Arundhati Roy is an
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel,
The God of Small ThingsThe God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
, and has also written two
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
s and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India.
Early life and background
Arundhati Roy was born in
Shillong-Connectivity:Although well connected by road, Shillong has no rail connection and a proper air connection. Umroi Airport exists but has only limited flights.-Roadways:Shillong is well connected by roads with all major north eastern states...
,
MeghalayaMeghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The...
, India, to Ranjit Roy, a
BengaliThe Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
tea planter and
Mary RoyMary Roy is an Indian educator and women's rights activist, who won a lawsuit in 1986, against the inheritance legislation of her Keralite Syrian Christian community in the Supreme Court...
, a
MalayaliMalayali is the term used to refer to the native speakers of Malayalam, originating from the Indian state of Kerala...
Syrian Christian women's rights activist.
She spent her childhood in
AymanamAymanam is a village in Kottayam District, Kerala, India, the setting of Arundhati Roy's 1997 novel The God of Small Things.-Overview:Ay in the Tamil language means 'five' and Vanam in Sanskrit means 'forests': Ayvanam, or Aymanam, is the land of five forests...
in
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, and went to school at
Corpus ChristiPallikoodam is a high school in the Kalathilpady area of Kottayam in Kerala Pallikkoodam. It was established as Corpus Christi High School in 1967 by educator and women's rights activist, Mary Roy...
,
KottayamKottayam is a city in the Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of 55.40 km2. It is the administrative capital of the Kottayam district. Kottayam Kottayam (Malayalam: കോട്ടയം) is a city in the Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of 55.40 km2. It is the administrative...
, followed by the
Lawrence School, LovedaleThe Lawrence School, Lovedale is an educational institution in Lovedale, located near Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India and named for its founder, Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence. Lawrence had mooted the idea about the establishment of a chain of schools with a view to provide education to the children...
, in Nilgiris,
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. She then studied
architectureArchitecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
at the
School of Planning and ArchitectureSchool of Planning and Architecture, Delhi is a National Resource Institute of India. It is also one of the few premier 'Centrally Funded Technical Institutions ' under the Government of India. Currently there are 3 SPAs all over India, administered under the MHRD, Government of India...
,
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.
Roy met her second husband, filmmaker
Pradip KrishenPradip Krishen, is an Indian filmmaker and environmentalist. He directed three ground breaking film, namely, Massey Sahib in 1985, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones in 1989 and Electric Moon for Channel 4, UK in 1991...
, in 1984, and played a village girl in his award-winning movie
Massey Sahib. Until made financially stable by the success of her novel
The God of Small ThingsThe God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality
Prannoy Roy Prannoy L Roy, Ph.D is an Indian journalist and media journalist. He is the founder and Executive Chairperson of New Delhi Television .-Early life:...
, the head of the leading Indian TV media group
NDTVNDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
,. She lives in
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
.
Early career: screenplays
Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for
In Which Annie Gives It Those OnesIn Which Annie Gives it Those Ones is a 1989 Indian TV film. Screenplay by Arundhati Roy , directed by Pradip Krishen, and starring Arjun Raina as the title character, along with Roshan Seth and Shahrukh Khan...
(1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, directed by her current husband, and
Electric MoonElectric Moon is a 1992 Indian film directed by Pradip Krishen and written by Arundhati Roy. The film was produced by Grapevine Media for Channel 4 Television and Bobby Bedi's Kaleidoscope Entertainment and was reviewed at the International Film Festival of India and the 36th London Film Festival...
(1992); she also appeared as a performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised
Shekhar KapurShekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...
's film
Bandit QueenBandit Queen is a 1994 Indian film based upon the life of Phoolan Devi. It was directed by Shekhar Kapur and starred Seema Biswas as the title character. It was produced by Bobby Bedi's Kaleidoscope Entertainment.The Music was Composed by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.- Plot :The film opens in the...
, based on the life of
Phoolan DeviPhoolan Devi , popularly known as the "Bandit Queen", was an Indian dacoit and later a politician. After being gang-raped by some upper-caste members of her gang, Phoolan Devi turned a bandit, and killed 22 upper-caste villagers in 1981. Following this, she became notorious across India as a bandit...
. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian Rape Trick', she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission," and charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.
The God of Small Things
Roy began writing her first novel,
The God of Small ThingsThe God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
, in 1992, completing it in 1996. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in
AymanamAymanam is a village in Kottayam District, Kerala, India, the setting of Arundhati Roy's 1997 novel The God of Small Things.-Overview:Ay in the Tamil language means 'five' and Vanam in Sanskrit means 'forests': Ayvanam, or Aymanam, is the land of five forests...
