NEW DELHI: They emerged suddenly shouting slogans - 'Arundhati Roy murdabad' and 'Bharat mata ki jai' - when the writer-activist was making a point on paid news. The three young men threw unsigned pamphlets on the stage and caused a 45-second interruption before being whisked away by police.
"I paid them to do that," Roy joked, drawing laughter from a packed gathering at the Amphitheatre in the India Habitat Centre on Friday evening. It had been an engrossing conversation till then between Roy and economist Amit Bhaduri at the evening launch of her two books, Broken Republic and Walking with the Comrades. And it stayed that way despite the brief disruption.
"The colonization of the land of the poor is at the heart of the unfolding civil war in the country," said Roy. She applauded the resistance of the poorest people who have stood against the richest mining corporations in the world. Yet, the corporations and those who support them seem to be like "lazy predators" waiting for an opportune moment to strike. "We are facing the prospect of a militarized democracy, though that might sound as an oxymoron," she said.
Roy said the institutions that sustain democracy are being "hollowed out". She recalled how as a child she stole carrots from her teacher's garden. "I would then plant back the top. That's what is happening today. We just retain the ritual of democracy," she said.
Bhaduri offered a less pessimistic view. He said Indian democracy is something like "now you see it, now you don't". In other words, it was prevalent in some areas of our life, missing in others.
Roy also explained the need to sell her books to an elite audience that had no idea of the lives she wrote about, especially about the adivasis in Dantewada. Literature of this kind has been written in regional languages and is read by many in those back of beyond areas, she said. "This is the last train in the station," she said.
The conversation was followed by a spunky performance by the agit-rock-reggae band, The Ska Vengers. In the heat and the humidity, they sang with enthusiasm about justice and corruption. They looked cool. And they made you feel optimistic.
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"I paid them to do that," Roy joked, drawing laughter from a packed gathering at the Amphitheatre in the India Habitat Centre on Friday evening. It had been an engrossing conversation till then between Roy and economist Amit Bhaduri at the evening launch of her two books, Broken Republic and Walking with the Comrades. And it stayed that way despite the brief disruption.
"The colonization of the land of the poor is at the heart of the unfolding civil war in the country," said Roy. She applauded the resistance of the poorest people who have stood against the richest mining corporations in the world. Yet, the corporations and those who support them seem to be like "lazy predators" waiting for an opportune moment to strike. "We are facing the prospect of a militarized democracy, though that might sound as an oxymoron," she said.
Roy said the institutions that sustain democracy are being "hollowed out". She recalled how as a child she stole carrots from her teacher's garden. "I would then plant back the top. That's what is happening today. We just retain the ritual of democracy," she said.
Bhaduri offered a less pessimistic view. He said Indian democracy is something like "now you see it, now you don't". In other words, it was prevalent in some areas of our life, missing in others.
Roy also explained the need to sell her books to an elite audience that had no idea of the lives she wrote about, especially about the adivasis in Dantewada. Literature of this kind has been written in regional languages and is read by many in those back of beyond areas, she said. "This is the last train in the station," she said.
The conversation was followed by a spunky performance by the agit-rock-reggae band, The Ska Vengers. In the heat and the humidity, they sang with enthusiasm about justice and corruption. They looked cool. And they made you feel optimistic.
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