Fourteen years after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against author-activist Arundhati Roy and Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain, former professor at the Central University of Kashmir, Delhi Lt Governor has sanctioned their prosecution under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The FIR, filed in 2010, accused Roy and Hussain of delivering provocative speeches at a conference organised under the banner of 바카라Azadi-The Only Way바카라 on October 21, 2010, at the Little Theatre Group (LTG) Auditorium on Copernicus Marg in New Delhi.
The complaint, filed by social activist Sushil Pandit, claimed that Roy바카라s speech, and a number of others, 바카라jeopardised public peace and security바카라 by advocating for the separation of Kashmir from India. Two other accused, Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, a Delhi University lecturer who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Parliament attack case, have since passed away during the pendency of the case.
If convicted of sedition under the sedition law, Roy바카라who became India바카라s first citizen to win the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things바카라could face punishment ranging from a fine to life imprisonment. What did Arundhati Roy say in her 2010 speech? Check below for the full text.
Arundhati Roy 2010 Speech | 바카라Azadi-The Only Way바카라
About a week or 10 days ago, I was in Ranchi where there was a Peoples바카라 Tribunal against Operation Green Hunt바카라 which is the Indian state바카라s war against the poorest people in this country바카라and at that tribunal, just as I was leaving, a TV journalist stuck a mic in my face and very aggressively said 바카라Madam, is Kashmir an integral part of India or not? Is Kashmir an integral part of India or not?바카라 about five times.
About a week or 10 days ago, I was in Ranchi where there was a Peoples바카라 Tribunal against Operation Green Hunt바카라 which is the Indian state바카라s war against the poorest people in this country바카라and at that tribunal, just as I was leaving, a TV journalist stuck a mic in my face and very aggressively said 바카라Madam, is Kashmir an integral part of India or not? Is Kashmir an integral part of India or not?바카라 about five times.
So I said, look, Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. However aggressively and however often you want to ask me that. Even the Indian government has accepted, in the UN that it바카라s not an integral part of India. So why are we trying to change that narrative now? See, in 1947, we were told that India became a sovereign nation and a sovereign democracy, but if you look at what the Indian state did from midnight of 1947 onwards, that colonised country, that country that became a country because of the imagination of its coloniser바카라the British drew the map of India in 1899바카라 so that country became a colonising power the moment it became independent, and the Indian state has militarily intervened in Manipur, in Nagaland, in Mizoram.. (Someone바카라s phone rings here).. in Mizoram, in Kashmir, in Telangana, during the Naxalbari uprising, in Punjab, in Hyderabad, in Goa, in Junagarh. So often the Indian government, the Indian state, the Indian elite, they accuse the Naxalites of believing in protracted war, but actually you see a State바카라the Indian State바카라that has waged protracted war against its own people or what it calls its own people relentlessly since 1947, and when you look at who are those people that it has waged war against바카라 the Nagas, the Mizos, the Manipuris, people in Assam, Hyderabad, Kashmir, Punjab바카라it바카라s always a minority, the Muslims, the Tribals, the Christians, the Dalits, the Adivasis, endless war by an upper caste Hindu state, this is what is the modern history of our country.
Now, in 2007, at the time of the uprising in Kashmir against that whole acquisition of land for the Amarnath Yatra, I was in Srinagar and I was walking down the road and I met a young journalist, I think he was from Times of India, and he said to me바카라he couldn바카라t believe that he saw some Indian person바카라walking alone on the road바카라 and he said, 바카라can I have a quote?바카라, so I said, 바카라yes, do you have a pen? Because I don바카라t want to be misquoted바카라 and I said, 바카라write down바카라India needs azaadi from Kashmir just as much as Kashmir needs azaadi from India바카라, and when I said India, I did not mean the Indian state, I meant the Indian people because I think that the occupation of Kashmir바카라 today there are 700,000 security personnel manning that valley of 12 million people바카라 it is the most militarised zone in the world바카라 and for us, the people of India, to tolerate that occupation is like allowing a kind of moral corrosion to drip into our blood stream.
So for me it바카라s an intolerable situation to try and pretend that it isn바카라t happening even if the media blanks it out, all of us know바카라..or maybe all of us don바카라t know바카라.but any of us who바카라ve visited Kashmir know바카라 that Kashmiris cannot inhale and exhale without their breath going through the barrel of an AK-47. So, so many things have been done there, every time there바카라s an election and people come out to vote, the Indian government goes and says바카라바카라Why do you want a referendum? There was a vote and the people have voted for India.바카라
Now, I actually think that we need to deepen our thinking a little bit because I too am very proud of this meeting today, I think it바카라s a historic meeting in some ways, it바카라s a historic meeting taking place in the capital of this very hollow superpower, a superpower where 830 million people live on less than 20 rupees a day. Now, sometimes it바카라s very difficult to know from what place one stands on as formally a citizen of India, what can one say, what is one allowed to say, because when India was fighting for independence from British colonisation바카라 every argument that people now use to problematize the problems of azaadi in Kashmir were certainly used against Indians. Crudely put, 바카라the natives are not ready for freedom, the natives are not ready for democracy바카라, but every kind of complication was also true, I mean the great debates between Ambedkar and Gandhi and Nehru 바카라 they were also real debates and over these last 60 years whatever the Indian State has done, people in this country have argued and debated and deepened the meaning of freedom.