.
The publication of
The God of Small Things catapulted Roy to instant international fame. It received the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and was listed as one of the
New York Times Notable Books of the Year for 1997. It reached fourth position on the
New York Times Bestsellers listThe New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
for Independent Fiction. From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance; It was published in May, and the book had been sold to eighteen countries by the end of June.
The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
(a "dazzling first novel," "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple") and the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"), and in Canadian publications such as the
Toronto StarThe Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
("a lush, magical novel"). By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by
TIMETime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable," and
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called the contest "profoundly depressing." In India, the book was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by
E. K. NayanarErambala Krishnan Nayanar was a prominent Indian political leader of the Communist Party of India . He held the post of Chief Minister of Kerala three times; during 1980-81, 1987–91 and 1996-2001. He is the longest serving Chief Minister of Kerala, having been in office for a total of 4009 days,...
, then Chief Minister of Roy's homestate
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.
Later career
Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a television serial,
The Banyan Tree, and the documentary
DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).
In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin work on a second novel.
Arundhati Roy was one of the contributors on the book
We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009. The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying their diversity and the threats to their existence. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization
Survival InternationalSurvival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
.
Advocacy and controversy
Since
The God of Small Things Roy has devoted herself mainly to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a spokesperson of the
anti-globalizationCriticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
/
alter-globalizationAlter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and of the global policies of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She also criticizes
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
's nuclear weapons policies and the approach to industrialization and rapid development as currently being practiced in India, including the Narmada Dam project and the power company
EnronEnron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
's activities in India.
Support for Kashmiri separatism
In an interview with
Times of India published in August 2008, Arundhati Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after massive demonstrations in favor of independence took place—some 500,000 separatists rallied in Srinagar in the Kashmir part of
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the
Amarnath land transfer controversyOn 26 May 2008, the government of India and state government of Jammu and Kashmir reached an agreement to transfer of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board in the main Kashmir valley to set up temporary shelters and facilities for Hindu pilgrims...
. According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desire secession from India, and not union with India. She was criticized by
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
(INC) and
Bharatiya Janata PartyThe Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
(BJP) for her remarks.
Sardar Sarovar Project
Roy has campaigned along with activist
Medha PatkarMedha Patkar is an Indian social activist. She is known for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan. She has also filed a public interest petition in the Bombay high court against Lavasa along with other members of National Alliance of People's Movements , including Anna Hazare.-Personal life:Medha...
against the Narmada dam project, saying that the dam will displace half a million people, with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits. Roy donated her Booker prize money as well as royalties from her books on the project to the
Narmada Bachao AndolanNarmada Bachao Andolan is social movement consisting of tribal people, adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against the Sardar Sarovar Dam being built across the Narmada river, Gujarat, India....
. Roy also appears in
Franny ArmstrongFranny Armstrong is a British documentary film director working for her own company, Spanner Films, and a former drummer with indie pop group The Band of Holy Joy...
's
Drowned OutDrowned Out is a 2002 documentary by Franny Armstrong about the Sardar Sarovar Project. Shot over three years, Drowned Out follows one family’s stand against a government dam project which is set to destroy their home and their village.-Plot:...
, a 2002 documentary about the project. Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by
CongressThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
and
BJPThe Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
leaders in Gujarat.
In 2002, Roy responded to a
contemptContempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
notice issued against her by the
Indian Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate the contempt proceedings based on an unsubstantiated and flawed petition, while refusing to inquire into allegations of corruption in military contracting deals pleading an overload of cases, indicated a "disquieting inclination" by the court to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt. The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologize for, constituted criminal contempt and sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment and fined Roy Rs. 2500. Roy served the jail sentence for a single day and opted to pay the fine rather than serve an additional three months' imprisonment for default.
Environmental historian
Ramachandra GuhaRamachandra Guha is an Indian writer whose research interests have included environmental, social, political and cricket history. He is also a columnist for the newspapers The Telegraph , and The Hindustan Times.-Early life and education:Born in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, India in 1958, Guha studied...
has been critical of Roy's Narmada dam activism. While acknowledging her "courage and commitment" to the cause, Guha writes that her advocacy is hyperbolic and self-indulgent, "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify, her Manichean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis". He faults Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the
Narmada Bachao AndolanNarmada Bachao Andolan is social movement consisting of tribal people, adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against the Sardar Sarovar Dam being built across the Narmada river, Gujarat, India....
as careless and irresponsible.
