Indian Author Arundhati Roy In Trouble Over Kashmir Remarks

NEW DELHI — Indian police were investigating Tuesday whether a Booker Prize-winning author and a hard-line Kashmiri separatist leader can be tried for sedition for questioning India's claim to disputed Kashmir.

Author Arundhati Roy and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani are accused of saying that Kashmir was not an integral part of India during speeches at a seminar in New Delhi last month.

A court in the capital ordered police to look into the case after a complaint was filed by a private citizen. Police had earlier decided not to pursue the case.

"We have registered a case against Roy and Geelani following the court's directions," said Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for New Delhi police.

Sedition carries a possible life sentence.

Both India and Pakistan claim sovereignty over Kashmir and have fought two wars over its control since the end of British rule in 1947.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the region after decades of violent turmoil. Separatist insurgencies and crackdowns by the hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed in the Indian-administered portion have killed more than 68,000, most of them civilians, since 1989.

Roy is an author and activist whose novel "The God of Small Things" won the Booker Prize in 1997. She has in the past come under criticism for calling for Kashmir's independence.

Geelani is spearheading the separatist campaign in the Indian portion of Kashmir. He is a key leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization of political and religious groups.

Comments

[Kim Wangnoo]

05:01 PM on 12/29/2010

Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris. Not to India, Not to Pakistan, Not to China. India does NOT get to go around murdering innocent kids, threaten their families if they don't drop the charges, terrorize youngsters doing nothing more insidious than playing cricket or going to school, and then call themselves a democracy.

I wonder if any of you Pro-Indians ever have actually BEEN to Kashmir and seen these things for yourself. It's easy to sit halfway around the world and call Kashmiris who demand basic human rights "terrorists" -- I suggest you go there - get to know the people, hear their stories and see for yourself what living in the Gaza of South Asia is really like.

I'm an American who recently returned from living in Srinagar and saw it first hand, especially this past year when over 115 people were butchered by those terrorists in Indian uniforms. Democracy does NOT exist for Kashmir under Indian rule and never has. The sad fact is that India wants Kashmir but doesn't want Kashmiris and has no qualm about eradicating them, from infants to old folks and all in between.

[Saint Poopypants]

06:50 PM on 12/13/2010

Kashmir belongs to India and to Hindus.

[Ergon]

05:21 AM on 12/02/2010

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's prime minister, pledging to honor India's commitment to allow the Kashmiris the right of self determination:
http://www.timesofsrinagar.com/?p=166
In a broadcast to the nation on 3rd November, 1947, Pandit Nehru said, “We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. That pledge we have given not only to the people of Kashmir and to the world. We will not and cannot back out of it.”

[OShea]

12:30 PM on 12/02/2010

Pakistan broke the standstill agreement it signed with King Hari Singh of Kashmir and invaded his princely state to try and grab it by force. Pakistan's raw and naked territorial aggression is the root cause of the mess thus created.

Nehru make personal promises that have no constitutional standing, as the Indian parliament never approved them.

Jinnah/Pak also pledged to keep Pakistan secular (Pak had upwards of 20% non-Muslims at the time of the partition), but soon after he died, Pakistan declared itself an Islamic Republic and they proceeded to persecute and marginalize all non-Muslims as well as Muslim sects such as the Ahmadiyyas, Shias and Sufis, and the persecution is still ongoing. As a result of Pak's methods, including the rampage in Bangladesh in 1971
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=204696359901&topic=11864&_fb_noscript=1
the % of non-Muslim population in Pakistan shrank down to 3.5% and that in Bangladesh from over 25% down to 10% by 2001.

No legitimate plebiscite is now possible in Kashmir since:

1. Pakistan refused to withdraw its forces from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as required by the UN resolutions
2. China also illegally occupies a portion of Hari Singh's princely state.
3. Many Punjabi Pakistanis were moved to PoK, changing the demographics vastly there
5. Pakistan-spurred militancy over the past 20 years is the cause of present negative sentiments there
5. The militants expelled over 250K Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley, significantly altering the demographics there

[OShea]

12:40 PM on 12/02/2010

(Contd)

Only 2% of Indian Kashmiris want to become part of Pakistan. Let them move over to Pakistan. Problem Solved.