We have also lost a lot of ground because we바카라ve come to a stage today where India a country that once called itself Non Aligned , that once held its head up in pride has today totally lain down prostrate on the floor at the feet of the USA. So we are a slave nation today, our economy is completely바카라however much the Sensex may be growing, the fact is the reason that the Indian police, the paramilitary and soon perhaps the army will be deployed in the whole of central India is because it바카라s an extractive colonial economy that바카라s being foisted on us.
But the reason that I said what we need to do is to deepen this conversation is because it바카라s also very easy for us to continue to pat ourselves on the backs as great fighters for resistance for anything whether it바카라s the Maoists in the forests or whether it바카라s the stone pelters on the streets바카라 but actually we must understand that we are up against something very serious and I바카라m afraid that the bows and arrows of the Adivasis and the stones in the hands of the young people are absolutely essential but they are not the only thing that바카라s going to win us freedom, and for that we need to be tactical, we need to question ourselves, we need to make alliances, serious alliances바카라. Because바카라 I often say that in 1986 when capitalism won its jihad against soviet communism in the mountains of Afghanistan, the whole world changed and India realigned itself in the unipolar world and in that realignment it did two things, it opened two locks , one was the lock of the Babri Masjid and one was the lock of the Indian markets and it ushered in two kinds of totalitarianism- Hindu fascism, Hindutva fascism and economic totalitarianism and both these manufactured their own kinds of terrorism 바카라so you have Islamist 바카라terrorists바카라 and the Maoist 바카라terrorists바카라바카라 and this process has made 80% of this country live on 20 rupees a day but it has divided us all up and we spend all our time fighting with each other when in fact there should be deep solidarity.
There should be deep solidarity between the struggles in Manipur, the struggles in Nagaland, the struggle in Kashmir, the struggle in central India and in all the poor, squatters, the vendors , all the slum dwellers and so on. But what is it that should link these struggles? It바카라s the idea of Justice because there can be struggles which are not struggles for justice, there are peoples movements like the VHP is a peoples movement바카라but it바카라s a struggle for fascism, it바카라s a struggle for injustice, we don바카라t align ourselves with that. So every movement, every person on the street, every slogan is not a slogan for justice.
So when I was in Kashmir on the streets during the Amarnath Yatra time, and even today바카라 I haven바카라t been to Kashmir recently바카라 but I바카라ve seen and my heart is filled with appreciation for the struggle that people are waging, the fight that young people are fighting and I don바카라t want them to be let down. I don바카라t want them to be let down even by their own leaders because I want to believe that this fight is a fight for justice. Not a fight in which you pick and choose your justices바카라바카라we want justice but it바카라s ok if the other chap is squashed바카라. That바카라s not right.
So I remember when I wrote in 2007, I said the one thing that broke my heart on the streets of Srinagar, was when I heard people say 바카라Nanga Bhooka Hindustan, jaan se pyaara Pakistan바카라. I said 바카라No. Because the Nanga Bhooka Hindustan is with you. And if you바카라re fighting for a just society then you must align yourselves with the powerless바카라, the Indian people here today are people who have spent their lives opposing the Indian state. I have, as many of you may know, been associated for a long time with the struggle in the Narmada valley against big dams and I always say that I think so much about these two valleys - the Kashmir valley and the Narmada valley. In the Narmada valley, they speak of repression, but perhaps the people don바카라t really know what repression is because they바카라ve not experienced the kind of repression that there is in the Kashmir valley. But they have a very very very sophisticated understanding of the economic structures of the world of imperialism and of the earth and what it does and how those big dams create an inequality that you cannot get away from.
And in the Kashmir valley you have such a sophisticated understanding of repression, 60 years of repression of secret operations, of spying, of intelligence operations, of death, of killing. But have you insulated yourself from that other understanding, of what the world is today? What these economic structures are? What kind of Kashmir are you going to fight for? Because we are with you in that fight, we are with you. But we want, we hope that it바카라ll be a fight for justice. We know today that this word 바카라secularism바카라 that the Indian state flings at us is a hollow word because you can바카라t kill 68,000 Kashmiri Muslims and then call yourself a secular state. You cannot allow the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat and call yourself a secular state and yet you can바카라t then turn around and say that 바카라we are allowed to treat our minorities badly 바카라바카라so what kind of justice are you fighting for? I hope that the young people will deepen their idea of Azaadi, it is something that the State and your enemies that you바카라re fighting uses to divide you. That바카라s true.
The colonial state whether it was the British State in India or whether it바카라s the Indian State in Kashmir or Nagaland or in Chattisgarh, they are in the business of creating elites to manage their occupations, so you have to know your enemy and you have to be able to respond in ways where you바카라re tactical, where you바카라re intelligent, where you바카라re political바카라 internationally, locally and in every other way바카라 you have to make your alliances, because otherwise you바카라ll be like fish swimming furiously around a fish tank bombing the walls and getting tired in the end because those walls are very very strong. So I바카라ll just leave with this: Think about justice and don바카라t pick and choose your injustices, don바카라t say that 바카라I want justice but it바카라s ok if the next guy doesn바카라t have it, or the next woman doesn바카라t have it바카라. Because justice is the keystone to integrity and integrity is the key stone to real resistance.
Thank you.
