Arundhati Roy

From Bharatpedia, an open encyclopedia



Arundhati Roy
Roy in 2013
Roy in 2013
BornSuzanna Arundhati Roy
(1961-11-24) 24 November 1961 (age 62)[1]
Shillong, Assam (present-day Meghalaya), India
OccupationWriter, essayist, activist
EducationB.Arch.
Alma materSchool of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
Period1997–present
GenreFiction, non-fiction
Notable worksThe God of Small Things
Notable awards
Spouse
ParentsMary Roy (mother)
RelativesPrannoy Roy (cousin)[4]

Signature

Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961)[1] is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.[1] She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.[6]

Early life[edit]

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India,[7] to Mary Roy, a Malayali Jacobite Syrian Christian women's rights activist from Kerala and Rajib Roy, a Bengali Hindu tea plantation manager from Calcutta.[8] When she was two, her parents divorced and she returned to Kerala with her mother and brother.[8] 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.[8]

Roy attended school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, where she met architect Gerard da Cunha. They married in 1978 and lived together in Delhi, and then Goa, before they separated and divorced in 1982.[8][3][2]

Personal life[edit]

Roy returned to Delhi, where she obtained a position with the National Institute of Urban Affairs.[8] In 1984, she met independent filmmaker Pradip Krishen, who offered her a role as a goatherd in his award-winning movie Massey Sahib.[9] They later married the same year. They collaborated on a television series about India's independence movement and two films, Annie and Electric Moon.[8] Disenchanted with the film world, Roy experimented with various fields, including running aerobics classes. Roy and Krishen currently live separately but are still married.[3][2][8] 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.[4] She lives in Delhi.[8]

Career[edit]

Early career: screenplays[edit]

Early in her career, Roy worked in television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, in which she also appeared as a performer, and Electric Moon (1992).[10] 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.[11] She attracted attention in 1994 when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, which was based on the life of Phoolan Devi.[10] 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.[12][13][14]

The God of Small Things[edit]

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996.[15] The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.[7]

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.[16] It reached fourth position on The New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction.[17] From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance.[14] It was published in May, and the book had been sold in 18 countries by the end of June.[15]

The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as The New York Times (a "dazzling first novel,"[18] "extraordinary", "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple"[19]) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"[20]), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"[21]). It was one of the five best books of 1997 according to Time.[22] Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and the awarding of the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable", and The Guardian called the context "profoundly depressing".[23] In India, the book was criticised especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar,[24] then Chief Minister of Roy's home state Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.[25]

Later career[edit]

Since the success of her novel, Roy has written a television serial, The Banyan Tree,[26] 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.[14][27]

Roy, Man Booker Prize winner

She contributed to We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, a book released in 2009,[28] 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.[29]

She has written numerous essays on contemporary politics and culture. In 2014, they were collected by Penguin India in a five-volume set.[8] In 2019, her nonfiction was collected in a single volume, My Seditious Heart, published by Haymarket Books.[30]

In October 2016, Penguin India and Hamish Hamilton UK announced that they would publish her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, in June 2017.[31] The novel was chosen for the Man Booker Prize 2017 Long List.[32] The Ministry of Utmost Happiness was nominated as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in January 2018.[33]

Advocacy[edit]

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/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism 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).[34] She has also questioned the conduct of the Indian police and administration in the case of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the Batla House encounter case, contending that the country has had a "shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake encounters".[35]

Support for Kashmiri separatism[edit]

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 state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the Amarnath land transfer controversy.[36] According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desired secession from India, and not union with India.[37] She was criticised by the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party for her remarks.[38][39]

All India Congress Committee member and senior Congress party leader Satya Prakash Malaviya asked Roy to withdraw her "irresponsible" statement, saying it was "contrary to historical facts".[39]

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 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.[39]

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".[40][41]

Sardar Sarovar Project[edit]

Roy has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar 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.[42] Roy donated her Booker prize money, as well as royalties from her books on the project, to the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Roy also appears in Franny Armstrong's Drowned Out, a 2002 documentary about the project.[43] Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.[44]

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.[45] 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.[46] Roy served the jail sentence and paid the fine rather than serve an additional three months for default.[47]

Environmental historian 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,[48] "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".[49] He faulted Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the Narmada Bachao Andolan 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".[50]

Gail Omvedt 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).[51]

US foreign policy, war in Afghanistan[edit]

Roy delivering a talk "Can We Leave the Bauxite in the Mountain? Field Notes on Democracy" at the Harvard Kennedy School on 1 April 2010[52]

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 and UK prime minister Tony Blair 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 "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."[53]

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, U.S. foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines".