Other Kashmiris' interests are best served by being part of the secular democracy of India (which is now the world's fourth largest economy and will get bigger), Kashmiri youth should reject separatism, and emulate Dr. Faisal Shah (who topped prestigious civil services exam, and who makes all Indians proud)

UPSC Topper 2010
http://www.iupsc.com/upsc-toppers-interview/

Shah Faisal (26), a doctor from Srinagar and son of a school teacher killed by (Pakistan-sponsered) militants, became the first Kashmiri to top the civil services exam. The results were announced on Thursday. “I have no words to describe my happiness,” Faisal, a 2008 batch graduate of the Jhelum Valley Medical College, said in Delhi on Thursday.

I want to communicate idea of India to Kashmiri youth: Faisal
by Bhaskar Roy, TNN, Jun 22, 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/I-want-to-communicate-idea-of-India-to-Kashmiri-youth-Faisal/articleshow/6076993.cms

IAS topper denounces politics of separatism

Mohammed Wajihuddin | TNN

Mumbai: There could not have been a better person than Dr Shah Faisal,this years IAS topper,to hit home an important message: separatism can only lead to annihilation while dogged determination to face challenges brings remarkable success.

Faisal scripted history by becoming the first Kashmiri and second Muslim to top the civil services exam. Amir Subhani was the first Muslim to top the IAS exam in 1987.

[OShea]

12:41 PM on 12/02/2010

Typo: 'Nehru made personal promises'

[TeacupKitten]

11:51 AM on 12/01/2010

I thought India had freedom of speech. Can't claim to be a democracy if you don't give a woman her right to have her own political opinion.

[OShea]

01:40 PM on 12/01/2010

She can have her opinions about any subject, but publicly stated ones need to be held up to the truth test by other members of the public. I don't think that she will be, nor should she be, charged or tried for holding and stating opinions, and that isn't the point of contention.

But if she is providing material support to separatists and militants, then she should be held to the same standards as anyone else, man or woman, that engages in such activities.

To draw a comparison, do you believe that Al-Awlaki, the American-turned-Jihadist, should have the "freedom of speech" to travel around the US and the globe, preach Jihad, and directly or indirectly incite violence against the United States? To most of us, he absolutely and positively should not. What Arundhati Roy is doing, as in supporting violent Maoist Naxalites, Kashmiri separatists, making shameless excuses for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks (which was an act of war by Pakistan, whose ISI plotted the attacks, against India) is not that dissimilar.

She seems to be living in a lap of luxury in India (with likely at least three posh homes, one of them in a hill station) while at the same spouting rich vs poor pablum (as in her odious response to the Mumbai attack I quoted in a comment below) to please her audiences.

I too once used to like her, but apparently her goal is to wreck India, and hence I no longer do.

[TeacupKitten]

02:34 PM on 12/01/2010

There is a difference between hate speech and free speech. Hers was free speech and the comparison you gave is free speech. Also, Jihadist is a wrong term. It is not the same as a terror sympathizer or terrorist.

[OShea]

03:49 PM on 12/01/2010

@TeacupKitten: "There is a difference between hate speech and free speech."

How do you say that. The article here is inaccurate and misleading in that respect:

READERS AND EDITORS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Arundhat Roy actually called for Kashmir to secede from India. She said: "Kashmir should get azadi ( = freedom) from bhookhey-nangey Hindustan ( = hungry & naked India)… India needs azadi from Kashmir and Kashmir from India."

And THAT'S the remark over which the question of sedition is under consideration, and not on how she interprets the history of Kashmir or role in the 3500+ years cultural and political continuum of India (she can be beaten hands down in a live debate on that!). The latter is free speech, whereas the former ventures into the zone of sedition.

For another US example, last year, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was suggesting secession when he said: "We think it's time to draw the line in the sand and tell Washington that no longer are we going to accept their oppressive hand in the state of Texas."

What if he had crossed over and said: "Texas should get freedom from the 'Tax-and-Spend Washington' … America needs independence from Texas and Texas from America."

Would you then not consider that seditious? I would, as would most other Americans. And Roy's comment is an exact parallel in to that in the Indian context.

[OShea]

04:10 AM on 12/01/2010

Explain to me why Roy supporting Maoists militants and Kashmiri separatist militants doesn't make her anti-India, instead of calling me and Tenji trolls in your own grandiose self-righteousness.

