La fine delle illusioni

by Arundhati Roy, Chiara Gabutti (Traduttore), Marina Astrologo (Traduttore)

Nel 1998 il Pakistan ha fatto scoppiare la bomba atomica creando una forte ostilità in India che si è tradotta nel conflitto armato tra i due paesi. Arundhati Roy, scrittrice attenta ai problemi della società e della politica indiana, ha scritto un saggio che è un atto di accusa verso una classe dirigente inetta e corrotta e una riflessione ironica e disincantata sulla follia della politica in genere. Un secondo saggio è dedicato a un fenomeno riguardante tutto il Terzo Mondo: la massiccia costruzione di bacini artificiali, che ha prodotto disastri ambientali e ha provocato l'esodo di decine di milioni di indiani.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Politics, India, History, Asia, Economics

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer who is also an activist who focuses on issues related to social justice and economic inequality. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays.

For her work as an activist she received the Cultural Freedom Prize awarded by the Lannan Foundation in 2002.

Reviews

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a large compilation of Roy’s nonfiction from 1999 (India's jobless growth and Hindu nationalism) to 2004 (“War on Terror” era)...

Highlights:
--“Public Power in the Age of Empire”: I’ll review this essay as I’ve reviewed the others in previous book releases. Briefly considered are the various levels of struggle, including:
1) Postcolonial nation states face global capitalism’s silent weapon of capital flight.
2) Mass movements vary from symbolic (e.g. weekend marches) to ones that actually disrupt power.
3) NGOs replace State responsibilities, professionalization of activism…

--The major essays reviewed elsewhere:
-on India’s nuclear weapons: The Cost of Living
-on India’s mega dams: The Greater Common Good
-War on Terror era:
1) Historical context: War Talk
2) Confronting empire: An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire

The Missing:
--Roy’s analysis of global capitalism in her essays here are brief; her longest piece can be found elsewhere: Capitalism: A Ghost Story.
--20th century revolutions of countries fighting to liberate themselves from colonialism (Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World and The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire) had big dreams (The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World).
...Many were ruthlessly smashed:
-intro: Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations
-The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
-Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II
...Many more were strangled in more silent and abstract manners behind global capitalism:
1) Overview: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions
2) Deep theory: Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present
3) Dive into debt traps while relying on the US dollar which US could freely print: Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance
4) Trade deals that prevented weaker countries from nurturing higher-productivity sectors: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
5) More-restrictive intellectual property (patent monopolies): The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South
...The violent realities of global capitalism should give utopian radicals some pause before ceaselessly denouncing the USSR and the People's Republic of China to the point of celebrating their failures. One does not have to tie their dreams to these projects; the point is to recognize the space for alternatives provided in a multi-polar world, especially one where the super-powers are not all constantly on the side of the reactionaries.

[Lungstrum Smalls · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book with a straightforward focus. Interesting to think of it as a dated piece, written in '99. Yet it is so relevant. I think of the parallels between the end of imagination from nuclear destruction and climate destruction....

"All I can say to every man, woman and sentient child here in India, and over there, just a little way away in Pakistan, is: Take it personally....
The bomb isn’t in your backyard. It’s in your body. And mine. Nobody, no nation, no government, no man, no god, has the right to put it there. We’re radioactive already, and the war hasnlt even begun. 20-21

You’ve lived in New York too long, I told her. There are other worlds. Other kinds of dreams. Dreams in which failure is feasible. Honourable. Sometimes even worth striving for. Worlds in which recognition is not the only beremitor of brilliance or human worth. There are plenty of warrios that I know and love, people far more valuable than myself, who go to war each day, knowing in advance that they will fail… 23

My world has died. And I write to mourn its passing...30
I loved it simply because it offered humanity a choice. It was a rock out at sea. It was a stubborn chink of light that inssisted that there was a differnet way of living. It was a functioning posibility. A real option. All that’s gone now. India’s nuclear tests, the manner in whciih they were conducted, the euphoria with which they have been greeted (by us) is indefensible. To me, it signifies dreadful things. The end of imagination. the end of freedom actually, because, after all, that’s what freedom is. Choice. 32

[J.J. Amaworo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compendium brings together five of Roy’s books. She's an electrifying polemicist. In these essays and speeches, she marshals her facts like an academic but writes like the novelist she is – fluent, clear and lively.

