Arundhati Roy disturbs democratic daydreaming

Trond Overland

Arundhati Roy is an unusual Indian woman. Instead of acting the graceful upholder of traditional values, she goes on challenging the hard core of establishment thinking. Roy is India's leading commentator on such evils as militaristic imperialist capitalism, Hindu-supported genocide of Muslims, and dam disasters. In her latest book, Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy, she hammers at perhaps the most central of all contemporary sacred pillars, i.e. that of democracy, which in her words "have metastasized into something dangerous"
   Grasshoppers is a collection of essays on such recent events as the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, the 2006 visit to India by "the war criminal" U.S. President George W. Bush, the 2002 Gujarat carnage (between 2000-4000 Muslims slaughtered), the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament by "so-called" Pakistan-based terrorists, and the growing inequality in India ("the old society has curdled and separated into a thin layer of thick cream ­ and a lot of water...")
   A radical analysis of democracy runs through the book's fiery chapters, like a river running from its mountainous source towards the ocean. Roy's conclusion is disquieting: she is forced by the rationale of her facts and arguments to approve of violence as a means of people's resistance to injustice. She observes with understanding that many of the poor are "crossing over... to another side; the side of armed struggle."
   While reviewers across India are busy assuring their readership of their being in wonderful agreement with the greater part of Roy's information and reflections, they uniformly disagree with her basic take on the rising violence amongst India's poor. The world-wide success of Roy's novel The God of Small Things would not be the only reason why they have to agree at least somewhat. The documented material is just too true and persuasive. As readers we are forcefully moved to wish that things would be very different ­ and this reviewer is left to ponder how such a critique of the world's largest democracy may produce such a fundamental clash between the radical author and her educated audience, the newspapers columnists, the upholders of status quo. The key appears to be capitalism and communal unrest, or communal fascism as Roy calls it. She eloquently argues that democracy in India is not for, by and of the people but for, by and of capitalism ­ "designed to uphold the consensus of the elite for market growth". Here are two quotes from the book:
   "Dangerous levels of malnutrition and permanent hunger are the preferred model these days. Forty-seven per cent of India's children below three suffer from malnutrition, 46 per cent are stunted... Today an average rural family eats about hundred kilograms less food in a year than it did in the early 1990s. But in urban India, wherever you go ­ shops, restaurants, railway stations, airports, gymnasiums, hospitals ­ you have TV monitors in which election promises have already become true. India's Shining, Feeling Good. You only have to close your ears to the sickening crunch of the policeman's boot on someone's ribs, you only have to raise your eyes from the squalor, the slums, the ragged broken people on the streets and seek a friendly TV monitor and you will be in that other beautiful world. The singing-dancing world of Bollywood's permanent pelvic thrusts, of permanently privileged, permanently happy Indians waving the tricolor flag and Feeling Good. It's becoming harder and harder to tell which one's the real world and which one's the virtual."
   "Personally I don't believe that entering the electoral fray is a path to alternative politics ... because I believe that strategically battles must be waged from positions of strength, not weakness. The target of the dual assault of neo-liberalism and communal fascism are the poor and the minority communities. As liberalism drives its wedge between the rich and the poor, between India Shining and India, it becomes increasingly absurd for any mainstream political party to pretend to represent the interests of both the rich and the poor, because the interests of one can only be represented at the cost of the other... A political party that represents the poor will be a poor party. A party with very meagre funds. Today it isn't possible to fight an election without funds. Putting a couple of well-known social activists into Parliament is interesting, but not really politically meaningful. Individual charisma, personality politics, cannot effect radical change." Hardly the stuff that middle-class democratic daydreaming is made of. More like a real nightmare, actually.
   So, by providing a proper perspective on the role of the world's largest democracy as a mechanism and mouthpiece for market forces, Roy stimulates debate on a question of global importance: Democracy for, by and of what? It seems that democracy can never be for democracy's sake, it has to serve some purpose. In other words, what kind of values and fundamental mentality are needed for democracy to be really successful and well functioning? P.R. Sarkar, the founder of Prout, the Progressive Utilization Theory, opined that democracy can never be successful unless the majority of the population are moralists. In other words, there needs to be a leading trend that supports humanistic values and spiritual growth. Capitalism on the contrary serves to break down whatever remains of those very values. In its relentless quest for individual material acquisitions and selfish comfort it makes us all insensitive to the suffering of others and prone to divisive tendencies. It is in this contemporary reality, in the late phase of mature capitalism, that Roy keeps haunting the lazy, unimaginative and selfish middle class with her vision of a capitalistic system headed for hell.
   Grasshoppers may not provide all or any answers at all to Roy's ongoing inquiry. Also, Roy is not God and there may be more complex causes as to Muslim genocides and other of her pet themes than what she chooses to emphasize. However, her writing most definitely raises some very important questions-and reactions. Roy's concrete, bold way of measuring the pulse and temperature of the sick body of democracy leaves no one undisturbed it seems. We would not be surprised if irrational, defensive reactions continue to hound her noble inquiry into contemporary leadership and official thinking.
   Global Research E-newsletter
   Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy, Arundhati Roy, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin, India 2009, 240 pages, 499 rupees. Trond Øverland writes on progressive socio-economics. He is currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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1.85 Lakh children die a year due to poverty, disease
   About 1.85 lakh children under the age of five die annually in the country due to poverty, malnutrition and various diseases even after 20 years of the convention on the Rights of the child. A total of 13 per cent children of the age group of 5-14 is involved in child labour. About 54 per cent female children have become victims of child marriage, revealed an UNICEE study.
   