It is precisely because of the types exemplified by Arundhati Roy that India came to be brutally subjugated for 1000 years and turned from the world's leader in culture, mathematics, economy, trade and everything else into a destitute wasteland (with a 12% literacy rate) by 1947.

"2G spectrum scam that are eating away at the soul of our nation"

It's not an either or situation. Corruption should be rooted out, as well as those aiding and abetting forces trying to wreck India should be condemned.

[OShea]

04:11 AM on 12/01/2010

'A Roy are our only saving grace.'

Really? Do you know what Salmad Rushdie had to say about her?

'Arundhati should be ashamed of herself'
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=58312736934&topic=8546 Salman Rushdie--

Roy also wrote: 'We're told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That's absolutely true. It's an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day.'

Rushdie was full of silent rage discussing her remarks.

"It is disgusting to read her comments," he said, adding that her suggestion that the Taj and Oberoi hotels only catered to the rich, begged the question if the lives of rich people have no meaning. How about an over dozen employees of the Taj who died heroically trying to save the hotel guests, Rushdie asked. "Are they then just the lackeys of the rich?" he wondered, his voice rising slightly. "I find her thoughts nauseating. She should be ashamed of herself."

[FirstBiteBooks]

03:02 PM on 11/30/2010

This is a very smart and brave woman.

[OShea]

03:41 PM on 11/30/2010

As I asked below, what exactly is the difference between the American citizen Jihadist Al-Awlaki who goads people to attack the US and Arundhati Roy who goads and supports violent militants acting to dismember India?

[FirstBiteBooks]

03:47 PM on 11/30/2010

Writing style? :)

[eric14]

02:40 PM on 11/30/2010

''If I say to you, the earth goes round the sun.'' And then I say to you,''I support Maoist violence in India.'' Does the earth no longer go around the sun?

[OShea]

03:27 PM on 11/30/2010

Her support for Maoists establishes her anti-India proclivity.

She is directly wrong on the substance as well. Kashmir became an integral part of the Republic of India (today's India) the day King Hari Singh of Kashmir signed an instrument of accession in October of 1947. Historically as well, Kashmir has been a central part, not just an integral part, of India's 3500+ year long contiguous civilization. Islam, by contrast, has only been there for 800 years or so.

[eric14]

02:34 PM on 11/30/2010

India, the world's biggest democracy.

[pritamorama]

03:15 PM on 11/30/2010

Eric,

Take a break. The Indian government has decided against pressing charges.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/29/india-drops-charges-arundhati_n_775933.html

Although, Arundhati Roy has openly endorsed an armed group (The Maoists) with the stated aim of overthrowing the Indian State through any means necessary, including the use of arms. This makes her open to charges of sedition. The Indian sedition laws are very lenient when compared to those that exist even in the US. Under the Indian Penal Code, she must have provided 'material' support to a group to be found guilty. In the US, endorsement of an "enemy of the United States' is reason enough for sedition. So take a good, long hike. We are the world's biggest democracy!

[eric14]

03:25 PM on 11/30/2010

So take a good, long hike.
===========
And the middle class! Such wonderful manners!

[pritamorama]

03:20 PM on 11/30/2010

Eric,

Take a break. The Indian government has decided against pressing charges.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/29/india-drops-charges-arundhati_n_775933.html

Arundhati Roy has openly endorsed an armed group (The Maoists) with the stated aim of overthrowing the Indian State through any means necessary, including the use of arms and violent force. This makes her open to accusations of sedition. The Indian sedition laws are very lenient when compared to those that exist in the US. Under the Indian Penal Code, she must have provided 'material' support to a group to be found guilty. In the US, endorsement of an "enemy of the United States' is reason enough for sedition. We are the world's biggest democracy!

[Tenjikuronin]

01:52 PM on 11/30/2010

Arundhati Roy is similar to Ann Coulter. They both make outrageous statements to sell books and secure appearances on TV. The world would be a better place without these attention seekers.

[eric14]

02:35 PM on 11/30/2010

Your final statement is somewhat threatening.

