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Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''
The God of Small Things ''The God of Small Things'' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Ker ...
'' (1997), which won the
Booker Prize for Fiction The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.


Early life

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, to
Mary Roy Mary Roy (1933 – 1 September 2022) was an Indian educator and women's rights activist known for winning a Supreme Court lawsuit in 1986 against the gender biased inheritance law prevalent within the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of Kerala ...
, a
Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predomina ...
Jacobite Syrian Christian women's rights activist from Kerala and Rajib Roy, a
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
Hindu tea plantation manager from
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerc ...
.Siddhartha Deb,
Arundhati Roy, the Not-So-Reluctant Renegade
", ''The New York Times'', 5 March 2014. Accessed 5 March 2014.
When she was two, her parents divorced and she returned to Kerala with her mother and brother. For some time, the family lived with Roy's maternal grandfather in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. When she was five, the family moved back to Kerala, where her mother started a school. Roy attended school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the
Lawrence School, Lovedale The Lawrence School, Lovedale (formerly known as Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School), the namesake of its founder Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB, is a co-educational boarding school located at Lovedale, which is a li ...
, in
Nilgiris The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...
, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the
School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (SPA New Delhi) is a higher education federal institute located in New Delhi, India specializing in education and research, and serving as the national center of excellence, in the fields of plan ...
, where she met architect
Gerard da Cunha Gerard da Cunha (born 1955) is an Indian architect based in Goa. He is the founder and principal architect of the architecture firm Architecture Autonomous. An alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, he is known for utilizing lo ...
. They married in 1978 and lived together in Delhi, and then Goa, before they separated and divorced in 1982.


Personal life

Roy returned to Delhi, where she obtained a position with the
National Institute of Urban Affairs The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is an institute for research, training and information dissemination in urban development and management in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1976 as an autonomous body under the Societies Reg ...
. In 1984, she met independent filmmaker Pradip Krishen, who offered her a role as a goatherd in his award-winning movie ''
Massey Sahib ''Massey Sahib'' is a 1985 Hindi drama film directed by Pradip Krishen, starring Raghubir Yadav in the title role. It was Krishen's first film, and was an adaptation of Joyce Cary's 1939 novel '' Mister Johnson''. It won Yadav two internationa ...
''. They later married the same year. They collaborated on a television series about India's independence movement and two films, '' Annie'' and ''
Electric Moon ''Electric 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 Internationa ...
''. Disenchanted with the film world, Roy experimented with various fields, including running aerobics classes. Roy and Krishen currently live separately but are still married. She became financially secure with the success of her novel ''The God of Small Things'', published in 1997. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head of the Indian television media group NDTV. She lives in Delhi.


Career


Early career: screenplays

Early in her career, Roy worked in television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for ''
In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones ''In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones'' is a 1989 Indian English-language TV film written by Arundhati Roy and directed by Pradip Krishen. It stars Arjun Raina as the title character, with Roshan Seth and Arundhati Roy in key roles. The film a ...
'' (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, in which she also appeared as a performer, and ''
Electric Moon ''Electric 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 Internationa ...
'' (1992)."Arundhati Roy, Author-Activist"
, ''India Today''. Retrieved 16 June 2013
Both were directed by her husband, Pradip Krishen, during their marriage. Roy won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1988 for ''In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones''. She attracted attention in 1994 when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film ''
Bandit Queen ''Bandit Queen'' is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language biographical action-adventure film based on the life of Phoolan Devi as covered in the book ''India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi'' by the Indian author Mala Sen. It was written ...
'', which was based on the life of Phoolan Devi. 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 Things ''The God of Small Things'' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Ker ...
'', in 1992, completing it in 1996. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in
Aymanam Aymanam is a village in the Kottayam District of Kerala, India. It is about 4 km from the railway station in Kottayam along the road to Parippu, and 85 km from the Cochin International Airport. Aymanam is the setting for Arundhati Ro ...
. The publication of ''The God of Small Things'' catapulted Roy to 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. It reached fourth position on ''The New York Times'' Bestsellers list 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 in 18 countries by the end of June. ''The God of Small Things'' received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as '' The New York Times'' (a "dazzling first novel," "extraordinary", "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple") and the '' Los Angeles Times'' ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"), and in Canadian publications such as the '' Toronto Star'' ("a lush, magical novel"). It was one of the five best books of 1997 according to '' Time''. Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and the awarding of the Booker Prize caused controversy;
Carmen Callil Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, (15 July 1938 – 17 October 2022) was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal So ...
, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable", and '' The Guardian'' called the context "profoundly depressing". In India, the book was criticised especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar, then Chief Minister of Roy's home state Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.


