His poem polarized India. Now comedian Vir Das is telling his side
"Don't ever let anyone tell you how to love your own country," Vir Das says in his new comedy special.
Comedian Vir Das was called a terrorist. Seven charges were filed against him in India. He was even accused of defaming his home country on foreign soil.
His crime?
In November 2021, he was wrapping up a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., when he decided to go back onstage and recite a poem he had written that morning. Titled "I Come from Two Indias," it describes the contradictions in his home country.
"I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them at