Several of these essays are already classics. “The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky,” written as an introduction to Chomsky’s 2003 book For Reasons of State, has lost none of its power from being extracted from its intended home. “Peace is War,” a short deconstruction of the media’s complicity in defrauding the public, is worthy of its Orwellian title.

Whether on Indian or international themes, the essays possess a style and relentlessness that make them essential reading even as you tear your hair out at the injustices they describe. Much of the work in the collection comes from the era of Bush Jr., yet seems even more prescient and timely today.

[Sheetal Singh Tomar · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The only dream worth having, I told her, is to dream that you will live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead. To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget."

[Martin Dubéci]

Ok, asi moja najobľúbenejšia esejistka.

[Kevin Gosztola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each essay in this collection from Arundhati Roy from 1998-2004 carries more resonance with the United States presidential election of Donald Trump. The clarity of Roy's arguments against empire and fascism are incisive. Her arguments also inspire and challenge collective concepts of resistance.

The violence and repression in India is certainly far and away more severe than the domestic violence and repression in the U.S. However, when one considers Narendra Modi, who appears in her essays and is now India's Prime Minister, one cannot help but compare Modi and the political climate of India to the new dark era that has dawned in America.

The U.S. government is likely to become more oppressive under Trump, and Roy's essays exist as a set of powerful ideas for resisting the normalization of authoritarianism and imagining how to challenge even the most mundane of injustices.

[Leah Rachel von Essen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The End of Imagination brings together five of Arundhati Roy’s essay collections into one volume. The introduction is a slow but helpful, dense summary of the political events she refers to within the book. In the essays, which move faster, she attacks the system of building dams in India and the response to resistance; the continuing development of nuclear programs; US imperialism and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; corporate globalization; and more.
.
It’s a set of essays that breaks down the guilty role of the US in conflicts around the world, the ways that its capitalist policies destroy and inspire the beginnings of terror movements; and breaks down the Hindu nationalist movement as well. It’s a brilliant book covering many topics, and while occasionally repetitive, it was fascinating all the way through.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of Roy's previously published essays, addressing politics in India, the state of the world after 9/11, and critiques of US international actions. It is eye-opening and extremely important to read the perspective of non-Americans, to understand how the rest of the world views the US. Roy explains things in dramatic terms. The writing isn't hard to understand, but it took me a while to get through this because it is honestly horrifying to realize at what cost our country has gained its economic privileges.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read more non-US-based political thought, and boy, was this a great book to start with. (Thanks to my friend Char and her fantastic, Haymarket-stocked bookshelf for lending it!)

I loved Roy's novel The God of Small Things, and her writing is just as lovely in essay form. She makes even technical topics like dam construction feel engaging and urgent. This collection brings together five of her essay books, so it can be a little repetitive at times--there are full sentences and paragraphs repeated several times in different essays--but it also covers a ton of topics, all around the themes of corporate globalization, militarism, and possibilities for resistance. I know embarrassingly little about Indian politics and history, and Roy gives plenty of context to help the American layperson understand. (It took me longer to read the introduction, a crash course on recent Indian political history, than to read the entire rest of the book.) She analyzes Indian, US, and British government action both individually and as they relate to one another.

All of the essays in the book, save for the introduction, were written between 1997 and 2004, and it was super interesting to read political writing from this era. It's a bit of a gap in my knowledge, because it was recent enough to not be discussed much in my history classes but long enough ago that I don't really remember it. A lot of the book was sad, because so many of the things that Roy warned about--the construction of World Bank-funded dams that killed and displaced millions of people and destroyed huge swathes of land for the purpose of enriching a few politicians and corporations; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the decimation of civil liberties ostensibly in the name of fighting terrorism--have come to pass, with impacts just as devastating as she suggested. It's also interesting to reflect on which things that were true in 2001 are still true in 2021, and which things have changed.

I had two major takeaways, one general and one specific. The general one is the importance of mentally, rhetorically, and ethically separating a country's people from its government. Roy points out that, by equating individuals (who are generally perfectly wonderful, and are often harmed by their governments' commitment to nationalism and neoliberal capitalism) with their governments (which, in the name of wealth/power accumulation, do all kinds of horrible things), the War on Terror worked under the same logic as terrorism itself. I admire Roy's rigor in distinguishing the beautiful, dignified, courageous masses from the nations that rule them. This point, emerging from the specific context of early-2000s battles against the neoliberal consensus in the US and India, strikes me as one we would do well to keep in mind today.

