THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: WRITER Arundhati Roy on Wednesday warned that Kerala could become Lebanon if communal and political fires are allowed to be lit in the state. Speaking after receiving the Malayattoor Foundation’s maiden literary award for overall contributions at the State Central Library, she said it was very easy to light a fire and if that fire was lit in Kerala, the consequences would be disastrous.
“I live in north India and every day my heart breaks to see how people talk to each other. How Hindus talk to Muslims. You saw they are attacking churches. They burnt 300 churches or more last year, according to a Guardian report. You saw what happened in Manipur. It is very easy to light a fire. If that fire is lit here, Kerala will become Lebanon. So we have to stop them,” said Arundhati Roy.
Referring to the state’s history of not electing the BJP to power, she said Kerala is one of the last few outposts in the world. She added that it was very sad to see what happened in the corporation elections in Thiruvananthapuram. “This cannot happen to us. This is where the fight has to start. We have the politics, we have the culture, we have the history, we have the intelligence and we have the education. Do not let it go.”
Calling Kerala home in a political, literary and cultural sense, Roy said every time she packed her bags to Kerala she knew she was coming home. “It is not a sentimental thing. It is because it is home to me in a political way, in a literary way, in a cultural way and it makes me proud. And I know that it is under attack. I do not know how long we are going to stand up but so far we have stood up and I hope that we will stand up always,” she said.
She said what made her proud of Kerala was that every five years people kicked out governments and brought in new ones. “But we do not want that other one. We do not want that Delhi one.” Referring to fascism, she said it was no longer only a state phenomenon. “That fascism is in the public. It is in the people. It is in the sentiment. It is in the everyday conversation. It is in every single cultural thing that is put out,” she opined.
She warned that any day the US was going to attack Iran and the world would change. “All the things that we all think, we know and are familiar with, everything is going to change in the next few years because all our intelligence, all our history, all our culture, all our music, all our science, everything is now going to be owned by AI corporations.”
Tracing the country’s political journey she spoke of land reforms, the Naxalite movement, anti-displacement struggles, NREGA and the present fight for citizenship. “Now we are fighting for our citizenship, for our right to be on the electoral roll. This is where we have reached. I am happy that everyone celebrates me. As a writer maybe I am successful, but in what I write I am a complete failure because of what is happening in this country.” she said.
She said critical thinking was being taken away from the new generation by artificial intelligence and that even disagreement had become a luxury.
Roy said everything she wrote was political whether it was fiction essays, memoirs or screenplays. Speaking about Mother Mary Comes to Me, she said it was about two women who lived outside in the world and fought public and private battles and about the most difficult kind of love which included love for this place.
Expressing pride in receiving the award she said Kerala’s cosmopolitanism was its beauty. “I am genetically half-Malayali and I actually write in English. They said yes, we are very sure. I said this is Kerala’s cosmopolitanism.” she said.