Roy counters that her writing is intentional in its passionate, hysterical tone: "I
am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I
want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes".
Gail OmvedtDr. Gail Omvedt is an American born Indian scholar, sociologist and human rights activist. Omvedt has been involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental, farmers' and women's movements.-Biography:...
and Roy have had fierce discussions, in open letters, on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. Though the activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or searching for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt), the exchange has mostly been, though critical, constructive.
United States foreign policy, the War in Afghanistan
In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Arundhati Roy responded to the
US military invasion of AfghanistanThe War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, finding fault with the argument that this war would be a retaliation for the September 11 attacks: "The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world." According to her,
U.S. PresidentThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and British
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
were guilty of a Big Brother-kind of
doublethinkDoublethink, a word coined by George Orwell in the novel 1984, describes the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. It is related to, but distinct from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Its opposite is cognitive dissonance, where...
: "When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: 'We're a peaceful nation.' America's favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed him: 'We're a peaceful people.' So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace."
She disputes U.S. claims of being a peaceful and freedom-loving nation, listing
ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and nineteen 3rd World "countries that America has been at war with – and bombed – since the second world war", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose "track record is not very different from the Taliban's"). She does not spare the Taliban: "Now, as adults and rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise women, they don't seem to know what else to do with them."
In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: "In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines." She puts the attacks on the
World Trade CenterThe original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
and on
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of imagining beauty after 2001: "Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow, amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in your ear – without thinking of the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan?"
In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the
Riverside ChurchThe Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous for its elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest tuned carillon bell...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In it she described the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the
Iraq War. In June 2005 she took part in the
World Tribunal on IraqThe World Tribunal on Iraq was a people's court consisting of intellectuals, human rights campaigners and non-governmental organizations, and was active from 2003-2005. Set up following the 2003 invasion of Iraq it sprung from the anti-war movement and is modelled on the Russell Tribunal of the...
. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's visit to India, calling him a "
war criminalWar crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
".
India's nuclear weaponisation
In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in
PokhranPokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran http://marupradesh.org/ located at...
,
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, Roy wrote
The End of Imagination (1998), a critique of the Indian government's
nuclearNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
policies. It was published in her collection
The Cost of Living (1999), in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of
MaharashtraMaharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
,
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
and
Gujarat.
Criticism of Israel
In August 2006, Roy, along with
Noam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
,
Howard ZinnHoward Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
, and others, signed a letter in
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accused Israel of "state terror." In 2007, Roy was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by
Queers Undermining Israeli TerrorismQueers Undermining Israeli Terrorism was founded in early 2001 by members of and individuals formerly associated with DAGGER , which was active during the first Gulf War.-Goals:...
and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honor calls for an
international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutionsBoycotts of Israel are economic and political cultural campaigns or actions that seek a selective or total cutting of ties with the State of Israel...
, by discontinuing
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."
2001 Indian Parliament attack
Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the
2001 Indian Parliament attackThe 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a high-profile attack by Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists against the building housing the Parliament of India in New Delhi...
and the trial of the accused. She has called for the death sentence of
Mohammad AfzalMohammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, is a Kashmiri who was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India in 2004. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006...
to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions are conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial. The
Bharatiya Janata PartyThe Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
(BJP) has criticized Roy for what it alleges is defence of a terrorist going against the national interest.
The Muthanga incident
In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for adivasi land rights in Kerala, organized a major land occupation of a piece of land of a former Eucalyptus plantation in the Muthanga Wildlife Reserve, on the border of Kerala and Karnataka. After 48 days, a police force was sent into the area to evict the occupants—one participant of the movement and a policeman were killed, and the leaders of the movement were arrested. Arundhati Roy travelled to the area, visited the movement's leaders in jail, and wrote an open letter to the then Chief Minister of Kerala, A.K. Antony now India's Defence Minister, saying "You have blood on your hands."
Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks
In an opinion piece for
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(13 December 2008), Roy argued that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks cannot be seen in isolation, but must be understood in the context of wider issues in the region's history and society such as widespread poverty, the
Partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
(which Roy calls "Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the
2002 Gujarat violenceThe 2002 Gujarat violence describes the Godhra train burning and resulting communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. On 27 February 2002 at Godhra City in the state of Gujarat, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. But some authentic sources deny the claim...