The specific one is that, while sometimes I wonder if I’m being too hard on the US military, it is in fact pretty much impossible to be as critical of the military as it deserves. Roy points out, with overwhelming evidence, the consistent and powerful harms of the US (and allied) "military-industrial-corporate structure", which is apparently happy to kill as many children as it takes to ensure that unrestrained free market capitalism shall not perish from the earth, responsible for creating, funding, and propping all manner of horrors (from the Taliban to Saddam Hussein to right-wing dictators the world over) that it later claims it needs more money to fight. As unpleasant as it is to read about the death and destruction being carried out in my name as an American citizen, not knowing only makes it harder to resist. Roy noted over 20 years ago that it was high time for the "globalization of resistance." With the Trump crisis in our rearview mirror (for now) and a new president promising to return us to the good old days, I can't think of a better time to heed her call.

[Fariha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing to understand is that modern democracy is safely premised on an almost religious acceptance of the nation-state. But corporate globalization is not. Liquid capital is not. So even though capital needs the coercive powers of the nation-state to put down revolts in the servants’ quarters, this setup ensures that no individual nation can oppose corporate globalization on its own.

For poor people in many countries, Empire does not always appear in the form of cruise missiles and tanks, as it has in Iraq or Afghanistan or Vietnam. It appears in their lives in very local avatars—losing their jobs, being sent unpayable electricity bills, having their water supply cut, being evicted from their homes and uprooted from their land. All this overseen by the repressive machinery of the State, the police, army, the judiciary. It is a process of relentless impoverishment with which the poor are historically familiar. What Empire does is to further entrench and exacerbate already existing inequalities.

We have to use our experience, our imagination, and our art to interrogate those instruments of state that ensure that “normality” remains what it is: cruel, unjust, unacceptable. We have to expose the policies and processes that make ordinary things—food, water, shelter, and dignity—such a distant dream for ordinary people. The real preemptive strike is to understand that wars are the end result of a flawed and unjust peace.

Radical change cannot and will not be negotiated by governments; it can only be enforced by people. By the public. A public who can link hands across national borders.

I hope it’s not presumptuous to assume that the only thing that is worth discussing seriously is the power of a dissenting public. A public that disagrees with the very concept of Empire. A public that has set itself against incumbent power—international, national, regional, or provincial governments and institutions that support and service Empire.

We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening roar.

It’s not good enough to be right. Sometimes, if only in order to test our resolve, it’s important to win something. In order to win something, we need to agree on something. That something does not need to be an overarching, preordained ideology into which we force-fit our delightfully factious, argumentative selves. It does not need to be an unquestioning allegiance to one or another form of resistance to the exclusion of everything else. It could be a minimum agenda.

Loss and losing. Grief, failure, brokenness, numbness, uncertainty, fear, the death of feeling, the death of dreaming. The absolute, relentless, endless, habitual unfairness of the world. What does loss mean to individuals? What does it mean to whole cultures, whole peoples who have learned to live with it as a constant companion?

We enter histories through the rubble of war. Ruined cities, parched fields, shrinking forests, and dying rivers are our archives. Craters left by daisy cutters, our libraries.

[Nidda (Bücherkarawane) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dieses Buch ist kurz, aber es hinterlässt ein enormes Gewicht. Obwohl es Ende der 1990er Jahre geschrieben wurde, liest es sich heute erschreckend aktuell. Besonders deutlich wird das in der Verbindung zwischen nuklearer Bedrohung und anderen Formen globaler Zerstörung. Beides wird oft als etwas Abstraktes verhandelt, fern vom eigenen Leben. Genau hier setzt der Text an und fordert dazu auf, es persönlich zu nehmen.

