“India is in grave danger even if the BJP doesn’t win the next election, as all institutions have been morally or economically compromised,” feels writer Arundhati Roy.
The Man Booker Prize winning author of The God of Small Things and Ministry of Utmost Happiness was at the Kerala Literature Festival on Saturday speaking on ‘Literature of politics’. The conversation with Sohini Ghose mostly revolved around the politics in Ms. Roy’s non-fiction works, for which she had got into ‘too much trouble’ from all political and religious outfits. She refused to be called an activist as “it is the job of a writer to do whatever I have been doing”. She claimed not to represent anyone. “I am a teller of stories. My job is to annoy everyone,” she said, adding that she did not always take the popular position, but the legitimate one. Ms. Roy said she was always advised against courting trouble. “But I feel I will rot if I keep quiet. I am someone who cannot adjust with corrosion,” she said.
Ms. Roy repeated her stance by questioning the ‘Mahatma’ status of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi whom she called a complex man and political genius but a racist at the core. She cited the student unrest in Ghana that ended with the removal of a statue of Gandhi from a university campus and his association with the elite class in Durban.
‘Legacy of Mary Roy’
A member of the audience mentioned the legacy of Mary Roy, her mother, who, despite being a reformer who fought for women’s education and for property rights of Christian women, was not talked about much. Ms. Roy proudly answered ‘I am the legacy of Mary Roy.’
She concluded the session asking the younger generation not to give up hope that something wonderful and unpredictable and crazy will always happen, as hope should be unreasonable.
