Arundhati Roy#Advocacy
{{Short description|Indian author and activist (born 1961)}}
{{distinguish|Anuradha Roy (novelist)}}
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{{Use British English|date=August 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Arundhati Roy
| image = Arundhati Roy W.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Roy in 2013
| birth_name = Suzanna Arundhati Roy
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|11|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = Shillong, Assam, India
| parents = Mary Roy (mother)
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Gerard da Cunha|1978|1982|end=div}}{{cite magazine|title=Arundhati Roy — "Every day, one is insulted in India|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2011/07/arundhati-roy-india-book|date=21 July 2011|first=Sophie|last=Elmhirst |author-link=Sophie Elmhirst|magazine=New Statesman}}|{{marriage|Pradip Krishen|1984}}{{cite web|title=Arundhati Roy|url=http://jpellegrino.com/teaching/roy.html|first=Joe|last=Pellegrino|website=jpellegrino.com}}}}
| relatives = Prannoy Roy (cousin)
| education = Lawrence School
| alma_mater = SPA Delhi
| occupation = Writer, essayist, activist
| genre = Fiction, non-fiction
| period = 1997–present
| notableworks = The God of Small Things
| awards = {{Indented plainlist|
- National Film Award for Best Screenplay (1988)
- Booker Prize (1997)
- Sydney Peace Prize (2004)
- Orwell Award (2004)
- Norman Mailer Prize (2011)
- PEN Pinter Prize (2024)
}}
| signature = Arundhati Roy signature.svg
| module = {{Listen|pos=center |embed= yes |filename= Arundhati Roy BBC Radio4 Bookclub 2 Oct 2011 b015brn8.flac |title=Arundhati Roy's voice|type= speech|description= from the BBC programme Bookclub, 2 October 2011.{{Cite episode |title= Arundhati Roy |series= Bookclub |series-link= Bookclub (radio) |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015brn8 |station= BBC Radio 4 |date= 2 October 2011 |access-date= 18 January 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141201095351/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015brn8 |archive-date= 1 December 2014 |url-status= live }} }}
}}
Suzanna Arundhati Roy ({{IPA|bn|orundʱoti rae̯}}; born 24 November 1961){{cite encyclopedia| url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/511182/Arundhati-Roy| title=Arundhati Roy| access-date=12 May 2013| encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613221408/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/511182/Arundhati-Roy| archive-date=13 June 2013| url-status=live}} 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. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.{{cite news |url= http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/todayevent/2012/November/todayevent_November12.xml§ion=todayevent |title= 'Fairy princess' to 'instinctive critic' |first= Dhanusha |last=Gokulan |date= 11 November 2012 |newspaper= Khaleej Times |access-date= 2 November 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141103022947/http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data%2Ftodayevent%2F2012%2FNovember%2Ftodayevent_November12.xml§ion=todayevent |archive-date= 3 November 2014 |url-status= live }} She was the winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize, given by English PEN,{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp4w8x4wypeo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627114153/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp4w8x4wypeo|url-status=live|title=Arundhati Roy wins PEN Pinter Prize for 'powerful voice'|first=Cherylann|last=Mollan|date=27 June 2024|archive-date=27 June 2024|publisher=BBC News|location=Mumbai}} and she named imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah as the "Writer of Courage" with whom she chose to share the award.{{cite magazine|url= https://www.thebookseller.com/news/arundhati-roy-shares-pen-pinter-prize-2024-with-alaa-abd-el-fattah|title=Arundhati Roy shares PEN Pinter Prize 2024 with Alaa Abd El-Fattah|magazine=The Bookseller|date=10 October 2024|first= Melina |last=Spanoudi|access-date=12 October 2024}}
Early life
Suzanna Arundhati Roy was born on 24 November, 1961 in Shillong in Undivided Assam (now in Meghalaya) into a Christian family,{{cite web| title = Arundhati Roy, 1959– | work = The South Asian Literary Recordings Project| publisher = Library of Congress, New Delhi Office| date = 15 November 2002| url = https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/arundhathiroy.html| access-date =6 April 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090404083736/http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/arundhathiroy.html| archive-date= 4 April 2009 | url-status= live}} to parents Mary Roy, a Malayali Jacobite Syrian Christian women's rights activist from Kerala and Rajib Roy, a Bengali Christian{{cite news |last=Dey |first=Debalina |date=September 6, 2020 |url=https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/arundhati-roy-joins-shashi-tharoor-kangana-ranaut-in-list-of-casteless-upper-caste-indians/496720/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200907064510/https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/arundhati-roy-joins-shashi-tharoor-kangana-ranaut-in-list-of-casteless-upper-caste-indians/496720/ |archive-date=September 7, 2020 |title=Arundhati Roy joins Shashi Tharoor, Kangana Ranaut in list of 'casteless' upper-caste Indians |quote=I am not (a Brahmin)... My mother is a Christian and my father belonged to an organisation called Brahmo Samaj, which is not Brahmin, but he also became Christian... So I am not a Brahmin. |publisher=The Print |language=en-IN }} tea plantation manager from Kolkata, West Bengal.Deb, Siddhartha (5 March 2014), [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/arundhati-roy-the-not-so-reluctant-renegade.html "Arundhati Roy, the Not-So-Reluctant Renegade"], The New York Times. Accessed 5 March 2014. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421172502/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/arundhati-roy-the-not-so-reluctant-renegade.html |date=21 April 2016 }}". In September 2020, Roy denied false rumors about her being a Brahmin by caste.
When she was two years old, 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 in Kottayam, Kerala, followed by the Lawrence School in Lovedale, Tamil Nadu. She reads, writes, and speaks English, Hindi, and Malayalam.{{cite web|title=The Currency of Caste: Arundhati Roy in Conversation with Ken Hunt|url=http://www.pulseconnects.com/currency-caste-arundhati-roy-conversation-ken-hunt|date=Summer 2015|first=Ken|last=Hunt|website=Pulse}}
Roy then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, where she met architect Gerard da Cunha. They married in 1978 and lived in Delhi and then Goa before divorcing in 1982.
Roy returned to Delhi, where she obtained a position with the National Institute of Urban Affairs.
Career
=Early career: screenplays=
Early in her career, Roy worked in television and movies. She starred in Massey Sahib in 1985. 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).[http://www.india-today.com/itoday/19991213/roy.html "Arundhati Roy, Author-Activist"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124103723/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/19991213/roy.html |date=24 November 2010 }}, 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.{{cite web|url=http://dff.nic.in/2011/36nfa.pdf|title=36th National Film Awards (PDF)|publisher=Directorate of Film Festivals|access-date=25 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104103209/http://dff.nic.in/2011/36nfa.pdf|archive-date=4 November 2016|url-status=live}} She attracted attention in 1994 when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, which was based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled "The Great Indian Rape Trick", Roy 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.[http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/roy_bq1.html The Great Indian Rape-Trick] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414182145/http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/roy_bq1.html |date=14 April 2016 }} @ SAWNET -The South Asian Women's NETwork. Retrieved 25 November 2011.{{cite news | title = Arundhati Roy: A 'small hero' | work = BBC News | date = 6 March 2002 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1857495.stm | access-date = 8 December 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080528102639/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1857495.stm | archive-date = 28 May 2008 | url-status = live }}{{cite news | last = Ramesh| first = Randeep| title = Live to tell|newspaper= The Guardian| date = 17 February 2007 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/17/fiction.arundhatiroy| access-date =6 April 2009 | location=London| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090506064402/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/feb/17/fiction.arundhatiroy| archive-date= 6 May 2009 | url-status= live}}
=''The God of Small Things''=
Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996.{{cite book| last = Roy| first = Amitabh| title = The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment| publisher = Atlantic| year = 2005| pages = 37–38| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&q=%22Pradip+Krishen%22&pg=PA37|isbn=978-81-269-0409-9}} The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.
