Why don’t they let Arundhati Roy say her piece?
to journey? Is it any wonder, then, that I admire Arundhati Roy? Earlier they would comment on her delicate features, her quivering voice, and her money. Then she got rid of her curls, she spoke out loud on almost anything that moved (and did not), and she donated the moolah for a cause. There was a hush. Is this to be the fate of every woman activist? The problem is that no one wants to believe that Arundhati Roy can be Everywoman; she has to be Somebody and Somebodies are not supposed to do what Everybody does or wants to do. From blas bohemian to missionary mama, they thought they had brought her round full circle. False morality? Now they think the mama is becoming demonic. She is not merely cooking a warm meal for malnourished minds; she is lighting the fire out in the open. So, what do they do? One of them has used the Leninist term for her: ‘Useful idiot’. Amulya Ganguli applies this analogy for, according to him, the Russian leader believed that such people were on the margins
