By TwoCircles.net special correspondent
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Speaking to a packed house in Piper Auditorium of Harvard University, famous Indian author Arundhati Roy talked about India, development, and resistance on a lecture titled “Can We Leave the Bauxite in the Mountain? Field Notes on Democracy.”
Saying that “nationalism” and “development” are the two terms that are used to keep a population in check, in India it has become a shared burden by the Congress and the BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party). The BJP representing the nationalism and the Congress representing the development of India have dominated the Indian political landscape. Progress and development is always at the cost of the common people and for the benefit of the elites who Ms. Roy said are like “sky citizens” seceded from their own country and believe that natural resources are theirs for the taking.
Talking to a diverse group of audience, she talked in details about India’s modern history starting with India’s opening of two locks- a physical lock of Babri Masjid and a symbolic opening of lock on India’s market. Both have led to disastrous consequences for India. One has led to a party with fascist ideology becoming a force in India’s political scene and second is responsible for the whole sale loot of India’s natural resources.
She talked about how Muslims have been killed in post-Babri riots and in Gujarat genocide of 2002. Arundhati Roy also talked about how draconian laws like POTA have been used to keep Muslim youths under detention and without bail. She also mentioned encounters which are summary executions have been used by Indian police to kill thousands including Muslims.
Roy who has come under severe criticism for her long write up “Walking with the Comrades” published recently in the Outlook magazine defended those who are resisting mining companies trying tor rob them of their land and resources. She criticized state administration for acting as an imperialist within their own country. She said you can be a non-violent Gandhian only when there is an audience to see your passive resistance, those who are starving can not go on hunger strike and those with no money to purchase can’t burn any foreign goods. You can be a Gandhian on the road but to survive in the Jungle you have to be a Maoist, she argued.
In an answer to TwoCircles.net question, she said she is not advocating that armed struggle is the answer rather local condition should determine what is the best way of resistance for that battle.
Her lecture was part of Harvard University’s “Science & Democracy Lecture Series 2010”
Arundhati Roy is visiting the United States after a gap of four years. Tomorrow she will appear at Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT) along with Noam Chomsky at a program titled “Democracy’s Endgame.”
It will be broadcast live here:
http://amps-web.amps.ms.mit.edu/public/tcf/2010/2010apr02/