Ideally, this should have been a simple response to some of the comments to the two pieces that Churumuri has carried on Arundhati Roy in the last few days, the first arguing that India is not a democracy and the second expanding on it and calling Gujarat a Nazi type of society.
It is a post because one gets the feeling that some of the comments (not just to her piece but to many others) end up validating what Roy is trying to say. Which is that we think we are a democracy because there is so much noise, but that actually we are shy, wary if not plain afraid of addressing the big issues, especially if they contest our own views, beliefs, dogmas and ideologies on them.
If we take out the childish personal insinuations as to what is probably motivating her or why Churumuri is giving her so much play, we must listen to her for the following six reasons:
6) Because our newspapers and magazines and TV channels who have bought into the ‘India Shining’ story do not give views like these any play, even if she is wrong.
5) Because she is probably the world’s most sought-after speaker, if not certainly the most sought-after woman speaker, and if the world is listerning to her, we must too, even if she is wrong.
4) Because she has something interesting and provocative to say, even if it is unpalatable to ears trained to receive pseudo-nationalism and good news and page 3 pap, even if she is wrong.
3) Because good journalism is not journalism that reassures us that the sun rose in the east this morning and that is well with the world but journalism that wrestles with our firmly held thoughts and beliefs, even if she is wrong.
2) Because she articulates her thoughts better than most of our “intellectuals”, because her voice carries weight, and because she has the stamina to explain in a few thousand words, not in a soundbyte, even if she is wrong.
1) Because we need to learn that ours are not the only right views and that there may be several more compelling ones on the opposite side, even if she is wrong.
churumuri 
I agree with you, especially on points 6, 4, 3 and 1. I read her carefully and while she does articulate her thoughts with a certain hyper-clarity, I really don’t know what she means by democracy or even by freedom. I don’t mean this in a Clintonisque ‘it depends on what is the meaning of is is’ kinda way. Nor am I seeking a well worked out political theory from her. Writers like Soyinka and Havel have been extraordinarily clear and prescient in both their political action and statements. I don’t see that in her at all. As I wrote yesterday in my blog, I admire her courage and commitment to progressive causes but I find her politics going nowhere. Often, it’s the ‘I am an island of one’ approach, which she first famously articulated in her anti-nuclear protest essays that seems to increasingly dominate. This is counterproductive in any effort to build a larger platform. If at least her ideas were provocative, that would have served some purpose but honestly, I am not sure she is providing more than a soundbyte when she says Gujarat is a Nazi type of society. Her analysis or examples are often hyperbolic or flawed.
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There is another good reason why we must listen to Arundhati Roy, which is that unlike most Indian authors, especially in the English language, she has the guts and gumption to stick her neck out even on touchy issues. Look around you, from Vikram Seth downwards to Khushwant Singh to Shobhaa De to Upamanyu Chatterjee… and all you see are a bunch of self-reverential and self-referential individuals who crawl out only when they have something to sell (Seth in particular). Only Amitava Ghosh and Pankaj Mishra in recent times have done anything close, by taking up the Sunderbans issue and Chattsinghpura killings. At least Roy has spoken on Pokhran and Gujarat and Narmada and Bush and America. Sure, she has just one book behind her but so what? We can debate her style, her substance, her seriousness, her consistency, etc. But what we cannot debate is that we need is more writers and “intellectuals” to show that they don’t think the world revolves around them.
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I have found one more reason to listen to Ms Roy.
Because she is better than mainstream newspapers as she highlights few issues that we need to pay more heed to.What has gone right for us to comment that she is wrong?
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I am afraid we are gradually coming to the state ‘ either conform or else’… People are treated as being part of 100 X 100 Marirx and if by chance item # 67 is not standing in the groove, where s/he is supposed to stand, heaven help her/ him! Why we should think Arudhati or for that matter Aamir is unique is, there are teaching us again ,that one can and should be able to air one’s opinion, DESPITE holding an opposte view from the mainstream. That’s what democracy is all about!If Aamir has to ‘apologise’ for his opinion on rehabilitation of the displaced in Narmada’ ,there is no democracy in India! Kishore Kumar dared to defy Minister Shukla when he refused to sing peans of ruling Govt. and didn’t mind paying the price.. his songs were banned in AIR and Vivdh Bharathi during Emergency…
KP is right that quite a few authors and leading film stars and journalists too ‘crawled when asked to bend’ and are still doing by force of habit, I guess..
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You are either with us, or against us – GWB – after 9/11. No middle ground!
India is not a democracy because everytime someone decides to air their POV, it’s just a matter of time before they are asked (forced) to retract. That doesn’t happen in a democracy. At least Aamir Khan is bold enough to say NO to an apology demand.
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Her relevance is that she speaks what most of the smug intellectuals feel privately but afraid to air in public. The next best thing to do is to conform and to be on the right side of the establishment or with the opposition. There is no honest debate and increasingly liberal views are being snufed out and some of the worst players are our media and those who can exhibit some guts play safe following the dictum much can be said on both sides. The present longwinding sanitised analysis whether it is on reservation or Narmada dam. Like the commited judiciary what the govt wants is the committed media. It is farcical to call India truely democratic. Amir Khan’s case reflects this It is a pity though that the youth too have caught the contagion when they heep accusatiion against Amir on Narmada dam issue. Increasingly let alone Gujarat even the centre too is exhibiting fascist tendancies.
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