   
   Plan to distribution PSC application forms at UP level
   The government is planning to distribute different types of job application forms under PSC, including that of BCS, from Union level, aiming to reduce harassment of rural job-seekers. Prime Minister's personal secretary Nazrul Islam Khan told a function recently.
   
   One crore new connection of land phones by 2012
   Past and Telecommuni-cation Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju said recently that the new connection of land phones will reach one crore by 2012. He said for the last 3 months the land phones connections reached to nine lakh fifty thousand from eight lakh fifty thousand.
   
   
   Muslim politician
   pelted with eggs
   One of the London's most powerful Muslim women has been pelted with eggs by a group of men who accused her of not being a proper Muslim and supporting the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, was campaigning in Luton on Monday when the men confronted her and started shouting abuse, her spokesman said recently. AFP
   
   
   Al-Qaeda still main threat to Europe
   As the united states unveils a new strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the EU's counter terrorism czar warned that the network still poses the main security threat to Europe. If remains a very serious problem in this part of the world said EU counter-Terrorisms co-coordinator gills de Kerchove in Brussels recently. AFP.
   
   
   Indian firm to begin feasibility study on rail link in Nepal
   Rail India Technical and Economic Services said that it will begin the feasibility study of 1,200 km Uechi-Mahakhali and 200 km Kathmundu Pokara rail links in western Nepal from next week, local Media reported recently. According to the Himalayan Times daily, Nepali government has set an eight month deadline for submission of the report.
   
   
   No brain tumor link with mobile phones
   A very large, 30 year study of just about everyone in Scandinavia shows no link between cellphone use and brain tumors, researchers reported recently. Even though mobile telephone use soared in the 1990s and afterward, brain tumors did not become any more common during this time they said.

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ESPN to begin global coverage

Moinuddin Naser in New York

Brisk preparations are afoot by the US sports channel ESPN to cover the World Cup soccer from South Africa for world over television channels to fulfil the expectations of soccer fans. The ESPN has targeted not only to fulfill the expectations of the US audiences only. They have eyed all over Europe, South America including Brazil and Asia. Bangladesh also can have ESPN network from its controlling headquarters in Sri Lanka, where a soccer city has been established by the ESPN. The ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut USA arranged a special show for the journalists of different media including the members of the Foreign Press Center on December 4 to which the Holiday correspondent was invited among others.
   The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations.
   This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. Italy are the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town. Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations (which was later abandoned in October 2007). Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup.

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Holiday Report

Despite Bangladesh's vulnerability to HIV, an early action in launching community-based interventions for high risk populations over the past two decades has kept HIV rates low, says a joint report of the World Bank and UNAIDS, launched last week. HIV prevalence in Bangladesh remains below 0.1 percent in the general population.
   The report titled "20 years of HIV in Bangladesh: Experiences and Way Forward", takes stock of the experience with HIV in Bangladesh in the last two decades, summarizing what is known about the coverage and impact of HIV prevention services, including knowledge on risk and protective behaviors.
   An epidemic may also be emerging among female sex workers in towns bordering India. Socioeconomic status and gender inequality make certain groups like hijras and sex workers more vulnerable to HIV infection.
   HIV infection was first detected in Bangladesh twenty years ago in 1989. The Government showed exemplary foresight in forming the National AIDS Committee in 1985, four years prior to the first case, and preventive measures initiated.
   A state-of-the-art surveillance system was established in 1998 which has guided strategic and program decisions. Over the last 20 years, a fairly comprehensive set of policies, guidelines and strategic frameworks and a comprehensive panel of services have been put in place.
   HIV interventions are targeted at the high risk groups including sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users, hijras and men who have sex with men. HIV awareness and prevention information is also provided to the general population. Although condom promotion is the main thrust of HIV prevention programs for sex workers, Bangladesh has consistently documented low condom use by sex workers.
   The report provides insights into the HIV/AIDS situation in Bangladesh, and highlights areas for urgent attention. It is based on 8 rounds of HIV sero-surveillance and 5 rounds of behavioral surveys as well as published and unpublished research. It highlights the importance of understanding and adapting to the local context. Further, local groups, particularly the high-risk population needs to be actively engaged in the planning and implementation stages. The capacity of the Government agencies dealing with the response needs further strengthened.

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