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.{{cite news | title = Notable Books of the Year 1997 |newspaper =The New York Times | date = 7 December 1997 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/07/reviews/notable-fiction.html | access-date =21 March 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081209051943/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/07/reviews/notable-fiction.html| archive-date=9 December 2008| url-status= live}} It reached fourth position on The New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction.{{cite news | title = Best Sellers Plus | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 25 January 1998 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/25/bsp/fictioncompare.html | access-date = 21 March 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081209175748/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/25/bsp/fictioncompare.html | archive-date = 9 December 2008 | url-status = live }} From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received a publishing advance of half a million pounds. 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 very favorable reviews in major American newspapers such as The New York Times (a "dazzling first novel",{{Cite news | last = Kakutani | first = Michiko | title = Melodrama as Structure for Subtlety | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 3 June 1997| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/03/books/melodrama-as-structure-for-subtlety.html | access-date = 5 February 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170318065820/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/03/books/melodrama-as-structure-for-subtlety.html | archive-date = 18 March 2017| url-status = live }} "extraordinary", "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple"{{Cite news | last = Truax | first = Alice | title = A Silver Thimble in Her Fist | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 25 May 1997 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/970525.25truaxt.html | access-date = 5 February 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161213225528/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/970525.25truaxt.html | archive-date = 13 December 2016 | url-status = live }}) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"{{Cite news | last = Eder | first = Richard | title = As the world turns: rev. of The God of Small Things | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | page = 2 | date = 1 June 1997| url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/12168713.html?dids=12168713:12168713&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+01%2C+1997&author=RICHARD+EDER&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=As+the+World+Turns%3B+THE+GOD+OF+SMALL+THINGS.++By+Arundhati+Roy+.+Random+House%3A+321+pp.%2C+%2423&pqatl=google | access-date = 18 January 2010
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604044505/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/12168713.html?dids=12168713:12168713&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+01,+1997&author=RICHARD+EDER&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=As+the+World+Turns%3B+THE+GOD+OF+SMALL+THINGS.++By+Arundhati+Roy+.+Random+House:+321+pp.,+$23&pqatl=google | archive-date = 4 June 2011| url-status = dead }}), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"{{Cite news | last = Carey | first = Barbara
| title = A lush, magical novel of India | work = Toronto Star | page = M.21 | date = 7 June 1997}}). It was one of the five best books of 1997 according to Time.{{Cite magazine | title = Books: The best of 1997 | magazine = Time | date = 29 December 1997 |url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html | access-date = 18 January 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100825144624/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html | archive-date = 25 August 2010| url-status = dead }} Critical response in the United Kingdom was less favorable, and the awarding of the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable" and a Guardian journalist called the contest "profoundly depressing".{{Cite news | title = The scene is set for the Booker battle | work = BBC News | date = 24 September 1998| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/179131.stm | access-date = 18 January 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111025085221/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/179131.stm | archive-date = 25 October 2011| url-status = live
}} In India, E. K. Nayanar,{{Cite news |last=Kutty |first=N. Madhavan |date=9 November 1997 |title=Comrade of Small Jokes |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19971109/31350653.html |access-date=18 January 2010 |newspaper=The Indian Express}} then the chief minister of Roy's home state of Kerala, especially criticised the book's unrestrained description of sexuality, and she had to answer charges of obscenity.{{Cite news | last = Bumiller | first = Elisabeth | title = A Novelist Beginning with a Bang | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 29 July 1997 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/29/books/a-novelist-beginning-with-a-bang.html | access-date = 18 January 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130601012144/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/29/books/a-novelist-beginning-with-a-bang.html | archive-date = 1 June 2013 | url-status = live }}
=Later career=
Since the success of her novel, Roy has written a television serial, The Banyan Tree,Sanghvi, Vir, [http://www.rediff.com/news/apr/05roy2.htm "I think from a very early age, I was determined to negotiate with the world on my own"], The Rediff Special. Retrieved 18 April 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183922/http://www.rediff.com/news/apr/05roy2.htm |date=3 March 2016 }}. and the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).
In early 2007, Roy said she was working on a second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.{{cite news |url= https://www.smh.com.au/news/books/an-activist-returns-to-the-novel/2007/03/08/1173166881043.html?page=fullpage |title= An activist returns to the novel |date= 10 March 2007 |work= The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date= 13 March 2007 |first= Randeep |last=Ramesh |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071016194725/http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/an-activist-returns-to-the-novel/2007/03/08/1173166881043.html?page=fullpage |archive-date= 16 October 2007 |url-status= live }}
File:Arundhati Roy, Man Booker Prize winner.jpg winner]]
Roy contributed to We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, a book released in 2009{{cite web| url = http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4981 |title=We Are One: a celebration of tribal peoples published this autumn |publisher =Survival International |date=16 October 2009 |access-date=25 November 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091029175919/http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4981| archive-date= 29 October 2009 | url-status= live}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4776|title='We Are One: A celebration of tribal peoples' – new book published this autumn|date=21 July 2009|publisher=Survival International|access-date=2 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622161458/http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4776|archive-date=22 June 2015|url-status=live}}
Roy 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.Roy, Arundhati (2019), [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1301-my-seditious-heart My Seditious Heart: Collected Nonfiction], Haymarket Books.
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.[http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/arundhati-roy-announces-second-book-after-19-yrs-to-release-in-june-2017/story-2fTs1YGyD1sygJZqg5bXwJ.html "Arundhati Roy announces second book after 19 yrs; to release in June 2017"], Hindustan Times. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018113908/http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/arundhati-roy-announces-second-book-after-19-yrs-to-release-in-june-2017/story-2fTs1YGyD1sygJZqg5bXwJ.html |date=18 October 2016 }}. The novel was chosen for the Man Booker Prize 2017 longlist,Book Depository [https://www.bookdepository.com/fiction-prizes Retrieved 27 July 2017.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727004459/https://www.bookdepository.com/fiction-prizes |date=27 July 2017 }} and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in January 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/arundhati-roy-and-mohsin-hamid-among-five-finalists-for-top-us-book-critics-award/story-uu4DxNkbYvUuZRIyarrIQI.html|title=Arundhati Roy and Mohsin Hamid among five finalists for top US book critics award|last=Press Trust of India|date=23 January 2018|work=Hindustan Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204043227/https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/arundhati-roy-and-mohsin-hamid-among-five-finalists-for-top-us-book-critics-award/story-uu4DxNkbYvUuZRIyarrIQI.html|archive-date=4 February 2018|url-status=live}}
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/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).{{cite news |title=Arundhati Roy: Necessary, but wrong |url=http://www.economist.com/node/14120046 |url-status=live |newspaper=The Economist |date=30 July 2009 |access-date=19 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222030915/http://www.economist.com/node/14120046 |archive-date=22 February 2015}} 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".