Die Vorstellung, dass die Bombe nicht irgendwo draußen existiert, sondern längst Teil unserer Körper geworden ist, verschiebt Verantwortung radikal. Sie liegt nicht nur bei Staaten oder Regierungen, sondern betrifft jede einzelne Existenz. Dieser Gedanke zieht sich durch das gesamte Buch und macht es so unbequem. Gleichzeitig trauert der Text um eine verlorene Welt, in der Alternativen denkbar waren. Um Träume, in denen Scheitern erlaubt war und Anerkennung nicht der einzige Maßstab für Wert.

Als Pakistanerin, oder allgemein als Person mit einem südasiatischen Bezug, lese ich diesen Text mit einer anderen Identität. Er trifft mich nicht nur politisch, sondern körperlich und emotional. Es tut so weh, diesen Konflikt mitzuerleben, die Geschichte, die Nähe, die geteilten Erinnerungen. Es ist kaum fassbar, dass es am Ende Waffen sind, die unsere Identitäten so brutal spalten und uns zum Hass zwingen, obwohl so viel Gemeinsames existiert.

Im weiteren Verlauf weitet sich der Blick auf globale Machtverhältnisse. Demokratie erscheint hier fest an den Nationalstaat gebunden, während Kapital längst grenzenlos operiert. Für viele Menschen zeigt sich diese Form von Empire nicht in Kriegen, sondern im Alltag. In Armut, in Entwurzelung, in staatlich verwalteter Ungleichheit. Normalität wird entlarvt als etwas Brutales, das nicht akzeptiert werden darf.

Besonders stark ist der Ruf nach einer widerständigen Öffentlichkeit. Nicht als homogene Bewegung, sondern als gemeinsamer Nenner des Widerspruchs. Recht zu haben genügt nicht, es geht darum, etwas zu gewinnen, auch wenn es klein ist. Dieses Buch handelt von Verlust und Trauer, aber auch von der schmerzhaften Erinnerung daran, dass es einmal andere Möglichkeiten gab. Und vielleicht wieder geben kann.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There is no terrorism like state terrorism.” I was basically completely ignorant to Indian politics prior to reading this and learned a great deal. Her observations on war, nuclear weapons, class are obviously applicable more broadly. “People rarely win wars; governments rarely lose them.”

[Shamiram · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be there to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing."

[Salman Tariq · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most enlightening non fictional book, I ever read. It is collection of political essays she wrote after her first novel. This only line says it all

My world has died. I write to mourn its passing

What the Book is about?
A.Roy exposes crimes of international corporations in the 3rd world, In disgust her words tear the clothes of sham democracy , supposed aftermath of nuclear war described is a must read. Somewhere in between writer mourns over building of bigger dams ( which bring destruction upon common people, 33 million people have been displaced by bigger dams solely in India). Among lasts of essays, book deals with self imposed war on terror and its genesis.

Things I like the most.
Above all, she is the part of political process for which she even went to jail. Roy grips national ( Indian) and international politics right from neck. At time she is too emotional for misery she bears upon being so knowledgeable.

Message for Pakistan
Pakistan is on the same path of economic destruction like India but we are on slower side , thanks to so much corruption and TTP attacks ( only perk we got with death and blood against war on terror) that foreign investment is in decline..


A must read
A slow read
but for sure not the first read

[Amal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant rendition. Her exaggeration struck me half.

[Nuno R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um ano depois de ganhar o Booker Prize, com o primeiro (e o que continua a ser o único) romance, Arundhati Roy publica um segundo livro - um manifesto contra as armas, a destruição, o que é erigido contra a vida e a favor dos nacionalismos e ódios patrióticos. O título parece sugerir o que viria a acontecer, não há espaço, deixou de haver tempo para a ficção. A realidade exige acção e militância. E até hoje, a autora é conhecida pelo seu papel de activista dos direitos humanos e pela sua voz política acutilante, tendo deixado para trás o que poderia ter sido uma confortável carreira literária. Este é um texto fundamental para se entender tudo o que está realmente em jogo quando dois povos historicamente irmãos entram numa corrida às armas nucleares. Paquistão e Índia fazem paradas militares de orgulho nuclear, exibindo o seu poderio de aniquilação. Toda a conversa sobre diplomacia e persuação se torna caduca perante o que realmente significa marchar orgulhosamente ao lado de um míssil que transporta uma ogiva (ou de uma sua representação). Diz-nos Roy, "considerem as armas nucleares uma afronta pessoal".

