"I’m an anti-secularist," Says Ashis Nandy a renowned sociologist and clinical psychologist, who believes ideals of Ashoka and Akbar were more people-centric.

“I’m an anti-secularist,” says Ashis Nandy, renowned sociologist and clinical psychologist. “Indian tolerance is based on faith. Akbar and Ashoka never heard of secularism. One was a Muslim whose Islam was liberal, and the other a Buddhist whose Buddhism was also liberal,” he explains.

Mr. Nandy suggests that the ideas of Akbar and Ashoka would be more accessible to people rather than concepts of secularism, which have come in for some criticism. “What’s the point of using a term that dissociates itself from people?” he asks.

The septuagenarian is a well-known social theorist, who has authored several books, including those on the psychology of violence and the politics of India.

He is in Kochi in connection with the Cochin Conference on Metaphysics and Politics that begins here on Wednesday. Mr. Nandy says that Eastern belief systems started out as fluid and plural religions. “They had common shrines, common texts, and common stories. They were never embarrassed by that,” he says.

History, too, Mr. Nandy says, should be similarly plural and representative, irrespective of the person writing it. Unfortunately, political parties and governments have repeatedly used history as a tool to tell their version of things.

“It is not just the present government that changes the writing of history. The Left is no different in this regard,” he says. Mr. Nandy says that he stays clear of these tellings by simply being honest to himself.

His credentials as an expert social critic have not spared him from controversies that follow those who comment on politics.

He decries the attempt to prevent writers and intellectuals from expressing their views.

“Now they’re trying to ban books, just like they did in Nazi Germany. Burning books is the next step they’ll take. The intellectual has a right to publish books. Let people decide whether they want to read it,” he says.