Clever, critical and courageous

The Indian author and political activist Arundhati Roy specializes in breaking taboos and in challenging the powerful. She loves to make dramatic statements: "The idea of India as a tolerant, liberal and just society is one of the biggest public relations shams of the century," she says in her recently-published book "Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy".

"We have military occupation in Kashmir," she continues. In the northeastern states, like Nagaland and Manipur, vicious wars are being fought. We have had the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, we saw Sikhs slaughtered on the street 25 years ago. And no justice for the victims".

With sharp words, she also rebukes the Indian government for its economic politics. "This urge to a 10 per cent growth-rate is incompatible with democracy", she states. "This growth is based on extracting minerals and destroying the ecological resources. Millions are being displaced from their land."

It is always the little people who have to bear the consequences, she laments. "The system of market liberalization has dismantled workers rights and has pushed the poor to the edges of survival", Roy writes.

Drastic words

It is remarkable that Arundhati Roy takes on the fight with the big and mighty and does it all alone. A prominent anti-globalization activist, she is not afraid to criticize the West.

"The democratic nations often present themselves as upholders of moral standards. But at the same time they support and even strengthen military dictatorships and totalitarian regimes", Roy wrote in an essay. "Hundreds of thousands died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whole cities were razed to the ground, and all this in the name of democracy."

The establishment – not only in India – hates her for her outspokenness. The 49-year-old takes it calmly: "I enjoy stepping into the fireline and returning the fire", is her belligerent motto.

Unconventional thinking

Arundhati Roy was raised unconventionally and was sheltered from certain inequalities in Indian society. However, she moved to Delhi at the age of 16 and was confronted with shocking social realities and the rigid caste system.

She fictionalized some of her childhood experiences in her bestselling 1997 novel "The God of Small Things" that brought her instant international acclaim and won her the British Booker Prize.

In 2006, Roy turned down India’s most prestigious literature award for political reasons. "I must refuse to accept the award" she wrote to the state-financed Sahitya Akademi, India's Academy of Letters, "to register my protest and reaffirm my disagreement — indeed my absolute disgust — with the policies of the Indian government."

Author: Ana Lehmann
Editor: Anne Thomas