tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post4324923019514389262..comments2023-06-21T13:33:18.520+05:30Comments on kriticulture: To be or not to be Arundhati RoyRajesh Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11144914400704668707noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-84997771263678081882011-05-26T21:45:38.632+05:302011-05-26T21:45:38.632+05:30I read your article on Ms Arundhati roy on Counter...I read your article on Ms Arundhati roy on Countercurrents.org it was a very well written article.Your article accentuates the thoughtlessness and Ignorance of the Indian Ice-cream licking class-"who have seceded themselves from the rest of India" as MS Roy says- and Anna Hazare's Campaign painted as a Revolution(actually missing all the ingredients of a Revolution).Then I went to your Blog it felt good to run through it, I will definitely read your other articles as they sound quite interesting.Amaninder Singhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-60536098851870123342011-05-09T19:15:16.744+05:302011-05-09T19:15:16.744+05:30i saw yr article at countercurrents.org, where i o...i saw yr article at countercurrents.org, where i occasionally post, and enjoyed it very much, u write well.<br /><br />u might find this interesting: i'm an anarchist from seattle and i blog from a radical perspective. i posted this http://saveourcola.blogspot.com/2011/04/must-watch-interview-with-great.html piece and was amazed at the response. it took a lot of hits [for my blog anyway], the lion's share from india, and drew an unusually high number of responses, again mostly from india. all were critical of her, and of the blurb i wrote. Thhere were those who those who felt i'd done an injustice to the interviewer, and were quite blunt about it. my comments about her were unflattering certainly, she's a disgrace, but i was amazed at how much respect/support she commands vis a vis roy.<br /><br />roy's one of the best essayist/speakers in the anglophone world, i would have thought she'd be a india's favorite daughter.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />--David Jamesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-43350814073779572682011-05-09T07:41:16.979+05:302011-05-09T07:41:16.979+05:30@ML Raina
You judge her too hastily, don’t you, w...@ML Raina<br /><br />You judge her too hastily, don’t you, when you label the causes she espouses as “perverse”. Is it perverse to say that global capitalist dispensation is making the poor even poorer, that a retired supreme court judge should not serve a business in any capacity, that the uprooted should be rehabilitated, that all MOUs with corporate houses should be made public for it is the country’s resources that are being sold to them? <br />I am not convinced by your description of the really grave “provocations” that set her writing going as “the slightest”.<br />A critic of democracy is not necessarily an advocate of totalitarianism. When democracy is being eroded and subverted by those in command, it is imperative that we say that we are not happy with THIS way of doing democracy.<br /><br />I am not justifying Godhra massacre, but does everyone always condemn the excesses on both or all sides? Have the supporters of a violent separatist movement in Punjab always condemned the killings of non-Sikhs and those Sikhs who did not see eye to eye with them? Do Hindus always condemn the extralegal killing of a Muslim, a Christian, or a Sikh? And are they always expected to? Do we brand everyone if he/she does not?<br /><br />Moreover, it is unfair to fault a writer for what she has NOT written (a writer on 19th century cannot be blamed for not writing on the 18th). Also, one has to take a stance. Like you do or I do, as a result of which we do not say everything that can be said about Roy as a writer. You find fault with her work, but you say not a good thing about it - when several good things can be said.<br /><br />And then, Roy says somewhere that she “explains”, that she does not “justify”. The difference is crucial, if we want to give the writer a patient hearing. The problem is we practice, in the name of democracy, summary execution of dissenters.<br /><br />How many will dare to attack Mayawati with their pens? Or a local MLA? Or even their rotten colleague who is a disgrace to the profession? She probably disturbs us with her courage.