She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on Afghanistan 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?"[54]

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.[55][56] In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq, and in March 2006 she criticised President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".[57]

India's nuclear weaponry[edit]

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, 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[edit]

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and others, signed a letter in The Guardian calling the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accusing Israel of "state terror".[58] 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 "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".[59] During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, she defended Hamas's rocket attacks, citing Palestinians' right to resistance.[60][61][62]

2001 Indian parliament attack[edit]

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the trial of the accused. According to her, Mohammad Afzal Guru was being scapegoated pointing at irregularities in the judicial and investigative process in the case and maintains the stance that the case remains unsolved.[63][64] In her book about the hanging of Afzal Guru, she had even suggested that there was evidence of state complicity in the terrorist attack.[65] In an editorial in The Hindu, journalist Praveen Swami questioned her asserted evidence of state complicity as having been "cherry-picked for polemical effect".[66] 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.[67] BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar criticised Roy for calling convicted terrorist Mohammad Afzal a "prisoner-of-war" and called Arundhati a "prisoner of her own dogma".[68] Afzal was hanged in 2013.[69]

The Muthanga incident[edit]

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for Adivasi 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, A. K. Antony, saying "You have blood on your hands."[70]

Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks[edit]

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, 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 India ("Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the 2002 Gujarat violence, 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".[35] 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;[71] Rushdie specifically criticised Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower.[72] Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian".[73]

Criticism of Sri Lankan government[edit]

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".[74] She also said that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide"[74] and described the Sri Lankan IDP 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".[75] 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".[76]

Views on the Naxalites[edit]

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"[77] and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memoranda of Understanding.[78] While she has received support from various quarters for her views,[79] Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy.[80][81] In other statements, she has described Naxalites as patriots "of a kind"[82] who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it".[77]

Roy at the Jamia Millia Islamia in March 2014

Sedition charges[edit]

In November 2010, Roy, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and five others were brought up on charges of sedition by the Delhi Police. 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".[83][84][85][86] 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.[87][88]

Criticism of Anna Hazare[edit]

On 21 August 2011, at the height of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign, Roy criticised Hazare and his movement in an opinion piece published in The Hindu.[89] 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 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, 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."[90] Roy's comparison of the Jan Lokpal Bill 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.[91] 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 after all...I'm not against a strong anti-corruption bill, but corruption is just a manifestation of a problem, not the problem itself."[90]

Views on Narendra Modi[edit]

In 2013, Roy called Narendra Modi's nomination as prime minister a "tragedy". She said business houses were supporting his candidacy because he was the "most militaristic and aggressive" candidate.[92] 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.[93] 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",[94] in which The Washington Post said Roy "slammed Modi for his handling of the pandemic".[95][96] Roy's op-ed was also published in The Wire[95] with the title "It's Not Enough to Say the Govt Has Failed. We Are Witnessing a Crime Against Humanity."[97]

Remarks about National Registers[edit]

On 25 December 2019, while speaking at Delhi University, Roy urged people to mislead authorities during the upcoming enumeration by the National Population Register, which she said can serve as a database for the National Register of Citizens.[98] The remarks were criticized by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[99][98][100] A complaint against her was registered at Tilak Marg police station, Delhi, under sections 295A, 504, 153 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.[101][102] Roy responded, "What I was proposing was civil disobedience with a smile", and claimed her remarks were misrepresented.[103][104]

Awards[edit]

Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of approximately US$30,000[105] and a citation that noted, "The book keeps all the promises that it makes".[106] 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 she captured the anguish among the students prevailing in professional institutions.[11] In 2015, she returned the national award in protest against religious intolerance and the growing violence by rightwing groups in India.[107]

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".[108]

In 2003, she was awarded "special recognition" as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Barbara Lee, and Kathy Kelly.