=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 state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the Amarnath land transfer controversy.{{cite magazine| last = Thottam| first = Jyoti| title = Valley of Tears| magazine = Time| date = 4 September 2008| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838586,00.html| access-date = 6 April 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100505142414/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1838586%2C00.html| archive-date = 5 May 2010| url-status = dead}} According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desired secession from India, and not union with India.{{cite news | last = Ghosh | first = Avijit | title = Kashmir needs freedom from India: Arundhati Roy | work = The Times of India | date = 19 August 2008 | url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmir_needs_freedom_from_India_Arundhati_Roy/articleshow/3378687.cms | access-date = 6 April 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090208102758/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmir_needs_freedom_from_India_Arundhati_Roy/articleshow/3378687.cms | archive-date = 8 February 2009 | url-status = live }} She was criticised by the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party for her remarks.{{cite news| url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Cong_attacks_Roy_on_Kashmir_remark/articleshow/3384003.cms| title=Cong attacks Roy on Kashmir remark| date=20 August 2008| series=The Economic Times| location=India| work=The Times of India| access-date=25 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224030735/http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Cong_attacks_Roy_on_Kashmir_remark/articleshow/3384003.cms| archive-date=24 December 2008| url-status=live}}
All India Congress Committee member and senior Congress party leader Satya Prakash Malaviya asked Roy to withdraw her "irresponsible" statement, saying that it was "contrary to historical facts".{{cite news |title=Cong asks Arundhati Roy to withdraw statement on J-K |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cong-asks-arundhati-roy-to-withdraw-statement-on-jk/702254/0 |url-status=live |date=25 October 2010 |access-date=26 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116101333/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cong-asks-arundhati-roy-to-withdraw-statement-on-jk/702254/0 |archive-date=16 January 2013}}
{{blockquote|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. }} 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".{{Cite news|title = Case registered against Arundhati, Geelani|url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/case-registered-against-arundhati-geelani/article922225.ece|newspaper = The Hindu|date = 29 November 2010|access-date = 22 November 2015|issn = 0971-751X|language = en-IN|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160207071513/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/case-registered-against-arundhati-geelani/article922225.ece|archive-date = 7 February 2016|url-status = live}}{{cite web|title = Sedition case registered against Arundhati Roy, Geelani|url = http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sedition-case-registered-against-arundhati-roy-geelani-440611|website = NDTV.com|access-date = 22 November 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160104212446/http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sedition-case-registered-against-arundhati-roy-geelani-440611|archive-date = 4 January 2016|url-status = live}} In June 2024, the UAPA Act was invoked against them.{{cite web|title = 'Trying to prove they're back': Opposition slams 'political' UAPA action against Arundhati Roy for old Kashmir speech|url = https://www.livemint.com/news/india/delhi-lg-vk-saxena-uapa-bjp-arundhati-roy-sheikh-showkat-hussain-kashmir-speech-mahua-moitra-priyanka-chaturvedi-11718443797452.html|website = livemint.com| date=15 June 2024 |access-date = 15 June 2024 | author1=Livemint }}
=Sardar Sarovar Project=
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.{{Cite journal | last = Roy | first = Arundhati | title = The Greater Common Good | journal = Frontline | volume = 16 | issue = 11 | date = 4 June 1999 | url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1611/16110040.htm | access-date = 9 May 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070211021855/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1611/16110040.htm | archive-date = 11 February 2007 | url-status = usurped}} 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.{{IMDb title|title=Drowned Out |id=0424055}} Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.{{cite news |title=Playwright Tendulkar in BJP gunsight |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031213/asp/nation/story_2674388.asp |url-status=dead |newspaper=The Telegraph (Kolkata) |date=13 December 2003 |access-date=6 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224064723/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031213/asp/nation/story_2674388.asp |archive-date=24 December 2008}} The Telegraph – Calcutta: Nation.
In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Supreme Court of India with an affidavit saying that 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.{{cite news | title = Arundhati's contempt: Supreme Court writes her a prison sentence | newspaper = The Indian Express | date = 7 March 2002 | url = http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/ie20020307/top3.html | access-date = 21 January 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080215114221/http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/ie20020307/top3.html | archive-date = 15 February 2008 | url-status = live }}{{cite news | title = Of contempt and legitimate dissent | first = V. |last=Venkatesan |author2=Sukumar Muralidharan | work = Frontline | date = 31 August 2001 | url = http://www.flonnet.com/fl1817/18170910.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120220161858/http://www.flonnet.com/fl1817/18170910.htm | archive-date = 20 February 2012}} 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 {{Indian Rupee}}2500.{{cite court |litigants= In re: Arundhati Roy.... Contemner |reporter= JUDIS |court= Supreme Court of India bench, Justices G.B. Pattanaik & R.P. Sethi |date=6 March 2002 | url = http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=18299}} Roy served the jail sentence and paid the fine rather than serve an additional three months for default.{{cite news | last = Roy | first = Arundhati | title = Statement by Arundhati Roy | date = 7 March 2002 | publisher = Friends of River Narmada | url = http://www.narmada.org/sc.contempt/aroy.stmt.mar7.2002.html | access-date = 21 March 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060928143159/http://www.narmada.org/sc.contempt/aroy.stmt.mar7.2002.html | archive-date = 28 September 2006 | url-status = dead }}
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,Guha, Ramachandra, {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20101108121117/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/11/26/stories/13260411.htm "The Arun Shourie of the left"]}}, The Hindu, 26 November 2000. and that "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".Guha, Ramachandra (17 December 2000), [http://www.hindu.com/2000/12/17/stories/1317061b.htm "Perils of extremism"], The Hindu. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620101457/http://www.hindu.com/2000/12/17/stories/1317061b.htm |date=20 June 2014 }}. 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".{{cite news | last = Ram | first = N. | author-link = N. Ram | title = Scimitars in the Sun: N. Ram interviews Arundhati Roy on a writer's place in politics. | date = 19 January 2001 | work = Frontline, The Hindu | url = http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1801/18010040.htm | access-date = 30 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081223141300/http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1801/18010040.htm | archive-date = 23 December 2008 | url-status = live }}
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).{{cite web | last = Omvedt | first = Gail | author-link = Gail Omvedt | title = An Open Letter to Arundhati Roy | publisher = Friends of River Narmada | url = http://www.narmada.org/debates/gail/gail.open.letter.html | access-date = 30 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081026041539/http://www.narmada.org/debates/gail/gail.open.letter.html | archive-date = 26 October 2008 | url-status = dead }}
=US foreign policy, war in Afghanistan=
File:Arundhati Roy 3.jpg in the Mountain? Field Notes on Democracy" at Harvard Kennedy School, 1 April 2010{{cite web|url=http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/lectures/roy-mountain.html |title=STS Program » Science and Democracy Lecture Series » News & Events » Arundhati Roy |access-date=18 September 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091220/http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/lectures/roy-mountain.html |archive-date=4 March 2016}}]]
In a September 2001 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:
{{blockquote|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: {{blockquote|"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."{{cite news|last1=Roy|first1=Arundhati|title=The algebra of infinite justice|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/29/september11.afghanistan|access-date=1 June 2017|newspaper=The Guardian|date=29 September 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622165709/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/29/september11.afghanistan|archive-date=22 June 2017|url-status=live}}}}
In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit:
{{blockquote|"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?"{{cite news |last=Roy |first=Arundhati |title='Brutality smeared in peanut butter': Why America must stop the war now |newspaper=The Guardian |date=23 October 2001|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,4283081,00.html |access-date=11 March 2009|location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210190618/http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0%2C4273%2C4283081%2C00.html |archive-date=10 February 2009|url-status=live}}
