Areas with naxalite activity (2007)

The word Naxal, Naxalite or Naksalvadi is a generic term used to refer to various militant Communist groups operating in different parts of India under different organizational envelopes. In the eastern states of the mainland India (Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa), they are usually known as, or refer to themselves as Maoists while in southern states like Andhra Pradesh they are known under other titles. They have been declared as a terrorist organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of India (1967).^[1][2][3] Leaders of the movement have been found to have hideout located in China.^[4]

The term 'Naxal' derives from the name of the village Naxalbari in the state of West Bengal, India, where the movement had its origin. The Naxals are considered far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Their origin can be traced to the split in 1967 of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), leading to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist). Initially the movement had its centre in West Bengal. In later years, it spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).^[5] For the past 10 years, it has grown mostly from displaced tribals and natives who are fighting against exploitation from major Indian corporations and local officials who they believe to be corrupt.

In 2006 India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing estimated that 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites were operating in addition to 50,000 regular cadres^[6] and their growing influence prompted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them to be the most serious internal threat to India's national security.^[7]

In February 2009, the Indian Central government announced a new nationwide initiative, to be called the "Integrated Action Plan" (IAP) for broad, co-ordinated operations aimed at dealing with the Naxalite problem in all affected states, namely (Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal). Importantly, this plan included funding for grass-roots economic development projects in Naxalite affected areas, as well as increased special police funding for better containment and reduction of Naxalite influence in these areas.^[8][9]

In 2009, Naxalites were active across approximately 180 districts in ten states of India.^[10] In August 2010, after the first full year of implementation of the national IAP program, Karnataka was removed from the list of naxal affected states.^[11] In July 2011, the number of Naxal affected areas was reduced to (figure includes proposed addition of 20 districts) 83 districts across nine states.^[12][13][14] In December of 2011, the national government reported that the number of Naxalite related deaths and injuries nationwide had gone down by nearly 50% from 2010 levels.^[15]

History[link]

The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal initiated a violent uprising in 1967. On May 18, 1967, the Siliguri Kishan Sabha, of which Jangal was the president, declared their readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless.^[16] The following week, a sharecropper near Naxalbari village was attacked by the landlord's men over a land dispute. On May 24, when a police team arrived to arrest the peasant leaders, it was ambushed by a group of tribals led by Jangal Santhal, and a police inspector was killed in a hail of arrows. This event encouraged many Santhal tribals and other poor people to join the movement and to start attacking local landlords.^[17]

Mao Zedong, provided ideological leadership for the Naxalbari movement, advocating that Indian peasants and lower class tribals overthrow the government and upper classes by force. A large number of urban elites were also attracted to the ideology, which spread through Majumdar's writings, particularly the 'Historic Eight Documents' which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.^[18] In 1967, Naxalites organized the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR), and later broke away from CPM. Violent uprisings were organized in several parts of the country. In 1969, the AICCCR gave birth to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)).

Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI(ML). A separate offshoot from the beginning was the Maoist Communist Centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh group. The MCC later fused with the People's War Group to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). A third offshoot was that of the Andhra revolutionary communists, mainly represented by the UCCRI(ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Nagi Reddy, which broke with the AICCCR at an early stage.

During the 1970s, the movement was fragmented into disputing factions. By 1980, it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were active, with a combined membership of 30,000.^[19]

Violence in West Bengal[link]

Ca.1970 the Naxalites gained a strong presence among the radical sections of the student movement in Calcutta.^[20] Students left school to join the Naxalites. Majumdar, to entice more students into his organisation, declared that revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas as before, but everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar declared an "annihilation line", a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual "class enemies" (such as landlords, businessmen, university teachers, police officers, politicians of the right and left) and others.^[21][22]

Throughout Calcutta, schools were shut down. Naxalites took over Jadavpur University and used the machine shop facilities to make pipe guns to attack the police. Their headquarters became Presidency College, Kolkata.^[23] The Naxalites found supporters among some of the educated elite, and Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, alma mater of many contemporary Indian leaders and thinkers, became a hotbed of Naxalite activities.