[bosse]

12:37 PM on 11/30/2010

were fleeing to Pakistan. The Indian army quickly stopped the attacking Paks army and a cease fire line was established. India has no intention of giving up Kashmir nor taking over Pakistan. After all they have the highesy concentration of free Muslim women and men, enjoying all rights, numbering 150 millions. Pakistan in spite of poverty and many other natural disatsters and illiteracy continue to stir up troble, using American supplied giuns and planes and inviting al kaeda into the region. The foreign and domestic Muslim terrorists and anrchist have made Pakistan a basket case inspite of Billions we sent there to fight the enemy in Afghanistan. Unfortunately a lot of civilains ahave been killed in the shot outs between the India army and the inading Pakistanis and local thugs who are claiming they are firgting for a separate Kashmir. Please note Kashmir always has been ruled by elected Muslim politicins since 1948, and Women are free unlike in Pakistan. Also the local thugs have forced out most rich hindu farmers from the area, and have killed many.This is the reason for the Indian army's presence at the invitation of Kashmir's Prime minister and MP s that legislate in Delhi.Ms Roy unfortunately have joined the wrong cause. Sure it will be great if all fighters stop the killing. But you cannot have law and order when rioters interfere with normal governemnt functions and life.

[eric14]

02:37 PM on 11/30/2010

Propaganda not paragraphed, not spell-checked. You are failing in your duty to your masters.

[synergie]

01:17 AM on 12/01/2010

Are you the model to follow in propagating propaganda and fulfilling duty to one's masters?

[bosse]

12:27 PM on 11/30/2010

A Roy wrote A book that was very readable interesting and made her famous and rich.Since then she has become a social activist and non violent revelutionary in many good causes. Her parents are from very social conscious and politicaly active, and highly literate states of Kerala,and Bengal( Two States that have democratically elected Communist Govts.) there is no surprise for her activism. Unfortunately she has entered a unpopular cause. Whereas most Indians desire an undivided Muslim-Christian -Hindu home land, she isjoining the forces of division and unrest in Kashmir. For those have just heard about Kashmir, let me explain once more that Jammu and Kashmire is a State in northwest India bordering the Himalays, very beautiful and a vacation paradise. This area was ruled by a Hindu Kind in 1947. The population was slighly more Muslim than India,.Remember India was ruled by Muslim Emperors when the Britsih invaded in the 1800,s
The king of Kashmir wanted to reamin as a separate nation as did the Muslim king Nizam of a Hyderabad. Indian States have been previuosly vivisected by the British many times. After Independance Primeminister Nehru and his Deputy, Sardar Patel decided, that there will be no more division. The Kashmiri king was wavering in 1947, when a contingent of Pak army invaded the northern part of hisState. At the same time Indian leaders were tackling the unexpected inflow of hindu refugees from Pkaistan and trying to stop the genocide of Muslims who contd..

[Leviathan21]

09:30 AM on 11/30/2010

This will never happen. She has way too much of an international profile for Indian authorities to send her to jail. There would be an international outcry, and would bring precisely the kind of unwelcome attention that India doesn't want on this issue.

[OShea]

09:51 AM on 11/30/2010

She is misleading her unwitting international audiences with prejudiced and biased anti-India propaganda, and in the process she is aiding and abetting self-appointed enemies of India who are bent upon the obliteration of the secular democracy of India.

In that democracy of India, nothing and no one stops her from running for office and making laws to make India better, if she can make a case for point of view and earn voters' trust and support. Why doesn't she take that route instead of supporting violent militants and separatists? Have you asked yourself that question? The logical conclusion of what she writes and does is anarchy, and not development and progress which are what the poor of India need.

Truth should reign supreme, not propaganda, and her audiences deserve better than what dishes out.

[Leviathan21]

11:07 AM on 11/30/2010

She is making a comprehensive critique of the whole system. She can't do that if she is running for office. She is not interested in playing the game herself - she is only interested in creating a cultural space where we can talk about the game. And, that is fair enough.

To call her anti-Indian is just silly, when a great deal of her work is about how forces of capitalism, globalization, and this obsession with "development" has savaged the cultural forms of India and Indian-ness. 

Whether you agree with her or not, you have to accept that every society needs such a voice - someone who is radically opposed to every structure of power in that society.