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.{{cite web | last = Roy | first = Arundhati | title = Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free) | work = Text of speech at the Riverside Church | publisher = Commondreams.org | date = 13 May 2003 | url = http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0518-01.htm | access-date = 6 April 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090404085415/http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0518-01.htm | archive-date = 4 April 2009 | url-status = dead}}{{cite web| last = Roy| first = Arundhati| title = Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free – An Hour With Arundhati Roy| work = Text of speech at the Riverside Church| publisher = Democracy Now!| url = http://www.democracynow.org/2003/10/24/instant_mix_imperial_democracy_buy_one| access-date =6 April 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090408064017/http://www.democracynow.org/2003/10/24/instant_mix_imperial_democracy_buy_one| archive-date= 8 April 2009 | url-status= live}} 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".{{cite news |last=Roy |first=Arundhati |title=George Bush Go Home |url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/28/stories/2006022804301100.htm |url-status=dead |newspaper=The Hindu |date=28 February 2006 |access-date=21 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223114145/http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/28/stories/2006022804301100.htm |archive-date=23 February 2007}}
=India's nuclear weaponry=
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=
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".{{cite news |title=Letters {{!}} War crimes and Lebanon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/israel/Story/0,,1835915,00.html |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=3 August 2006 |access-date=6 April 2009}} 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".{{cite web |last=Bajko |first=Matthew S. |title=Political Notebook: Queer activists reel over Israel, Frameline ties |url=http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1838 |work=The Bay Area Reporter|date=17 May 2007|access-date=1 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820041155/http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1838|archive-date=20 August 2007|url-status=live}} During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, she defended Hamas's rocket attacks, citing Palestinians' right to resistance.{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/gazas-rockets-part-of-resistance-says-collective-led-by-arundhati-roy-nayantara-sahgal/article34580104.ece#comments_34580104|title = Gaza's rockets part of resistance, says collective led by Arundhati Roy, Nayantara Sahgal|newspaper = The Hindu|date = 17 May 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.geo.tv/latest/350637-palestinians-have-right-to-resist-illegal-occupation-indias-leading-thinkers-say|title = Palestinians have right to resist illegal occupation, India's leading thinkers say|website=Geo News|date=18 May 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/836438-indias-notable-artistes-writers-say-palestinians-have-right-to-resist-israeli-occupation|title='Palestinians have right to resist Israeli occupation'|website=The News International|date=18 May 2021}} In December 2023, during Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza, Roy said: "If we say nothing about Israel's brazen slaughter of Palestinians, even as it is live-streamed into the most private recesses of our personal lives, we are complicit in it."{{cite web |last1=Roy |first1=Arundhati |title='Our country has lost its moral compass': Arundhati Roy |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/india-has-lost-its-moral-compass-arundhati-roy-on-israel-palestian-gaza-war/article67639421.ece |website=The Hindu |date=15 December 2023 |access-date=20 December 2023}} In October 2024, Roy and thousands of other writers signed an open letter pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions.{{cite web |last1=Sheehan |first1=Dan |title=Thousands of Authors Pledge to Boycott Israeli Cultural Institutions |url=https://lithub.com/hundreds-of-authors-pledge-to-boycott-israeli-cultural-institutions/ |website=Literary Hub |access-date=11 November 2024 |date=28 October 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Creamer |first1=Ella |last2=Knight |first2=Lucy |title=Sally Rooney, Rachel Kushner and Arundhati Roy call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/28/sally-rooney-percival-everett-arundhati-roy-boycott-israel-palestine-gaza |access-date=11 November 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=28 October 2024}}
=2001 Indian parliament attack=
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. She pointed to irregularities in the judicial and investigative process in the case and maintains that the case remains unsolved.{{cite news|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-perfect-day-for-democracy/article4397705.ece|title=A perfect day for democracy|date=10 February 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|access-date=21 April 2020|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}{{cite news|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/12/mumbai-arundhati-roy|title=Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India's 9/11|date=13 December 2008|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=21 April 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} In her book about Guru's hanging, she suggests that there is evidence of state complicity in the terrorist attack.{{cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/breaking-the-news/233403|title=Book Extract: The Strange Case of the attack on the Indian Parliament|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|date=18 December 2006|website=Outlook India|access-date=21 April 2020}} In an editorial in The Hindu, journalist Praveen Swami wrote that Roy's evidence of state complicity was "cherry-picked for polemical effect".{{cite news|last=Swami|first=Praveen|url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-vanity-of-1312-truthtelling/article4400821.ece|title=The vanity of 13/12 'truth-telling'|date=11 February 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|access-date=21 April 2020|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}
Roy also called for Guru's death sentence to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions was conducted, and denounced press coverage of the trial.Roy, Arundhati (30 October 2006), [http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-roy311006.htm "And His Life Should Become Extinct"], Outlook. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205046/http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-roy311006.htm |date=3 March 2016}}. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar criticised Roy for calling Afzal a "prisoner of war" and called her a "prisoner of her own dogma".{{cite web |url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bjp-flays-arundhati-for-defending-afzal/24943-3-1.html |title=BJP flays Arundhati for 'defending' Afzal |date=28 October 2006 |access-date=24 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117050240/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bjp-flays-arundhati-for-defending-afzal/24943-3-1.html |archive-date=17 January 2013 |url-status=dead}} Afzal was hanged in 2013.{{cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/afzal-guru-parliament-attack-convict-hanged-in-delhi-s-tihar-jail-328499?curl%3D1409555652 |title=Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict, hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail |editor-first= Surabhi |editor-last=Malik|date=9 February 2013|access-date=1 September 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903180530/http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/afzal-guru-parliament-attack-convict-hanged-in-delhi-s-tihar-jail-328499?curl=1409555652 |archive-date=3 September 2014}} Roy called the hanging "a stain on India's democracy".{{cite news |last=Roy|first=Arundhati |date=February 10, 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/10/hanging-afzal-guru-india-democracy |url-status=live |access-date=December 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220071458/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/10/hanging-afzal-guru-india-democracy |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |title=The hanging of Afzal Guru is a stain on India's democracy |work=The Guardian |language=en-IN }}
=The Muthanga incident=
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."{{cite news| url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2006/stories/20030328002104500.htm| title=Arundhati Roy to Kerala Chief Minister Antony| last=Roy| first=Arundhati| date=15 March 2003| work=Frontline| volume=20| issue=6| access-date=25 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222014454/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2006/stories/20030328002104500.htm| archive-date=22 December 2008| url-status=usurped}}
=Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks=
