India: Criminal prosecution of Arundhati Roy for statements she had made 14 years ago

Last week, Delhi’s highest-ranking official gave permission to start prosecution proceedings against award-winning author Arundhati Roy.

Roy will be prosecuted under India’s strict anti-terrorism laws. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) is notorious for making it extremely difficult to apply for bail, often resulting in years of detention pending trial.

The Modi government has been accused of using the law to silence critics, including activists, journalists and members of civil society.

What he had declared 14 years ago

Ms Roy, 62, a writer and activist, is in the dock for comments about Kashmir, the BBC has learned.

“Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical event. Even the Indian government has accepted this,” he told a stormy, day-long conference in Delhi organized by the Commission for the Release of Political Prisoners in October 2010.

At the time, Indian-administered Kashmir was in turmoil, with locals describing it as a savage anti-India rebellion.

Her comments followed the deaths of dozens of protesters since new pro-freedom protests broke out earlier that year.

India and neighboring Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals, lay full claim to the disputed territory and have fought two wars over it.

Ms Roy’s comments predictably sparked a storm of protest, with many critics questioning her loyalty to India and the federal government, then led by the Congress party, threatening to arrest her on sedition charges. A senior minister said that while India enjoys freedom of speech, it “cannot violate the patriotic sentiments of the people”.

“Out of love and pride, what I say”

There were protests outside Ms Roy’s home in an upmarket Delhi neighbourhood. A criminal case has been filed against her and another accused, Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a law professor from Kashmir, alleging that they and two others are accused of sedition.

Ms Roy defended her right to free speech in the immediate aftermath of the controversy. “In the newspapers some accused me of giving ‘hate speech’, of wanting to break up India. Instead, what I say comes from love and pride,” she wrote in her reply.

“It comes from not wanting them to be killed, raped, jailed or clawed out to force them to say they are Indian… Shame on the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds.”

Why after 14 years?

Some see this as another attempt by Modi to silence his critics. Writer Amitav Ghosh wrote in X: “The hunt for Roy is completely unconscionable. She is a great writer and is entitled to her opinion. There should be an international outcry against her prosecution for something she said a decade ago.”

When the Delhi authorities in October approved the case to go to court, Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein warned Mr. Modi in X: “You have no idea what you will unleash by pursuing this political prosecution to silence your most eloquent critic. ».

Fans and critics

Over the past two decades, Ms. Roy has written several non-fiction books and numerous essays on topics such as nuclear weapons, Kashmir, grand dams, globalization, Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, encounters with Maoist rebels and conversations with Edward Snowden and John Cusack.

The God of Small Things, a riveting family saga inspired by her family childhood, won the 1997 Man Booker Prize – a “Tiger Woods debut”, glorified by John Adupdike – and made Roy a celebrated author at 35.

The 62-year-old author is also a polarizing figure in India.

Her fans see her as a leading voice of liberal values ​​and an advocate for the marginalized.

Her critics, however, have burned effigies of her, disrupted her events, and she has faced sedition and contempt charges, even spending a day in jail for protesting against large dams.

They find many of her non-fiction texts shrill, naïve, juvenile, self-centered and simplistic, promoting “graphic poverty”. One reviewer wrote that too often in her essays Roy “never manages to really engage with the facts”.

Changes due to Roy as well

Since Roy’s observations in 2010, significant changes have occurred.

In 2019, Mr Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status, dividing the region and reducing its political autonomy to direct federal control.

Many believe that freedom of expression has also declined: since 2014, India has fallen from 150th to 161st in Reporters Without Borders’ media freedom ranking, out of 180 countries.

Roy declined to comment on the latest development.

It is unclear whether police have investigated the allegations or whether they have evidence against her and the other accused.

Two people named in the original complaint have died. But one thing is certain. If one of India’s most celebrated writers faces jail under a draconian anti-terror law, it will spark global condemnation and outrage.