The chief minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the Congress Party, instituted strong counter-measures against the Naxalites. The West Bengal police fought back to stop the Naxalites. The house of Somen Mitra, the Congress MLA of Sealdah, was allegedly turned into a torture chamber where Naxal students from Presidency College and CU were incarcerated illegally by police and the Congress cadres. CPI-M cadres were also involved in the "state terror". After suffering losses and facing the public rejection of Majumdar's "annihilation line", the Naxalites alleged human rights violations by the West Bengal police, who responded that the state was effectively fighting a civil war and that democratic pleasantries had no place in a war, especially when the opponent did not fight within the norms of democracy and civility.^[17]

Large sections of the Naxal movement began to question Majumdar's leadership. In 1971 the CPI(ML) was split, as the Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar's leadership. In 1972 Majumdar was arrested by the police and died in Alipore Jail. His death accelerated the fragmentation of the movement.

Reasons for failure, 1967–1975[link]

In a methodical study, Dr. Sailen Debnath has surmised the consequences and reasons of failures of the Naxalite movement organised by Kanu Sanyal and Jungle Santhal.^{[citation needed]} He writes "The Naxalite movement, though continued intensively from 1967 to the middle of the 1970s and resurfaced after some years, could not go a long way achieving anything commendable because of the following reasons:"

1. The Naxalites wanted to surround the towns and cities by the villages, i.e., they wanted to encircle the urban centres with organized peasant forces of the villages. If the peasant militia could have occupied the cities, according to Majumdar, the so-called bourgeois government would fall making the passage to the coming of a socialist government; but the Naxalites could not and did not come up to a stage capable of organizing the peasants and thereby encircling the towns.
2. Majumdar gave sole importance to secret organization,and justified the policy of continuing the Movement without the need to build any popular mass base, forgetting or ignoring the fact, popular mass base is the basic criteria of any Communist-Leftist Revolutionary movement. Kanu Sanyal the original founder of the Movement vehemently did oppose this wrong action plan, while being interred in the 'Parvatipuram Conspiracy Case'.Armed training for the purpose of eliminating 'Class Enemies' was preached, but the educating the cadres on the Marxist-Leninist thought process was never taken up, resulting in a lions majority of the cadres coming out of an urban-frustrated-middle class background without any Revolutionary teaching and zeal, and who were desperate for senseless actions. As the Naxalites did not have mass level organization, they lacked mass support. With only a few armed elements, and those not properly educated in the party line, little could be accomplished.
3. "Khatam" (the action of eliminating the so-called class enemies in villages) was a wrongheaded attempt at political mobilization based on the individual murders of a select few people whose political class and character was never adjudged by their socio-economic conditions or the properties they possessed but very often only by their political affiliation or by the name and colour of the party or parties they directly or indirectly belonged to. For example, in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar they killed some petty jotdars who otherwise could have been comrades in action against the capitalists or could be friends in a revolution for radical change. And which blatantly shows the 'Myopic'lack of vision of the so called leadership and the party workers.
4. Recruitment in the Naxalite party took place in the absence of proper judgment and scrutiny of the political characters and behaviours of the recruits. It was not uncommon for recruits into the Naxalite party to vent their personal animosities by identifying their personal enemies as class enemies, to be killed with the help of the Naxalite organization. Even murders and Homicides were carried out by anti-social and hoodlum elements directly under the the patronage and protection of the ruling Congress(I) and the main opposition the CPI(M) party, to discredit the Movement.
5. The ruling Congress party inserted spies inside the unguarded Naxalite organization to gather information about its secret bases and arrest its supporters. Government intelligence personnel and police disguised as Naxalite sympathizers/supporters could easily infiltrate the party’s inner organization and arrested many of its leaders, including Charu Majumdar. Thus police had information about the movements of Majumdar after he had gone underground in 1970, and he was arrested in Calcutta in July 1972. He died in jail days after his arrest, probably in the night of 27 or 28 July. It is not known how he died, although the government reported that he died of a heart attack.After the arrest and detention of the original founders of the movement-Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal who were based amongst the peasent/farmers and the tribal labourers of the tea gardens of rural North Bengal, when the leadership passed into the hands of people, majority of whom belonged to the urban-educated-oppurtunist-middle class, as an 'agrarian-rural-peasant-laborer-Communist revolutionary' movement, Naxalbari Movement had lost its genuine character and nature, thus coming to an 'incomplete' end.