In an opinion piece for The Guardian in December 2008, Roy argued that the 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".{{Cite news | last = Roy | first = Arundhati | title = The Monster in the Mirror | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 13 December 2008| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/12/mumbai-arundhati-roy | access-date = 18 January 2010| location = London | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130905091642/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/12/mumbai-arundhati-roy | archive-date = 5 September 2013| url-status = live }} Salman Rushdie and others strongly criticised her remarks and condemned her for linking the Mumbai attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against Muslims in India;{{cite news |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/All_terrorism_roads_lead_to_Pakistan_says_Salman_Rushdie/articleshow/3855871.cms |title=All terrorism roads lead to Pakistan, says Rushdie |date=18 December 2008 |newspaper=The Times of India |access-date=18 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221041010/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/All_terrorism_roads_lead_to_Pakistan_says_Salman_Rushdie/articleshow/3855871.cms |archive-date=21 December 2008 |url-status=live }} Rushdie criticised Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower.{{Cite news | title = Rushdie Slams Arundhati Roy | newspaper = The Times of India | date = 18 December 2008| url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/3858343.cms | access-date = 18 January 2010| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170913024319/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/3858343.cms | archive-date = 13 September 2017| url-status = live }} Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian".{{cite news | last = Singh | first = Tavleen | title = The Real Enemies | newspaper = The Indian Express | date = 21 December 2008| url = http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-real-enemies/400963/ | access-date = 18 January 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100106020522/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-real-enemies/400963/ | archive-date = 6 January 2010| url-status = live }}
=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".{{cite news |last=Roy |first=Arundhati |title=This is not a war on terror. It is a racist war on all Tamils |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/01/sri-lanka-india-tamil-tigers |url-status=live |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=1 April 2009 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528044856/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/01/sri-lanka-india-tamil-tigers |archive-date=28 May 2017}} 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 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".[http://newindianexpress.com/world/article53746.ece "Lankan writer slams Arundhati Roy"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401114045/http://newindianexpress.com/world/article53746.ece |date=1 April 2016}}, The Indian Express, 4 April 2009. 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".{{cite news|title=Situation in Sri Lanka absolutely grim|url=http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=2582|newspaper=Tamil Guardian|date=25 October 2010|access-date=1 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720125731/http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=2582|archive-date=20 July 2011|url-status=live}}
=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, [http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-is-a-corporate-hindu-state-arundhati/130817-3.html "India is a corporate, Hindu state: Arundhati"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227204935/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-is-a-corporate-hindu-state-arundhati/130817-3.html |date=27 December 2013 }}, CNN-IBN, 12 September 2010. and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memoranda of Understanding.[http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-at-war-with-naxals-to-aid-mncs-arundhati/103627-3-single.html "Govt at war with Naxals to aid MNCs: Arundhati"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227204938/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-at-war-with-naxals-to-aid-mncs-arundhati/103627-3-single.html |date=27 December 2013 }}, IBNLive, 21 October 2009. While she has received support from various quarters for her views,Amulya Ganguli, [http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_rooting-for-rebels_1381959 "Rooting for rebels"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312064410/http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_rooting-for-rebels_1381959 |date=12 March 2013 }}, 11 May 2010. DNA India. Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy.[http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264738-0 "Walking With The Comrades"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015221518/http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264738-0 |date=15 October 2013 }}, Outlook cover story, 29 March 2010.[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cops-shouldnt-have-used-public-bus-Arundhati/articleshow/5946936.cms "Cops shouldn't have used public bus: Arundhati"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522084054/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cops-shouldnt-have-used-public-bus-Arundhati/articleshow/5946936.cms |date=22 May 2010 }}, The Times of India, 19 May 2010. In other statements, she has described Naxalites as patriots "of a kind"{{cite news |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Naxals-are-patriots-Arundhati/Article1-629303.aspx |title=Naxals are patriots: Arundhati |newspaper=Hindustan Times |access-date=18 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120023756/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Naxals-are-patriots-Arundhati/Article1-629303.aspx |archive-date=20 January 2011 |url-status=dead }} who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it".
File:Arundhati Roy delivering a talk on “The Doctor and The Saint- The Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate,” JMI.jpg in March 2014]]
=Sedition charges=
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 had made anti-India speeches at a conference on "Azadi-the Only Way" on 21 October 2010. Roy's words were that "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this."{{cite news |url= http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sedition-case-registered-against-arundhati-roy-geelani-69431 |title= Sedition case registered against Arundhati Roy, Geelani |work= NDTV |date= 29 November 2010 |access-date= 18 August 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121004151802/http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sedition-case-registered-against-arundhati-roy-geelani-69431 |archive-date= 4 October 2012 |url-status= live }}{{cite news | url = http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kashmir-has-never-been-integral-part-of-india-arundhati/701793 | title = Kashmir has never been integral part of India: Arundhati | newspaper =The Indian Express| date = 25 October 2010 | access-date = 18 August 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130116101252/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kashmir-has-never-been-integral-part-of-india-arundhati/701793/ | archive-date = 16 January 2013 | url-status = live }}{{cite news|url =http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Arundhati-Geelani-charged-with-sedition/Article1-632402.aspx|title =Arundhati, Geelani charged with sedition|date =29 November 2010|newspaper =Hindustan Times|access-date =17 October 2012|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130117033145/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Arundhati-Geelani-charged-with-sedition/Article1-632402.aspx|archive-date =17 January 2013|url-status =dead}}{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/26/arundhati-roy-kashmir-india |title= Arundhati Roy faces arrest over Kashmir remark |first= Gethin |last=Chamberlain |newspaper= The Guardian |date= 26 October 2010 |access-date= 17 October 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130917125852/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/26/arundhati-roy-kashmir-india |archive-date= 17 September 2013 |url-status= live }} 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.{{cite news |url = http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/02/stories/2011010258361600.htm |title = Binayak Sen among six charged with sedition in 2010 |first = Priscilla |last=Jebaraj |newspaper = The Hindu |date = 2 January 2011 |access-date = 17 October 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130116135948/http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/02/stories/2011010258361600.htm |archive-date = 16 January 2013 |url-status = dead }}{{cite web| url =https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/12/india-drop-sedition-charges-against-cartoonist| title =India: Drop Sedition Charges Against Cartoonist| website =Human Rights Watch| date =12 October 2012| access-date =17 October 2012| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121015164500/http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/12/india-drop-sedition-charges-against-cartoonist| archive-date =15 October 2012| url-status =live}}
=Criticism of Anna Hazare=
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.Roy, Arundhati (21 August 2011), [https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/id-rather-not-be-anna/article2379704.ece "I'd rather not be Anna"], The Hindu. Retrieved 18 June 2012. {{webarchive |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240201172552/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/id-rather-not-be-anna/article2379704.ece |date=1 February 2024}}. 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."{{cite news|last=Kejriwal|first=Pritha|title=Love is the Centre, an Interview with Arundhati Roy|url=http://kindlemag.in/love-is-the-centre|work=Kindle Magazine|access-date=15 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419133313/http://kindlemag.in/love-is-the-centre/|archive-date=19 April 2014|url-status=live}} 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.Mukherjee, Vishwajoy (22 August 2011). [https://archive.today/20120913231839/http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws220811LOKPAL_BILLII.asp "We Are Not Like the Maoists: Medha Patkar"]. Tehelka. Retrieved 29 August 2011. 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."
