Arundhati Roy Fights America Again in New Book
By AP
On the cover of Booker prize winner
Arundhati Roy's new book, a woman clad
in a black cloak scampers across a
hostile looking dreary brown landscape
clasping the hand of a tiny child.
That could almost be a metaphor for the
role the celebrated author has chosen
for herself - defender of the
defenseless, pen of the powerless.
"An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire",
supremely filled with the sort of
pincer irony that Roy revels in, has
been published by Penguin. It is a
collection of 14 of the author 's
essays written between June 2002 and
November 2004.
It could have well been termed "An
Ordinary Person 's Guide To (The
American) Empire ", because the book is
filled with cutting-edge part-
journalism, part-activism, intensive
research into, essentially, that much-
abused work called "freedom ".
The writer had earlier hit out at
America 's foreign policy in
Afghanistan in her famous essay "The
Algebra of Infinite Justice ", where
she famously hit out at the US
administration for fighting
wars "against people it doesn 't know,
because they don 't appear much on
TV ".
Using her formidable insight and snappy
analysis, Roy again demolishes myths of
good governance, of the benevolence of
nations and the Boy Scout-ness of the
international community.
It is also a fierce indictment of Big
Brother nationalism in India, where
human beings are scattered and crushed
in the name of 'greater good ' and non-
violent protest is met with deafening
silence.
"When governments and the media lavish
all their time, attention, funds,
research, space, sophistication and
seriousness on war talk and terrorism,
then the message that goes out is
disturbing and dangerous: if you seek
to air and redress a public grievance,
violence is more effective than non-
violence, " argues Roy in the first
chapter called "Ahimsa ".
"Unfortunately, if peaceful change is
not given a chance, then violent change
becomes inevitable. That violence will
be (and already is) random, ugly, and
unpredictable. "
Most of the book is a bitter indictment
of American policies - in Afghanistan,
in Iraq and elsewhere.
"President George W. Bush, commander-in-
chief of the US army, navy and marines,
has issued clear instructions 'Iraq.
Will. Be. Liberated. ' (Perhaps he
means that even if Iraqi people 's
bodies are killed, their souls will be
liberated.), " questions
Roy. "Operation Iraqi Freedom? I don 't
think so. It's more like Operation
Let 's Run a Race, but First Let Me
Break Your Knees. "
With fierce erudition and brilliant
reasoning, Roy dwells on Western
hypocrisy and propaganda, vehemently
questioning the basis of biased
international politics.
"Iraq has shown spectacular courage and
has even managed to put up what
actually amounts to a defense: a
defense which the Bush/Blair pair has
immediately denounced as deceitful and
cowardly. (But then deceit is an old
tradition with us natives. When we 're
invaded/colonized/occupied and stripped
of all dignity, we turn to guile and
opportunism), " writes Roy.
"Clearly for the 'Allies ', the only
morally acceptable strategy the Iraqi
army can pursue is to march out into
the desert and be bombed by B-52s or be
mowed down by machine-gun fire.
"Anything short of that is cheating. "
As she sees propaganda being passed as
the truth and press handouts passed for
stories, Roy determinedly continues her
three cheers for celebrated critics of
the US government like Noam Chomsky and
writes: "...if the Bush regime falls,
there would be dancing on the streets
the world over."