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of powerful essays that appeared in various collections; however, many of the essays are a bit dated. But still, informative, powerful. Esp resonating are the essays on the people impacted by the dams. Despite the time I spent in India, I had no idea about this. So sad. Wonderful to see someone fighting for the underdog.

[Sara Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le tre stelle sono solo per il gusto personale. Il libro è buono e scritto bene sulle Grandi Dighe e le loro mostruose conseguenze e sulla Bomba Atomica.
È un saggio quindi non mi ha coinvolta come altri libro che ho letto, per questo ho dato 3 stelle

[Kingsley O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stark, contemplative collection of works with a focus on seriousness and intellectual depth, with sometimes [overly] introspective essays. This book was written as her 2nd book, at a time when she had established her reputation and authority in the literary world.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire Arundhati Roy. After she won the Man Booker prize for the God of Small Things, she could have basked in that glory or tried to get a repeat prize. Instead she spent her energy researching and writing about 'unsexy' topics such as irrigation, dams, nuclear bombs and globalism. At the heart of it, she is writing on behalf of the illiterate, the powerless (figuratively and literally have no electricity), the dispossessed, the slum-dwellers, the indigenous people in India. The Dalits and Adivasis in India are mentioned frequently. Because of her hard work, as a reader, I now understand why governments and the World Bank are so keen to promote big dams and why they are not beneficial to the common people.

Initially there was some worry over whether some of her writings are dated (written 1990s to 2004), but actually no, quite the opposite. E.g. "For The Greater Good" - the illuminating article about dams, the drama is still on-going to this present day. Not only has the fight over the Sardar Sarovar dam been largely lost with millions displaced without compensation, the same situation is playing out today over a proposed dam at the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania http://www.dw.com/en/tanzanias-bigges...
For her observations about Nahendra Modi and the BJP party, well, look who is still PM of India and inciting hatred towards the Muslims in India. The whole Muslim 'love jihad' issue is still ongoing - I read recently that Hindu nationalists have taken it upon themselves to post on Facebook the names of these Muslim guy-Hindu girl pairings with the predictable outcome of violence. As far as her comparison of nuclear India and Pakistan both posturing as each other like roosters, she might as well be talking about the US and North Korea today with two man-toddlers at the helm each with bigger buttons and nukes than the other. If it all wasn't so serious with high stakes, one could laugh at the absurdity of it all and how it never seems to end.

Roy also writes about the control and influence the few rich and powerful have over government policy and media outlets (hence controlling the narrative). She argues that both in US and India, these lay farce to a 'free' press and 'democratic' elections (it doesn't matter what party you vote for when the candidates are all rich and subject to lobbying by corporations). Greed and corruption abound, and she connects the dots for us in some high profile examples. The interesting observation is made that even in the poorest third world country, there will always be a small select subset members of the group being oppressed that have been raised above and living in unimaginable luxury courtesy of the oppressors who are busy plundering the country of natural resources, land and cheap labour.

Some of the chapters are talks that Roy has given world-wide and the last few concentrate on the United States. She calls the US an 'empire' and herself a slave of the empire. She reserves a lot of vitriol for American intervention around the world but particularly in Central America, Middle East, Indo-China -where the CIA have assassinated or toppled democratically elected leaders because it didn't suit America's purposes, where the United States was backing despots, providing arms and fomenting unrest, invading countries under thin pretexts and so on. The United States is power hungry and war hungry and their interest is never benign. I have been introduced to the writings of Noam Chomsky in the chapter "The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky," who is not only a renowned linguist but also known as America's foremost dissident.

Roy has been accused of being emotional in her writing and she acknowledges this. I interpret it as her being extremely passionate about these issues which arguably all of us should care more about. At the end of the articles or talks, she will often extort her audience to make their voice heard, protest, stand up, take notice, together we can do this. I'm never quite sure how to rate non-fiction books but Roy writes articulately and clearly with extensive research (numerous citations in footnotes). There is some repetition between chapters as they are articles or talks previously published. Overall, I feel like I learnt some new perspectives on global issues.

