They can't buy her silence
Tariq Ali · Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi regardless of which party holds power. She often annoys the official Indian Left because she writes and speaks of events for which they are either responsible or of which they dare not speak. Roy will not allow her life to be subjugated by lies. She never affects a courage or contempt she does not feel. Her campaigns against injustice are undertaken with no view to either fame or profit. Hence the respect awarded her by the poor, ordinary citizens, who know the truth but are not allowed a voice in the public sphere. The authorities can’t buy her silence. One of the few voices in India who has spoken loudly against the continuing Indian atrocities in Kashmir, she is now being threatened. If she doesn’t shut up they’ll charge her with sedition, aping their colonial masters of yesteryear. Her response to those who would charge and imprison her is a model of clarity, conviction and refusal to compromise.
Comments
Having said that, we do have cases like harassment of Kamran Shafi (Vetran Columnist), torture on Umer Cheema (Invetigative Reporter) and continuous chasing of Sirmed Manzoor (Chief Coordinator SAFMA), while India has almost none comparable to these.
Democracy does make a difference!
Ms Roy at best thrives on making common causes with naxalites (who kill innocent people), and people like Geelani and Hamid Gul. That is neither intellectually honest nor very wise. If we Indians wanted naxalism or maoism instead of a faulty democracy we would choose that ourselves, without her help.
It is notable that none of the commenters on TOI disputed the substance of her words, only her right to pronounce them, and what her actions constitute within the context of what looks like a fairly rabid nationalism.
I'm no expert on Indian politics, so please, correct the points that you feel are wrong.
Returning to this blog after a long time.
Unfortunately, Ms Roy receives from many Indians what she liberally dishes out against India and other Indians - ad-hominem attacks. Her being a female works both in her favor and against her.
Joe Morrison
People would need to know more about you to determine whether what you take seriously or not has any value.
Till then she is nothing but a hypocritical liberal.
Ms Roy supports Naxalites. She calls them Gandhians with guns. How does she not support the killing of innocents?
Coming from a fairly poor background in India myself I can assure you that India survives as a democracy precisely because Indian poor and Ms Roy have nothing to do with each other.
the world, as many on the left have realized a long time ago is not a binary black & white but a bewildering spectrum that is capable of clouding the judgment of the best of us. Ms. Roy is not simply "loathed and feared" by the Indian elite. There are many of us who occupy the middle ground between the two and watch with amusement or bewilderment as she pronounces on one 'burning' issue or the other with utter disregard to history or political complexity. She belongs to the best tradition of sophomoric revolutionaries: Down, down with the edifice! And never mind who gets hurt and what will come up in its place? Well, er, we'll come to that after the revolution.
And this is some of us whom you describe as the Indian elite. As for those who don't fit that description (which would be, I'd reckon a small 950 million people) Arundhati Roy means, Arundhati who?
And please don't believe everything you write. No one is arresting anyone for sedition (this wasn't even applied to arrest Kashmiri separatists who are allowed to own palatial homes in New Delhi, meet diplomats and hold public meetings in the capital). Ms. Roy is going to be allowed to bask in her 5 minutes of glory before she gallops off to find another windmill to tilt at.
Sincerely,
Chengiz J. Khan
Is this a coincidence, or have you named your online self after it? If the latter, that just seems very weird.
Like pinhut, i don't know much about Indian politics; but justifying atrocities with 'history' and 'political complexity' is an old reactionary ploy which i have never come across a sound example of.
We should have dealt with Kashmir as China dealt with Tibet..just bring in mainland Indians and change the demography using brutal force.
Yes, in India, we do those sorts of things. We rape mothers, sisters, brothers and maids. Sad, really. LRB readership does appear to be exceptionally intelligent, though, not to be taken in by Indians.
'Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice ... for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland ... '
Ms Roy's complete silence about the horrid treatment of Kashmiri Hindus by Kashmiri Muslims - even as she hobnobs with people like Hamid Gul and Gilani - is one of her many weaknesses. Her sense of justice appears to differ from that of most Indians.
In I
Not only Gutama and Ghandi, but also Mother The Reesa, Prophet Moo Ahamad, Lord Jesse Kryst - Ms Roy bests them all.
All that remains is her official beatification by the Roman Catholic Church for us Indians to learn the truth about her.