Bollywood’s Badshah (king) Shahrukh Khan and his religion are often the subjects of public discussion. Once again the actor asserts that ‘religion is not discussed at his house’ and his children list their religion as ‘Indian’ on forms.
The Koyla actor has often insisted that religion is not imposed inside his household and they celebrate all festivals. Recently during his appearance on the sets of Dance Plus 5 that was aired Saturday night, the Dilwale actor said,
“Humne koi Hindu-Musalman ki baat hi nahi ki. (We never spoke about the subject of Hindi-Muslim) Meri biwi Hindu hai, mai Musalman hoon. (My wife is a Hindu, I am a Muslim). Aur mere jo bacche hain, wo Hindustan hain. (and my children are ‘Hindustan‘)”
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The crowd applauded him for his statement. SRK then elaborated on his children’s religious identity being ‘Indian’.
“Jab wo school gae to school me wo bharna padta hai ki religion kya hai. To jab meri beti choti thi, usne aa ke pucha bhi mujhse ek baar, ‘papa hum kaun se religion ke hain?’ Maine usme ye likha ki hum Indian hi hain yaar, koi religion nahi hai. Aur hona bhi nahi chahiye. (When they went to school, they had to write their religion. My daughter came to me once and asked ‘what is our religion?’ I simply wrote in her form that we are Indian, we do not have a religion. Nor should we.)”
Besides maintaining his children’s religious identity as ambiguous, Bollywood’s King Khan has . previously said that he even gave his children generic names for that purpose.
“I gave my son and daughter names that could pass for generic (pan-India and pan-religious) ones – Aryan and Suhana. The Khan has been bequeathed by me so they can’t really escape it,”
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Yet at the same time, Shahrukh Khan describes himself as ‘Islamic’. This is not the same as the neo-spiritual term ‘spiritual but not religious’. It is not hard to see why his stance comes across as him being flip-flopping on the issue.
“I’m not religious in terms of offer namaz [prayer] five times but I am Islamic. I believe in the tenets of Islam and I believe that it’s a good religion and a good discipline.”
After a long line of flops such as Dilwale, Jab Harry Met Sejal and Zero, SRK has been on the low. He might not be acting but he has a few production ventures lined-up such as Abhishek Bachchan’s Bob Biswas, that hit theaters earlier this week in Delhi.
