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The Goddess of Small Things

Arundhati Roy’s Listening to Grasshoppers views the dynamic changes in India through the communist stream of consciousness

What a fall from grace for Arundhati Roy. The one-novel wonder and creative genius of The God of Small Things now bandies criticism on the failings of democracy with Listening to Grasshoppers.

Roy cuddles the demons in the Indian political system, which despite its diverse flaws, has withstood frequent assaults on its character for over 60 years. The fact that the democratic process is alive and thriving in an age of economic and social upheaval is enough proof of its sound fundamentals.

But, the author thinks otherwise. Listening to Grasshoppers, or an approaching pestilence without an ear to the ground, reeks of bad judgement. She views a dynamic, changing world through the Red, communist stream of thought from the trenches of hopelessness.

So, no prizes for guessing who her political masters are. This compilation of 11 essays, which have appeared in various publications in India and abroad since 2001, is relatively soft on the discredited Leftist ideology, except for stray references to the Nandigram violence in West Bengal state last year. She even supports 
the violent means employed by the extreme-Left Maoists in north and central India, who she and many of 
her ilk claim to be fighting for the rights of the landless and peasants.

The underdog has his say in this book, because Roy wills it. Radicals are promoted and development damned. It’s a victimisation syndrome where the author likes to keep the marginalised and minorities on the fringes of society, just like the Left did in the states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura for their political ends. The stirring of Indian progress brings out the activist in Roy, who lashes out at land-grabbing by corporates. You must, however, admit that the writer argues her cause with zest and vigour, never yielding a word nor flinching from the painful truth.

The State, under democracy, has grown all too powerful with filthy lucre, whereas the poor are dumped by the wayside and the others benefit immensely, she rants. Partly true, but the underprivileged have also reaped the fruits of democracy through better education, sanitation, health and overall improvement in their standard of life.

This is conveniently ignored, again thanks to the general influence of her Leftist friends, who remain stuck in the Russian Gulag era and swear by the revolution of the proletariat. It is in this context that Roy finds it prudent to omit India’s tryst with Nehruvian-socialism so inspired by the former Soviet Union, which saw the country free-falling into economic disaster in the early 1990s before fiscal reforms pulled it out of the morass.

In essay after essay, the author rails at the arms of a largely liberal and pluralistic democratic political system. Politicians, judges, the police and corporates are her main targets, most of them justifiably so. She saves some vitriolic for the media, which she says are funded by the evil state and greedy corporates. Fascism is her ‘F’ word, and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi her privileged whipping boy, with George W Bush coming a close second. As for Kashmir, it’s better off with azadi, or independence. Definitely not a prospect the Indian government would welcome after putting down a revolt and containing an active insurgency for over 20 years.

After reading the book, you can’t help wondering if the essays are meant to lay the groundwork for a call to arms against the government.

Roy builds her case for resistance against the state deliberately, which is unacceptable to those who wear patriotism on their sleeve.

You get the feeling she finds authority restrictive and wants it out. For some, she may be a provocative rebel in the ranks, but for others she’s the alternative liberal, espousing justice and not merely the Rule of Law.

Roy lacks new ideas to confront the modern, socio-political and economic ills, but she stands her ground when it comes to pseudo idealism. Armed with formidable prose, sharp arguments and an endless pile of meticulous research, she’s one intelligent critic you can’t ignore, despite the incessant whining you get used to halfway into the book. She may have thrown her creativity into cold storage, but she has emerged as India’s chief critic through sheer force of expression, which can be put down as the saving grace of the book.

allan@khaleejtimes.com

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