[Mark Benedict Lim · Rating 3 out of 5]

These essays were and are still essential to quickly understand the horrors of globalization. And I get that these were published or delivered during the time when it was politically and strategically necessary to create a public awareness to the issues as vast-reaching as possible, as soon as possible. But because Roy wrote them with haste (and ✊✊✊ to her for doing such), the essays tend to have the same content, the same turns of phrase, and the same structure (a celebration of and a call to dissident action in the end of each essay). When read as a collection, they tend to become repetitive and this results in weakening their power and energy. Which is sad, because as I have said, these essays are still essential reminders of how fucked up the global landscape is.

[rav · Rating 3 out of 5]

the essays are a bit outdated but still very relevant which is a testament to her foresight. I did find some of the essays a bit repetitive and think this book could have been cut in half. you are taken on quite a rollercoaster ride with this book as the fervor and intensity with which arundhati writes and argues carries you until the end.

as an indian-american this book gave me a lot of context on india and indian politics that I didn't have before. what I didn't think about before that this book has me thinking about now - 1) what does it **really** mean to be a global superpower? 2) "corporations need us more than we need them" ...

[Joe Xtarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading any work of Roy, and I am now totally and deeply in love with her writing. Her words flow like music. I would dare say that her style is near perfect. As for content, these essays and speeches are mostly reinforcing well-known facts for me, but with the added bonus of being accompanied by delectable little quips and motivational commentary. She is modest, yet fierce. It was an absolute joy to read this book.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of Essays and Lectures circa 2003. intellectually stimulating particularly with insights on perception of usa actions on world stage. well written and readable. tight arguments. bias towards poor and dispossessed against powers that be pervades.

4.5 / 5.0

[Jana Rađa · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead.’ ('The End of Imagination', first published in Outlook (India) and Frontline magazines, 27 July 1998)

In theory, I don’t like algorithmic recommendations. In practice, however, they occasionally work wonders. Arundhati Roy’s The End of Imagination was an algorithmic recommendation on Everand, and I clicked, opened it, and began to read. It took me only a page or two to realise I would love it. Published in 2016, The End of Imagination brings together five of Roy’s essay collections into one volume. As far as I remember, the essays cover the period from 1998 to 2004. Though they are not recent, they have aged beautifully.

Arundhati Roy is best known for The God of Small Things, her first novel and most famous work, but she is also a political activist and essayist. She is deeply involved in human rights and environmental causes and is a vocal critic of neo-imperialism, U.S. foreign policy, and globalisation. She opposes India’s nuclear policies, as well as its emphasis on industrialisation and economic growth.

In her essays, I read about global issues such as nuclear weapons, the state of democracy (and whether it remains democratic), neoliberalism, censorship, Hindu nationalism (i.e., Hindu Rashtra), and the privatisation and corporatisation of essential infrastructure such as water and electricity. I also read about Rohith Vemula, Soni Sori, Shankar Guha Niyogi, and many other individuals largely unknown outside India. Roy’s remarkable writing makes this world—so different from our white, Western, European world—feel incredibly relatable.

In 'Shall We Leave It to the Experts?', based on a talk given as the Third Annual Eqbal Ahmad Lecture at Amherst on 15 February 2001, Arundhati Roy offers a striking metaphor:

‘It’s as though the people of India have been rounded up and loaded onto two convoys of trucks (a huge big one and a tiny little one) that have set off resolutely in opposite directions. The tiny convoy is on its way to a glittering destination somewhere near the top of the world. The other convoy just melts into the darkness and disappears. A cursory survey that tallies the caste, class, and religion of who gets to be on which convoy would make a good Lazy Person’s Concise Guide to the History of India. For some of us, life in India is like being suspended between two of the trucks, one in each convoy, and being neatly dismembered as they move apart, not bodily, but emotionally and intellectually. Of course India is a microcosm of the world. Of course versions of what happens there happen everywhere. Of course, if you’re willing to look, the parallels are easy to find. The difference in India is only in the scale, the magnitude, and the sheer proximity of the disparity. In India your face is slammed right up against it.’

One of the most memorable essays, not just for me but for many, is 'The End of Imagination'. It was written shortly after the 1998 Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, which caused global outrage. The essay truly hit home, especially as the world has been reminded of the nuclear threat by Putin’s repeated provocations and, more recently, the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Roy writes:

‘It is such supreme folly to believe that nuclear weapons are deadly only if they’re used. The fact that they exist at all, their very presence in our lives, will wreak more havoc than we can begin to fathom. Nuclear weapons pervade our thinking. Control our behaviour. Administer our societies. Inform our dreams. They bury themselves like meat hooks deep in the base of our brains. They are purveyors of madness. They are the ultimate coloniser. Whiter than any white man that ever lived. The very heart of whiteness.’