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence.[109][110] That same year she was awarded the Orwell Award, along with Seymour Hersh, by the National Council of Teachers of English.[111]

In January 2006, she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, 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'".[112][113]

In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.[114]

Roy was featured in the 2014 list of Time 100, the 100 most influential people in the world.[115]

Bibliography[edit]

Fiction[edit]

No. Title Publisher Year ISBN
1 The God of Small Things Flamingo 1997 ISBN 0-00-655068-1
2 The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Hamish Hamilton 2017 ISBN 0-24-130397-4

Non-fiction[edit]

No. Title Publisher Year ISBN
1 The End of Imagination Kottayam: D.C. Books 1998 ISBN 81-7130-867-8
2 The Cost of Living Flamingo 1999 ISBN 0-375-75614-0
3 The Greater Common Good Bombay: India Book Distributor 1999 ISBN 81-7310-121-3
4 The Algebra of Infinite Justice Flamingo 2002 ISBN 0-00-714949-2
5 Power Politics Cambridge: South End Press 2002 ISBN 0-89608-668-2
6 War Talk Cambridge: South End Press 2003 ISBN 0-89608-724-7
7 An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire Consortium 2004 ISBN 0-89608-727-1
8 Public Power in the Age of Empire New York: Seven Stories Press 2004 ISBN 9781583226827
9 The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy

(Interviews by David Barsamian)

Cambridge: South End Press 2004 ISBN 0-89608-710-7
10 The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy New Delhi: Penguin 2008 ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0
11 Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy New Delhi: Penguin 2010 ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4
12 Broken Republic: Three Essays New Delhi: Hamish Hamilton 2011 ISBN 978-0-670-08569-9
13 Walking with the Comrades New Delhi: Penguin 2011 ISBN 978-0-670-08553-8
14 Kashmir: The Case for Freedom Verso Books 2011 ISBN 1-844-67735-4
15 The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament New Delhi: Penguin 2013 ISBN 978-0143420750
16 Capitalism: A Ghost Story Chicago: Haymarket Books 2014 ISBN 978-1-60846-385-5[116]
17 Things that Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations (with John Cusack) Chicago: Haymarket Books 2016 ISBN 978-1-608-46717-4
18 The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste,

the Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi

Chicago: Haymarket Books 2017 ISBN 978-1-608-46797-6
19 My Seditious Heart: Collected Non-Fiction Chicago: Haymarket Books 2019 ISBN 978-1-608-46676-4
20 Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction Haymarket Books 2020 ISBN 1642592609