2000 Onwards[link]

In a 2004 Indian Home Ministry estimate numbers were placed at that time at "9,300 hardcore underground cadre… [holding] around 6,500 regular weapons beside a large number of unlicensed country-made arms".^[24] In 2006, according to Judith Vidal-Hall, "Figures (in that year) put the strength of the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an estimated one fifth of India's forests, as well as being active in 160 of the country's 604 administrative districts."^[25] India's Research and Analysis Wing, believed in 2006 that 20,000 Naxals were involved in the growing insurgency.^[6]

Today, some Naxalite groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary elections, such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.  Others, such as the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti.

On 6 April 2010 Naxalites launched the most deadly assault in the history of the Naxalite movement by killing 76 security personnel. The attack was launched by up to 1,000 Naxalites^[26][27] in a well-planned attack, killing an estimated 76 CRPF policemen in two separate ambushes and wounding 50 others, in the remote jungles of Chattisgarh's Dantewada district in Eastern/ Central India. On 17 May, Naxals blew up a bus on Dantewda-sukhma road in Chhattisgarh, killing 15 policemen and 20 civilians. In third Major attack by Naxals on 29 June, at least 26 personnel of Indian Centre Reserve Forces (CRPF) were killed in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh.

Despite the 2010 Chhattisgarh ambushes, the most recent central government campaign to contain and reduce the militant Naxalite presence appears to be having some success^[15]. States such as Madhya Pradesh have reported significant reduction in Naxalite activities as a result of their use of IAP funds for rural development within their states^[28].

In late 2011, the death of Kishenji, the military leader of Communist Party of India (Maoist) was killed in an encounter with the joint operation forces, which was a huge blow to the Naxalite movement in Eastern India.^[29]

In March 2012 maoist rebels kidnapped two Italians in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, the first time Westerners were abducted there.^[30] 12 CRPF personnel were killed on 27th March 2012 in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Naxalites in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.^[31]

Cultural references[link]

The British musical group Asian Dub Foundation have a song called "Naxalite", which is featured on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Brokedown Palace. A 2005 movie called Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, directed by Sudhir Mishra, was set against the backdrop of the Naxalite movement. In August 2008, Kabeer Kaushik's Chamku, starring Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra, explored the story of a boy who is brainwashed to take arms against the state.

In the novel English August by Upamanyu Chatterjee, there is reference to Naxal cadres whom the main protagonist, an IAS officer meets while visiting a tribal village in mid-1980s.

In the novel The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, there is a reference to a character joining the Naxalites.

In the novel The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the Naxals (sic) are mentioned often by the poor and the rich alike.

In the novel A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, the character Omprakash makes and allusion to fighting "like the Naxalites" (195).

The 1998 film Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (Mother of 1084), based on the novel, Hazar Churashir Maa^[32] by Mahasweta Devi, starring Jaya Bachchan gives a very sympathetic portrayal of a Naxalbari student leader killed by the state. The 2009 Malayalam movie Thalappavu portrays the story of Naxal Varghese, who was shot allegedly dead by the police during the 70s.

In the Kannada movie Veerappa Nayaka, Vishnuvardhan portrays a Gandhian whose son becomes a Naxalite. The 2007 Kannada movie Maathaad Maathaadu Mallige, again portrays Vishnuvardhan as a Gandhian, who confronts a Naxalite Sudeep and shows him that the ways adopted by Naxals will only lead to violence and will not achieve their objective.

Eka Nakshalwadya Cha Janma, (Marathi: The birth of a Naxal), a novel written by Vilas Balkrishna Manohar, a volunteer with the Lok Biradari Prakalp, is a fictional account of a Madia Gond Juru's unwilling journey of life his metamorphosis from an exploited nameless tribal to a Naxal.^[33]

In 2010, a Hindi drama movie Red Alert: The War Within was released that is based on the true story of a poor Andhra cook who gets caught in the gunfire between cops and Naxalites and is forced to work with the latter.

In the 2011 Tamil political thriller film Ko, naxalites are shown to rob a bank, overthrow the government and disrupt elections. At the end, it is shown that the naxalites were only used for political gains by the corrupt politicians.

Sindhooram, a National Award winning Telugu film released in 1997, portrays a young police officer becoming a naxalite under unavoidable circumstances. Directed by Krishna Vamsi, the movie was critically acclaimed for its direction and the performances of its lead actors.

See also[link]

• Communist Ghadar Party of India
• Chhatradhar Mahato
• Naxal Varghese
• Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
• Compact Revolutionary Zone
• Naxalite-Maoist insurgency
• Salwa Judum
• Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
• Jamaat-ud-Dawah

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Naxalite Politics in India, by J. C. Johari, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi, . Published by Research Publications, 1972.
• The Naxalite Movement, by Biplab Dasgupta. Published by , 1974.
• The Naxalite Movement: A Maoist Experiment, by Sankar Ghosh. Published by Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975. ISBN 0-88386-568-8.
• The Naxalite Movement in India: Origin and Failure of the Maoist Revolutionary Strategy in West Bengal, 1967-1971, by Sohail Jawaid. Published by Associated Pub. House, 1979.
• In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Subarnarekha, 1980.
• India's Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Zed Books, 1984. ISBN 0-86232-037-2.
• Edward Duyker Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1987, p. 201, SBN 19 561938 2.
• The Naxalite Movement in India, by Prakash Singh. Published by Rupa, 1995. ISBN 81-7167-294-9.
• Sailen Debnath, West Bengal in Doldrums, ISBN 978-81-86860-34-2
• Sailen Debnath, The Dooars in Historical Transition, ISBN 978-81-86860-44-1
• Sailen Debnath ed. Social and Political Tensions in North Bengal Since 1947,ISBN 81-86860-23-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Naxalite

• "Walking With The Comrades" An extensive 32 page essay by Arundhati Roy on her interactions with naxalites
• Articles and Research Reports on Naxalite Violence in India and Pakistan
• Edward Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement
• 'History of Naxalism', Hindustan Times
• Status Paper on the Naxalite problem - South Asia Terrorism Portal
• West Bengal, districts affected by Naxalite violence - South Asia Terrorism Portal
• Economist magazine article
• Guardian article
• Vice article
• Naxal Issues page of Peoples Website of Chhattisgarh
• Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country (Hardcover)
• Stop the Battle, Start the War by Samar Halarnkar, Hindustan Times, April 19, 2009

Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy speaking at Harvard University in April 2010.
Born	(1961-11-24) 24 November 1961 (age 50) Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, activist
Nationality	Indian
Period	1997–Present
Notable work(s)	The God of Small Things
Notable award(s)	Man Booker Prize (1997) Sydney Peace Prize (2004)
Signature

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India.

Early life and background[link]

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India,^[1] to Ranjit Roy, a Bengali Hindu tea planter and Mary Roy, a Malayali Syrian Christian women's rights activist.

She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and played a village girl in his award-winning movie Massey Sahib. Until made financially secure by the success of her novel The God of Small Things, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head of the leading Indian TV media group NDTV.^[2] She lives in New Delhi.

Career[link]

Literary career[link]

Early career: screenplays[link]

Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, directed by her current husband, and Electric Moon (1992); she also appeared as a performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian Rape Trick', she 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.^[3][4][5]

[edit] The God of Small Things

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996.^[6] The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.^[1]

The publication of The God of Small Things catapulted Roy to instant 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 for 1997.^[7] It reached fourth position on the New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction.^[8] From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance;^[5] It was published in May, and the book had been sold to eighteen countries by the end of June.^[6]

The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as The New York Times (a "dazzling first novel,"^[9] "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple"^[10]) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"^[11]), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"^[12]). By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by TIME.^[13] Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable," and The Guardian called the contest "profoundly depressing."^[14] In India, the book was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar,^[15] then Chief Minister of Roy's homestate Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.^[16]

Later career[link]

Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a television serial, The Banyan Tree,^[17]and the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).

In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin work on a second novel.^[5][18]

Arundhati Roy was one of the contributors on the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.^[19] The book 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 organization Survival International.

Advocacy and controversy[link]

Since The God of Small Things Roy has devoted herself mainly to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a spokesperson of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and of the global policies of the United States. She also criticizes India's nuclear weapons policies and the approach to industrialization and rapid development as currently being practiced in India, including the Narmada Dam project and the power company Enron's activities in India.

