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Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy EMiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, said in a speech in 1914: "It is not only by shooting bullets in the battlefield that tyranny is overthrown, but also by hurling ideas of redemption, words of freedom and terrible anathema against the hangmen that people bring down dictators and empires." Likewise, Arundhati Roy’s words are her weapons, and even though she has not written another novel after The God of Small Things, she has successfully switched to political writing that has moved her, I feel, to a higher stature as a writer.
Arundhati Roy’s prose is once again as razor-sharp as ever. The collection of essays on the ever-evolving complexion of democracy in an era of neo-liberal economies demands this incisive analysis of those dark events that blemished Indian history between the 90s to the present. Her main interrogation bases itself on two questions: "What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning?" The amalgamation of democracy and the free market economy has moved all motivation towards profit. Such "predatory capitalism" stands behind the strengthening of neo-liberalism that cohabits with governments that remain ever incorrigible in collaborating with economic giants for short-term gain. As Roy aptly asks, "Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedom and nurturer of our avaricious dreams will turn out to be the endgame for the human race?" At the outset, Roy blames democracy’s "nearsightedness" as its chief blemish and paradoxically its only attractive feature. We survive for the moment and create a future to which we turn a blind eye. It is with this undertone that Roy’s acts of resistance become meaningful at the very moment of crisis, may it be the Gujarat genocide, or the attack on Parliament, or the disturbing uprising in Kashmir in 2008 or the Mumbai terrorist attack. Though one has read most of the essays that appear in this anthology elsewhere, they together strike a note of exasperation and anger at the dismal evolution of Indian democracy. The book has no single narrative. The interplay of rage and humour goes a long way in cynically shattering received "truths". The various essays and speeches are both agitational and inspirational in nature, presenting eye-opening as well as provocative responses and views that together build this fascinating collection of dissident writing traced through the global use of rebellion against capitalism and racial bigotry. In all this free market dramatics, writing from the heart of the matter in areas of social justice, universal human rights, rule of law and transnational camaraderie becomes singularly an aspiration of survival and a motivating force behind all libratory movements. The book is indeed a lucid and balanced account of some of the most important intellectual and political debates in contemporary Indian history. The inspiration of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and John Berger works in Roy in ways which makes a substantial difference to the exposure and castigation of cross-border terrorism, the infringement of human rights, the curse of ethnic cleansing and the lack of human concern for ecological balance.
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At
the present historical juncture, she sees global changes transforming
the very foundations of world order through the reconstruction of
traditional forms of sovereign statehood, political community and
international governance. Clearly, the world moves from a
state-centric emphasis towards a new politics of multilayered global
politics in which "India Shining" becomes a slogan that
brings out the race for profit, notwithstanding the harsh exploitation
of the hungry masses and the marginalised few. Roy bitterly criticises
the India public for their jubilation at the Oscar going to Slumdog
Millionaire: "The fact that the film—not even an Indian
film—won these prizes sent people into orbit. But it is an odd movie
for a country to be proud of. What were we celebrating? Child poverty?
If it wasn’t so tragic it would be comical." She draws
attention to dark underview" of Indian democracy and its working
that has left in its wake violence against the poor, the minorities
and against the environment.