Later career

Since the success of her novel, Roy has written a television serial, ''The Banyan Tree'', and the documentary ''DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy'' (2002). In early 2007, Roy stated that she was working on a second novel, ''
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness ''The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'' is the second novel by Indian writer Arundhati Roy, published in 2017, twenty years after her debut, ''The God of Small Things''. Plot The novel weaves together the stories of people navigating some of t ...
''. She contributed to ''We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples'', a book released in 2009, that 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 organisation
Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of indigenous and/or tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal peop ...
. She has written numerous essays on contemporary politics and culture. In 2014, they were collected by Penguin India in a five-volume set. In 2019, her nonfiction was collected in a single volume, ''My Seditious Heart'', published by
Haymarket Books Haymarket Books is a left-wing non-profit, independent book publisher based in Chicago. History Haymarket Books was founded in 2001 by Anthony Arnove, Ahmed Shawki and Julie Fain, all of whom had previously worked at the '' International Sociali ...
. In October 2016,
Penguin India Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
and Hamish Hamilton UK announced that they would publish her second novel, ''
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness ''The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'' is the second novel by Indian writer Arundhati Roy, published in 2017, twenty years after her debut, ''The God of Small Things''. Plot The novel weaves together the stories of people navigating some of t ...
'', in June 2017. The novel was chosen for the Man
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
2017 Long List. ''The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'' was nominated as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in January 2018.


Advocacy

Since publishing ''The God of Small Things'' in 1997, Roy has spent most of her time on political activism and nonfiction (such as collections of essays about social causes). She is a spokesperson of the
anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...
/
alter-globalization Alter-globalization (also known as alternative globalization or alter-mundialization—from the French alter- mondialisation—and overlapping with the global justice movement) is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and ...
movement and a vehement critic of
neo-imperialism In historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Com The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of over ...
and U.S. foreign policy. She opposes India's policies toward nuclear weapons as well as industrialization and economic growth (which she describes as "encrypted with genocidal potential" in '' Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy''). She has also questioned the conduct of the Indian police and administration in the case of the
2001 Indian Parliament attack The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi, India on 13 December 2001. The perpetrators belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) - two Pakistan-raised terrorist organisa ...
and the
Batla House encounter case The Batla House encounter case was an armed Delhi Police operation to arrest terrorists of the Indian terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, hiding in a flat in the Batla House area of Jamia Nagar, Okhla, on 19 September 2008. The operation resulted ...
, contending that the country has had a "shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake encounters".


Support for Kashmiri separatism

In an August 2008 interview with '' The Times of India'', Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after the massive demonstrations in 2008 in favour of independence took place—some 500,000 people rallied in Srinagar in the Kashmir part of
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the
Amarnath land transfer controversy On 26 May 2008, the government of India and the state Government of Jammu and Kashmir reached an agreement to transfer of forest land to the ''Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board'' (SASB) in the main Kashmir valley to set up temporary shelters and fac ...
. According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desired secession from India, and not union with India. She was criticised by the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...
and
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
for her remarks.
All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...
member and senior Congress party leader Satya Prakash Malaviya asked Roy to withdraw her "irresponsible" statement, saying it was "contrary to historical facts".
It would do better to brush up her knowledge of history and know that the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to the Union of India after its erstwhile ruler
Maharaja Hari Singh Maharaja Sir Hari Singh (September 1895 – 26 April 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hari Singh was the son of Amar Singh and Bhotiali Chib. In 1923, following his uncle's death, Singh became ...
duly signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947. And the state, consequently has become as much an integral part of India as all the other erstwhile princely states have.
She was charged with sedition along with separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and others by Delhi Police for their "anti-India" speech at a 2010 convention on Kashmir: "Azadi: The Only Way".


