“Now we're in a situation where democracy has been taken into the workshop and fixed, remodeled to be market-friendly. So now the United States is fighting wars to instal democracies. First it was topple them, now it's instal them, right? And this whole rise of corporate-funded NGOs in the modern world, this notion of CSR, corporate social responsibility - it's all part of a New Managed Democracy. In that sense, it's all part of the same machine.” WorldFirstsHas BeensWarStatesWholeFightingSocialUnitedResponsibilitySituationUnited StatesDemocracyTakenModernMachinesNotionCorporateFixedFriendlySocial ResponsibilityModern WorldWorkshopsDemocracies HaveCorporate Social Responsibility Author:Arundhati Roy
“Peace, Inc. is sometimes as worrying as War, Inc. It's a way of managing public anger. We're all being managed, and we don't even know it.” KnowsWayWarSometimesWorry Author:Arundhati Roy
“The IMF and the World Bank, the most opaque and secretive entities, put millions into NGOs who fight against "corruption" and for "transparency." They want the Rule of Law - as long as they make the laws. They want transparency in order to standardise a situation, so that global capital can flow without any impediment.” WorldWantLongLawOrderFightingSituationMillionsFlowCorruptionEntityTransparencyRule Of LawImpedimentsSecretiveOpaqueImfWorld Bank Author:Arundhati Roy
“Cage the People, Free the Money. The only thing that is allowed to move freely - unimpeded - around the world today is money... capital.” PeopleWorldTodayMovingAround The WorldCagesWorld Today Author:Arundhati Roy
“Stable markets, unstable world. Efficiency. Everybody hears about it. It's enough to make you want to be pro-inefficiency and pro-corruption.” WorldWantEnoughCorruptionStableEfficiencyUnstableInefficiency Author:Arundhati Roy
“If you look at the history of the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller, in Latin America, in Indonesia, where almost a million people, mainly Communists, were killed by General Suharto, who was backed by the CIA, in South Africa, in the US Civil Rights Movement - or even now, it's very disturbing. They have always worked closely with the US State Department.” PeopleIfsLooksStatesAmericaMillionsRightsMovementFoundationSouthCivil RightsDepartmentLatinCommunistSouth AfricaDisturbingIndonesiaCiaCivil Rights MovementLatin America Author:Arundhati Roy
“In India the new government - the members of the radical Hindu Right who want India to be a 'Hindu Nation' - they're bigots. Butchers. Massacres are their unofficial election campaigns - orchestrated to polarise communities and bring in the vote.” WantGovernmentNationsCommunityMembersVoteIndiaElectionCampaignsRadicalButchersBigotsMassacresNew Government Author:Arundhati Roy
“When people say "the people" or "the public" as though it's the final repository of all morality, I sometimes flinch.” PeopleSometimesMoralityFinals Author:Arundhati Roy
“India's a very interesting place... there's no formal opposition, but there's genuine on-the-ground opposition.” InterestingIndiaGenuineOppositionFormalVery InterestingInteresting Places Author:Arundhati Roy
“The great irony is that people who live in remote areas, who are illiterate and don't own TVs, are in some ways more free because they are beyond the reach of indoctrination by the modern mass media.” PeopleWayModernMediaTvsMassAreasIronyIndoctrinationIlliterateMass Media Author:Arundhati Roy
“Mao said he was prepared to have millions of Chinese people perish in a nuclear war as long as China survived... I'm beginning to find it more and more sick that only humans make it into our calculations... Annihilate life on earth, but save the nation... what's the subject heading? Stupidity or Insanity?” PeopleHumansLongSaidWarEarthNationsMillionsSubjectsSickPreparedChinaStupidityNuclearChineseInsanitySurvivedCalculationsHeadingsNuclear WarMao Author:Arundhati Roy
“When you think of how much violence, how much blood... how much has been destroyed to create the great nations, America, Australia, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium - even India, Pakistan. Having destroyed so much to make them, we must have nuclear weapons to protect them - and climate change to hold up their way of life... a two-pronged annihilation project.” ThinkingWayHas BeensTwoAmericaNationsViolenceBloodProtectProjectsWeaponsIndiaClimateClimate ChangeNuclearDestroyedFranceGermanyBritainAustraliaNuclear WeaponsPakistanAnnihilationBelgiumGreat NationsIndia Pakistan Author:Arundhati Roy