[OShea]

12:12 PM on 11/30/2010

@Leviathan21:

One can also claim that Rush Limbaugh 'is making a comprehens­ive critique of the whole system' (of the system based on progressive taxation, social safety net, welfare, unemployment benefits, etc), that he is 'creating a cultural space where we can talk about the game', and he also commands huge audiences, but those do not make what he spews any less toxic.

Anyone who is rooting for the Maoists and separatists that engage in violence and want to wreck India is anti-India.

'obsession with "development"'

Sustainable development around the world is what we want, and I'd recommend the work of CSE, India, eg, on that:
http://www.cseindia.org/

'savaged the cultural forms of India and Indian-nes­s'

Most of her writings are to the detriment of cultural forms and "Indian-ness" of India. Her phony pretensions have many people hooked.

'someone who is radically opposed to every structure of power in that society. '

We have such people in the US too, of the anarchist and Larouchite credos.

I am not calling for her to be jailed (whether she is engaging in seditious acts or not should be determined after due process in a court of law, per the laws of India), but I do want to see her propaganda summarily defeated in the 'cultural space' that you refer to, and I believe that in due course, it will be.

[OShea]

08:37 AM on 11/30/2010

Arundhati Roy lacks credibility because she supports violent Maoists that blow things up, as in
Maoist bomb aimed at Bihar polls ends up killing 7 kids
Rakhi Chakrabarty, TNN, Nov 22, 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Maoist-bomb-aimed-at-Bihar-polls-ends-up-killing-7-kids/articleshow/6966903.cms
and calls them "Gandhians" and "patriots." Exactly how does blowing up a bridge, instead of building one, feed the poor or demonstate Gandhian pacifism (with all its pluses and minuses) or "patriotism"? It does not.

In that episode of violence, the Maoists called for a ban of elections and are opposed to progress that Bihar has recently started making under the leadership of its CM, Nitish Kumar (who was recently re-elected in a landslide victory), as in
BIHAR: Total U-Turn
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Bimaru-to-boom/articleshow/7002575.cms
Between 1999 and 2004, Bihar's economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5%. This grew fast and furiously to 11.35% from 2004 to 2009. In the old days, the government-run primary health centres received roughly 40 patients a month; now, it could be as many as 5,000 and certainly never less than 4,000.

[OShea]

09:05 AM on 11/30/2010

Roy and her anti-India pals (Geelani and other Kashmiri citizens of India, those Maoists, etc) all have full fledged democratic, civil, religious and other rights and freedoms in India, and they're free to run for office and effect positive and constructive change (if +ve change is what they actually seek, which is apparently not the case) but not to destruct and dismember the secular democratic union of India.

Between these negativists and development and progress as pursued by leaders such as Nitish Kumar (however imperfect the pace of change maybe), the choice couldn't be clearer, as affirmed resoundingly by the people of Bihar:
-- Bihar Election: Maoists Triggered a Blast in Betia Forest, http://tprone.com/bihar-election-maoists-triggered-a-blast-in-betia-forest/
-- Bihar Election Results Live: Sweeping Victory of JDU- BJP alliance, http://www.samachartoday.com/bihar-election-results-live-sweeping-victory-of-jdu-bjp-alliance/13408

[Leviathan21]

09:29 AM on 11/30/2010

Lacks credibility with whom?

She has an international audience, who care deeply about these issues, and they certainly find her to be very credible.  Just look at how well her books sell, how many influential papers carry her articles, and and how well-attended her lectures are all over Europe and North America. 

Every society needs at least one voice that is completely opposed to everything in that society - someone who presents a comprehensive critique of the total project, so to speak. Roy provides that voice in India.

She is not fair and she is not objective. But, it is not her job to be fair or objective. She is not a reporter or a journalist. She is a polemicist and an activist, who is only concerned about making noise and using her considerable influence to bring the conversation around to these issues. And, thank God for that! India and Indians should be proud that they have space in their society for such a person.

[pritamorama]

03:28 PM on 11/30/2010

Well said. I am not a fan of hers and do not subscribe to her world-view, but I do wholeheartedly buy into the thinking that a polemic voice like hers acts like some sort of a national conscience. As an Indian, I am proud that our public sphere provides for such debate, and so does the Indian Government, that has just decided not to pursue these charges against her.