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Arundhati Roy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Pellegrino, Joe. "Arundhati Roy". jpellegrino.com.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Elmhirst, Sophie (21 July 2011). "Arundhati Roy — "Every day, one is insulted in India". New Statesman.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Nayare Ali (14 July 2002). "There's something about Mary". Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 January 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  5. "Arundhati Roy". Bookclub.
  6. Dhanusha Gokulan (11 November 2012). "'Fairy princess' to 'instinctive critic'". Khaleej Times. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Arundhati Roy, 1959–". The South Asian Literary Recordings Project. Library of Congress, New Delhi Office. 15 November 2002. Archived from the original on 4 April 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 Siddhartha Deb, "Arundhati Roy, the Not-So-Reluctant Renegade Archived 21 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine", The New York Times, 5 March 2014. Accessed 5 March 2014.
  9. Massey Sahib on IMDb
  10. 10.0 10.1 "Arundhati Roy, Author-Activist" Archived 24 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine, India Today. Retrieved 16 June 2013
  11. 11.0 11.1 "36th National Film Awards (PDF)" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  12. The Great Indian Rape-Trick Archived 14 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine @ SAWNET -The South Asian Women's NETwork. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  13. "Arundhati Roy: A 'small hero'". BBC News. 6 March 2002. Archived from the original on 28 May 2008. Retrieved 8 December 2006.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Ramesh, Randeep (17 February 2007). "Live to tell". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Roy, Amitabh (2005). The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment. Atlantic. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-81-269-0409-9.
  16. "Notable Books of the Year 1997". New York Times. 7 December 1997. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  17. "Best Sellers Plus". The New York Times. 25 January 1998. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  18. Kakutani, Michiko (3 June 1997). "Melodrama as Structure for Subtlety". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  19. Truax, Alice (25 May 1997). "A Silver Thimble in Her Fist". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  20. Eder, Richard (1 June 1997). "As the world turns: rev. of The God of Small Things". Los Angeles Times. p. 2. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  21. Carey, Barbara (7 June 1997). "A lush, magical novel of India". Toronto Star. p. M.21.
  22. "Books: The best of 1997". Time. 29 December 1997. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  23. "The scene is set for the Booker battle". BBC News. 24 September 1998. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  24. Kutty, N. Madhavan (9 November 1997). "Comrade of Small Jokes". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  25. Bumiller, Elisabeth (29 July 1997). "A Novelist Beginning with a Bang". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  26. Vir Sanghvi, "I think from a very early age, I was determined to negotiate with the world on my own" Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Rediff Special, Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  27. Randeep Ramesh (10 March 2007). "An activist returns to the novel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  28. "We Are One: a celebration of tribal peoples published this autumn". Survival International. 16 October 2009. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  29. "'We Are One: A celebration of tribal peoples' – new book published this autumn". Survival International. 21 July 2009. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  30. My Seditious Heart: Collected Non-Fiction.
  31. "Arundhati Roy announces second book after 19 yrs; to release in June 2017" Archived 18 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Hindustan Times. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  32. Book Depository Retrieved 27 July 2017. Archived 27 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  33. Press Trust of India (23 January 2018). "Arundhati Roy and Mohsin Hamid among five finalists for top US book critics award". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018.
  34. "Arundhati Roy: Necessary, but wrong". The Economist. 30 July 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  35. 35.0 35.1 Roy, Arundhati (13 December 2008). "The Monster in the Mirror". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  36. Thottam, Jyoti (4 September 2008). "Valley of Tears". Time. Archived from the original on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  37. Ghosh, Avijit (19 August 2008). "Kashmir needs freedom from India: Arundhati Roy". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  38. "Cong attacks Roy on Kashmir remark". The Times of India. The Economic Times. India. 20 August 2008. Archived from the original on 24 December 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2009.
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 "Cong asks Arundhati Roy to withdraw statement on J-K". 25 October 2010. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  40. "Case registered against Arundhati, Geelani". The Hindu. 29 November 2010. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  41. "Sedition case registered against Arundhati Roy, Geelani". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  42. Roy, Arundhati (4 June 1999). "The Greater Common Good". Frontline. 16 (11). Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2007.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  43. Drowned Out on IMDb
  44. "Playwright Tendulkar in BJP gunsight". The Telegraph (Kolkata). 13 December 2003. Archived from the original on 24 December 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2009. The Telegraph – Calcutta: Nation.
