Piece of What?

dost-mittar,

I am somewhat intrigued by your mentioning Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group, how it was in some sense the precursor to the modern women`s liberation movement, and that it had more men than women..men like Lytton Strachey for example, and E.M Forster, and other names my memory struggles to recall. But my understanding of Woolf`s position within that movement was that although she had wonderful friendships with these men, that she still felt like an outsider in regards to her gender and her politics, and many if not all of the men within this group did not much care for her `Three Guineas` which says so much about gender disparity. You seem to have a different understanding, no? I`m not entirely convinced that the Bloomsbury group is a good example of `enlightened` men being supportive in fighting women`s oppression, but I`d like to know what you think.

Mittar ji, and Sammi..you`ve mentioned SAKHI, which prompts me to ask this question. Is domestic violence in a separate milieu from women`s oppression? Is it not incredibly political as well? Why then, are there South Asian anti-domestic violence organizations that eschew all things political???

...for the unmindful and the mindless....those

who think appearing cool is more important

than having it (protesting dams?! how uncool,

anti-modern, anti-national).....if you cannot

understand, or even think, dont try to belong to

a herd:

excerpts from a writeup by amitava kumar on

a roy:

......The successful enter into the Faustian

contract: they sell their souls to fame and

become its servitors. Roy didn`t. On the

Narmada issue, as after the nuclear tests,

Roy has chosen to go against the popular

grain. Her words have contested the pious

dogmas of the business-as-usual, safari

suited, bureaucracy-cum-political

establishment as well as its supporters.

In the mind of at least this reader of Roy, her

efforts in alliance with the Narmada Bachao

Andolan signify her resolve to build a republic

of many. A republic that is mobile only in the

sense that it represents a movement -- a

broad movement of the disenfranchised who

are fighting for their rights. ........

According to the journalist Kalpana Sharma,

the results of Roy`s interventions are fairly

plain. Roy`s essays, Sharma wrote in The

Hindu, ``have reached an audience which any

number of well-argued, erudite pieces

appearing on the editorial pages of

mainstream newspapers would not have

reached.``

Among such an audience are the youth from

many Indian cities who have been making

their way to Narmada to learn about their

countryfolk themselves.

And the charge of celebrity hunting that Roy is

accused of?

Sharma raises a provocative question here:

Would Roy have been subjected to harsh

criticism if she had stuck to genteel tasks like

cutting ribbons and appearing at functions?

It is imaginable that had Roy not made

nuclear missiles and large dams her targets,

more ink would have been spilt on her poetic

syntax and her smile.

.......There can be no gainsaying the fact that

Roy`s latest leap into the public fray marks the

emergence of an important intellectual who is

both public and political.

There are people who make history. Roy is

one of them. But, she is also one who has

been made by history. Velutha, the tragic,

untouchable hero of her novel, has found his

flesh-and-blood counterparts in the Narmada

valley. Roy`s struggle to articulate this fact

makes her perhaps the most important writer

in India familiar to the West since

Rabindranath Tagore.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in 1913, Tagore

had renounced his knighthood in 1919 to

protest British repression against Indians. He

was also a writer who had turned from his

early days of romantic revivalism to a strong

vision of a fight against oppression. Roy`s

decision to march with real-life Veluthas

recalls that earlier conversion.

re: cpothik

{It`s true that you have not presented anything concrete against Arundhati Roy except showing off your impatience with her.}

...i have nothing ``against`` her to prove or disprove...all i`ve said is that she`s not the mother theresa or shabana azmi that some would like to believe...beyond that, as an indian citizen she is within her rights to speak her mind about whatever she likes...

...and btw, i am not the only one who thinks this...read some of the comments on this board to start with...one`s from veeresh who actually lives in india and is in an even better position to comment on sentiments of more indians than i am...

AR could easily have settled into the lifelong

comfort of celebrity and attention.......gone to

inaugurations, get invited by people in power,

say nice things about the country and similar

useful things....like so many of our other

celebrities do......but like she said, you cannot

unsee what you hv once seen (what she

doesnt know is that many ppl do that)......its

her obligation to her intelligence..infact all our

obligations to our intelligence not to unsee

things

....and with her skill for language, she has

been able to relate the criminality of such

usually vague things as the nuclear bomb and

huge, diplacing dams to the insular middle

classes

....now that affects certain people, whose

propagandists are out in full force and due to

lack of ANY reasonable counter-arguments,

have been spreading the line abt her being

publicity-crazy!....and because she is also an

intelligent woman who just doesnt say that

her role model is mother teressa but actually

gets her hands dirty, its too much for the

gerontocracy in india to take.....thankfully there

are still enough people in the media

unmindful of the inspired hate mail she

receives to give her space

btw unlike what much of the pakistani press

(typically) mentioned, her mother did not fight

and win a SC case for equal rights of

minorities, but for equal inheritence rights

within a minority- for syrian christian

women.....similar to the shah bano case i.e. a

minority woman against the minority

establishment

ps.. I meant cucumbers and not carrots and chillies. Those might be for the truly intrepid : )

