Her soft voice, sweet smile and mild manners deceptively conceal her determined spirit. For Arundathi Roy, who was in Kochi for the release of the Malayalam translations of her books 'The Shape of the Beast' and 'The Broken Republic', this is the only way of existence she knows.
“I cannot imagine not fighting for what is right. If anybody ever told me to stay out of this path or ever got in my way, they would immediately be out of my life by default. I believe it’s just a matter of being true to yourself and making sure that the people around you are the ones who accept you for what you are. The others, be it friends or family, simply cannot be a part of me and my life,” says Arundhati.
Arundhati, along with being a MAN Booker prize winning author, is also much acclaimed as an activist due to her unrelenting commitment to causes like the Muthanga issue, Narmada Dam issue, Kashmiri militancy and other politically charged issues. However, she finds the classification puzzling. “The term Activist is a newly coined word. There was a time when writing about socio-political concerns was considered the job of the author. Today the author is someone who creates a beautiful world for the readers to enjoy and reflecting reality has become someone else’s,” she says.
Referring to the progress of her second novel she says, “Whenever I meet people they ask me ‘Why haven’t you written a second book?’ I have written so many works like War Talk, Listening to Grasshoppers and so on. However, to many it’s as if only works of fiction qualify as a book and the non-fiction category does not exist,” says Arundathi. She feels that whenever she attempts to work on the second novel, things just take her away from it.
She adds that the greatest crisis our society faces today is a culture of imitation. “Be it our films, literature, economic policies, our stand on exploiting resources, we are simply trying to imitate the west. When the western nations were in the industrial era, they had colonies to exploit; today we are doing the same, only we are exploiting ourselves. We are still in the thralls of our colonial past. We must realize that we are trying to emulate colonizers and ones who committed genocides,” adds Arundathi.
She feels that if the present political scenario continues our country will disintegrate very soon. “800 million people still don’t have provision for something as basic as proper food. That is more than the people starving in some of the poorest countries of Africa put together. There is a mass movement where 800 million people are fighting for food on a daily basis and we are unaware. However, our people believe in our development story because of the comfort provided by their refrigerators and television sets,” says Arundhati.
Referring to the recent hype created in Kerala after Maoist presence was detected in certain parts of the state, she says, “Anybody who stands against the state is declared a Maoist today. Initially it was only in the border areas, but today it has spread throughout the state. The government is simply hunting for ways to heighten security and every time they need to do that they invent a Maoist presence,” she says.
Arundhati adds, recalling the experience she had when she was writing Walking with my Comrades, “BSF, CRPF, Army personnel, and every security force you can imagine is hunting the forests in the country, invading tribal villages, raping their women and burning down the villages. When this is what you face, how can you expect them to react peacefully? People who are starving cannot organize a fast, people who do not have access to media cannot organise a dharna.”
