India: Arundhati Roy on trial for statements she made 14 years ago

Last week, Delhi’s top official gave permission to initiate prosecution proceedings against award-winning writer Arundhati Roy.

Roy will be tried under India’s strict anti-terrorism laws. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) is notorious for making it extremely difficult to apply for bail, often resulting in years of detention awaiting trial.

The Modi government has been accused of using the law to silence critics, including activists, journalists and members of civil society.

What he announced 14 years ago

Ms Roy, 62, a writer and activist, is in the dock to comment on Kashmir. According to BBC information.

“Kashmir was never an integral part of India. It is a historical event. Even the Indian government has accepted that,” he said at a stormy day-long conference in Delhi organized by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in October 2010.

At the time, Indian-administered Kashmir was reeling from unrest, with locals describing it as a brutal anti-Indian rebellion.

Her comments came in the wake of the killing of dozens of protesters since new pro-freedom protests erupted earlier that year.

India and its neighbor Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals, claim full sovereignty over the disputed region and have fought two wars over it.

Ms Roy’s comments sparked a storm of protests, with many critics questioning her loyalty to India and the federal government, then led by the Congress Party, and threatening to arrest her on sedition charges. A senior minister said that although India has freedom of expression, it “cannot violate the national sentiments of the people”.

“It is out of love and pride that I say this.”

There were protests outside Ms Roy’s home in an upscale Delhi neighbourhood. A criminal case has been filed against her and another accused, Sheikh Shaukat Hussain, a law professor from Kashmir, claiming that they and two others are accused of sedition.

If Roy faces jail under the tough anti-terrorism law, it will spark global condemnation and outrage

Ms Roy defended her right to freedom of expression in the immediate aftermath of the controversy. “In the newspapers some have accused me of making hate speech and of wanting to break up India. Instead, what I say comes from love and pride,” she wrote in her response.

“It comes from not wanting to kill them, rape them, imprison them or purge them to force them to say they are Indians… Shame on the nation that has to silence its writers because they express their opinions.”

Why after 14 years?

Some see this as another attempt by Modi to silence his critics. Writer Amitav Ghosh wrote in

When Delhi authorities agreed in October to take the case to court, Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein warned Mr. Modi in X: “You have no idea what you are setting off by pursuing this political prosecution to silence your most eloquent critics.”

Fans and critics

Over the past two decades, Ms. Roy has written several non-fiction books and numerous articles on topics such as nuclear weapons, Kashmir, major dams, globalization, Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, encounters with Maoist rebels, and conversations with Edward Snowden and John Cusack. .

The God of Small Things, a thrilling family saga inspired by her family’s childhood, won the 1997 Man Booker Prize—”Tiger Woods’ debut,” lauded by John Adubike—and made Roy a celebrated author at the age of thirty-five.

The 62-year-old author is also a polarizing figure in India.

Her fans see her as a leading voice for liberal values ​​and an advocate for marginalized people.

But her critics burned effigies of her, disrupted her activities, and she faced charges of sedition and contempt, and she even spent a day in prison because of her protest against large dams.

They found many of her nonfiction texts to be harsh, naive, juvenile, selfish, simplistic, and to promote “abject poverty.” One reviewer wrote that Roy often in her articles “never gets to grips with the facts.”

Changes because of Roy too

Since Roy’s observations in 2010, significant changes have occurred.

In 2019, Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status, partitioned the region and reduced its political autonomy under direct federal control.

Many believe freedom of expression has also declined: since 2014, India has fallen from 150th to 161st in Reporters Without Borders’ media freedom ranking, out of 180 countries.

Roy declined to comment on the latest developments.

It is unclear whether the police investigated these allegations or whether they have evidence against her and the other defendants.

Two people named in the original complaint have died. But one thing is certain. If one of India’s most famous writers faces imprisonment under a tough anti-terrorism law, it will spark global condemnation and outrage.