“Every time I say the word capitalism, everyone just assumes I have plenty of Marxism in me, I do. But Russia and China had their bloody revolutions and even while they were Communist, they had the same idea about generating wealth - tear it out of the bowels of the earth. And now they have come out with the same idea in the end... you know, capitalism. But capitalism will fail, too.” KnowsIdeasEndsEarthWealthFailingTearsRevolutionCapitalismAssumingChinaRussiaPlentyCommunistBloodyMarxismBowels Author:Arundhati Roy
“Thousands of years of ideological, philosophical and practical decisions were made. They altered the surface of the earth, the coordinates of our souls. For every one of those decisions, maybe there's another decision that could have been made, should have been made.” ShouldYearsHas BeensMadeSoulEarthDecisionShould HavePhilosophicalSurfacePracticalsCould Have BeenShould Have BeenIdeologicalAlteredCoordinates Author:Arundhati Roy
“I don't have the Big Idea. I don't have the arrogance to even want to have the Big Idea. But I believe the physics of resisting power is as old as the physics of accumulating power. That's what keeps the balance in the universe... the refusal to obey.” WantBelieveIdeasBigsUniverseI BelieveBalancePhysicsArroganceRefusalResistingBig Ideas Author:Arundhati Roy
“What's a country? It's just an administrative unit, a glorified municipality. Why do we imbue it with esoteric meaning and protect it with nuclear bombs? I can't bow down to a municipality... it's just not intelligent. The bastards will do what they have to do, and we'll do what we have to do. Even if they annihilate us, we'll go down on the other side.” IfsI CanCountrySidesProtectIntelligentNuclearBombsBowsUnitsEsotericAdministrativeNuclear BombMunicipality Author:Arundhati Roy
“What sort of love is this love that we have for countries? What sort of country is it that will ever live up to our dreams? What sort of dreams were these that have been broken? Isn't the greatness of great nations directly proportionate to their ability to be ruthless, genocidal? Doesn't the height of a country's 'success' usually also mark the depths of its moral failure?” Has BeensCountryDreamNationsAbilityLove IsMoralGreatnessBrokenMarkDepthHeightOur DreamsRuthlessGreat NationsMoral Failure Author:Arundhati Roy
“Human beings seem unable to live without war, but they are also unable to live without love.” HumansWarSeemsHuman BeingsWithout Love Author:Arundhati Roy
“We're told, often enough, that as a species we are poised on the edge of the abyss. It's possible that our puffed-up, prideful intelligence has outstripped our instinct for survival and the road back to safety has already been washed away. In which case there's nothing much to be done. If there is something to be done, then one thing is for sure: those who created the problem will not be the ones who come up with a solution.” IfsDoneEnoughProblemCasesOne ThingSurvivalSolutionsSafetyInstinctSpeciesEdgesCome UpAbyss Author:Arundhati Roy
“I could weep for a river-valley, and I have. But for a country? Oh man, I don't know.” KnowsMenCountryRiversValleys Author:Arundhati Roy
“An old-growth forest, a mountain range or a river valley is more important and certainly more loveable than any country will ever be.” ImportantCountryGrowthMountainRiversForestsRangeValleysMountain Ranges Author:Arundhati Roy
“Even capitalists must surely admit, that intellectually at least, socialism is a worthy opponent. It imparts intelligence even to its adversaries.” WorthySocialismOpponentsCapitalistAdversariesImpartWorthy Opponents Author:Arundhati Roy
