DOI: 10.5176/2345-7163_1.1.6
Authors: Mahbubul Alam and Mizanur Rahman
Abstract:
In spite of an awakening in respect of environment which has given rise to a number of organisations including political parties popularly known as Greens in the west, it has not found an organized expression in India. In such a state, Arundhati Roy has shown her serious commitment with her writings and activities by joining like-minded people on vital issues related to environment. In 1998 she participated in a seminar on the Hiroshima Day and presented a paper where she said, “If there is a nuclear war, our foes will not be China or America or even each other. Our foe will be the earth herself. The very elements- the sky, the air, the land, the wind and waterwill all turn against us. Their wrath will be terrible…” 1 She showed her solidarity with the Chaliyar Human Rights Samithi fighting against pollution caused by Grasim industry at Mavoor in Kojhikode, Kerala. She opposed “a new development plan for the Panchmarhi area in which hotel building would be allowed at the cost of despoiling the beauty and sylvan backdrop of” 2 the hill station. She also associated herself with the Narmada Bachao Andolon considering the adverse effect of the Narmada valley development project which “will alter the ecology of the entire river basin of one of India’s biggest rivers. For better or for worse, it will affect the lives of twenty five million people living in the valley. It will submerge and destroy 4000 square kilometers of natural deciduous forest.” 3 With all these activities regarding environmental issues “Arundhati Roy will continue to stir the world’s conscience” 4 as hoped by the Veteran Gandhian social workers. She did it perfectly which is evident from the bitter criticism against her for developing a social conscience suddenly by the central government, the state governments of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra and their supporters. She brilliantly answered these critics in an interview published in the Frontline: “Is it a crime to develop suddenly a social conscience? ...But the critics you mention should take a look at my earlier work- for instance they could begin by reading The God of Small Things.” 5 Her suggestion certainly indicates that she has delineated environmental issues in this novel to stir the conscience of human beings in Indian society and to make Indian readers realise their sensitivities about the importance of preserving the harmonious relationship between the people and the physical environment.
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