NEW DELHI: She may have returned to publishing fiction after a two decadehiatus, but Indian writer Arundhati Roy says she has no plans to sheath herpolemical sword anytime soon in a world where the vulnerable are stillbeing “smashed”.
Sitting in a cafe in the bowels of Old Delhi´s labyrinthine streets on achilly winter´s afternoon, the 56-year-old still simmers with the kind offiery political rhetoric that has made her one of her homeland´s harshestmodern day critics.
“I would find it very hard to live with myself in this country if I didn´ttalk about what was going on,” she says.
“Not only in India but all over the world, an economic system is beingcreated that is driving people apart,” she adds.
“I´m writing about how this system is actually smashing up the vulnerablein this country.”
Roy has spent much of the year publicising her new novel — “The Ministryof Utmost Happiness” — a sprawling and lavish tale published in June.
But inevitably conversations stray onto the kind of political issues she isnow equally well known for: Kashmir, Maoist insurgents, environmentalactivism and the rising communal tensions in modern day India.
The novelist and the polemicist is a duality she has worn for twenty yearsand she´s not going to stop now. The new book´s dedication after all reads:”To, The Unconsoled.”Fame and acclaim[image: an image]
After years of struggling to find her voice, penning television and moviescreenplays in Mumbai, the daughter of a Syrian Christian from Kerala and aHindu Bengali burst onto the scene in 1997 with her debut novel “The God ofSmall Things”.
The story of twins Rahel and Estha and their traumatic childhood in Keralawas a publishing sensation, selling more than six million copies worldwide,scooping up the Booker Prize and turning Roy somewhat uncomfortably into adarling of the global literary set.
Many favourably compared her at the time to South Asia heavyweight writerslike Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth. But those hoping for a swift series offiction follow ups were disappointed.
Instead she turned herself into something resembling India´s moralconscience, churning out essays on a broad range of topics that riled thecountry´s elite and — when it came to her harsh criticism of India´streatment of Kashmir — even earned her a sedition charge.
“I get into so much trouble so many times and I keep promising myself Iwon´t write another (essay),” she explains. “But it comes from a placewhere just keeping quiet just doesn´t seem to be an option.”
Her essays, she says, are written with a “kind of pacy restlessness”.
But the new novel afforded her an opportunity to write more cautiously andslowly.
“When I write fiction I´m the exact opposite. I´m just completely relaxed,completely take my time.”
Started some ten years ago, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” absorbs manyof the leftist political subjects she has written about, forming “part ofthe foundation” of the book.
Among the vast cast are Maoist guerrillas and Hindu nationalist mobs, atransgender community struggling against poverty and prejudice in Old Delhiand a love story set against the backdrop of the Kashmir´s long-simmeringinsurgency.´Constructed chaos´[image: an image]
Compared to her widely acclaimed debut, the reviews for her belatedfollow-up are more mixed, with some saying the work is long and chaotic.
It is a criticism Roy partially accepts, but brushes off.
“I know a lot of people describe it as chaos, but that chaos isconstructed,” she explains.
She expects her readers to spend time exploring the new book.
“It´s looking at the story as though it´s a big city like Delhi,” she says.”You can´t really just read ´The Ministry of Utmost Happiness´, you have toget to know it, like you get to know a city: walk through big roads, smallroads, courtyards, barren places.”
Politics comes fairly easily to Roy, but fiction less so.
“It took me a lot of time to recover from ´The God of Small Things´,” sheadmits. “Not just because of the worldly success, but to write somethingthat I dredged up from some place that was quite deep.”
It is unlikely she will shelve her polemical pen anytime soon.
Roy says under the stewardship of Hindu nationalist prime minister NarendraModi, India is at its most polarised place in years.
She reels off a list of ills, from protesters recently blinded by policeshotgun pellets in Kashmir, to the ongoing prejudice against India´s”untouchable” castes and rising fundamentalism.
“There are mobs running around wanting to burn down cinema halls, there aremobs of huge mustachioed men celebrating sati,” she fumes, referencing thehistorical but extinct tradition where a widow would throw herself onto herhusband´s funeral pyre.
Critics of Roy´s essays say they can be hysterical and narcissistic. ButRoy is unrepentant, seeing herself as a much needed canary in the coal mine.
“It can´t go on like this,” she warns. “Something will arise either out ofcomplete destruction or some kind of revolution. But it can´t go on likethis.”