Some years ago, I tried reading the “God of small things” when the buzz around the book was at its zenith. Frankly it didn’t impress me at all and I could finish only about 1/10th of it. For me the beauty of a piece of writing lies in the lucidity of its prose and in the case of this particular book I found that lucidity to be lacking in great measure. To this day I continue to believe that Arundhati Roy is a far more celebrated writer than she actually deserves to be. But guess what, in my eyes she has emerged as a true Indian Idol. Far removed from the scores of unwanted, superficial and sometimes comical Indian Idols who are anointed in the scores of dumb reality shows that are all pervasive on various television channels.
Arundhati Roy’s second avatar in public life is that of a social activist and the very first cause that she espoused was of the displaced villagers in the Narmada project. Here, she joined perhaps the most famous social activist in India, Medha Patkar. If my first impression of Miss Roy was negative due to my tryst with her famous book, my second impression of her was no different. I have always been an ardent supporter of industrialization and though I genuinely believe that the displaced villagers have to be relocated with better and permanent facilities given to them on priority, I don’t quite agree with the ways of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. But my impressions of the lady have changed radically over the course of the last one year. During this period she has done what no other celebrity in India or anyone with a power to influence, has dared to do, she has challenged the Indian public to reflect and introspect on the direction in which the country is going.
So often in this country, people who have been fortunate enough to have been successful don’t let their voices be heard on various matters of national importance. It’s an epitome of the “mera kya zaata hai yaar” mindset that most of us are guilty of being party to. In such an existing scenario Arundhati Roy has dared to raise her voice on many of the issues of public importance. Whether it is her support of the struggle for freedom of the Kashmiris, her forceful argument against the Indian judiciary for handing death sentence to Afzal Guru(accused in the parliament bombing case) , her fight with the ridiculously immature and childish Indian media for the kind of communally biased reporting they do in the event of any terrorist activity and on many more instances, she has let her voice be heard and debated those who reach conclusions too quickly for comfort. She did all this in spite of knowing what became of Taslima Nasreen and many others who dared to raise their voice against the devil within us. She has asked one question to all Indians, when are going to look at the mirror? When is the country which hopes to be the leading light of all democracies in the world going to introspect and reflect on the path that it is taking? To her, to me and hopefully to many like us, the image that we see in the mirror is not that of a country shedding its feudalistic mindset and emerging as the beacon of light for the democratic world, instead what we see is a country which is on the verge of receding into Fascism.
The only difference between a Fascist system ,championed most infamously by Hitler and Mussolini, and a democracy is the that ,while in both the systems power is at the hands of the group in majority, in case of a Fascist system there is no place for the minority group to coexist within that system. So it’s like, either you are with the majority or you don’t exist at all. Arundhati Roy believes that the idea of Fascism, where there is no place for an individual or group that doesn’t agree with the ideas of the majority group, is gaining ground. She believes that the great Indian middle class is guilty of not raising its voice against this spread of Fascism because most of them belong to the majority group anyway. But as she points out, the result of Fascism was shameful and destructive for the vast majority of people in Italy and Germany and the result will be no different for India ,if, god forbid, this country falls into the hands of the Fascists.
In a country so deprived of real heroes, where dozens of Bollywood buffoons are treated as role models by kids around the country, Arundhati Roy has emerged as a real hero, a true Indian Idol. No, not for her writing skills but for her courage to do a much more difficult thing, to make us understand the importance of critically questioning our own actions and fight the devil within. Of course, looking critically at our own actions is always the most difficult thing to do, but for a country at the crossroads of history, it’s the need of the hour.
Arundhati Roy’s second avatar in public life is that of a social activist and the very first cause that she espoused was of the displaced villagers in the Narmada project. Here, she joined perhaps the most famous social activist in India, Medha Patkar. If my first impression of Miss Roy was negative due to my tryst with her famous book, my second impression of her was no different. I have always been an ardent supporter of industrialization and though I genuinely believe that the displaced villagers have to be relocated with better and permanent facilities given to them on priority, I don’t quite agree with the ways of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. But my impressions of the lady have changed radically over the course of the last one year. During this period she has done what no other celebrity in India or anyone with a power to influence, has dared to do, she has challenged the Indian public to reflect and introspect on the direction in which the country is going.
So often in this country, people who have been fortunate enough to have been successful don’t let their voices be heard on various matters of national importance. It’s an epitome of the “mera kya zaata hai yaar” mindset that most of us are guilty of being party to. In such an existing scenario Arundhati Roy has dared to raise her voice on many of the issues of public importance. Whether it is her support of the struggle for freedom of the Kashmiris, her forceful argument against the Indian judiciary for handing death sentence to Afzal Guru(accused in the parliament bombing case) , her fight with the ridiculously immature and childish Indian media for the kind of communally biased reporting they do in the event of any terrorist activity and on many more instances, she has let her voice be heard and debated those who reach conclusions too quickly for comfort. She did all this in spite of knowing what became of Taslima Nasreen and many others who dared to raise their voice against the devil within us. She has asked one question to all Indians, when are going to look at the mirror? When is the country which hopes to be the leading light of all democracies in the world going to introspect and reflect on the path that it is taking? To her, to me and hopefully to many like us, the image that we see in the mirror is not that of a country shedding its feudalistic mindset and emerging as the beacon of light for the democratic world, instead what we see is a country which is on the verge of receding into Fascism.
The only difference between a Fascist system ,championed most infamously by Hitler and Mussolini, and a democracy is the that ,while in both the systems power is at the hands of the group in majority, in case of a Fascist system there is no place for the minority group to coexist within that system. So it’s like, either you are with the majority or you don’t exist at all. Arundhati Roy believes that the idea of Fascism, where there is no place for an individual or group that doesn’t agree with the ideas of the majority group, is gaining ground. She believes that the great Indian middle class is guilty of not raising its voice against this spread of Fascism because most of them belong to the majority group anyway. But as she points out, the result of Fascism was shameful and destructive for the vast majority of people in Italy and Germany and the result will be no different for India ,if, god forbid, this country falls into the hands of the Fascists.
In a country so deprived of real heroes, where dozens of Bollywood buffoons are treated as role models by kids around the country, Arundhati Roy has emerged as a real hero, a true Indian Idol. No, not for her writing skills but for her courage to do a much more difficult thing, to make us understand the importance of critically questioning our own actions and fight the devil within. Of course, looking critically at our own actions is always the most difficult thing to do, but for a country at the crossroads of history, it’s the need of the hour.
1 comment:
But I guess Arundhati Roy is a victim of her own ideologies...
Her views matches with those of TEHELKA.com which paints India as a perennially depressing, corrupt country. There are good and bad sides to everything. For some she is a prominent member of the 'civil society' in India and for some she is anti development and a 'trouble maker'.
If given a choice I would choose Arundhati the writer to Arundhati the activist. The problem with their ilk is that they are too dogmatic and have a holier than thou mindset...
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