“Our tragedy today is not just that millions of people who called themselves communist or socialist were physically liquidated in Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, not just that China and Russia, after all that revolution, have become capitalist economies, not just that the working class has been ruined in the United States and its unions dismantled, not just that Greece has been brought to its knees, or that Cuba will soon be assimilated into the free market - it is also that the language of the Left, the discourse of the Left, has been marginalised and is sought to be eradicated.” PeopleHas BeensStatesTodayLeftLanguageUnitedClassMillionsUnited StatesEconomyRevolutionTragedyUnionsIraqChinaRussiaKneesIranCommunistAfghanistanVietnamCapitalistSocialistWorking ClassDiscourseRuinedFree MarketGreeceIndonesiaCubaCapitalist Economy Author:Arundhati Roy
“This is a diseased century. We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but whenever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should have been loved by the people, but they hate us. Why are we so odious and detested? We brought you truth and in our mouth it sounded like a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voice is heard the trees wither and there is a rustling of dry leaves. We brought you the promise of the future, but our tongue stammered and barked.” PeopleShouldLooksHas BeensHardHandsLyingHateCausesVoiceHealingHeardTreeCenturyPromisePureDiseaseMouthsShould HaveTongueLive LifeDryKnivesShould Have BeenWhipsDiseasedExactnessPromise Of The FutureDry Leaves Author:Arundhati Roy
“I don't think the state will allow people to occupy a particular space unless it feels that allowing that will end up in a kind of complacency, and the effectiveness and urgency of the protest will be lost.” PeopleThinkingFeelsKindEndsStatesLostSpaceParticularProtestAllowingEffectivenessComplacencyUrgency Author:Arundhati Roy
“The Occupy movement found places where people who were feeling that anger could come and share it - and that is, as we all know, extremely important in any political movement. The Occupy sites became a way you could gauge the levels of anger and discontent.” PeopleKnowsWayImportantFeelingsPoliticalFoundLevelsShareMovementSiteDiscontentGaugesPolitical MovementsOccupy Movement Author:Arundhati Roy
“Election campaigns seem to siphon away political anger and even basic political intelligence into this great vaudeville, after which we all end up in exactly the same place.” EndsSeemsPoliticalElectionCampaignsVaudeville Author:Arundhati Roy
“I hope that that the people in the Occupy movement are politically aware enough to know that their being excluded from the obscene amassing of wealth of US corporations is part of the same system of the exclusion and war that is being waged by these corporations in places like India, Africa and the Middle East.” PeopleKnowsWarEnoughWealthMiddleMovementIndiaEastCorporationsMiddle EastExclusionExcludedObsceneOccupy Movement Author:Arundhati Roy
“Ever since the Great Depression, we know that one of the key ways in which the US economy has stimulated growth is by manufacturing weapons and exporting war to other countries.” KnowsWayWarCountryGrowthEconomyKeysWeaponsOther CountriesManufacturingGreat DepressionExporting Author:Arundhati Roy
“I think the Occupy movement will, or at least should, become a protean movement of ideas, as well as action, where the element of surprise remains with the protesters. We need to preserve the element of an intellectual ambush and a physical manifestation that takes the government and the police by surprise. It has to keep re-imagining itself, because holding territory may not be something the movement will be allowed to do in a state as powerful and violent as the United States.” ThinkingNeedsShouldWellsMayIdeasStatesGovernmentActionUnitedPowerfulUnited StatesMovementElementsIntellectualPoliceRemainsSurpriseViolentPreservesManifestationTerritoryAmbushElement Of SurpriseOccupy Movement Author:Arundhati Roy
“We often confuse or loosely use the ideas of crony capitalism or neoliberalism to actually avoid using the word "capitalism", but once you've actually seen, let's say, what's happening in India and the United States - that this model of US economics packaged in a carton that says "democracy" is being forced on countries all over the world, militarily if necessary, has in the United States itself resulted in 400 of the richest people owning wealth equivalent [to that] of half of the population.” PeopleIfsWorldIdeasCountryStatesUseWealthUnitedHalfUnited StatesDemocracyModelsHappeningsCapitalismEconomicsIndiaPopulationNeoliberalismCroniesCrony Capitalism Author:Arundhati Roy
“Thousands are losing their jobs and homes, while corporations are being bailed out with billions of dollars.” HomeJobsLosingDollarsBillionsCorporations Author:Arundhati Roy
“In India, 100 of the richest people own assets worth 25% of the gross domestic product. There's something terribly wrong. No individual and no corporation should be allowed to amass that kind of unlimited wealth, including bestselling writers like myself, who are showered with royalties.” PeopleShouldKindIndividualWealthProductsIndiaIncludingCorporationsAssetsUnlimitedGrossRoyaltyGross Domestic Product Author:Arundhati Roy
“Corporations that are turning over these huge profits can own everything: the media, the universities, the mines, the weapons industry, insurance hospitals, drug companies, non-governmental organisations. They can buy judges, journalists, politicians, publishing houses, television stations, bookshops and even activists. This kind of monopoly, this cross-ownership of businesses, has to stop.” KindHouseCompanyMediaTelevisionMinesJudgingHugeIndustryPoliticianDrugWeaponsCrossesUniversityProfitJournalistCorporationsStationsHospitalsActivistPublishingOwnershipMonopolyOrganisationBookshopsDrug CompaniesPublishing House Author:Arundhati Roy
“The whole privatisation of health and education, of natural resources and essential infrastructure - all of this is so twisted and so antithetical to anything that would place the interests of human beings or the environment at the center of what ought to be a government concern - should stop. The amassing of unfettered wealth of individuals and corporations should stop. The inheritance of rich people's wealth by their children should stop. The expropriators should have their wealth expropriated and redistributed.” PeopleShouldHumansChildrenWholeGovernmentIndividualInterestNaturalWealthHuman BeingsRichEnvironmentOughtEssentialsResourcesConcernShould HaveCorporationsInfrastructureInheritanceTwistedRich PeopleNatural ResourcesHealth And Education Author:Arundhati Roy
“In the forests of central India and in many, many rural areas, a huge battle is being waged. Millions of people are being driven off their lands by mining companies, by dams, by infrastructure companies, and a huge battle is being waged. These are not people who have been co-opted into consumer culture, into the western notions of civilisation and progress. They are fighting for their lands and their livelihoods, refusing to be looted so that someone somewhere far away may "progress" at their cost.” PeopleMayHas BeensCultureFightingCompanyMillionsProgressLandHugeBattleCostAreasIndiaWesternNotionDrivenForestsConsumersFar AwayInfrastructureCivilisationLivelihoodMiningDamsRural AreasConsumer Culture Author:Arundhati Roy
“India has millions of internally displaced people. And now, they are putting their bodies on the line and fighting back. They are being killed and imprisoned in their thousands. Theirs is a battle of the imagination, a battle for the redefinition of the meaning of civilisation, of the meaning of happiness, of the meaning of fulfilment.” PeopleBodyFightingImaginationLinesMillionsBattleIndiaCivilisationFulfilmentFighting Back Author:Arundhati Roy
“At some stage, as the water tables are dropping and the minerals that remain in the mountains are being taken out, we are going to confront a crisis from which we cannot return. The people who created the crisis in the first place will not be the ones that come up with a solution.” PeopleFirstsWaterTakenStageReturnMountainSolutionsCrisisTablesCome UpDroppingMinerals Author:Arundhati Roy
“We must pay close attention to those with another imagination: an imagination outside of capitalism, as well as communism. We will soon have to admit that those people, like the millions of indigenous people fighting to prevent the takeover of their lands and the destruction of their environment - the people who still know the secrets of sustainable living - are not relics of the past, but the guides to our future.” PeopleKnowsWellsStillsPastFightingImaginationPaySecretAttentionMillionsEnvironmentLandCapitalismDestructionGuidesCommunismOur FutureIndigenousRelicsIndigenous PeopleSustainable LivingTakeovers Author:Arundhati Roy
