If you ask the literary enthusiasts to name an Indian novelist who has won notable prizes, nationally and internationally, just by calling names to the nation of which the author holds the passport, we hope most of them will frankly tell you the name of Arundhati Roy – the author and novelist who has written merely a single novel, The God of Small Things, described as “execrable” by Carmen Callil and “profoundly depressing” by the Guardian and yet managing to win the prestigious Booker Prize for the year 1997 amid a great controversy! Why the American media praised it and held the fictitious work in a higher regard, still remains a theory behind the wall.
Arundhati Roy, born in 1961, November 24, is a controversial author from India and currently resides in New Delhi. Facing the charges of sedition and criticised on several instances by the prominent figures of Indian politics, literature and media, Arundhati Roy keeps on producing incidents and writings (newspaper articles and non-fiction) which almost often put her in the centre of buzz. The author seems ignorant of the Kashmir’s existence and its historical context and calls for the secession of Kashmir from the Indian state. To Arundhati Roy, India poses as a nation which is based on the politics of threat and it has kept captive the states of Punjab, Kashmir, Sikkim and some others only by its military power. The propagator of such bizarre theories, Arundhati Roy, in the name of literature (mostly propaganda), has produced only one novel and few non-fiction works. Her fiction was only received with warm welcomes in the USA and was heavily criticised in India and the UK. She has, almost unrestricted, presented sexuality in an explicit way which, we think only as the origins of the authors like Chetan Bhagat who further stretched the thread.
The non-fiction works of Arundhati Roy, frankly speaking, can only be seen in the light of her propagandas and nothing else! Lacking any shreds of evidence which might qualify for the noun merit, her works even extrapolate to the extent that those become ‘seditious’. Published by Penguin in 2013, The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament is a book which is seldom sold. Roy raises questions on the national politics and judicial system which give 12 long years of ‘fair trial’ to a terrorist which could better be settled with an encounter. To Roy, Afzal Guru is almost innocent and must not have been hanged! Strange again!
This author, who is a cousin to the senior person in the NDTV media house, Prannoy Roy, also landed herself in controversy when she spoke ‘almost in favour’ of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Very unfortunately, she linked the ghastly terror attacks which killed almost a hundred people to the riots of 2002, problems in Kashmir and surprisingly enough to the economic conditions of Muslims in India! Her mindset and poor reason shout out loud to us to believe that why her booker prize in 1997 drew severe criticism and controversy! What is the current job of this author? If you ask this question – our answer is straight. The job of Arundhati Roy is to wander across the globe, find a stage for herself wherever possible and say everything bad about India that she has in her mind! We DON’T RECOMMEND any serious reader reading her works.
Post Script: Arundhati Roy enjoys her share of freedom of expression and she can make statements as she likes. However, the Team_TIA also enjoys the same freedom of expression and we will make our opinions as blunt as we can!
