Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer and global activist. Social justice, environment, human rights etc are her area of work.
Her journey as an author & activist is very inspiring.
It was 24 November, 1961 when Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, India. She went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam. After that she attended Lawrence School in Tamil Nadu.
Later, She went to Delhi and got herself admitted to the school of Planning & Architecture.
Arundhati Roy doesn’t have any literary degree but her debut novel, “The God of Small Things,” which was published in 1997 was able to attract the attention of the literary world.
That book was very popular & she won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997 for this book. Arundhati Roy is the first Indian woman to win the award.
Though Arundhati Roy is renowned for her “The God Of Small Things”, her other literary works are also very inspiring. Among them “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness“, “AZADI : Freedom, Fascism, Fiction”, “The end of imagination”, “Capitalism : A Ghost Story”, “The Algebra of Infinite Justice”, “The cost of living” etc are most notable.
Her writings portray different themes like family, loyalty, colonialism/post-colonialism, education discrimination, and social class inequality in her books which are very relatable for the reader’s.
However, Arundhati Roy’s literary success was just the beginning of her journey. She always had a great desire to bring positive changes into the world.
Because of her deep passion towards bringing justice into the society, she started her protest against social discriminations, suppressions & human right violations.
Through her writings & advocacy, Arundhati Roy raised her voice against large-scale development projects, such as dams and mining operations.
These projects were responsible for the displacement of the poor peoples and caused harmful impact to the ecosystem.
She also raised her voice against the Indian government’s policies in Kashmir and other conflict zones.
She has spoken out against human rights abuses, military occupation, and the erosion of civil liberties in these regions.
She faced different criticism and legal issues but they couldn’t stop her from fighting against inequality, oppression, injustice and other global issues.
Although the most prestigious award Aundhuti Roy won was the Booker Prize in 1997, she didn’t keep the prize money. She had donated it to human rights causes.
Moreover, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay for the screenplay of “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones” in 1989.
But because of the spreading of religious & violence by right wing groups in India, the award in 2015.
She also achieved the Lannan Foundation’s Cultural Freedom Award for her work about civil societies, the Sydney Peace Prize for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence, Orwell award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, national award from India’s Academy of Letters for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing and so on.
Arundhati Roy inspired many youths & adults through her writings & activism.
Her journey from Booker Prize to global activist can be very thrilling but it has a great impact towards a better world where there is no injustice, discrimination & human rights violation.
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Writer
Atiya Alam Nisa
Intern, Content Writing Department,
YSSE