Arundhati Roy

Haven't read much about Arundhati Roy for a while... suddenly she's in the news again... this time for her decision to turn down this year's Sahitya Akademi award and obviously she is not reconsidering the decision... Ms. Roy had declined the award, saying she could not accept the honour from an institution linked to a government whose policies she opposed, they told PTI.' 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice', a collection of essays by writer Arundhati Roy on the hubris of the rich and the powerful and the plight of the poor and the homeless, was selected for the 2005 Sahitya Akademi Award in English.

Interestingly, she also recently recieved the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize. You can read a transcript of her lecture, Peace and The New Corporate Liberation Theology, given on this occasion.

And here are a couple good recent interviews with her...
Arundhati Roy discusses her role as writer and activist, the importance of non-violent dissent, and the potential for finding justice in the world.

And a really deep interview with Amit Sengupta of Tehelka.com

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Some other references from the past..

Link 1: "In May 1999, in the two Indian news magazines 'Outlook' and 'Frontline', Arundhati Roy published a lengthy political commentary on the Narmada dam project, its history and context, and its impact on the people it is displacing. An abridged version of the same article entitled ' Lies, Dam Lies, and Statistics', published in the Guardian newspaper in the UK two weeks later.

The text of the full article, entitled The Greater Common Good, is available from the Frontline website here. The article was also published as a book in India, and has since been repackaged with The End of Imagination essay as 'The Cost of Living'."

Link 2: War Talk - Arundhati Roy, the internationally acclaimed author of The God of Small Things, addresses issues of democracy and dissent, racism and empire, and war and peace in this collection of new essays.