  45. "Arundhati's contempt: Supreme Court writes her a prison sentence". The Indian Express. 7 March 2002. Archived from the original on 15 February 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2008.V. Venkatesan and Sukumar Muralidharan (31 August 2001). "Of contempt and legitimate dissent". Frontline. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012.
  46. In re: Arundhati Roy.... Contemner, JUDIS (Supreme Court of India bench, Justices G.B. Pattanaik & R.P. Sethi 6 March 2002).
  47. Roy, Arundhati (7 March 2002). "Statement by Arundhati Roy". Friends of River Narmada. Archived from the original on 28 September 2006. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  48. Ramachandra Guha, "The Arun Shourie of the left"[usurped], The Hindu, 26 November 2000.
  49. Ramachandra Guha, "Perils of extremism" Archived 20 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Hindu, 17 December 2000.
  50. Ram, N. (19 January 2001). "Scimitars in the Sun: N. Ram interviews Arundhati Roy on a writer's place in politics". Frontline, The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
  51. Omvedt, Gail. "An Open Letter to Arundhati Roy". Friends of River Narmada. Archived from the original on 26 October 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
  52. "STS Program » Science and Democracy Lecture Series » News & Events » Arundhati Roy". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  53. Roy, Arundhati (29 September 2001). "The algebra of infinite justice". Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 June 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  54. Roy, Arundhati (23 October 2001). "'Brutality smeared in peanut butter': Why America must stop the war now". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  55. Roy, Arundhati (13 May 2003). "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)". Text of speech at the Riverside Church. Commondreams.org. Archived from the original on 4 April 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  56. Roy, Arundhati. "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free – An Hour With Arundhati Roy". Text of speech at the Riverside Church. Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on 8 April 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  57. Roy, Arundhati (28 February 2006). "George Bush Go Home". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 February 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  58. "War crimes and Lebanon". The Guardian. London. 3 August 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  59. Bajko, Matthew S. (17 May 2007). "Political Notebook: Queer activists reel over Israel, Frameline ties". The Bay Area Reporter. Archived from the original on 20 August 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
  60. "Gaza's rockets part of resistance, says collective led by Arundhati Roy, Nayantara Sahgal". The Hindu. 17 May 2021.
  61. "Palestinians have right to resist illegal occupation, India's leading thinkers say".
  62. "'Palestinians have right to resist Israeli occupation'".
  63. Roy, Arundhati (10 February 2013). "A perfect day for democracy". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  64. Roy, Arundhati (13 December 2008). "Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India's 9/11". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  65. Roy, Arundhati (18 December 2006). "Book Extract: The Strange Case of the attack on the Indian Parliament". Outlook India. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  66. Swami, Praveen (11 February 2013). "The vanity of 13/12 'truth-telling'". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  67. Arundhati Roy, "And His Life Should Become Extinct" Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Outlook, 30 October 2006.
  68. "BJP flays Arundhati for 'defending' Afzal". 28 October 2006. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  69. "Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict, hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail". Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  70. Roy, Arundhati (15 March 2003). "Arundhati Roy to Kerala Chief Minister Antony". Frontline. Vol. 20, no. 6. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  71. "All terrorism roads lead to Pakistan, says Rushdie". The Times of India. 18 December 2008. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  72. "Rushdie Slams Arundhati Roy". The Times of India. 18 December 2008. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  73. Singh, Tavleen (21 December 2008). "The Real Enemies". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  74. 74.0 74.1 Roy, Arundhati (1 April 2009). "This is not a war on terror. It is a racist war on all Tamils". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  75. "Lankan writer slams Arundhati Roy" Archived 1 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Indian Express, 4 April 2009.
  76. "Situation in Sri Lanka absolutely grim". Tamil Guardian. 25 October 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  77. 77.0 77.1 Karan Thapar, "India is a corporate, Hindu state: Arundhati" Archived 27 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, CNN-IBN, 12 September 2010.
  78. "Govt at war with Naxals to aid MNCs: Arundhati" Archived 27 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, IBNLive, 21 October 2009.
  79. Amulya Ganguli, "Rooting for rebels" Archived 12 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine, 11 May 2010. DNA India.
  80. "Walking With The Comrades" Archived 15 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Outlook cover story, 29 March 2010.
  81. "Cops shouldn't have used public bus: Arundhati" Archived 22 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine, The Times of India, 19 May 2010.