I’m keeping The End of Imagination in my Saved folder, as I imagine I’ll want to re-read some of the essays.

[naomi :•) · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly close to perfect. i can't think of a single other writer who could create a collection this bleak and this hopeful 🕊some fav quotes for future ref:

! "What if some of us dream instead of creating a society to which people long to belong? What if some of us dream of living in a society that people of which are not forced to be a part? What if some of us don't have colonialist, imperialist dreams? What if some of us dream instead of justice? Is that a criminal offence?"

! "Worship a flag? My soul is either too modern or too ancient for that. I'm not sure which. Maybe both."

! "The only good thing about nuclear war is that it is the single most egalitarian idea that man has ever had. On the day of reckoning, you will not be asked to present your credentials. The devastation will be undiscriminating. The bomb isn’t in your backyard. It’s in your body. And mine. Nobody, no nation, no government, no man, no god, has the right to put it there. We’re radioactive already, and the war hasn’t even begun. So stand up and say something. Never mind if it’s been said before. Speak up on your own behalf. Take it very personally."

! "How can you measure progress if you don’t know what it costs and who has paid for it?"

! "We don’t need to be grateful to the State for permitting us to protest. We can thank ourselves for that. It is we who have insisted on these rights. It is we who have refused to surrender them. If we have anything to be truly proud of as a people, it is this."

! "To slow a beast, you break its limbs. To slow a nation, you break its people. You rob them of volition. You demonstrate your absolute command over their destiny. You make it clear that ultimately it falls to you to decide who lives, who dies, who prospers, who doesn’t. To exhibit your capability you show off all that you can do, and how easily you can do it. How easily you could press a button and annihilate the earth. How you can start a war or sue for peace. How you can snatch a river away from one and gift it to another."

! "One country’s terrorist is too often another’s freedom fighter. At the heart of the matter lies the world’s deep-seated ambivalence toward violence. Once violence is accepted as a legitimate political instrument, then the morality and political acceptability of terrorists (insurgents or freedom fighters) become contentious, bumpy terrain."

! "Our strategy should be not only to confront Empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness—and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe."

! "It is neither true nor useful to dismiss Mandela and Lula as weak or treacherous people. It’s important to understand the nature of the beast they were up against. The moment they crossed the floor from the opposition into government, they became hostage to a spectrum of threats—most malevolent among them the threat of capital flight, which can destroy any government overnight. To imagine that a leader’s personal charisma and history of struggle will dent the corporate cartel is to have no understanding of how capitalism works, or for that matter, how power works."

! "The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary."

[Tnahsin Garg · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In the lane behind my house, every night I walk past road gangs of emaciated laborers digging a trench to lay fiber-optic cables to speed up our digital revolution. In the bitter winter cold, they work by the light of a few candles."

Every time I read sentences like these, I felt like somebody punched me, tortured me, and yet, transformed me for the better. Her words cut right through you. What more can be said?

Impregnated with profound prose, this book is a collection of essays and lectures delivered by Roy between 1998 – 2004. It is fascinating that her critique of a variety of subjects, ranging from the Bharatiya Janata Party to US foreign policy, done almost 20 years ago is valid even today. In fact, it grants Roy almost a prophetic status. Everything she said two decades ago, about saffron politics in India and violence perpetrated by American diplomacy abroad, is true today and will probably be so for the foreseeable future.

She carries disdain for almost everything, whether it is big dams, nuclear weapons, or democratically elected governments. However, her disdain is supported by strong arguments and thorough research. Although, to be fair, sometimes one cannot help but notice that she too has a bit of bias in her lens. But then you can't be a writer without an opinion, can you? Nevertheless, her writings offer a fresh, if not radical, perspective into everything conceivable.

