Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize–winning novelist, might face prosecution in India for a speech about Kashmir she gave in 2010, according to reports cited by the Guardian and other news sources.
The police complaint that spurred the potential action against the 61-year-old author of The God of Small Things was filed by a social activist from Kashmir in 2010 after Roy gave a speech at a conference organized by a rights group.
A critic of India’s Kashmir policy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, Roy is accused of saying that the disputed territory was not part of India and advocating for the secession of Kashmir from India, according to the reports.
“Kashmir is one of the most sensitive topics of public discussion in India, which has fought two wars and countless skirmishes with Pakistan over control of the territory,” the Guardian notes.
This week a top official in Delhi issued approval for the 13-year-old complaint—which accuses Roy and others, two of whom have since died, of sedition—to move to the courts, contending that there was adequate evidence for the case to proceed.
Roy has been an outspoken critic of Modi’s government, which has been criticized for its policies and actions by human rights groups.
Amy Reiter is a freelance writer.
