The Hindu : `Pseudo intellectuals' flayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 11, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

`Pseudo intellectuals' flayed

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE DEC. 10. The Minister for Culture, G. Karthikeyan, has said the bane of Kerala is its pseudo intellectuals and the strong communal sentiments that sway its people.

Vivekananda, shocked by the influence of caste over the people, described Kerala as a lunatic asylum. ``That was years ago. But this description suits the present Kerala society also,'' the Minister said while inaugurating a stall of the Haritham Books on the Mavoor Road here today.

A clear proof of the deep-rooted communalisation of society was the growing propensity of all those involved in controversies and conflicts to turn to their community for help and use religion as a shield to protect themselves, he said.

The Minister disagreed with the view that `reading is a dying habit', but opined that writers and other opinion leaders no longer cared for their obligations to readers and society.

Personal slanging matches involving well-known and revered writers witnessed from time to time were signs of cultural decay, the Minister said, while reminding writers that without readers they had no existence ``just as we politicians cannot survive without voters''.

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