The show trial of Arundhati Roy

July 12, 2024

DHAKA – Last month, the lieutenant governor of Delhi granted the police permission to prosecute Indian activist and prize-winning author Arundhati Roy under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Back in 2010, Roy said that Kashmir—which was experiencing unrest at the time—is not “an integral part of India.” Accusations of sedition quickly followed, but it is only now that she will face prosecution.

Advocating secession is illegal in most countries, and India is no exception. In fact, secession is a particularly fraught topic in India, because the wounds from its previous partition, carried out by the departing British in 1947, still have not healed.

Against this backdrop, Roy’s statement was both provocative and unwise. It was also wrong: there is overwhelming historical evidence showing that Kashmir has long been an integral part of India. To claim otherwise suggests either ignorance or innocence, neither of which is desirable when making controversial pronouncements on sensitive topics. As much as I admire Roy as a person and a writer, I do not always rate her political views and judgements highly, and this was a case in point.

Roy defended herself against accusations of disloyalty to her country. “What I say comes from love and pride,” she wrote at the time. “Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds.” Whether or not one finds her motivations convincing, prosecuting her for comments 14 years after she made them smacks of overkill.

Even in 2010, prosecution seemed excessive—at least to the Indian National Congress, which was then the government party. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then in opposition, demanded that Roy be prosecuted, the central