Essays of India

With a friendly smile fixed on her face,the 48-year-old conceals her feisty image,almost. But when she starts taking about the repercussions of people’s militia against Maoists in Chhattisgarh; the military presence in Kashmir,Nagaland and Manipur; the displacement for the Sardar Sarovar Dam or bauxite mining in Orissa,it becomes clear she is a writer with larger commitments. “After the Pokhran test,it became clear that keeping quiet is as much a political act as speaking. But by remaining silent,I will be walking into a prison of my making,” she says. The writer presents a fascinating picture of herself with radiating,youthful skin and clipped shoulder-length salt-paper hair.

Roy’s views are dotted with caveats and optimism. “We are approaching a time of great chaos. Those in power will consolidate their power with military aid,” she says. The writer-activist also concedes Indians still have the imagination to check the ecological disaster that the world is heading to. “We have a civilization of sustainable development. We can show the world how to do it.”

It’s difficult to ignore her as she talks passionately about the failings of democracy in India. The collection of essays—which takes a hard look at the underbelly of the world’s largest democracy—begins with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. She writes about how ‘progress’ and genocide have historically gone hand in hand; about the murky investigations into the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament; and about the dangers of an increasingly powerful and entirely unaccountable judiciary. The collection ends with an account of the August 2008 uprising in Kashmir and an analysis of the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

For 12 years,the author of The God of Small Things has not come up with another work of fiction. Currently,however,she says,“I have been building the scaffolding for the next fiction.” That’s something to look forward to.