Arundhati Roy is an Indian author who has challenged dominant narratives in India through her writing and activism, campaigning against issues like the caste system, displacement due to large dams, and human rights violations in Kashmir. She draws from her experience growing up in a mixed religious family and roots for groups like Naxalites and Kashmiri separatists, though some criticize her for romanticizing violence without offering solutions. While dissenters play an important role in ensuring marginalized voices are heard and holding those in power accountable, being a dissenter also comes with risks to one's career, family, and life.
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author who has challenged dominant narratives in India through her writing and activism, campaigning against issues like the caste system, displacement due to large dams, and human rights violations in Kashmir. She draws from her experience growing up in a mixed religious family and roots for groups like Naxalites and Kashmiri separatists, though some criticize her for romanticizing violence without offering solutions. While dissenters play an important role in ensuring marginalized voices are heard and holding those in power accountable, being a dissenter also comes with risks to one's career, family, and life.
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author who has challenged dominant narratives in India through her writing and activism, campaigning against issues like the caste system, displacement due to large dams, and human rights violations in Kashmir. She draws from her experience growing up in a mixed religious family and roots for groups like Naxalites and Kashmiri separatists, though some criticize her for romanticizing violence without offering solutions. While dissenters play an important role in ensuring marginalized voices are heard and holding those in power accountable, being a dissenter also comes with risks to one's career, family, and life.
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author who has challenged dominant narratives in India through her writing and activism, campaigning against issues like the caste system, displacement due to large dams, and human rights violations in Kashmir. She draws from her experience growing up in a mixed religious family and roots for groups like Naxalites and Kashmiri separatists, though some criticize her for romanticizing violence without offering solutions. While dissenters play an important role in ensuring marginalized voices are heard and holding those in power accountable, being a dissenter also comes with risks to one's career, family, and life.
Childhood Why has the author chosen to highlight her
•Born in Shillong to Bengali Hindu father and a Malayali Christian mother. •Important - won a Booker prize - Modest dissenter - not a celebrated Nobel laureate •Her mother successfully challenged the Syrian Christian inheritance law •Has the guts to dissent - Highlights the flaws with Gandhian equality which was biased against women. •Connected with various pertinent issues in India - Naxalites, Kashmir, Sardar Sarovar •This spirit of rebellion and independence seems to have inspired Roy. •Influenced policy on large dams and rehabilitation •By always opposing the establishment, she has often romanticized the other bads like Naxals, terrorists without sound judgement. Claim to Fame •Compulsive dissenter - Only way to keep power on a tight leash is to oppose it - Wants •Wrote a national award-winning screenplay to overthrow the system instead of correcting. •Made it large with her book - The God of Small Things •Uses celebrity status to challenge the dominant narrative. What do we learn? •Dissenters are needed to ensure that the voices of the depressed were heard. •Roy asks the right questions but has no answers - Provides no alternatives while seeking History of Dissent to overthrow the system. •Published to challenge Gandhi’s hero worship - builds on how Gandhi •Democracy, Capitalism, Globalization - Each has its own flaws. rooted for the caste system - challenged Ambedkar’s views on exclusion •Being a dissenter is not easy. You may have to pay the price of it with your life. of Adivasis •Campaigned against big dams because of the lack of adequate Why are they important for society? compensation for the displaced. •People don’t dissent because of the cost associated (career, family, life, society) •Briefly experienced the Naxalite movement firsthand to understand •Dissenters bring accountability to those who are responsible. their narrative. •Dissenters push the brake on the dominant narrative and make us see the wrong with •Openly roots for Azad Kashmir - highlights the suffering of people on things that look right. the account of security forces and human rights violations.