, and the ongoing
conflict in KashmirThe Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwesternmost region of South Asia....
. Despite this call for context, Roy states clearly in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology." Roy warns against war with Pakistan, arguing that it is hard to "pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state", and that war could lead to the "descent of the whole region into chaos". Her remarks were strongly criticized by
Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Bombay attacks with
KashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and economic injustice against Muslims in India; Rushdie specifically criticized Roy for attacking the iconic status of the
Taj Mahal Palace & TowerThe Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
. Indian writer
Tavleen SinghTavleen Singh is a noted Indian syndicated columnist and political reporter and writer.-Biography:Singh was born in Mussoorie in 1950 and studied at the Welham Girls School. Later she did a short-term Journalism course from the New Delhi Polytechnic in 1969...
called Roy's comments "he latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian."
Criticism of Sri Lanka
In an opinion piece, once again in
The Guardian (April 1, 2009), Roy made a plea for international attention to what she called a possible government-sponsored genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. She cited reports of camps into which Tamils were being herded as part of what she described as "a brazen, openly racist war." She also mentioned that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being
genocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
" and described the
Sri Lankan IDP campsThe final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War created 300,000 internally displaced persons who were transferred to camps in Vavuniya District and detained there against their will. This process, together with the conditions inside the camps and the slow progress of resettlement in 2009 had...
where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps. Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticized her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE." Roy has said of such accusations: "I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody. However I do believe that the LTTE and its fetish for violence was cultured in the crucible of monstrous, racist, injustice that the Sri Lankan government and to a great extent Sinhala society visited on the Tamil people for decades."
Views on the Naxals
Roy has criticized
Government's armed actionsOperation Green Hunt was the name used by the Indian media to describe the Government of India's paramilitary offensive against the Naxalite rebels in the late 2000s...
against the
Naxalite-Maoist insurgentsThe Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is an ongoing conflict between Maoist groups, known as Naxalites or Naxals, and the Indian government.In 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country."...
in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the Government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people" and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed
Memorandums of UnderstandingA memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...
. While she has received support from various quarters for her views, Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy. In other statements, she has described Naxalites as "patriot of a kind" who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it". Many commentators have noted that Roy does not hold sympathy for the victims of Maoist terrorism. and have called her a "Maoist sympathiser."
Criticism of Anna Hazare
In August 22 ,2011
Arundhati RoyArundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
accused
Anna HazareKisan Baburao Hazare , popularly known as Anna Hazare is an Indian social activist and a prominent leader in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi...
in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned Anna's secular credentials pointing out "his support for
Raj ThackerayRaj Shrikant Thackeray is the founder and president of the right-wing Marathi ethnocentric regional political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the state of Maharashtra, India...
's Marathi Manoos
xenophobiaXenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
and his praise of the 'development model'
Narendra ModiNarendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
CM of Gujarat who oversaw the 2002
GujratGujrat is a city in Pakistan. It is the capital of Gujrat District and the Gujrat Tehsil subdivision in the Punjab Province. People living in Gujrat refer to themselves as Gujratis, which sometimes leads to confusion with people from the Indian state of Gujarat which adjoins Pakistan...
riots against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views. Social Activist
Medha PatkarMedha Patkar is an Indian social activist. She is known for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan. She has also filed a public interest petition in the Bombay high court against Lavasa along with other members of National Alliance of People's Movements , including Anna Hazare.-Personal life:Medha...
strongly condemned Arundhati Roy, by alleging that her views were misplaced.
Awards
Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel
The God of Small ThingsThe God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000 and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.' Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for
Best ScreenplayThe National Film Award for Best Screenplay winners:-References:...
in 1989, for the screenplay of
In Which Annie Gives It Those OnesIn Which Annie Gives it Those Ones is a 1989 Indian TV film. Screenplay by Arundhati Roy , directed by Pradip Krishen, and starring Arjun Raina as the title character, along with Roshan Seth and Shahrukh Khan...
.
In 2002, she won the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award for her work "about civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations," in order "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."
Roy was awarded the
Sydney Peace PrizeThe Sydney Peace Prize is awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation associated with the University of Sydney. The Sydney Peace Prize is the only International Peace Prize awarded in Australia....
in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of
non-violenceNonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
.
In January 2006, she was awarded the
Sahitya Akademi AwardSahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues,
The Algebra of Infinite JusticeThe Algebra of Infinite Justice is a collection of essays written by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. The book discusses several perspectives of global and local concerns, among them one being the abuse of Nuclear bomb showoffs....
