DambusterProving that you can be a political radical and look like a million dollars at parties, Arundhati Roy talks prison, protest and champagne socialism with Vicky Allan.
Roy, a leading figure in the anti-dam movement and a harsh critic of the Indian judicial system, answered with her own affidavit, describing the petition as "despicable" and claiming that it indicated "a disquieting inclination on the part of the court to silence criticism and muzzle dissent, to harass and intimidate those who disagree with it." She was promptly charged with contempt of court.
"This is how they grind you down," she says, "I mean anybody who does anything is just ripped apart by the system in ways you can't predict. It's not that they'll beat you up and torture you and throw you into jail.
"This is how they grind you down," she says, "I mean anybody who does anything is just ripped apart by the system in ways you can't predict. It's not that they'll beat you up and torture you and throw you into jail.
"They can do that and they have done that to people, but otherwise they just slowly grind you down. I mean, for a whole year I was being trialed. I didn't know what would happen to me and it just went on and on and on. That was the real punishment."
To Roy this crusade is important. Not just because of the 30 million people she estimates have been displaced by dams in the last 50 years, but because, she perceives that India has evolved "a judicial dictatorship, as dangerous as any other sort of dictatorship".
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To Roy this crusade is important. Not just because of the 30 million people she estimates have been displaced by dams in the last 50 years, but because, she perceives that India has evolved "a judicial dictatorship, as dangerous as any other sort of dictatorship".
Please continue for the full article...