It never ceases to amazes me what a volatile reaction mere
mention of Arundhati Roy engenders among otherwise most gentle and sober of
peoples. Some things are beyond a shadow of doubt. She is one of the most
gifted of writers in English in India at the moment. I believe ‘The God of
Small Things’ is one of the best novel ever written by an Indian. The artistry
and the craft of the haunting prose stirred my emotions like nothing had and it
is a pity that she has not produced a work of fiction since then but I keep
living in hope. But in the meanwhile she has actively been at the forefront of
taking up causes on behalf of the poor, voiceless and the marginalized, people
who have been left out of the process of the so called development and also
producing some non fiction writing in between.
And that is when the trouble begins. Because she challenges and
confronts the traditional paradigm of development and tries to puncture the
bubble under which the average middle class Indian has put himself, she is seen
as someone who is out there to upset this balance. The vast section of educated
Indians perceive her to be disturbing their cozy consensus, an interloper about
to shatter their American dream. Besides subjected to volley of abuse in the
social media, the most charitable of observers have called her an apologist for
the Maoists.
My contention is that whether we agree with her or not is
beside the point. What matters is that in a genuinely vibrant democracy we need
people like Arundhati Roy who hold up a mirror to us as a society from time to
see our reflection warts and all. No matter how unpopular or uncomfortable the
question may be, we must not shy away from dealing with them and forcing our government
to account. If we have to challenge her, let us challenge her on the plane of
facts and reason rather than bullying and abuse. Indeed our society will be a
poorer one without vigorous dissenters like Arundhati.
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