Support for Kashmiri separatism[link]

In an interview with Times of India published in August 2008, Arundhati Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after massive demonstrations in favor of independence took place—some 500,000 separatists 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.^[20] According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desire secession from India, and not union with India.^[21] She was criticized by Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for her remarks.^[22]

Sardar Sarovar Project[link]

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.^[23] 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.^[24] Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.^[25]

In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Indian Supreme Court with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate the 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" by the court to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt.^[26] The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologize for, constituted criminal contempt and sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment and fined Roy Rs. 2500.^[27] Roy served the jail sentence for a single day and opted to pay the fine rather than serve an additional three months' imprisonment for default.^[28]

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,^[29] "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify, her Manichean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis".^[30] He faults 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".^[31]

Gail Omvedt and Roy have had fierce discussions, in open letters, on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. Though the activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or searching for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt), the exchange has mostly been, though critical, constructive.^[32]

United States foreign policy, the War in Afghanistan[link]

In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian, Arundhati Roy responded to the US 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 British Prime Minister Tony Blair were guilty of a Big Brother-kind of doublethink: "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 nineteen 3rd World "countries that America has been at war with – and bombed – since the second world war", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose "track record is not very different from the Taliban's"). She does not spare the Taliban: "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."

In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: "In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US 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 imagining 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?"^[33]

In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it 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.^[34][35] In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".^[36]

India's nuclear weaponisation[link]

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.

Criticism of Israel[link]

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and others, signed a letter in The Guardian called the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accused Israel of "state terror."^[37] 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 and 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."^[38][39]

2001 Indian Parliament attack[link]

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the trial of the accused. She has called for the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions are conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial.^[40] The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized Roy for what it alleges is defence of a terrorist going against the national interest.^{[41][dead link]}

The Muthanga incident[link]

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for adivasi land rights in Kerala, organized 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. Arundhati 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 now India's Defence Minister, saying "You have blood on your hands."^[42]

Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks[link]

In an opinion piece for The Guardian (13 December 2008), Roy argued that the November 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 (which Roy calls "Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the 2002 Gujarat violence, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Despite this call for context, Roy states clearly in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology." Roy warns 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".^[43] Her remarks were strongly criticized by Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Bombay attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against Muslims in India;^[44] Rushdie specifically criticized Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower.^[45] Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "the latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian."^[46]

Criticism of Sri Lanka[link]

In an opinion piece, once again in The Guardian (April 1, 2009), Roy made a plea 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 described as "a brazen, openly racist war."^[47] She also mentioned that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide"^[48] and described the Sri Lankan IDP camps where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps.^[49] Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticized her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE."^[50] 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."^[51]

Views on the Naxalites[link]

Roy has criticized Government's armed actions against the Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the Government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people"^[52] and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memorandums of Understanding.^[53] While she has received support from various quarters for her views,^[54] Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy.^[55][56] In other statements, she has described Naxalites as "patriot of a kind"^[57] who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it".^[52] Many commentators have noted that Roy does not hold sympathy for the victims of Maoist terrorism.^[58][59] and have called her a "Maoist sympathiser."^[60]

Criticism of Anna Hazare[link]

On August 22, 2011 Arundhati Roy accused Anna Hazare in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned Anna's secular credentials pointing out "his support for Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and his praise of the 'development model' Narendra Modi CM of Gujarat who oversaw the 2002 Gujrat riots against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views.^[61] Social Activist Medha Patkar strongly condemned Arundhati Roy, by alleging that her views were misplaced.^[62]

Awards[link]

Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000^[63] and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.'^[64] Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.^[65]

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."^[66]

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.^{[67] [68]}

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.'"^[69][70]

In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.

Works[link]

Books[link]

• The God of Small Things. Flamingo, 1997. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.
• The End of Imagination. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1998. ISBN 81-7130-867-8.
• The Cost of Living. Flamingo, 1999. ISBN 0-375-75614-0. Contains the essays "The Greater Common Good" and "The End of Imagination."
• The Greater Common Good. Bombay: India Book Distributor, 1999. ISBN 81-7310-121-3.
• The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Flamingo, 2002. ISBN 0-00-714949-2. Collection of essays: "The End of Imagination," "The Greater Common Good," "Power Politics", "The Ladies Have Feelings, So...," "The Algebra of Infinite Justice," "War is Peace," "Democracy," "War Talk", and "Come September."
• Power Politics. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.
• War Talk. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.
• Foreword to Noam Chomsky, For Reasons of State. 2003. ISBN 1-56584-794-6.
• An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire. Consortium, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-727-1.
• Public Power in the Age of Empire Seven Stories Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.
• The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. Interviews by David Barsamian. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.
• Introduction to 13 December, a Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament. New Delhi, New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-310182-X.
• The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0.
• Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy. New Delhi: Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4.