  82. "Naxals are patriots: Arundhati". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 20 January 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  83. "Sedition case registered against Arundhati Roy, Geelani". NDTV. 29 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  84. "Kashmir has never been integral part of India: Arundhati". The Indian Express. 25 October 2010. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  85. "Arundhati, Geelani charged with sedition". Hindustan Times. 29 November 2010. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  86. Gethin Chamberlain (26 October 2010). "Arundhati Roy faces arrest over Kashmir remark". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  87. Priscilla Jebaraj (2 January 2011). "Binayak Sen among six charged with sedition in 2010". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  88. "India: Drop Sedition Charges Against Cartoonist". Human Rights Watch. 12 October 2012. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  89. I'd rather not be Anna: Arundhati Roy Archived 23 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine. The Hindu, 21 August 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  90. 90.0 90.1 Kejriwal, Pritha. "Love is the Centre, an Interview with Arundhati Roy". Kindle Magazine. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  91. Mukherjee, Vishwajoy (22 August 2011). "We Are Not Like the Maoists: Medha Patkar". Tehelka. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  92. "Arundhati Roy writing her second novel". The Hindu. 11 November 2013. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  93. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Goodman, Amy (28 November 2019). Arundhati Roy: It's Hard to Communicate the Scale and the Shape of This Shadow Taking India Over (Video). Democracy Now!. Event occurs at 26:30.
  94. Roy, Arundhati (28 April 2021). "'We are witnessing a crime against humanity': Arundhati Roy on India's Covid catastrophe". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  95. 95.0 95.1 Cunningham, Erin; Farzan, Antonia Noori (29 April 2021). "U.S. coronavirus aid to begin arriving in India amid record surge of cases". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  96. Slater, Joanna; Masih, Niha (30 April 2021). "In India's devastating coronavirus surge, anger at Modi grows". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  97. Roy, Arundhati (29 April 2021). "It's Not Enough to Say the Govt Has Failed. We Are Witnessing a Crime Against Humanity". The Wire. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  98. 98.0 98.1 "Congress, BJP slam Arundhati Roy over her remarks on NPR". India Today. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  99. "Cong, BJP slam Arundhati Roy over her remarks on NPR". Outlook (India). Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  100. "'Arundhati Roy idiolises criminals like Ranga-Billa': Uma Bharti hits out, Congress joins". The Statesman. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  101. "Police complaint against Arundhati Roy for her DU speech". India Today. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  102. "Complaint against Arundhati Roy by SC lawyer over false information for NPR remarks; politicos slam activist". Firstpost. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  103. "Civil disobedience with a smile: Arundhati Roy on complaint filed against her NPR remark". The Week. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  104. "Full text: Arundhati Roy clarifies her NPR remarks even as she faces criminal complaint". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  105. David Barsamian (September 2001). "Arundhati Roy interviewed". The South Asian. Archived from the original on 25 December 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  106. "Previous winners – 1997". Booker Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  107. Hannah Ellis (5 November 2015). "Arundhati Roy returns award in protest against religious intolerance in India". Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  108. "2002 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Arundhati Roy". Lannan Foundation. Archived from the original on 6 February 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
  109. "Arundhati Roy gets Sydney Peace Prize" Archived 21 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Outlook, Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  110. "Peace?..." Archived 19 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Outlook, Retrieved 1 April 2012. Arundhati Roy
  111. "George Orwell Award". ncte.org.
  112. "Sahitya Akademi Award: Arundhati Roy Rejects Honor" Archived 21 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Deccan Herald, 16 January 2006.
  113. "Award-Winning Novelist Rejects a Prize" Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, 17 January 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
  114. "From Norman Mailer to Arundhati Roy". Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine Hamish Hamilton. Retrieved 13 December 2015).
  115. Mishra, Pankaj. "Arundhati Roy: The World's 100 Most Influential People". Archived from the original on 14 September 2016.
  116. Jean Drezet (24 October 2015). "The dark underbelly of state capitalism in India". The Lancet. 386 (10004): 1620. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00543-7. S2CID 54264685.

Further reading[edit]

Books and articles on Roy[edit]

Other[edit]

External links[edit]

Interviews and speeches

Template:Man Booker Prize Winners

Template:Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English Template:Footer Sydney Peace Prize laureates Template:Orwell Award recipients

Information red.svg
Scan the QR code to donate via UPI
Dear reader, We kindly request your support in maintaining the independence of Bharatpedia. As a non-profit organization, we rely heavily on small donations to sustain our operations and provide free access to reliable information to the world. We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to consider donating to our cause, as it would greatly aid us in our mission. Your contribution would demonstrate the importance of reliable and trustworthy knowledge to you and the world. Thank you.

Please select an option below or scan the QR code to donate
₹150 ₹500 ₹1,000 ₹2,000 ₹5,000 ₹10,000 Other