=Views on Narendra Modi=
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.{{cite news |title= Arundhati Roy writing her second novel |url= http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/arundhati-roy-writing-her-second-novel/article5336323.ece |newspaper= The Hindu |date= 11 November 2013 |access-date= 13 November 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131113193301/http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/arundhati-roy-writing-her-second-novel/article5336323.ece |archive-date= 13 November 2013 |url-status= live }} 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{{nbsp}}... 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.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/sKzYudbe21M Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20191210003539/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKzYudbe21M Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite AV media |people=Goodman, Amy |title=Arundhati Roy: It's Hard to Communicate the Scale and the Shape of This Shadow Taking India Over |medium=Video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKzYudbe21M |publisher=Democracy Now! |date=28 November 2019 |time=26:30 }}{{cbignore}} 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",{{cite news |last1=Roy |first1=Arundhati |title='We are witnessing a crime against humanity': Arundhati Roy on India's Covid catastrophe |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-humanity-arundhati-roy-india-covid-catastrophe |access-date=29 April 2021 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=28 April 2021}} in which The Washington Post said Roy "slammed Modi for his handling of the pandemic".{{cite news |last1=Cunningham |first1=Erin |last2=Farzan |first2=Antonia Noori |title=U.S. coronavirus aid to begin arriving in India amid record surge of cases |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/29/white-house-covid-aid-india-virus/ |access-date=29 April 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=29 April 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Slater |first1=Joanna |last2=Masih |first2=Niha |title=In India's devastating coronavirus surge, anger at Modi grows |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/29/india-coronavirus-modi/ |access-date=30 April 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=30 April 2021}} 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."{{cite news |last1=Roy |first1=Arundhati |title=It's Not Enough to Say the Govt Has Failed. We Are Witnessing a Crime Against Humanity. |url=https://thewire.in/government/india-covid-19-government-crime-against-humanity |access-date=30 April 2021 |work=The Wire |date=29 April 2021}}
= Remarks about National Registers =
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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/congress-bjp-slam-arundhati-roy-over-her-remarks-on-npr-1631654-2019-12-26|title=Congress, BJP slam Arundhati Roy over her remarks on NPR |date=26 December 2019 |website=India Today |access-date=26 December 2019}} The remarks were criticized by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).{{Cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/cong-bjp-slam-arundhati-roy-over-her-remarks-on-npr/1694289|title=Cong, BJP slam Arundhati Roy over her remarks on NPR|website=Outlook (India)|access-date=26 December 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestatesman.com/india/arundhati-roy-idiolises-criminals-like-ranga-billa-uma-bharti-hits-out-congress-joins-1502837570.html|title='Arundhati Roy idiolises criminals like Ranga-Billa': Uma Bharti hits out, Congress joins|date=26 December 2019|website=The Statesman|language=en-US|access-date=26 December 2019}} A complaint against her was registered at Tilak Marg police station, Delhi, under sections 295A, 504, 153 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.{{cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/police-complaint-against-arundhati-roy-for-her-du-speech-1631874-2019-12-27|title=Police complaint against Arundhati Roy for her DU speech|date=27 December 2019 |website=India Today |access-date=28 December 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/complaint-against-arundhati-roy-by-sc-lawyer-over-false-information-for-npr-remarks-politicos-slam-activist-7829241.html|title=Complaint against Arundhati Roy by SC lawyer over false information for NPR remarks; politicos slam activist|website=Firstpost|date=26 December 2019|access-date=28 December 2019}} Roy responded, "What I was proposing was civil disobedience with a smile", and claimed that her remarks were misrepresented.{{cite web|url=https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/12/27/civil-disobedience-with-smile-arundhati-roy-complaint-filed-against-her-npr-remark.html|title=Civil disobedience with a smile: Arundhati Roy on complaint filed against her NPR remark|website=The Week|date=27 December 2019|access-date=28 December 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://scroll.in/latest/947994/full-text-arundhati-roy-defends-her-npr-remarks-even-as-she-faces-complaint|title=Full text: Arundhati Roy clarifies her NPR remarks even as she faces criminal complaint|author=|website=Scroll.in|date=27 December 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=28 December 2019}}
Awards and recognition
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{{cite news |title=Arundhati Roy interviewed |first=David |last=Barsamian |work=The South Asian |date=September 2001 |url=http://www.the-south-asian.com/Sept2001/Arundhati_Roy-Interview1.htm |author-link=David Barsamian |access-date=21 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225031554/http://www.the-south-asian.com/Sept2001/Arundhati_Roy-Interview1.htm |archive-date=25 December 2007 |url-status=live}} and a citation that noted, "The book keeps all the promises that it makes".{{cite web | title = Previous winners – 1997 | publisher = Booker Prize Foundation | url = http://www.themanbookerprize.com/about/previous/1997.php | access-date =21 March 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070127162449/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/about/previous/1997.php |archive-date = 27 January 2007}} 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. In 2015, she returned the national award in protest against religious intolerance and the growing violence by rightwing groups in India.{{cite news |first = Hannah |last=Ellis |title = Arundhati Roy returns award in protest against religious intolerance in India |url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/05/arundhati-roy-returns-award-protest-religious-intolerance-india-bollywood-modi-government-violence |newspaper = The Guardian |date = 5 November 2015 |access-date = 5 November 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151106021810/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/05/arundhati-roy-returns-award-protest-religious-intolerance-india-bollywood-modi-government-violence |archive-date = 6 November 2015 |url-status = live }}
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".{{cite web | title = 2002 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Arundhati Roy | website = Lannan Foundation | url = http://www.lannan.org/lf/cf/detail/2002-prize-for-cultural-freedom-roy | access-date = 21 March 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070206132403/http://www.lannan.org/lf/cf/detail/2002-prize-for-cultural-freedom-roy | archive-date = 6 February 2007 | url-status = dead}}
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.Bhandari, Neena (29 May 2004), [http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=224910 "Arundhati Roy gets Sydney Peace Prize"], Outlook, Retrieved 1 April 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821011747/http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=224910 |date=21 August 2013 }}.Roy, Arundhati (8 November 2004), [http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?225601-0 "Peace?..."], Outlook, Retrieved 1 April 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219223418/http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?225601-0 |date=19 February 2015 }}. That same year she was awarded the Orwell Award, along with Seymour Hersh, by the National Council of Teachers of English.{{cite web|title=George Orwell Award|url=https://ncte.org/awards/george-orwell-award/|website=ncte.org}}
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{{'"}}.[http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-01.htm "Sahitya Akademi Award: Arundhati Roy Rejects Honor"], Deccan Herald, 16 January 2006. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821132821/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-01.htm |date=21 August 2013 }}.{{cite news|last=Van Gelder|first=Lawrence |author-link=Lawrence Van Gelder|date=17 January 2006|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/books/arts/arts-briefly.html?ref=arundhatiroy|title=Arts, Briefly {{!}} Award-Winning Novelist Rejects a Prize|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=18 December 2011}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306020244/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D6143FF934A25752C0A9609C8B63&ref=arundhatiroy |date=6 March 2016 }}.
In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.[http://hamishhamilton.co.uk/news/from-norman-mailer-to-arundhati-roy "From Norman Mailer to Arundhati Roy"]. Hamish Hamilton. Retrieved 13 December 2015). {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222130200/http://hamishhamilton.co.uk/news/from-norman-mailer-to-arundhati-roy |date=22 December 2015 }}.