, but she declined to accept it "in protest against the Indian Government toeing the US line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'"
In November 2011, she was awarded the
Norman Mailer PrizeThe Norman Mailer Prize or Mailer Prize is an American literary award established in 2009 by The Norman Mailer Center and The Norman Mailer Writers Colony to celebrate writers and their works...
for Distinguished Writing.
Books
- The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book is a description of how the small things in...
. Flamingo, 1997. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.
- The End of Imagination. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1998. ISBN 81-7130-867-8.
- The Cost of Living. Flamingo, 1999. ISBN 0-375-75614-0. Contains the essays "The Greater Common Good" and "The End of Imagination."
- The Greater Common Good. Bombay: India Book Distributor, 1999. ISBN 81-7310-121-3.
- The Algebra of Infinite Justice
The Algebra of Infinite Justice is a collection of essays written by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. The book discusses several perspectives of global and local concerns, among them one being the abuse of Nuclear bomb showoffs....
. Flamingo, 2002. ISBN 0-00-714949-2. Collection of essays: "The End of Imagination," "The Greater Common Good," "Power Politics", "The Ladies Have Feelings, So...," "The Algebra of Infinite Justice," "War is Peace," "Democracy," "War Talk", and "Come September."
- Power Politics. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.
- War Talk. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.
- Foreword to Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, For Reasons of State. 2003. ISBN 1-56584-794-6.
- An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire. Consortium, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-727-1.
- Public Power in the Age of Empire Seven Stories Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.
- The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. Interviews by David Barsamian. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.
- Introduction to 13 December, a Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament. New Delhi, New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-310182-X.
- The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0.
- Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy. New Delhi: Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4.
Speeches, Essays, Interviews
- We 'We,' documentary featuring the works of Arundhati Roy
- Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
- Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent—interview on Democracy Now!
- 'We have to become the global resistance' (Abridged version of speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16 January 2004)
- Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (16 August 2004 speech in San Francisco)
- ABC
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Radio NationalABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
transcript of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture (with audio) or download the speech here
- 'The Most Cowardly War in History'; opening statement at the Iraq tribunal (Article dated 24 June 2005)
- Podcast of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival
- Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama in New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak
- Audio: Arundhati Roy in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
The Forum is the BBC World Service's flagship discussion programme. It brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world to try and create stimulating discussion, informed by highly distinct academic, artistic and cultural backgrounds.-Format:Each...
- Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, India and Why Democracy Is “The Biggest Scam in the World”
- "In the Valley of the Tigers"; Interview with Ascent magazine on the Narmada Valley
- Gandhi but with Guns – essay about the naxalites at guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...
(2010-03-27)
- Fault Lines – Arundhati Roy (video) – Interview with Arundhati Roy on Al Jazeera English (retrieved 2010-05-06)
- Interview with the Guardian 05 June 2011 - Roy discusses political activism and why she no longer condemns violent resistance
See also
- Anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or...
- Narmada Bachao Andolan
Narmada Bachao Andolan is social movement consisting of tribal people, adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against the Sardar Sarovar Dam being built across the Narmada river, Gujarat, India....
- Indian English literature
Indian English literature refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V.S...
Books and articles on Roy
- "The Politics of Design," in
Other
- We
We is a documentary about the words of Indian activist and author Arundhati Roy. The film combines her speech "Come September" with a wide-variety of video footage and music...
, a political documentary about Roy's words. Available online.
- Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish
- Carreira, Shirley de S. G.A representação da mulher em Shame, de Salman Rushdie, e O deus das pequenas coisas, de Arundathi Roy. In: MONTEIRO, Conceição & LIMA, Tereza M. de O. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Caetés, 2005
- Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, "The Politics of Design" (Weird English. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004; 154–199). Essay on Roy's language. Available online.
- Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)
- SAWNET biography
- Bibliography
- Arundhati Roy – NNDB
The Notable Names Database , produced by Soylent Communications, the same entity that produces Rotten, Daily Rotten, Dr. Sputnik's Society Pages and Penny Postcards, is an online database of biographical details of over 36,000 people of note...
entry
External links
- Column archive at The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Arundhati Roy Faces Arrest for Questioning India’s Claim on Kashmir - video report by Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
, October 10, 2010
- Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, Poverty and India’s Maoist Rebels - video interview by Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
, November 8, 2010