BROKEN REPUBLIC (4 Essays) by Arundhati Roy

THE WAR WITHIN INDIA

India has been a republic for the past 65 years. But, by the turn of the century the very basics on which the country was liberated from the clutches of the English colonialists seems to have vanished. The free voices seems to be stifled in the throats itself, the blatant and rampant misuse of the Constitution by the government and The courts alike are becoming the highlights of today’s era.

“What is freedom?” is an oft asked and highly quoted question. I guess, neither did we know it in 1947 nor do we know it in 2015. The reins of power shifted from the British egalitarians to the kurta-clad desi romantics.  But the state of the poor remains the same. At least, in the bygone days we had the comfort of being looted by a foreigner, who looked foreign, ate foreign food, we could lament and curse under our breaths but in this age, it is our brother who loots us, he speaks our language, eats our food, has the same skin colour. But, what more he has is the money in his pockets.

Money buys everything, even free speech too. The media houses today are slaves to business barons, either the business owns the media or the media owns businesses. In this highly partial structure, only the rich get richer and the poor are left to commit suicide.

In the name of development, the poor are forced out of their homes, and the few who refuse to get forced are branded as terrorists and shot in “encounters”.

In the end, India is a democracy. By definition, it is a rule of the majority. Whatever the majority wants, it does. The fundamental rights of the Constitution are rampantly violated when the interests of the government or the corporate houses it caters to is at stake. Right to life is abused like anything. Rampant rapes, killings, murders, of adivasis and Dalits are common. The real concept of “divide and rule” is implemented. The policy of “divide and rule” was implemented by the British raj to efficiently manage the Indian mass without utilizing the resources of their own. In this age, it is used to create rift between different religions, different castes, and different regions.

In “Broken Republic”, Roy in her four essays exposes the rampant abuse of law and human rights to crush the local tribals in order to usher in the “New Development”. She doesn’t bat an eyelid in criticizing the policies of the right wing political parties to the leftists. She is also unwavering in criticizing the hypocrisies of some of the well-known social activists of today, Kejriwal, Anna Hazare, Bill Gates or even Nelson Mandela.

Most of the prose is easy on the brain and unfaltering in their essence. Though we may offer a different view on some of her theories, but we cannot ignore her overall message. The best part I like about her non-fiction is she doesn’t impose her views on the readers. She just bares the truth and leaves it out for the readers to judge. Sometimes, she can waver a bit in her accusations though.

In my opinion, all right minded, patriotic Indian must read Arundhati Roy’s non-fiction to understand what the government does and what it publishes.

TRUTH LOVE AND A LITTLE MALICE

TALE OF A WRITER

It would have been more appropriate if it was called “Truth Love and a Heap of Malice”. The autobiography of the most celebrated and profane w

riter, Khushwant Singh is definitely worth a read.

As is the norm with Khushwant, this book is full of wit, humour, sex, malice and courage. Courage to speak and present his views. The book spans right from the pre-Independence era to the 21^st century. It gives us a visual treat of the changing demographics of the Indian sub-continent especially the North and West of India and a major portion of present-day Pakistan.

Extensive travel throughout the globe and the myriad of diverse profession brought him closer to many of the subjects of his novels. His exploits with women of many nationalities and fearless recounting of the stories are endearing. The vivid and colourful description of the private life of many famous personalities who helped shape today’s India makes the book all the more intriguing. His take on various contemporary issues indeed makes it informative.

Though not much of a poet himself, but he liked quoting many Urdu couplets of Ghalib and others in his books which made the books more pleasant. He considered himself an agonist and also prepared an epitaph for himself;

“Here lies one who spared

neither man nor God;

Waste not your tears on him,

he was a sod;

Writing nasty things he regarded as fun;

Thank the Lord he is dead, this

son of a gun.”

His genre and style of writing has indeed been an inspiration to a nation of aspiring English writers. He died at the ripe old age of ninety-nine. His can be said to be a life well lived. His autobiography is more than a story of an individual. It can well be considered the jovial biography of an infant nation trying to come to terms with reality of the big bad world.