Roy was featured in the 2014 list of Time 100, the 100 most influential people in the world.{{Cite web|url=https://time.com/collection-post/70812/arundhati-roy-2014-time-100/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914200636/http://time.com/70812/|url-status=dead|title=Arundhati Roy: The World's 100 Most Influential People|first=Pankaj|last=Mishra|author-link=Pankaj Mishra|website=TIME|date=23 April 2014|archive-date=14 September 2016}}
St. Louis University gave Roy the 2022 St. Louis Literary Award, granted to the "most important writers of our time" to celebrate "the contributions of literature in enriching our lives".{{cite web|url=https://www.slu.edu/library/st-louis-literary-award-programs/literary-award/arundhati-roy.php|title=St. Louis Literary Award {{!}} Arundhati Roy|publisher=St. Louis University|access-date=13 October 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.slu.edu/news/2022/april/literary-award.php|title=Arundhati Roy Receives the 2022 St. Louis Literary Award|first=Maggie |last=Rotermund|publisher=Saint Louis University|date=29 April 2022|access-date=13 October 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.stlmag.com/culture/Literature/2022-st-louis-literary-award-Arundhati-Roy/|title=A conversation with 2022 St. Louis Literary Award recipient Arundhati Roy|first=Tobeya|last=Ibitayo|work=St. Louis Magazine|date=22 April 2022|access-date=13 October 2024}} The award ceremony was on 28 April 2022.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-SVAFgEd5g|title=2022 St. Louis Literary Award Winner Arundhati Roy|date=4 May 2022 |publisher=Saint Louis University Library Associates|access-date=13 October 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.stlpr.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2022-04-28/for-arundhati-roy-the-st-louis-literary-award-allowed-her-to-see-the-river-of-her-childhood-dreams|title=For Arundhati Roy, the St. Louis Literary Award allowed her to see the river of her childhood dreams|first=Sarah|last=Fenske|date=28 April 2022|website=St. Louis Public Radio {{!}} To the Best of Our Knowledge|publisher=NPR|access-date=13 October 2024}}
In September 2023, Roy received the lifetime achievement award at the 45th European Essay Prize for the French translation of her book Azadi.{{Cite web |last=Roy |first=Arundhati |date=2023-09-14 |title=Arundhati Roy: The dismantling of democracy in India will affect the whole world |url=https://scroll.in/article/1055943/arundhati-roy-the-dismantling-of-democracy-in-india-will-affect-the-whole-world |access-date=2023-09-14 |website=Scroll.in |language=en-US}}
In June 2024, Roy was announced as winner of the annual PEN Pinter Prize, given by human rights organization English PEN to a writer who, in the words of late playwright Harold Pinter, casts an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze on the world and shows "fierce intellectual determination ... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/27/arundhati-roy-wins-pen-pinter-prize-amid-prosecution-threat-over-kashmir-comments|title=Arundhati Roy wins PEN Pinter prize amid prosecution threat over Kashmir comments|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Ella|last=Creamer|date=27 June 2024|access-date=13 October 2024}} English PEN chair Ruth Borthwick said Roy tells "urgent stories of injustice with wit and beauty".{{Cite web|url=https://www.englishpen.org/posts/campaigns/arundhati-roy-awarded-pen-pinter-prize-2024/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627114825/https://www.englishpen.org/posts/campaigns/arundhati-roy-awarded-pen-pinter-prize-2024/|url-status=live|title=Arundhati Roy awarded PEN Pinter Prize 2024|date=27 June 2024|archive-date=27 June 2024|publisher=English PEN}}{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/6992921/arundhati-roy-pen-pinter-prize-winner/|title=Arundhati Roy Wins PEN Pinter Prize Amid Indian Prosecution Threat|magazine=Time|first=Armani|last=Syed|date=27 June 2024|access-date=29 June 2024}}
In August 2024, Roy and Toomaj Salehi shared the Disturbing the Peace Award, a recognition the Vaclav Havel Center accords to courageous writers at risk. The award committee chair, Bill Shipsey, called them "wonderful exemplars of the spirit of Václav Havel".{{Cite web|url=https://havelcenter.org/2024/08/15/winners-of-the-vhc-2024-disturbing-the-peace-award/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816015447/https://havelcenter.org/2024/08/15/winners-of-the-vhc-2024-disturbing-the-peace-award/|url-status=live|title=Arundhati Roy and Toomaj Salehi win the 2024 'Disturbing the Peace' Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk|date=15 August 2024|archive-date=16 August 2024|publisher=Vaclav Havel Center}}
On 10 October 2024, Roy named imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah as the international "writer of courage" with whom she chose to share the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize, announced at a ceremony at the British Library, where Roy delivered her acceptance speech.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/10/imprisoned-british-egyptian-activist-named-pen-writer-of-courage-2024|title=Imprisoned British-Egyptian activist named PEN writer of courage 2024|first=Lucy|last=Knight|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 October 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://thewire.in/rights/palestine-israel-apartheid-arundhati-roy-pen-pinter-prize|title='No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound That Is Palestine: Arundhati Roy's PEN Pinter Prize Acceptance Speech|first=Arundhati|last=Roy|website=The Wire|location=India|date=11 October 2024|access-date=13 October 2024}} Author and journalist Naomi Klein also spoke, praising Roy's and Abd El-Fattah's work, and Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of independent online Egyptian newspaper Mada Masr, accepted the award on Abd El-Fattah's behalf.{{cite web|url=https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/alaa-abd-el-fattah-named-writer-of-courage-2024/|title=Alaa Abd el-Fattah named Writer of Courage 2024|publisher=Faber|date=11 October 2024|access-date=13 October 2024}}
Personal life
In 1984, Roy met independent filmmaker Pradip Krishen, who offered her a role as a goatherd in his award-winning movie Massey Sahib.{{IMDb title|0234211|Massey Sahib}} They married the same year. They collaborated on a television series about India's independence movement and on two films, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) and Electric Moon (1992). Disenchanted with the film world, Roy experimented with various fields, including running aerobics classes. Roy and Krishen are still married but live separately.
Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, former head of the Indian television media group NDTV.{{cite news| url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/Theres-something-about-Mary/articleshow/15871684.cms| title=There's something about Mary| first=Nayare |last=Ali| newspaper=Times of India| date=14 July 2002| access-date=12 May 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104212446/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/Theres-something-about-Mary/articleshow/15871684.cms| archive-date=4 January 2016| url-status=live}} She lives in Delhi.
