[Reader-list] Statement by Arundhati Roy

[Rajkamal Goswami]

I am just in awe of this woman.

On 10/27/10, Tapas Ray [Gmail] <tapasrayx at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pheeta,
>
> No problem, and no need to apologise!
>
> Best,
>
> Tapas
>
> On 27 October 2010 09:07, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Tapas
>> Actually the statement was sent to me by somebody. I forgot to check if it
>> had already been published online; that's why there was no link. Thanks
>> for
>> reminding me the etiquettes of responsible online publishing.
>> I shall take care next time.
>> Pheeta Ram
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 6:42 AM, Tapas Ray [Gmail] <tapasrayx at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Pheeta,
>>>
>>> Thanks for this. I think it would be good if we gave the links along
>>> with any material from online sources that we might be posting. This
>>> one's is
>>> <http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/arundhati-roys-statement-on-possible-sedition-case-62566>.
>>> As for offline sources (e.g., printed books, etc.), a mention of the
>>> source, as complete as possible, would be very helpful.
>>>
>>> Thanks again.
>>>
>>> Tapas
>>>
>>>
>>> On 27 October 2010 02:10, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > STATEMENT BY ARUNDHATI ROY
>>> >
>>> > I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I
>>> > may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent
>>> > public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say
>>> > every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written
>>> > and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my
>>> > speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I
>>> > spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of
>>> > the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri
>>> > Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their
>>> > homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited
>>> > on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor
>>> > who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now
>>> > learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.
>>> >
>>> > Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which
>>> > had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the
>>> > brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose
>>> > bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose
>>> > murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who
>>> > is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother.  We sat in a circle of
>>> > people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would
>>> > ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that
>>> > Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had
>>> > been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me
>>> > how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been
>>> > taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment
>>> > for throwing stones.
>>> >
>>> > In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of
>>> > wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love
>>> > and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped,
>>> > imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force
>>> > them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a
>>> > society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to
>>> > silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that
>>> > needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass
>>> > murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey
>>> > on the poorest of the poor, roam free.
>>> >
>>> > Arundhati Roy
>>> >
>>> > October 26 2010
>>> > _________________________________________
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>>
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-- 
Rajkamal