Sardar Sarovar Project

Roy has campaigned along with activist
Medha Patkar Medha Patkar née Khanolkar (born 1 December 1954) is an Indian social activist and former Politician working on various crucial political and economic issues raised by tribals, dalits, farmers, labourers and women facing injustice in India. Sh ...
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 Andolan ''Narmada Bachao Andolan'' (NBA) is an Indian social movement spearheaded by native tribals ('' adivasis''), farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against a number of large dam projects across the Narmada River, which flows thr ...
. Roy also appears in Franny Armstrong's ''
Drowned Out ''Drowned 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 villag ...
'', a 2002 documentary about the project. Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat. In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Supreme Court of India with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate 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" to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt. The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologise for, constituted criminal contempt, sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment, and fined her 2500. Roy served the jail sentence and paid the fine rather than serve an additional three months for default.
Environmental historian Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...
Ramachandra Guha 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 Manichaean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis". He faulted Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the
Narmada Bachao Andolan ''Narmada Bachao Andolan'' (NBA) is an Indian social movement spearheaded by native tribals ('' adivasis''), farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against a number of large dam projects across the Narmada River, which flows thr ...
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 Omvedt Gail Omvedt (2 August 1941 – 25 August 2021) was an American-born Indian sociologist and human rights activist. She was a prolific writer and published numerous books on the anti-caste movement, Dalit politics, and women's struggles in India. ...
and Roy have had fierce yet constructive discussions in open letters on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. The activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or search for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt).


US foreign policy, war in Afghanistan

In an opinion piece in ''The Guardian'' titled "The Algebra of Infinite Justice", Roy responded to the U.S. military invasion of Afghanistan, 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. president
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and UK prime minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
were guilty of Orwellian doublethink:
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 China and 19
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the "First W ...
"countries that America has been at war with—and bombed—since World War II ", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and 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 arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...
, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed,
U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
, are all controlled by the same business combines".
She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of 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 titled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at Riverside Church in New York City, in which she described the United States 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 Iraq The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) was a people's court consisting of intellectuals, human rights campaigners and non-governmental organizations, and was active from 2003 to 2005. Set up following the 2003 invasion of Iraq it sprung from the anti-war ...
, and in March 2006 she criticised President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".


India's nuclear weaponry

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in
Pokhran Pokhran is a village and a municipality located, outside of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the site for India's first underground nucle ...
, Rajasthan, Roy wrote ''The End of Imagination'' (1998), a critique of the Indian government's nuclear 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 Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.


Israel

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and others, signed a letter in ''The Guardian'' calling the
2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
a "war crime" and accusing 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 Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers calling on the
San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...
"to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate". During the
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis A major outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot ...
, she defended
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni- Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Br ...
's rocket attacks, citing Palestinians' right to resistance.


2001 Indian parliament attack

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the
2001 Indian Parliament attack The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi, India on 13 December 2001. The perpetrators belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) - two Pakistan-raised terrorist organisa ...
and the trial of the accused. According to her, Mohammad Afzal Guru was being
scapegoated Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals (e.g. "he did it, not me!"), individuals against groups (e.g., ...
pointing at irregularities in the judicial and investigative process in the case and maintains the stance that the case remains unsolved. In her book about the hanging of Afzal Guru, she had even suggested that there was evidence of state complicity in the terrorist attack. In an editorial in '' The Hindu'', journalist
Praveen Swami Praveen Swami (born 1969) is an Indian journalist and author specialising on international strategic and security issues. He is currently the Group Consulting Editor at Network18 Group. He was the Diplomatic Editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' new ...
questioned her asserted evidence of state complicity as having been "cherry-picked for polemical effect". She had also called for the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions is conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial. BJP spokesperson
Prakash Javadekar Prakash Keshav Javadekar (born 30 January 1951) is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change from 30 May 2019 till 7 July 2021. Javadekar was ...
criticised Roy for calling convicted terrorist Mohammad Afzal a "prisoner-of-war" and called Arundhati a "prisoner of her own dogma". Afzal was hanged in 2013.


