“To stay quiet is as political an act as speaking out.” PoliticalQuietSpeaking Out Author:Arundhati Roy
“Every strategy for real social change - land reform, education, public health, the equitable distribution of natural resources ... - has been cleverly, cunningly, and consistently scuttled and rendered ineffectual by those castes and that class of people which has a stranglehold on the political process.” PeopleHas BeensRealPoliticalSocialProcessNaturalClassLandResourcesStrategyReformConsistentlySocial ChangeDistributionNatural ResourcesPublic HealthCastesEquitable Book:War Talk Source: War Talk
“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
“Once you've seen certain things, you can't un-see them, and seeing nothing is as political an act as seeing something.” PoliticalCertainSeeing 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
“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
“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
“I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.” NeedsFeelsWritingMadePoliticalStatementsBankersAccountantsCalculating Author:Arundhati Roy
“The [Booker] prize was actually responsible in many ways for my political activism. I won this thing and I was suddenly the darling of the new emerging Indian middle class – they needed a princess. They had the wrong woman. I had this light shining on me at the time, and I knew that I had the stage to say something about what was happening in my country. What is exciting about what I have done since is that writing has become a weapon, some kind of ammunition.” WayWritingKindCountryDoneLightPoliticalClassMiddleStageNeededWeaponsHappeningsExcitingResponsibleShiningActivismIndianMiddle ClassPrizePrincessDarlingEmergingAmmunitionPolitical Activism Author:Arundhati Roy
“I really worry about these political people that have no personal life. If there's nothing that's lovely, and if there's nothing that's just ephemeral, that you can just lie on the floor and bust a gut laughing at, then what's the point?” PeopleIfsPoliticalLyingWorryLaughingLovelyGutsPersonal LifeEphemeral Author:Arundhati Roy
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.” WayPoliticalTroubleQuietInnocenceSpeaking OutSaying NothingKeeping Quiet Book:Power Politics Source: Power Politics
“But remember that if the struggle were to resort to violence, it will lose vision, beauty and imagination. Most dangerous of all, it will marginalize and eventually victimize women. And a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all.” IfsHeartDoeRememberPoliticalWomenLosesImaginationVisionStruggleViolenceDangerousWomens RightsResortsPolitical Struggle Book:Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire Source: Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire
“...a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all.” HeartDoePoliticalWomenStruggleRightsHuman RightsWomens RightsAmnestyPolitical StruggleAmnesty International Book:Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire Source: Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire
“Some writers like to boil down headlines of liberal newspapers into fiction, so they say there shouldn't be communal riots, everybody should love each other, there shouldn't be boundaries or fundamentalism. But I think literature is more than that; these are political views which most of us hold anyway.” ThinkingShouldPoliticalLiteratureViewsFictionNewspapersBoundariesFundamentalismRiotHeadlinesLove Each OtherPolitical View Author:Arundhati Roy
“People say to me, Oh, it's so wonderful that you're writing about real things, and that it's a political thing to do, and I say, look-to be in my position and not say anything is a hell of a political thing. You need to think politically, otherwise you'll be one of these people who says, Oh, this person's saying this and that person's saying that, and I'm confused. And I say, yeah, because you want to be confused.” PeopleThinkingWantNeedsWritingLooksPersonsRealPoliticalHellWonderfulPositionYeahThings To DoConfusedSay AnythingReal ThingsI'm Confused Author:Arundhati Roy