Speeches, Essays, Interviews[link]

• We 'We,' documentary featuring the works of Arundhati Roy
• Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn
• Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent—interview on Democracy Now!
• 'We have to become the global resistance' (Abridged version of speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16 January 2004)
• Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (16 August 2004 speech in San Francisco)
• ABC Radio National transcript of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture (with audio) or download the speech here
• 'The Most Cowardly War in History'; opening statement at the Iraq tribunal (Article dated 24 June 2005)
• Podcast of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival
• Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama in New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak
• Audio: Arundhati Roy in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
• Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, India and Why Democracy Is “The Biggest Scam in the World”
• "In the Valley of the Tigers"; Interview with Ascent magazine on the Narmada Valley
• Gandhi but with Guns – essay about the naxalites at guardian.co.uk (2010-03-27)
• Fault Lines – Arundhati Roy (video) – Interview with Arundhati Roy on Al Jazeera English (retrieved 2010-05-06)
• Interview with the Guardian 05 June 2011 - Roy discusses political activism and why she no longer condemns violent resistance

See also[link]

• Anti-globalization movement
• Narmada Bachao Andolan
• Indian English literature

References[link]

Books and articles on Roy[link]

• Anūp, Si. (1997). Arundhatiyuṭ̣e atbhutalōkaṃ. Trivandrum: New Indian Books. 
• Balvannanadhan, Aïda (2007). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Prestige Books. ISBN 81-7551-193-1. 
• Bhatt, Indira; Indira Nityanandam (1999). Explorations: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-56-9. 
• "The Politics of Design," in Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming (2005). Weird English. Harvard UP. pp. 154–199. ISBN 978-0-674-01819-8. http://books.google.com/?id=Fx6o5NXOLoQC. 
• Dhawan, R.K. (1999). Arundhati Roy, the novelist extraordinary. New Delhi: Prestige Books. ISBN 81-7551-060-9. 
• Dodiya, Jaydipsinh; Joya Chakravarty (1999). The Critical studies of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Atlantic. ISBN 81-7156-850-5. 
• Durix, Carole; Jean-Pierre Durix (2002). Reading Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Dijon: Editions universitaires de Dijon. ISBN 2-905965-80-0. 
• Ghosh, Ranjan; Antonia Navarro-Tejero (2009). Globalizing dissent: Essays on Arundhati Roy. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-99559-7. 
• Jōsaphmātyu, Ēt̲t̲umānūr (1997). Arundhati R̲ōyiyuṭe Da gōḍ ōph smōḷ tiṅgs: kathayuṃ kāryavuṃ: sāhitya paṭhanam. Kottayam: Toms Literary Editions. 
• Mullaney, Julie (2002). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: A reader’s guide. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5327-9. 
• Navarro-Tejero, Antonia (2005). Gender and caste in the Anglophone-Indian novels of Arundhati Roy and Githa Hariharan: feminist issues in cross-cultural perspectives. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen. ISBN 0-7734-5995-2. 
• Pathak, R.S. (2001). The fictional world of Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-84-4. 
• Prasad, Murari; Bill Ashcroft (foreword) (2006). Arundhati Roy, critical perspectives. Delhi: Pencraft International. ISBN 81-85753-76-8. 
• Roy, Amitabh (2005). The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment. Atlantic. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-81-269-0409-9. http://books.google.com/?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&pg=PA37&dq=%22Pradip+Krishen%22. 
• Sharma, A.P. (2000). The mind and the art of Arundhati Roy: a critical appraisal of her novel, The God of Small Things. New Delhi: Minerva. ISBN 81-7662-120-X. 
• Shashi, R.S.; Bala Talwar (1998). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: Critique and commentary. New Delhi: Creative Books. ISBN 81-86318-54-2. 
• Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35842-2. 
• Tōmas, Jōmi (1997). Arundhati R̲ōy, kr̥tiyuṃ kāl̲cappāṭum. Kozhikode: Kar̲ant̲ Buks. ISBN 81-240-0515-X. 

Other[link]

• We, a political documentary about Roy's words. Available online.
• Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish
• Carreira, Shirley de S. G.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" (Weird English. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004; 154–199). Essay on Roy's language. Available online.
• Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)
• SAWNET biography
• Bibliography
• Arundhati Roy – NNDB entry

Notes[link]