The Muthanga incident

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for
Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The ter ...
land rights in Kerala, organised 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. Roy travelled to the area, visited the movement's leaders in jail, and wrote an open letter to the then
Chief Minister of Kerala The chief minister of Kerala is the chief executive of the Indian state of Kerala. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's '' de jure'' head, but '' de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minist ...
, A. K. Antony, saying "You have blood on your hands."


Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks

In an opinion piece for ''The Guardian'', Roy argued that the
November 2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from Pakistan, ...
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 India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
("Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the
2002 Gujarat violence The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...
, and the ongoing Kashmir conflict. Despite this call for context, Roy stated in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology". Roy warned 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 criticised by Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Mumbai attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against
Muslims in India Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...
; Rushdie specifically criticised Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower. Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian".


Criticism of Sri Lankan government

In an opinion piece in ''The Guardian'', Roy pleaded 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 called "a brazen, openly racist war". She also said that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide" and described the
Sri Lankan IDP camps The final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War created 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were transferred to camps in Vavuniya District and detained there against their will. This process, together with conditions inside the camps ...
where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps. The Sri Lankan writer Ruvani Freeman called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticised 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 Naxalites

Roy has criticised the Indian government's armed actions against the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people"Karan Thapar
"India is a corporate, Hindu state: Arundhati"
, ''CNN-IBN'', 12 September 2010.
and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memoranda of Understanding. While she has received support from various quarters for her views, Roy's description of the Maoists as "
Gandhians The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...
" raised a controversy. In other statements, she has described Naxalites as patriots "of a kind" who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it".


Sedition charges

In November 2010, Roy,
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Syed Ali Shah Geelani (1929–2021) was an Islamist, pro-Pakistan, Sumantra BoseSyed Ali Shah Geelani: The man who fought for Kashmir’s freedom BBC News, 2 September 2021. "First, he made it clear that although a proud Kashmiri, he conside ...
, and five others were brought up on charges of
sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...
by the
Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...
. The filing of the First Information Report came following a directive from a local court on a petition filed by Sushil Pandit who alleged that Geelani and Roy made anti-India speeches at a conference on "Azadi-the Only Way" on 21 October 2010. In Roy's words, "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this". A Delhi city court directed the police to respond to the demand for a criminal case after the central government declined to charge Roy, saying that the charges were inappropriate.


Criticism of Anna Hazare

On 21 August 2011, at the height of
Anna Hazare Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare (; born 15 June 1937) is an Indian social activist who led movements to promote rural development, increase government transparency, and investigate and punish corruption in public life. In addition to organising an ...
's anti-corruption campaign, Roy criticised Hazare and his movement in an opinion piece published in '' The Hindu''. In the article, she questioned Hazare's secular credentials, pointing out the campaign's corporate backing, its suspicious timing, Hazare's silence on private-sector corruption, expressing her fear that the
Lokpal A Lokpal ( sa, लोकपाल ''lokapāla'', "defender of people" or "People's Friend") is an anti-corruption authority or body of ombudsman who represents the public interest in the Republic of India. The current Chairperson of Lokpal is Pr ...
will only end up creating "two oligarchies, instead of just one". She stated that while "his means may be Gandhian, his demands are certainly not", and alleged that by "demonising only the Government they" are preparing to call for "more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources", adding that it "may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee". Roy also accused the electronic media of blowing the campaign out of proportion. In an interview with ''
Kindle Magazine ''Kindle Magazine'' was an English-language national journal being published online from Kolkata, India, it was founded in 2008 by journalist Pritha Kejriwal (formerly of Hindustan Times and NDTV) and Kolkata-based CFA Maitreyi Kandoi. The jou ...
'', Roy pointed out the role of media hype and target audience in determining how well hunger strikes "work as a tool of political mobilization" by noting the disparity in the attention Hazare's fast has received in contrast to the decade-long fast of Irom Sharmila "to demand the repealing of a law that allows non-commissioned officers to kill on suspicion—a law that has led to so much suffering." Roy's comparison of the
Jan Lokpal Bill The Jan Lokpal Bill, also referred to as the Citizen's Ombudsman Bill, was a bill drawn up by civil society activists in India seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body to investigate corruption cases and complete the investi ...
with the Maoists, claiming both sought "the overthrow of the Indian State", met with resentment from members of Team Anna. Medha Patkar reacted sharply calling Roy's comments "highly misplaced" and chose to emphasise the "peaceful, non-violent" nature of the movement. Roy also has stated that "an 'anti-corruption' campaign is a catch-all campaign. It includes everybody from the extreme left to the extreme right and also the extremely corrupt. No one's going to say they are for
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
after all...I'm not against a strong anti-corruption bill, but corruption is just a manifestation of a problem, not the problem itself."


