Tribute to the Activist/Writer Arundhati Roy
If you are a literature student and you have not read The God of Small Things already, you definitely need to get a copy and read the Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece! You will fall in love with the beautiful writing style of Arundhati Roy immediately once you start turning over the pages of the award-wining novel.
Her most recent publication, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is her second novel which pertains more to her activist persona but still reflects the artistic and crafty side of her.
As a literature student, I have read several books over the last few years but, for me, Roy stands out among all the writers. Her writing style in the two works of fiction, her political commentary, and her brave activism, all of these are so very inspiring to me!
When I first read The God of Small Things I was awe-struck by how wonderfully Roy had stitched together words, how skilfully and with what innovation, it was a reader’s delight! It took her four years to compile the novel and on reading the text one realizes why.
The imagery of late 20th Century, the two siblings, Kerala, India, and the themes The God of Small Things takes up, regarding content, the novel is brilliant. But it isn’t just the content that leaves the reader wanting for more, it is her amazing and captivating writing style, the one you don’t find in any other book, it is that which is the best part about her first novel.
Something which one commonly associates with writers is that they are not practical. That the writers are more inclined towards ideas and practical life is not a significant concern for them. Arundhati Roy rises above that notion and that is one of the main reasons I idolize her. She is not all words, she is more action than words. She has spent days in the South Indian jungles, risking her life for the security of Marxists. She has been an outspoken critic of the extremist government policies and has come out as a rare voice of sanity in the times of rising nationalism, jingoism, and propaganda.
Arundhati Roy is not just some writer, she is a woman of actions! It took Arundhati Roy 20 years to write her second work of fiction: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. During this period, she actively struggled for the rights of several minorities like the Maoists, gave voice to the Kashmir cause, and protested against the government policies that sought to further marginalize the minorities. Roy is not just any writer, she is a writer that no other individual can match. In writing and in activism, Roy has always sought to give voice to the oppressed. She has, for the most part, swam against the tide of nationalism and far-right groups.
This small tribute is in honour of unwavering activism, but also for the artistic writer that penned down the masterpiece The God of Small Things. She is an inspiration to all those that dare to dream!
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