of Sanatan Dharma’s foundational place in Indian civilisation.

Haasan’s remarks are reminiscent of the now-infamous comments made by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin in 2023, who compared Sanatan Dharma to diseases like dengue and corona, calling for its “eradication." These are not isolated slip-ups. They represent a larger ideological blueprint rooted in the Dravidian political ethos that misrepresents Hinduism as nothing more than a tool of Brahminical oppression.

Haasan, who claims to be an atheist but has admitted to evangelising Christianity in the past, continues to demonstrate selective intolerance, particularly toward Hinduism. He has never used such harsh metaphors for other religions or religious institutions. The problem lies not with religion per se, but with the Hindu identity that Sanatan Dharma represents.

Kamal Haasan’s political activism and cinematic projects reflect a persistent effort to vilify Hinduism. In 2019, he infamously labelled Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin, as “free India’s first terrorist," solely because he was a Hindu. In 2017, he declared that........

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