Bibliography
=Fiction=
class="wikitable"
!No. !Title !Publisher !Year !ISBN |
1
|1997 |{{ISBNT|0-00-655068-1}} |
2
|The Ministry of Utmost Happiness |2017 |{{ISBNT|0-241-30397-4}} |
=Non-fiction=
class="wikitable"
!No. !Title !Publisher !Year !ISBN |
1
|The End of Imagination |Kottayam: D.C. Books |1998 |{{ISBNT|81-7130-867-8}} |
2
|The Cost of Living |Flamingo |1999 |{{ISBNT|0-375-75614-0}} |
3
|The Greater Common Good |Bombay: India Book Distributor |1999 |{{ISBNT|81-7310-121-3}} |
4
|The Algebra of Infinite Justice |Flamingo |2002 |{{ISBNT|0-00-714949-2}} |
5
|Power Politics |Cambridge: South End Press |2002 |{{ISBNT|0-89608-668-2}} |
6
|War Talk |Cambridge: South End Press |2003 |{{ISBNT|0-89608-724-7}} |
7
|An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire |Consortium |2004 |{{ISBNT|0-89608-727-1}} |
8
|Public Power in the Age of Empire |New York: Seven Stories Press |2004 |{{ISBNT|978-1-58322-682-7}} |
9
|The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy (Interviews by David Barsamian) |Cambridge: South End Press |2004 |{{ISBNT|0-89608-710-7}} |
10
|The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy |New Delhi: Penguin |2008 |{{ISBNT|978-0-670-08207-0}} |
11
|Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy |New Delhi: Penguin |2010 |{{ISBNT|978-0-670-08379-4}} |
12
|Broken Republic: Three Essays |New Delhi: Hamish Hamilton |2011 |{{ISBNT|978-0-670-08569-9}} |
13
|New Delhi: Penguin |2011 |{{ISBNT|978-0-670-08553-8}} |
14
|Kashmir: The Case for Freedom |2011 |{{ISBNT|1-84467-735-4}} |
15
|The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament |New Delhi: Penguin |2013 |{{ISBNT|978-0-14-342075-0}} |
16
|Capitalism: A Ghost Story |Chicago: Haymarket Books |2014 |{{ISBNT|978-1-60846-385-5}}{{cite journal|first=Jean |last=Drezet|date=24 October 2015|title=The dark underbelly of state capitalism in India|journal=The Lancet|volume=386|issue=10004|page=1620|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00543-7|s2cid=54264685}} |
17
|Things that Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations (with John Cusack) |Chicago: Haymarket Books |2016 |{{ISBNT|978-1-60846-717-4}} |
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 |{{ISBNT|978-1-60846-797-6}} |
19
|My Seditious Heart: Collected Non-Fiction |Chicago: Haymarket Books |2019 |{{ISBNT|978-1-60846-676-4}} |
20
|Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction |Haymarket Books |2020 |{{ISBNT|978-164259-260-3 |
|}
See also
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
Further reading
=Books and articles on Roy=
- {{cite book
| last = Balvannanadhan
| first = Aïda
| title = Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
| publisher = Prestige Books
| year = 2007
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=978-81-7551-193-4}}
- {{cite book
| last = Bhatt
| first = Indira
| author2=Indira Nityanandam
| title = Explorations: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
| publisher = Creative Books
| year = 1999
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-86318-56-9}}
- "The Politics of Design", in {{cite book
| last = Ch'ien
| first = Evelyn Nien-Ming
| title = Weird English
| publisher = Harvard University Press
| year = 2005
| pages = 154–199
|isbn=978-0-674-01819-8}}
- {{cite book
| last = Dhawan
| first = R.K.
| title = Arundhati Roy: The Novelist Extraordinary
| publisher = Prestige Books
| year = 1999
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-7551-060-9}}
- {{cite book
| last = Dodiya
| first = Jaydipsinh
| author2 = Joya Chakravarty
| title = The Critical Studies of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
| publisher = Atlantic
| year = 1999
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-7156-850-5
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/criticalstudieso0000unse
}}
- {{cite book
| last = Durix
| first = Carole
| author2=Jean-Pierre Durix
| title = Reading Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
| publisher = Editions universitaires de Dijon
| year = 2002
| location = Dijon
|isbn=2-905965-80-0}}
- {{cite book
| last = Ghosh
| first = Ranjan
| author2=Antonia Navarro-Tejero
| title = Globalizing Dissent: Essays on Arundhati Roy
| publisher = Routledge
| year = 2009
| location = New York
|isbn=978-0-415-99559-7}}
- {{cite book
| last = Mullaney
| first = Julie
| title = Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things: A Reader's Guide
| publisher = Continuum
| year = 2002
| location = New York
|isbn=0-8264-5327-9
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/arundhatiroysgod0000mull
}}
- {{cite book
| last = Navarro-Tejero
| first = Antonia
| title = Gender and Caste in the Anglophone-Indian Novels of Arundhati Roy and Githa Hariharan: Feminist Issues in Cross-cultural Perspective
| publisher = Edwin Mellen
| year = 2005
| location = Lewiston
|isbn=0-7734-5995-2}}
- {{cite book
| last = Pathak
| first = R. S.
| title = The Fictional World of Arundhati Roy
| publisher = Creative Books
| year = 2001
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-86318-84-4}}
- {{cite book
| last = Prasad
| first = Murari
| title = Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives
| publisher = Pencraft International
| year = 2006
| location = Delhi
|isbn=81-85753-76-8}}
- {{cite book
| last = Roy
| first = Amitabh
| title = The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment
| publisher = Atlantic
| year = 2005
| pages = 37–38
|isbn=978-81-269-0409-9}}
- {{cite book
| last = Sharma
| first = A. P.
| title = The Mind and the Art of Arundhati Roy: A Critical Appraisal of Her Novel, The God of Small Things
| publisher = Minerva
| year = 2000
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-7662-120-X}}
- {{cite book
| last = Shashi
| first = R. S.
| author2=Bala Talwar
| title = Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things: Critique and Commentary
| publisher = Creative Books
| year = 1998
| location = New Delhi
|isbn=81-86318-54-2}}
- {{cite book
| last = Tickell
| first = Alex
| title = Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
| publisher = Routledge
| year = 2007
| location = New York
|isbn=978-0-415-35842-2}}
=Other=
- We, a political documentary about Roy's words. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060629021718/http://www.weroy.org/ Available online.]
- [http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/937 Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy] by Atul Cowshish, Asian Tribune, 2006-07-06
- Carreira, Shirley de S. G. [http://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/carreirasummer08.htm "A representação da mulher em Shame, de Salman Rushdie, e O deus das pequenas coisas, de Arundathi Roy"]. 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
{{Wikiquote|Arundhati Roy}}
{{Commons category}}
{{Sister project links|Arundhati Roy|s=no|wikt=no|}}
- {{IMDb name|0746936}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050907203309/http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Roy+Arundhati SAWNET biography] South Asian Women network, authors
- {{Guardian topic}}
- [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/arundhati-roy Column archive] at The Guardian
- {{C-SPAN|55192}}
; Interviews and speeches
- [http://www.outlookindia.com/article/How-Deep-Shall-We-Dig/223821 How Deep Shall We Dig] – Full text of I.G. Khan Memorial Lecture delivered at Aligarh Muslim University on 6 April 2004, Outlook, 6 May 2004
- [http://www.outlookindia.com/article/Come-September/217403 Come September] – Interview with Howard Zinn, Outlook, September 2008
- [http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2010/05/20105610311806602.html "Arundhati Roy"] – interview by Avi Lewis on Al Jazeera Fault Lines, 2010-8-29 (video, 23 mins)
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO36E8xMPCk "Arundhati Roy - Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: The dismantling of the world as we knew it"]. The Stuart Hall Foundation's Annual Autumn Keynote with Arundhati Roy, September 2022.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3neHSe1qMQ "Arundhati Roy talks about her life and views on the world"], Storytellers' Studio, Higher Education Channel, 29 September 2022.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHdUUcBy__w "Arundhati Roy – Lecture / Conférence – European Essay Prize / Prix Européen de l'Essai"]. Lecture given on award of the 45th European Essay Prize, Lausanne, 12 September 2023.
{{Man Booker Prize Winners}}
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