ref my post # 26

..actually AR had donated her Booker money to NBA….what she gave the KDSA was rights to ``translate GOST into the original malayalam..`` and all ensuing royalties

dost-mittar # 36

[This was followed by her opposition to Narabada Dam and she quickly replaced Medeka Patel as the face of resistance to that massive project, dream to some and nightmare to others.]

Medeka Patel ??

Surely you meant Medha Patkar...right!!

Regards.

re: shankar

{I would rather have an ASLI Kohinoor like Asma Jehangir than a NAQLI Kohinoor like Roy.}

...exactly...but but but she won an award for her book...the country should listen to her...hehe

nasah,

I would rather have an ASLI Kohinoor like Asma Jehangir than a NAQLI Kohinoor like Roy.

Rsaxena #29,

It`s true that you have not presented anything concrete against Arundhati Roy except showing off your impatience with her. If you cannot tolerate her or despise her, fine, that`s your problem. But you can`t debate about a person`s standing armed with only your personal feelings about her. Your outburst against Arundhati Roy does not help to form opinion about her. Rather it creates a poor impression of yourself. Sorry.

Good article. I dont quite follow ARoy`s exploits but looks like wherever there is a controversy she is there : ) However - velvet pants with lace?? WHat the heck are these?? Can someone pls pt me to some photographs asap - wjat with my ltd imagination... God almighty it is so hard keeping up!!

And egg sandwiches - just add lots of peppar and mint leaves and carrots and chillies - experimenting has its benefits!!

``Roy and Ram and Co., must after all bring their crackpot theories to Pakistan - for they cannot withstand an intellectual confrontation in India.``

From what I have read in the Pakistani press, Roy`s speeches have caused a lot of introspection by Pakistanis about why there is not enough similar activism on their side against Government shennanigans rather than ``glee`` about her ``India bashing``. So try not to be so schizophrenic.

The more I think about it, the more I think we need more Arundathi Roys and Asma Jehangirs to solve the Pak-India imbroglio. We have tried many times at the governmental level to jump start a rapproachment but it is obvious that there are many vested interests on both sides who can and will scuttle any such moves. The ease with which the Rajiv/Benazir understandings and Lahore 1999 were scuttled is testament to that.

We need common people from both sides of the border to interact and tell the people at the top ``enough is enough``.

re. Upman

Thanks for your #26. I was happy to find that Ms. Roy was more than just a pretty face with a kiss-ass literary gift and nasty things to say about the establishment. You`ve greatly enhanced my respect for her.

rgds,

PM

great read Shandana...missed the event due to unprecedented maslas =o(...anyways Roy may not be the supreme authority when it comes to the India-Pakistan stand but she sure does talk a lot of sense...so what if her own country thinks that she`s just full of crap?? that doesn`t make her any less of a person or that what she think doesn`t matter...you don`t have to be credible to matter!!!

rsaxena # 29

``....as opposed to you, whose argument is simply that because she`s written a book, she should have the podium to mouth off?...fact is the woman has no credibility in india..``

..you do not or cannot follow my argument....i do not see another reason for u`r conclusion...

...btw who decides credibility in India?? Is having u`r essays on 2 leading national magazines on the cover, that too twice each, and several times more within covers - other than in leading international magazines/newspapers- a sufficient index of credibility in india?...or is your index of credibility the massive trashy criticism of her spawned by several closet Sanghis on numerous websites -who are so impressed by their own mediocre and self serving political insights? or certification by Messrs Advani and Modi?

...i used to think seeing ur expert comments that u may hv read any of her articles.. but u havent....who do u think shd hv the podium to speak on nuclearization or killer dams that affect every citizen?...i guess she was talking to ppl like u when she said ``so shall we leave it to the experts?!``

...learn to think, rsax....theres life beyond one-line witticisms or market economics

upman7626 #26

thank you for that post :)