The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness

Even though it does not matter at all, for once I agree with FV..

Arundhati Roy`s crusade appears to be heading towards a confusing direction. On one hand she is ok with accepting hugs from people (read `white people`) who may be contributor to world problems that she is crusading against. On other hand, she is trying to project herself higher than her compatriots (Is is because they are not white enough?)

It would have made sense if she rejected ``brooker`` because those prizes are usually meant to promote western idea of ``good`` and ``bad``...

Regards

Samina, just keeping on blowing the horns of anti-establishment does not count for great thinking..keep that up. I have not seen any new ideas in your posts other than repeating the same thing about govt this govt that. yesterday you could`t even spell ``Sahitya`` properly even if your life depended upon it but you already knew it was a front of government to buy artists and writers.


I was going thru the recepients from Punjabi literature and I can spot about half a dozen hard core naxalites/marxists and another dozen and half leftists in the list of total 44 over last 50 years. I will assume same is the case with other languages. Some of them suffered on the hands of the government for holding extreme leftist views and also acting on them...suffering as put behind bars, discriminated in jobs and even tortured by police.

No one is asking AR to change her decision. She has made it. I think it is inconsistent with her professed claims. People are free to cricize her for this. Nothing more to this saga.

Since you are supporting her in this decision - chor naloN panD kahli - why don`t you answer this hypothetical scenario:

suppose I am furiously anti-Bush and fanatically anti-American imperialism how should I feel about getting my paycheck every week from an employer who claims that it is ``the third in the ranking of federal grants and awards received``? Is Bush administration trying to buy me indirectly by supporting my employer and hence my employment? Am I compromising my ideals?

I do not believe in this ‘Arundhati Roy – right or wrong’ attitude. I am glad I can admire her literary qualities and agree with many of the issues she stands for and yet question her refusal of this award.

To me that reveals that she is not a one-dimensional person, as some would like to believe…and expounding on that makes one see things from the perspective of content as opposed to merely a credo.

As I mentioned in the latter part of the article, she represents something besides herself. If her articulation of ‘injustice’ is being lauded, then one should not rubbish it merely because it comes with a price tag of only Rs.50,000. I won’t even get into the bit about whether accepting an award is ‘good manners’ because I did not suggest it anywhere. However, the display of good manners isn’t exactly something to be sniffed at, just as dissenting is not.

Those of us who are more aware of the people who have won the awards in the past will realise that Ms. Roy does not have to get into a huddle with them, because they are all different people. A Vijay Tendulkar has broken every rule and been unsparing of the establishment, and anyone who has watched Mahesh Dattani’s ‘Final Solutions’ on stage will know just how chilling the portrayal of the riots was.

In fact, Tendulkar has traversed the whole spectrum from tribal exploitation, to police atrocities, to auctioning of women to the situation of devdasis. He has hit out at the establishment through the voice of the common people.

It is common knowledge that he has been threatened often.

And, yes, he too has been called shrill and an eccentric! And he is not a woman…

My position on Roy as a writer and activist has been clearly enunciated in an earlier article for which I provided a link at the beginning, so the issue here is not about her in these personae. It is the leftists and activists who talk about brotherhood/sisterhood/comradeship. Therefore, she really would not be belittled in any way if she stood along with some other dissenters and accepted the award.

If she speaks as an Indian, she should not look down on it. There have been several wonderful posts here on the Akademi, so there is more information available now. The organisation is not run by Narendra Modi or Bal Thackeray or the saffron brigade or mullah mafia. It is not run on a day-to-day basis by any government functionary.

I have not implied that Roy’s is a publicity stunt – but I have raised some questions. They also work as answers.

Thanks for the discussion. I do believe that getting amused is the first step towards better understanding. Googling ‘Sahitya Akademi’ is a fine beginning…

I think Saminasha and perhaps Ms Roy are just confused about this simple question- is a government-funded institution which encourages literature in India`s many languages anti-colonial, colonial, post-colonial?

Is an institution whose mission it is to prevent native languages and `subaltern narratives` in them from dying out or becoming extinct, anti-colonial, colonial, post-colonial, modern or post-modern in tendency ?

Who is helping along the interrogating of the illegitimate establishment, those trying to preserve the diversity of India`s linguistic traditions or those in favor of letting the said diverse traditions die out due to mischance and the market forces?

Let us confuse the issue further. I think Mr Satchidanandan, the secretary of the Akademi is a leftist in tendency(I am not sure). So repeat the above questions keeping that in mind, assuming that the minute he joined the Akademi to carry out its above mandate, he didn`t lose all moral right to leftism.

(I did my best but someone can help me by rephrasing with the right theoretical, deconstructionist, marxist or academic jargon ).

Samina #80: Of course Samina Ji, that was implied in my acceptance condition, but I am not the subject of the offer here. Let us focus on AR, Gul SAHIB and morality virgins. Please explain your remarks without the use of Ebonics.

Now what does `giving a fig` mean in CUNY language? Offering a fig-leaf to cover nudity is a face saving device. Do you support terrorism and do you approve of AR sleeping in the enemy`s bed?

Let me explain how I paraphrase your remarks.

`` AR is a great writer and this frees her of any moral restraints to not pose with terrorist honcho like Gul SAHIB. Any one who criticizes her for that is a morality virgin and a patron of Hustler magazine``

Is this what you meant?

#66
Correction - literacy in 1954 was 18%.

re: 78

Were that you were offered an award...

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#75 : I accept all and any prizes pffered by Gul SAHIB, CIA, RSS or the Devil with or without any money involved. I prefer money anytime. However unlike Professor Samina, I am not part of the `Us` group and have no idea what giving a fig means.

In any case, Farzana Bibi did not write an article about me. It is a waste of time to mock loonies.

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LOL Manto. Sadna needs no propping, least of all from me. By the way does Aisha Ben ever scream at you when she gets upset, thinking about Gandhi or is screaming limited to only a few Paki ladies on Chowk?

So what was your reason for rejecting AR? What are the salient differences between her `humanist values` and `Pakistani nationalistic values`?

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pmishra2: ` There are far too many middle-aged indian men shrieking at indian women for saying this or that. I am really, really sick of that. `

I am sick of that and also sicker of Paki women screaming at just a few trembling middle-aged Indian men. I thought you were an Indian young man.)

... but yes continue to prop up sadna... maybe someday she`ll be able ``bite my legs off``

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