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Arundhati Roy

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Template:IndicText Suzanna Arundhati Roy[1] (Malayalam: അരുന്ധതി റോയ്, Bengali: অরুন্ধতী রায় Orundhoti Rae, Hindi: अरुंधती राय Arundhatī Rāy) (born November 24, 1961) is an Indian novelist, activist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel The God of Small Things.


Roy was born in Assam to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother, the women's rights activist Mary Roy, and a Bengali father, a tea planter by profession. She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school in Corpus Christi. She then studied architecture at the Delhi School of Architecture, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard Da Cunha.

Roy lives in New Delhi.

Art

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and became involved in film-making under his influence. She played a village girl in the award-winning movie Massey Sahib, and wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones and Electric Moon. She also wrote the screenplay for The 'Banyan Tree', a television serial.

Roy began writing The God of Small Things in 1992 and finished it in 1996. She received half a million pounds as an advance, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.

Contrary to some assumptions, Roy is not one of twins. This misinformation arose from the assumption that the character of Rahel is based on herself. We see this in the physical description of the character in her adulthood and also by some of this character's interactions with her mother, Ammu [citation needed].

Arundhati Roy is the cousin of the famous media personality Prannoy Roy.

Literary Works

Books

Essays and Articles

  • Insult and Injury in Afghanistan (MSNBC, 20 Oct 2001)
  • War is Peace (Outlook, 29 Oct 01)
  • Stop bombing Afghanistan

Activism

The God of Small Things is the only novel written by Roy. Since winning the Booker Prize, she has concentrated her writing on political and pacifist issues. These include the Narmada Dam project, India's nuclear weapons and power company Enron's activities in India. She is a figure-head of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism. She is also a critic of industrialization and development.

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote The End of Imagination, a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection The Cost of Living, in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. She has since devoted herself solely to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes.

In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq.

In August 2006, Roy signed a letter written by Professor Steve Trevillion calling Israel's attacks on Lebanon a "war crime", and accused Israel of "state terror". [2]

Criticism

Accusations of Anti-India bias

Roy has accused India of amassing 7,00,000 troops in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir [1]. Her book entitled "The Algebra of Infinite Justice”, is critical of Indian control in Kashmir, Nagaland and Manipur [2]. Many times it is indicated from her statements that she does not have any faith in Indian Judiciary and law; to cite an example, she defended parlimentary bomb accused Afzal by saying that his case is full of false evdence and fabricated stories [3]. She believes that there is no democracy in India and surprisingly she says this to an audience in New York [4].Roy has also been criticized for fabricating anti-Hindu statements concerning the 2002 Gujarat Violence by BJP Member of Parliament Balbir Punj, who debunked many of her assertions regarding the actions of Hindu rioters[5].

Criticism of Intellectual integrity

Jagdish Bhagwati, a renowed economist and free trade advocate at Columbia University criticised Arundhathi Roy for her shallow arguments against globalization. He is reported to have said she should stick to her amazing skill as a novelist only [6]

Accusations of Anti-Americanism

Roy has been criticized as being Anti-American, to which she has replied she is in fact only anti-evil. Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Select Education investigating books on the reading list of Title VI funded programs stated:

The Columbia Journalism Review cited Arundhati Roy, for example, as a prime example of an "anti-American" writer. Liberal author Ian Buruma, writing in The New Republic, published a review of Roy’s work entitled, "The Anti-American." (Roy’s title-essay from the book reviewed by Buruma was assigned in the U. C. Santa Barbara course.) Author Todd Gitlin, in the magazine Mother Jones, called Arundhati Roy "anti-American."[7]:

Roy criticized US President George Bush's trip to India in March 2006 [8].

Support to Terrorists

Roy has also been accused of supporting terrorist and extremist ideologies. She has protested against the death sentence awarded to Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Mohammad Afzal [9] in the Parliament attack case because she is against the death penalty [10].


Awards

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence.

In January 2006 she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, "The Algebra of Infinite Justice", but declined to accept it.

Controversies

File:Arundhati roy wti.jpg
Arundhati Roy @ WTI Culminating Session, Closing Speechs

Arundhati Roy has been no stranger to controversy, from her mother's campaigning through to her own article on Shekar Kapur's celebrated film 'Bandit Queen', about Phoolan Devi, in which Roy charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning. That ended with a court case, and her giving up the world of film.

