Arundhati Roy

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Suzanna Arundhati Roy^[1] (born November 24, 1961) is an Indian novelist, writer and activist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, The God of Small Things, and, in 2002, the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize.

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy, speaking, in New York City at the Riverside church, in May 2003.
Born:	November 24, 1961 Shillong, Meghalaya
Occupation:	Novelist, essayist
Nationality:	Indian
Writing period:	1997 -
Debut works:	The God of Small Things

Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 3 Activism and advocacy 4 Awards 5 Criticisms and controversies 6 List of writings 6.1 Books 6.2 Essays, Speeches and Articles 7 References 8 See also 9 External links 9.1 Biographical material 9.2 Works, Speeches 9.3 Other

[edit] Biography

Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya^[2] to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother, the women's rights activist Mary Roy, and a Bengali Hindu father, a tea planter by profession. She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school in Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by The Lawrence School, Lovedale in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard DaCunha.

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.

Roy is a cousin of the prominent media personality Prannoy Roy^[3] and lives in New Delhi.

[edit] Works

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things in 1992, completing it in 1996. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam^{[citation needed]}. The book received the 1997 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, was listed as one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year for 1997.^[4] The book reached reached fourth position in the New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction.^[5] She received half a million pounds as an advance, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

The God of Small Things received good reviews^[6], including one from John Updike in the New Yorker.^[7] Carmen Callil, chair of the Booker judges panel in 1996 though, called The God of Small Things "an execrable book" and said it should never have reached the shortlist.^[8]

Roy wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones (1989) and Electric Moon (1992) and a television serial The Banyan Tree. She also wrote the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).

In early 2007, Roy announced she would begin work on a second novel.^[9]

[edit] Activism and advocacy

The God of Small Things is the only novel written by Roy. She has since devoted herself solely to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a figure-head 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.

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.^[10] Arundhati Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project has been criticised as "anti-Gujarat" by Gujarat state Youth Congress president Himmatsinh Patel^[11] and Anandiben Patel, a "confidante" of chief minister Narendra Modi.^[12]

In 2002, Roy was convicted of contempt of court by the Indian Supreme Court 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 one day's imprisonment besides paying a fine of Rs. 2000."^[13] Roy served the prison sentence and paid the fine.^[14]

India's nuclear weaponisation

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.

United States foreign policy

In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she describes 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 is a flaming indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the Iraq War.^[15] 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.^[16]

Hoover Institution Fellow and National Review contributing editor Stanley Kurtz testified before a U.S. House Education and the Workforce subcommittee that Roy was among those "widely cited purveying a viewpoint that betrays an extreme animus" towards the United States. Kurtz stated that the Columbia Journalism Review and writer Todd Gitlin had termed Roy "anti-American"^[17]. Her books are however notably popular in the United States, and most readers have found it possible to distinguish between her opposition to US foreign policy and her views on the country itself.

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

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".^[18]

[edit] Awards

Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her fiction The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of US$1 million and a citation that noted: 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.' ^[19]

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" and "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."^[20]

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her 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 she declined to accept it^[21].

[edit] Criticisms and controversies

Economist and prominent free trade advocate Jagdish Bhagwati, on being asked if he'd like his book being reviewed by Roy, said "her conclusions are far more obvious than her arguments and that makes it impossible to function. You don’t know where to begin or where to end." ^[22]

BJP Member of Parliament Balbir Punj criticised Roy's article, titled Democracy: Who's she when she's at home?, on the 2002 Gujarat Violence, pointing out a factual error in it and calling the article "dishonest" and a "hate charter against India and the Sangh parivar".^[23] Roy acknowledged the factual error and apologised to the family referred to in the erroneous segment.^[24]

Roy criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi, charging Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.

In 2003, Arundhati Roy and her husband were found building their house in a protected tribal forest area.^[25]

[edit] List of writings

[edit] Books

• Roy, Arundhati; (1997). The God of Small Things. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-655068-1. 
• Roy, Arundhati; (1999). The Cost of Living. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-257187. . It 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; (2002). The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-714949-2.  (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 Infinite Justice, War is Peace, Democracy, War Talk [also a book] and Come September.)
• 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. 
• Roy, Arundhati; (2003). War Talk. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-724-7. 
• 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. 
• Roy, Arundhati; (2004). The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-710-7. 

[edit] Essays, Speeches and Articles

• Insult and Injury in Afghanistan (MSNBC, 20 October 2001)
• War is Peace (Outlook, 29 October 2001)
• Stop bombing Afghanistan
• Instant Democracy (May 13, 2003)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

[edit] Biographical material

• Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)
• SAWNET biography
• Bibliography

[edit] Works, Speeches

• 'We' The Unauthorised Arundhati Roy Musical Documentary (watch & download free or order DVD by donation)
  • Australian release without extras - resist.com.au
  • American release with extras - weroy.org
• Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn
• Archive of Arundhati Roy on Democracy Now!
• `We have to become the global resistance' (Abriged version of speech given at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16. January 2004)
• Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (August 16, 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 (Article dated 24 June 2005)
• Complete Collection of Her Essays and Speeches (in-progress)

[edit] Other

• Critique of Roy by Exile literary savant by John Dolan
• The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness by Farzana Versey
• Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish

Persondata
NAME	Roy, Arundhati
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Roy, Suzanna Arundhati
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Indian novelist, essayist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 24, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Shillong, Meghalaya
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH