“At times there's something so precise and mathematically chilling about nationalism. Build a dam to take away water AWAY from 40 million people. Build a dam to pretend to BRING water to 40 million people. Who are these gods that govern us? Is there no limit to their powers?” InspirationalRealityGovernmentTruthWomenCapitalismEconomicsIndiaHuman RightsEqualityCorporationsNationalismExploitationGovernment CorruptionFalse GodsEnvironmental DegradationArundhati RoyDamNarmada Valley Book:The cost of living Source: The cost of living
“From being a dream, dams have become a very cynical corrupt enterprise; a way of letting governments lay their hands on huge sums of money; a way of centralizing resources; a way of snatching rivers away from the poor and giving them to the rich. And so in a sense they've become monuments to corruption.” WayGivingDreamHandsGovernmentPoorRichHugeLetting GoResourcesRiversLaysCorruptionEnterpriseCynicalMonumentDams Author:Arundhati Roy
“...As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their "sweetheart deals," to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, corporate globalization needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies. Corporate Globalization-or shall we call it by its name?-Imperialism-needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.” NeedsCountryDreamGovernmentFightingNamesGrowsWaterJusticePoorDealsRichAirDrinkResourcesCourtPressesInternationalCornersBreatheReformCorporateLoyalImperialismGlobalizationCropsSweetheartDisparityMutinyConfederationAuthoritarian Government Author:Arundhati Roy
“The American people ought to know that it is not them, but their government's policies, that are so hated.” PeopleKnowsGovernmentPolicyOughtHated Book:The End of Imagination Source: The End of Imagination
“Imagine what would happen if the government were to take the wealth of 200,000 of India's richest people and redistribute it amongst 2 million of India's poorest? We would hear a lot about socialist appropriation and the death of democracy. Why should taking from the rich be called appropriation and taking from the poor be called development?” PeopleIfsShouldGovernmentHappensWealthPoorMillionsDemocracyRichImagineDevelopmentIndiaSocialistPoorestAppropriation Author:Arundhati Roy
“The Indian government has managed to turn the concept of nonviolence on its head. Nonviolent resistance and nonviolent governance. Unlike, say, China or Turkey or Indonesia, India doesn't mow down its people. It doesn't kill people who are refusing to move. It just waits it out. It continues to do what it has to do and ignores the consequences.” PeopleGovernmentMovingTurnsWaitingConceptsConsequenceIndiaChinaResistanceIndianNonviolenceTurkeysGovernanceIndonesiaNonviolent Resistance Author:Arundhati Roy
“Because of the caste system, because of the fact that there is no social link between those who make the decisions and those who suffer the decisions, the Indian government just goes ahead and does what it wants. The people also assume that this is their lot, their karma, what was written. It's quite an efficient way of doing things. Therefore, India has a very good reputation in the world as a democracy, as a government that cares, that has just got too much on its hands, whereas, in fact, it's actually creating the problems.” PeopleWorldWayWantDoeFactsProblemHandsGovernmentCareSufferingSocialDecisionDemocracyToo MuchWrittenCreatingIndiaAssumingVery GoodKarmaReputationIndianLinksEfficientCastesCaste SystemGood Reputation Author:Arundhati Roy
“Today, the Indian government is trying to present privatization as the alternative to the state, to public enterprise. But privatization is only a further evolution of the centralized state, where the state says that they have the right to give the entire power production in Maharashtra to Enron.” GivingTryingStatesGovernmentTodayEvolutionProductionsAlternativesIndianEnterpriseEnronPrivatizationMaharashtra Author:Arundhati Roy
“The religious rightwingism is directly linked to globalization and to privatization. When India is talking about selling its entire power sector to foreign multinationals, when the political climate gets too hot and uncomfortable, the government will immediately start saying, should we build a Hindu temple on the site of the Babri mosque? Everyone will go baying off in that direction. It's a game.” ShouldGovernmentPoliticalGamesReligiousTalkingIndiaHotClimateSellingUncomfortableTemplesSiteLinkedGlobalizationMosquesMultinationalsPrivatization Author:Arundhati Roy
“Public support in the U.S. for the war against Iraq was founded on a multitiered edifice of falsehood and deceit, coordinated by the U.S. government and faithfully amplified by the corporate media.” WarGovernmentSupportMediaIraqCorporateDeceitFalsehoodEdifice Author:Arundhati Roy
“Your short-term gains are the rest of the world's long-term disasters - for everybody, including yourselves. And, I'm sorry, I've been saying you and the United States or America, when I actually mean the US government. There's a difference. Big one.” WorldMeanLongStatesBigsGovernmentAmericaTermDifferencesUnitedUnited StatesGainsSorryIncludingDisasterLong TermI'm SorryShort Term 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
“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
“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
“It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined. Over the years, as the memory of Sophie Mol ... slowly faded, the Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. It was always there. Like a fruit in season. Every season. As permanent as a government job.” YearsSometimesGovernmentJobsMemoriesLossAliveGrewSeasonsFruitCuriousPermanentLife DeathSophieFadedRobustGovernment Jobs Book:The God of Small Things Source: The God of Small Things
“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.” PeopleMindFirstsKindUseGovernmentCausesBitsCenturyNationalismGenocideFlagsShrinksWrapsTwentieth CenturyShrouds Book:War Talk Source: War Talk
“Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. When independent-thinking people (and here I do not include the corporate media) begin to rally under flags, when writers, painters, musicians, film makers suspend their judgment and blindly yoke their art to the service of the “Nation,” it’s time for all of us to sit up and worry.” PeopleThinkingFirstsArtUseGovernmentFilmNationsBitsBrainWorryMediaJudgmentMusicianIndependentPainterCorporateMakersFlagsShrinksWrapsYokeShroudsIndependent Thinking Author:Arundhati Roy
“So far as we are concerned, there is not one word in the statements that I have made in this council which can be interpreted to mean that we will not honour international obligations. I want to say for the purpose of the record that there is nothing that has been said on behalf of the Government of India which in the slightest degree indicates that the Government of India or the Union of India will dishonour any international obligations it has undertaken.” WantMeanHas BeensMadeSaidGovernmentPurposeRecordsDegreesConcernedIndiaUnionsInternationalStatementsObligationHonourBehalfCouncilOne WordDishonour Author:Arundhati Roy
“People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. People get killed. Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed. They use flags first to shrink-wrap people's minds and smother thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury their willing dead.” PeopleMindFirstsWarUseGovernmentWinningLosesWillingFlagsShrinksWrapsShroudsHydra Book:The Algebra of Infinite Justice Source: The Algebra of Infinite Justice