The God of Small Things Debate

In England, Channel 4's coverage of the Booker included a round-table debate by literary 'stars' Melvyn Bragg, A. S. Byatt, Will Self, and Carmen Callil. Callil (the previous year's chair of the Booker judges) pronounced The God of Small Things "an execrable book" which should never have reached the shortlist.

Contempt of Court

In 2002, Roy was convicted of contempt of court by the Supreme Court in New Delhi for accusing the court of attempting to silence protests against the Narmada Dam Project. In its judgement, the Supreme Court Of India noted "we feel that the ends of justice would be met if she is sentenced to symbolic imprisonment besides paying a fine of Rs.2000/-.

While convicting the respondent for the contempt of the Court, we sentence her to simple imprisonment for one day and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000/-. In case of default in the payment of fine, the respondent shall undergo simple imprisonment for three months."[3]

Arundhati Roy after undergoing one day of prison sentence, decided to pay the fines instead of serving out three months.[4]

Encroachment Case

In 2003 Arundhati Roy and her spouse were accused of building their house in a protected Forest area [11].

Personal life

Suzanna Arundhati Roy was born on the 24th November 1961, the child of a marriage between a Christian woman from Kerala and a Bengali Hindu tea planter. It was not a happy marriage and she is unable to speak of her father without difficulty. "I don't want to discuss my father. I don't know him at all. I've only seen him a couple of times, that's it," she told Sunday Plus when pressed.

Arundhati spent her crucial childhood years in Aymanam. There, her mother Mary Roy (later a well-known social activist) ran an informal school named Corpus Christi where Arundhati developed her literary and intellectual abilities unconstrained by the set rules of formal education. Aymanam is no longer the old-fashioned village of the sixties in which the novel is set. It is now a bustling extension of Kottayam town, with 7,000 houses and a rash of dish antennae. Paradise Pickles still exists.

Eventually, Roy joined the Delhi School of Architecture, moonlighting as an architect's artist. She married a fellow architecture student, Gerard Da Cunha. Their marriage lasted four years. At this stage, neither had a great love for architecture and so they quit.

Film director Pradip Krishen offered her a small role in Massey Saab. Later she linked up with Krishen, now her husband, and they planned a 26 episode television epic for Doordarshan called the Banyan Tree. The independent production company ITV advanced the money. Unfortunately, they had only shot enough footage for three or four episodes when ITV scrapped the serial.

However, Bhaskar Ghose, then director-general of Doodarshan, met Roy and the result was the film 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones'.

Roy then scripted Electric Moon for Channel 4 in 1992.

Her next piece of writing was to result in considerable controversy - being a criticism of Shekar Kapur's celebrated film 'Bandit Queen', about Phoolan Devi. The controversy escalated into a court case, after which she retired to private life to concentrate on her writing, which eventually became The God of Small Things.

References

  1. ^ http://website.lineone.net/~jon.simmons/roy/tgost2.htm
  2. ^ "War crimes and Lebanon". Thursday August 3, 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=18299
  4. ^ http://www.narmada.org/sc.contempt/aroy.stmt.mar7.2002.html

Bibliography

  • Roy, Arundhati; (2004). An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire, Consortium Book Sales and Dist, September 15, 2004, hardcover, ISBN 0-89608-728-X; trade paperback, Consortium, September 15, 2004, ISBN 0-89608-727-1
  • Roy, Arundhati; (2004). Public Power in the Age of Empire. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Roy, Arundhati; (2004). The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Roy, Arundhati; (2003). War Talk. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Foreword to For Reasons of State (2003) ISBN 1-56584-794-6 by Noam Chomsky
  • Roy, Arundhati; (2002). Power Politics. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Roy, Arundhati; (2002). The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-714949-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (a collection of essays: The End of Imagination, The Greater Common Good, Power Politics [also a book], The Ladies Have Feelings, So..., The Algebra of Inifinite Justice, War is Peace, Democracy, War Talk [also a book] and Come September.)
  • The Cost of Living (1999), which contains the essays 'The greater common good' and 'The end of imagination', which are now included in the book 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice'
  • Roy, Arundhati; (1997). The God of Small Things. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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See also

 
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