[Reader-list] Statement by Arundhati Roy

Wed Oct 27 14:30:09 IST 2010

Really intelligent comment. Let's give him a big hand!

On 27 October 2010 14:23, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Isn't she a Fiction writer? Or is she really a writer? Just curious.
>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Rajkamal Goswami <rajkamalgoswami at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> >>> > _________________________________________
>> >>> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> >>> > Critiques & Collaborations
>> >>> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> >>> > subscribe in the subject header.
>> >>> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> >>> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>> >>> _________________________________________
>> >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> >>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> >>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> >>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> >>> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>> >>
>> > _________________________________________
>> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> > Critiques & Collaborations
>> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> subscribe
>> > in the subject header.
>> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Rajkamal
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>