<br /><br />And I do not agree she is not a serious thinker. She does not ask abstract, ‘timeless’ questions, true. But she asks questions of here and now, of this actual world. And asks them thoughtfully. <br /><br />As for some “lasting value system”, not every writer is supposed to do that. Several givers of such systems have left the world only a nastier place. I have not found the best writers offering “systems” for those “systems” can breed dogma and tyranny. But at the same time, the writings of Roy and others are founded on an implicit ethical vision which anyone can discern.Rajesh Sharmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11144914400704668707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-10593160305698805622011-05-09T06:58:32.200+05:302011-05-09T06:58:32.200+05:30I loved your dyed-in-the purple paen to our doyene...I loved your dyed-in-the purple paen to our doyene of perverse<br />causes - Arundhati Roy. I don’t doubt your admiration for her, but let me<br />hasten to add, in spite of your formidable verbal armoury deployed to<br />buttress her, I am not convinced.<br />Ms Roy is typical of those Indian intellectuals who, at the slightest<br />provocation, flail about against Indian democracy. Without doubt there<br />is a lot unhealthy about our democratic system, but do Ms Roy and her<br />fellow knigths and dames in shining armour realise that they can<br />issue their diatribes unscathed only under this system. They would not<br />be tolerated in any totalitarian system - whether of the right or of<br />the left. There is a tendency in Ms Roy to denounce right wing<br />positions, but does she not see the loot, plunder and pillage underneath<br />the 'liberatory' rhetoric of the Maosit terrorism? She walks shoulder<br />to shoulder with Yasin Malik in Kashmir shouting slogans for Kashmir's<br />Azadi, but neglects to admit (a) that Malik is the very same abductor<br />who took away Rubiuya Sayed, (b) that in Pakistan occupied Kashmir<br />northern areas have been denied azadi as well. She would lynch Modi but keep mum over the perpetrators of Godhra. I ask why is Ms Roy selective in choosing her targets.<br /><br />My main quarrel with Ms Roy is that she is not a serious thinker nor even a serious moralist. We find in her writings no political vision based on the practicalities and complexities of Indian political life.<br /><br />Hers is only a temperament and no coherent ideas emerge from her<br />writings. She writes at high tension and expresses her<br />ungovernable desire for a total renovation of our moral and social<br />life. An absoluutist admitting no middle ground between extremities,<br />Roy's anarchic politics operates in a void, for there is no concrete<br />anchor to set it on. She can exhilirate, and occasionally inspire, her readers and audiences, but we cannot take with us any long lasting value system from what she writes and does.ML Rainanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-9452358807842122742011-05-09T06:32:39.568+05:302011-05-09T06:32:39.568+05:30I really enjoyed your article on Arundhati Roy. Af...I really enjoyed your article on Arundhati Roy. After observing the "Arundhati is a traitor" spectacle by the MSM, it was nice to know that there are still some people left in India who can think for themselves. I was disgusted by the tone the MSM was using to discredit true voices like Arundhati Roy and Binayak Sen. <br /><br />I just wanted to thank you for speaking out in such a bigoted environment. <br /><br />Big thanks from New York. Please keep writing.Rohit Reddynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7286821619549757823.post-29468255768443587382011-05-09T06:24:22.175+05:302011-05-09T06:24:22.175+05:30Just read your piece in CounterCurrents on Arundha...Just read your piece in CounterCurrents on Arundhati (which was forwarded to me by Sanjay Kak), thought I'd drop you a note to tell you how much I enjoyed reading it. Although I live thousands of miles away, the Indian middle class antipathy towards Roy and people like her is something that I feel viscerally every time she writes something and is subject to a backlash. Needless to say, I find her integrity and uncompromising radicalism really inspiring. Of course, one can always say that she can "afford" to be radical because of her celebrity status, but that's rather disingenuous, given that there are plenty of celebrity authors and artists who don't have the courage to speak their mind.<br /><br />You mention in your article the difference between Roy's reception as a novelist and as an essayist. I actually took this my starting point for an article I published a couple of years ago in the journal Prose Studies. <br /><br />Best,<br /><br />Nagesh<br />http://leftyprof.wordpress.comNagesh Raonoreply@blogger.com