Views on Narendra Modi

In 2013, Roy called
Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
's nomination as prime minister a "tragedy". She said business houses were supporting his candidacy because he was the "most militaristic and aggressive" candidate. She has argued that Modi has control over India to a degree unrecognized by most people in the Western world: "He ''is'' the system. He has the backing of the media. He has the backing of the army, the courts, a majoritarian popular vote... Every institution has fallen in line." She has expressed deep despair for the future, calling Modi's long-term plans for a highly centralized Hindu state "suicidal" for the multicultural subcontinent. On 28 April 2021, '' The Guardian'' published an article by Roy describing the Indian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a "crime against humanity", in which '' The Washington Post'' said Roy "slammed Modi for his handling of the pandemic". Roy's op-ed was also published in '' The Wire'' with the title "It's Not Enough to Say the Govt Has Failed. We Are Witnessing a Crime Against Humanity."


Remarks about National Registers

On 25 December 2019, while speaking at
Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...
, Roy urged people to mislead authorities during the upcoming enumeration by the
National Population Register The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigran ...
, which she said can serve as a database for the
National Register of Citizens The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigran ...
. The remarks were criticized by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A complaint against her was registered at Tilak Marg police station, Delhi, under sections 295A, 504, 153 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. Roy responded, "What I was proposing was civil disobedience with a smile", and claimed her remarks were misrepresented.


Awards

Roy was awarded the 1997
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
for her novel ''
The God of Small Things ''The God of Small Things'' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Ker ...
''. The award carried a prize of approximately US$30,000 and a citation that noted, "The book keeps all the promises that it makes". Roy donated the prize money she received, as well as royalties from her book, to human rights causes. Prior to the Booker, Roy won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of ''
In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones ''In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones'' is a 1989 Indian English-language TV film written by Arundhati Roy and directed by Pradip Krishen. It stars Arjun Raina as the title character, with Roshan Seth and Arundhati Roy in key roles. The film a ...
'', in which she captured the anguish among the students prevailing in professional institutions. In 2015, she returned the national award in protest against religious intolerance and the growing violence by rightwing groups in India. In 2002, she won the
Lannan Foundation The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
'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". In 2003, she was awarded "special recognition" as a Woman of Peace at the
Global Exchange Global Exchange was founded in 1988 and is an advocacy group, human rights organization, and a 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group defines its mission as, "to promote human rights and social, ec ...
Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with
Bianca Jagger Bianca Jagger (born Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías; 2 May 1945)
,
Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for . Now in her 12th term, Lee has served since 1998, and is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 9th ...
, and
Kathy Kelly Kathy Kelly (born 1952) is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of ''Voices in the Wilderness'', and, until the campaign closed in 2020, a co-coordinator of ''Voices for Creative Nonviolence''. As part of pe ...
. Roy was awarded the
Sydney Peace Prize The Sydney Peace Prize is awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation, a non profit organisation associated with the University of Sydney. The prize promotes peace with justice and the practice of nonviolence. It aims to encourage public interest and d ...
in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence. That same year she was awarded the
Orwell Award The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language (the Orwell Award for short), is an award given since 1975 by the Public Language Award Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English ...
, along with Seymour Hersh, by the National Council of Teachers of English. In January 2006, she was awarded the
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, ''
The Algebra of Infinite Justice ''The Algebra of Infinite Justice'' (2001) is a collection of essays written by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. The book discusses a wide range of issues including political euphoria in India over its successful nuclear bomb tests, the effect ...
'', 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 Militarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state. The process of milit ...
and economic neo-liberalisation'". In November 2011, she was awarded the
Norman Mailer Prize The 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. Norman Mailer was a 20th-century American author. Prizes ...
for Distinguished Writing. Roy was featured in the 2014 list of ''Time'' 100, the 100 most influential people in the world.