One of the things I learned in this collection was rather mind-blowing. For e.g., she alleges that a good number of foreign-funded NGOs in developing countries have a clear Western agenda. The sheer presence of these NGOs allows the government to cut back on public welfare spending, creating plenty of investment and business opportunities for the parent, neo-liberal and capitalistic Western overlords. Privatization of basic necessities ensues and citizens are forced to buy what was theirs already at exorbitant prices. Here, the supposedly democratically elected government works hand in hand with global MNCs to further exploit the poor citizen. And in return, the government, very cleverly, markets to this very same vote-giving citizen their efforts of bringing in investment and “development”.

You really do become a cynic after reading Roy. Basically, what I’ve learned is, if you’re ever not sure what the mechanism of a particular entity is in in society, just do the following: follow the money. See what the rich, the powerful, and the privileged are doing. They hardly ever make non-selfish decisions. Their every act of charity, often, is a façade camouflaging their money-making and brand-building exercise. When Arvind Kejriwal, deluded as he may often sound, used to say, “Sab mile hue hai ji” or that “everybody is corrupt”, he was not far from reality.

Final Verdict: If you always had this feeling that the system is inherently rigged, then this is the book you need to sleep with.

[Jonathan Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quote: ‘If we only support pristine movements, then no resistance will be worthy of our purity’ – from ‘Public Power in the Age of Empire’

Rating: 5 Stars!

Review: When I first encountered Arundhati Roy with The God of Small Things, I now feel shame to say that I could not pass the first 20 pages. And now here I am searching for more of her incredible writing. Roy’s collection of political nonfictional essays do something that is not easy to do in nonfiction: she brings her wrath and peace, her hope and disbelief, her feelings of strength and power through her writings while also her powerlessness and inability to do more for her country of India nor the world. Roy is a writer that does not sugarcoat her arguments nor the truth of the state of the world while also fighting to include some ray of hope. She does not throw us (and herself) into the abyss with nothing but gives us a lifeline and a lantern to light the way. Although that example may be a little extreme, when considering the state of the world it is truly all we have: a thin light growing dimmer and one rope to save us.
Roy’s collection of essays contain criticism for a wide variety of nations including her own nation of India, the United States, the UK and several other first world countries or rather the continuance age of empire. Roy does not assume the reader knows everything she is talking about referring to her country’s history and wider world history but guides us through it. If you enjoyed Roy’s fictional works, you will be amazed by her nonfiction and all of the emotion and power she puts behind her words. Roy is an author and activist that knows that knows her power lies in the written word and the actions that must come after it.
I highly recommend everyone to at least read ONE of her essays, whichever they wish, and it will still be impactful. Roy’s essays are some of the best that I have encountered in my life and for most having been written nearly two decades ago, they are still highly relevant. The issues she argues in the late 90s and early 2000s still being shown in 2022.

Recommended essays:
‘The End of Imagination’ – Argues the dangers of nuclear power
‘When the Saints Go Marching Out’ – If we want to keep hope alive, we must march like our past did (Uses MLK, Mandela, and Ghandi)
‘The Greater Common Good’ – How India’s ‘Big Dam’ construction and mentality cause more harm than good
‘Public Power in the Age of Empire’ – The power, or rather lack of it, that the public maintains while still living in a modern era of empires and imperialism

[Ahsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end of Imagination book contains a collection of articles written by Arundhati Roy. Most of the articles are written between the 2000s, in which she focuses upon the main power structures like tyrant States and corporates full of avarice. She talks about the horrors of nuclear weapons and how they can be a dreadful thing for the humanity. According to her even their existence is lethal in many ways in the first place. She voices her concerns about the big dams being built in India and how these are funded by the world bank, the world bank then wants that money back with interest rates. The big dams cause salination, water logging and most devastating of all is the displacement of millions of people who are mostly left to suffer. She wants to take our attention towards the manipulation of corporations who regularly fund the government and are making a lot of policies for their own benefits. According to her only a systematic civil disobedience will render these corporations somewhat non functional in their manipulative manners. Only the power of people can alter the power structures.

[siddhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The nuclear bomb is the most anti-democratic, anti-national, anti-human, outright evil thing that man has ever made. If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is Man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything that You have created.

If you're not religious, then look at it this way.

This world of ours is four thousand, six hundred million years old. It could end in an afternoon.”


The End of Imagination was written nearly 3 decades ago, yet despite the passage of time, this piece is remains heartbreakingly resonant in the India of today.


*Logged as a reading of the essay*