“In India, the poverty is so vast that the state cannot control it. It can beat people, but it can't prevent the poor from flooding the roads, the cities, the parks and railway station platforms.” PeopleStatesPoorCitiesPovertyBeatsIndiaParksStationsPlatformsRailwayFloodingRailway Station Author:Arundhati Roy
“In America, the poor have been invisibilised, because obviously this model of success that has been held out to the world must not show the poor, it must not show the condition of black people. It can only the successful ones, basketball players, musicians, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell. But I think the time will come when the Occupy movement will have to somehow formulate something more than just anger.” PeopleThinkingWorldHas BeensShowsAmericaBlackPoorSuccessfulPlayerConditionsMovementBasketballMusicianModelsBlack PeopleRiceBasketball PlayerOccupy Movement Author:Arundhati Roy
“As a writer, I've often said that, among the other things that we need to reclaim, other than the obscene wealth of billionaires, is language. Language has been deployed to mean the exact opposite of what it really means when they talk about democracy or freedom.” NeedsMeanHas BeensSaidLanguageWealthDemocracyOppositesReally MeanBillionaireObscene Author:Arundhati Roy
“We ought to say, "Occupy Wall Street, not Iraq," "Occupy Wall Street, not Afghanistan," "Occupy Wall Street, not Palestine." The two need to be put together. Otherwise people might not read the signs.” PeopleNeedsTwoMightTogetherStreetsWallOughtIraqAfghanistanPalestineWise PeopleOccupy Wall Street Author:Arundhati Roy
“In India, we have a right wing that is so vicious and so openly wicked, which is the Baratiya Janata party (BJP), and then we have the Congress party, which does almost worse things, but does it by night. And people feel that the only choices they have are to vote for this or for that. And my point is that, whoever you vote for, it doesn't have to consume all the oxygen in the political debate.” PeopleFeelsDoePoliticalNightChoicesPartyVoteIndiaWingsCongressDebateWickedViciousOxygenRight WingPolitical DebatesBjpCongress Party Author:Arundhati Roy
“Democracy no longer means what it was meant to. It has been taken back into the workshop. Each of its institutions has been hollowed out, and it has been returned to us as a vehicle for the free market, of the corporations. For the corporations, by the corporations. Even if we do vote, we should just spend less time and intellectual energy on our choices and keep our eye on the ball.” IfsShouldMeanHas BeensEyeChoicesEnergyDemocracyTakenIntellectualVoteBallsInstitutionsCorporationsVehicleFree MarketWorkshopsOur Choices Author:Arundhati Roy
“Novels are such mysterious and amorphous and tender things. And here we are with our crash helmets on, with concertina wire all around us.” NovelMysteriousCrashWireHelmet Author:Arundhati Roy
“Delhi is a very maligned city, and deservedly so. Yet there's something about it. It's a secret city, it doesn't hang out its wares. It's like a very deep river. Floating right up on top are the institutions of contemporary power: government, politics, media, and then there's the bureaucracy, the diplomatic missions. But it's also the city of intellectual debate, of protest, it's the city where people from all over the country converge to express their anger. And then, underneath all that, there's this crumbling, ancient city, a confluence of so much history.” PeopleCountrySecretIntellectualAncientDebateProtestHanging OutBureaucracyVery DeepDiplomatic Author:Arundhati Roy
“I've never been that person who thought that because I've written one novel, I should write another and another. It's only when there was another novel to write that I was going to write another.” WritingNovel Author:Arundhati Roy
“If you look at Indian society, it's a society made up of minorities. There's nobody who's not a minority, whether it's ethnicity, caste or religion. But the whole effort now is to confect a political constituency - an ethnic or a religious constituency that can coalesce into a political majority in order to deal with this model of representative democracy. That process has been a hundred years in the making in this part of the world.” WorldPoliticalReligiousEffortDemocracy Author:Arundhati Roy