Bibliography


Fiction


Non-fiction


See also

*
List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English The Sahitya Akademi Award is the second-highest literary honor in India. The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, aims at "promoting Indian literature throughout the world". The Akademi annually confers on writers of "the most ...
*
List of Indian writers This is a list of notable writers who come from India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous dem ...
*
List of peace activists This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work wi ...
* Indian English literature *
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Naxalite–Maoist insurgency , image = Naxal Left-wing violence or activity affected districts of India 2018.svg , image_size = 300px , caption = Naxalite active z ...
* Iraq War


References


Further reading


Books and articles on Roy

* * *"The Politics of Design", in * * * * * * * * * * * *


Other

* ''We'', a political documentary about Roy's words
Available online.Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy
by Atul Cowshish, Asian Tribune, 2006-07-06 *Carreira, Shirley de S. G

In: MONTEIRO, Conceição & LIMA, Tereza M. de O. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Caetés, 2005 *Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, "The Politics of Design" in ''Weird English''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004; 154–199. Essay on Roy's language.


External links

* *
SAWNET biography
South Asian Women network, authors *
Column archive
at '' The Guardian'' * ; Interviews and speeches
"Arundhati Roy"
nbsp;– interview by
Avi Lewis Avram David "Avi" Lewis (born May 1967) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, former host of the Al Jazeera English show '' Fault Lines'' and former host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) current-affairs programs ''CounterSpin'' and ...
on Al Jazeera Fault Lines, 2010-8-29 (video, 23 mins)
Come September
nbsp;–Interview with Howard Zinn, ''Outlook'', September 2008
How Deep Shall We Dig
nbsp;–Full text of I.G. Khan Memorial Lecture delivered at Aligarh Muslim University on 6 April 2004, ''Outlook'', 6 May 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Arundhati 1961 births 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian screenwriters 20th-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian essayists 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian screenwriters 21st-century Indian short story writers 21st-century Indian women writers Activists from Kerala Activists from Meghalaya Anti-consumerists Anti-globalization writers Anti-imperialism Anti-poverty advocates Bengali people Best Original Screenplay National Film Award winners Booker Prize winners Cultural critics English-language writers from India Free speech activists Indian activists Indian anti-globalization activists Indian anti–nuclear weapons activists Indian anti-war activists Indian environmental writers Indian environmentalists Indian historical novelists Indian human rights activists Indian non-fiction environmental writers Indian pacifists Indian political writers Indian secularists Indian social commentators Indian social sciences writers Indian women activists Indian women critics Indian women essayists Indian women non-fiction writers Indian women novelists Indian women political writers Indian women screenwriters Indian women short story writers Indian women television writers Literacy and society theorists Living people Malayali people Nonviolence advocates Novelists from Kerala Novelists from Meghalaya People associated with Shillong People from Kottayam district People from Shillong Political activists Postcolonial literature Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi alumni Screenwriters from Kerala Screenwriters from Meghalaya Social critics Sustainability advocates Theorists on Western civilization Women writers from Kerala Women writers from Meghalaya Writers about activism and social change Writers about communism Writers about globalization Writers about the Kashmir conflict Writers from Kerala Writers from Meghalaya Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age