Why the Maoists want Arundhati Roy

[CHIMO]

Manifesting different aspects of the divine essence, Indian gods and goddesses are often portrayed seated upon or beside the animals deemed to be their particular "vehicles". The elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, for example, has a rat as his vehicle, as if to demonstrate in a manner both quotidian and profound that the least of creatures might bear the greatest of truths. On the plane of India's politics, however, where truths and untruths both require vehicles, celebrities have come to serve as the beasts of choice for groups seeking to publicise their causes.

Such figures sometimes make unwilling vehicles, as the recent cases of MF Hussain and Taslima Nasreen illustrate. The first, an eminent artist living in exile after threats from Hindu militants objecting to his "pornographic" depictions of a goddess, has just accepted Qatari citizenship. The second, a Bangladeshi writer who went into exile after threats from Muslim militants objecting to her portrayal of Islam, has been accused of writing an article against veiling that provoked violence in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Both cases have prompted a great deal of soul-searching about freedom of expression in the Indian press. But celebrities do not always make the best political vehicles, as the failed agitation against film star Shahrukh Khan illustrates. The actor was accused by the same people who attacked Hussain of being unpatriotic, because he spoke in favour of picking Pakistani cricketers to play in the Indian Premier League

On the heels of these much-publicised events, we now have the writer and activist Arundhati Roy chosen as a mediator by Maoists conducting an insurgency in the country's hills and forests, with India's largest peacetime deployment of troops ranged against them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/09/india-maoists-arundhati-roy

[bemildred]

1. Murdoch and the weasels that work for him are full of shit, as usual. nt

[truedelphi]

2. Just who are these"Maoists" Could it be that the people being labelled

With that "slur" on them are simply everyday people wanting the end of Monsanto's tyranny over the small farmers of India?

However, this whole "Maoist" labelling smacks of a Monsanto smear campaign, as much as a campaign by Murdoch.

[CHIMO]

3. Author Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama from New Delhi

Author Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama from New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak

ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, let me just pick up on what Anjali was talking about just now, about the assault that’s planned on the so-called Maoists in central India. You know, when September 11th happened, I think some of us had already said that a time would come when poverty would be sort of collapsed and converge into terrorism. And this is exactly what’s happened. The poorest people in this country today are being called terrorists.


And what you have is a huge swath of forest in eastern and central India, spreading from West Bengal through the states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. And in these forests live indigenous people. And also in these forests are the biggest deposits of bauxite and iron ore and so on, which huge multinational companies now want to get their hands on. So there’s an MoU on every mountain, on every forest and river in this area.


And about in 2005, let’s say, in central India, the day after the MoU was signed with the biggest sort of corporation in India, Tatas, the government also announced the formation of the Salwa Judum, which is a sort of people’s militia, which is armed and is meant to fight the Maoists in the forest. But the thing is, all this, the Salwa Judum as well as the Maoists, they’re all indigenous people. And in, let’s say, Chhattisgarh, something like the Salwa Judum has been a very cruel militia, you know, burning villages, raping women, burning food crops. I was there recently. Something like 640 villages have been burned. Out of the 350,000, first about 50,000 people moved into roadside police camps, from where this militia was raised by the government. And the rest are simply missing. You know, some are living in cities, you know, eking out a living. Others are just hiding in the forest, coming out, trying to sow their crops, and yet getting, you know, those crops burnt down, their villages burnt down. So there is a sort of civil war raging.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/28/author_arundhati_roy_on_conflicts_and
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/sept/video/dnB20090928a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:17:41

[truedelphi]

4. That's my man. I often refer to

him as St Arundhati Roy, just as I refer to Vandana Shiva as St Vandana Shiva.

A thinking person really has to ask themselves how it is that we have (as a nation) never yet waged war on a rich nation.

Seventeen of the alleged hijackers of 9/11 were from the rich nation of Saudi Arabia, but we haven't waged war on SA.

But we have of course, waged war on low incomed Serbia, low incomed Iraq, low incomed Pakistan and Afghanistan. And of course, our military contractors have been in Colombia and other places related to the cocaine trade for decades, spraying Monsanto's shit all over the poor families' crops.