Under the provisions of a controversial anti-terrorism law, the Indian government is set to institute legal proceedings against novelist Arundhati Roy for comments she made more than a decade ago, according to the Guardian
In the 2010 comments in question, Roy said that the disputed territory of Kashmir is not an “integral” part of India. This caused her critics, and now the Delhi government of Narendra Modi, to assert that she was advocating secession of Kashmir.
At 62, Roy is one of India’s best known and most acclaimed authors; her 1997 novel, The God of Small Things,was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize. A Kirkus critic called it a “truly spectacular debut.”
Roy followed that book with just one other novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017), devoting the bulk of her attention to human rights and environmental causes and publishing nonfiction books including Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2014).
Last Friday, the top official in the Delhi administration, V.K. Saxena, confirmed that the case will move forward. Roy and former political analyst Sheikh Showkat Hussain, both outspoken critics of the government, face prosecution together.
According to author and journalist Siddhartha Deb, quoted in Democracy Now, “This case is so convoluted, it’s hard to say where it begins and where it ends—and that’s the point. The process is the punishment.”
Marion Winik hosts NPR’s The Weekly Reader podcast.
