Arundhati Roy- An ambassador of peace:

Arundhati Roy, the author and the activist. She resides at New Delhi. She has written many books like, ‘The God of Small Things’ (1997), ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’ (2001), ‘An Ordinary Persons Guide to Empire’ (2005), ‘The Shape of the Beast’ (2008), and many other non-fiction books are in her credit. She has also written two screenplays - In which Annie Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon. Roy lived her life as an activist after she won the prestigious Booker Prize for her stunning debut novel ‘The God of Small Things’ in the year 1997. ‘The God of Small Things’ became a bestseller in more than 25 countries from Asia to Europe and Portugal to the United States. She was also awarded with the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her contribution in advocacy of non-violence. Since winning the

Booker Prize, she has concentrated her writing on political issues. As an activist for nearly a decade now she worked on many issues like the Narmada valley dam project, against the growing nuclear weapons race, against power company Enron’s activities in India, human rights violations in North-Eastern states and Kashmir and stood against many other social evils of society. Now here in this article I will talk only about her contribution towards the struggle of Kashmir. Did she play any role in raising the issue of ‘Struggle of Kashmir’? All of us know, she has always been there for Kashmir and its people, she writes against the atrocities, oppression and the human rights violations which are taking place in Kashmir. Last year during the Amarnath land row issue, she visited Kashmir to witness the mass non-violent uprising of the people in which people were seen leading and separatist’s leaders following them and the agitation went on spontaneously. She was present at the TRC ground, when UN chalo march was called out. In September 2008, She wrote in ‘Outlook’, “India needs azadi from Kashmir just as much- if not more-than Kashmir needs azadi from India”, and also “After 18 years of administering a military occupation the Indian governments worst nightmare has come true..........this one is nourished by people’s memory of years of repression in which tens of thousands have been killed, thousands have been ‘disappeared’, hundreds of thousands tortured, injured, raped and humiliated.” It feels good that someone is feeling the pain of Kashmiri people. She has always raised the Kashmir issue at every possible platform, whether by writing about Kashmir issue in her books or speaking about it in her conversations. She always wanted peace for Kashmir and the welfare of its people that was why she visited Kashmir after the destructive earthquake on the morning of 8th October 2005 which erupted in Kashmir and mostly damage caused in the Uri. She answers to a question, in her conversation with Mr. P G Rasool in the year 2006, “I would not want to write a book about Kashmir, I hope Kashmir will be in all the books I write.” (Conversation was first published in Greater Kashmir). I think nobody is unaware that she also refused to accept the India’s most prestigious literary prize, the Sahitya Akademi award, which was awarded to her in January 2006, for her book ‘The algebra of infinite justice’, a collection of political essays, which was first published in 2001. She gave the reason for refusing the award as, “.....to register my protest and reaffirm my disagreement-indeed, my absolute disgust-with these policies of the Indian government, I refuse to accept the Sahitya Akademi award.” She refused the award in protest to the injustices in Kashmir and North-Eastern states of India. Now what will we call her, a reformer, a good writer, or a voice against any injustice. I think she deserves all. In the past we haven’t seen anyone daring like her to write the truth and to raise the issues like Kashmir on the national and international status. I think she knows what the real meaning of peace is and tries to make its existence in the whole world whether it is in Iraq, Kashmir or Palestine. She has also raised her pen and voice against the death sentence of the ‘Muhammad Afzal Guru’ (he is from Sopore, Kashmir) in connection with the parliament attack (on 13 December 2001) case. She writes in the book ‘13 Dec: The strange case of the attack on the Indian parliament’ that, “To hang Muhammad Afzal without knowing what really happened is a misdeed that will not easily be forgotten. Or forgiven .Nor should it be.” This means what? She really has a kind heart towards the people of Kashmir or she always wants truth to be unleashed out. I think most of the people will agree with me on both. I think we should always give privilege to peace and not to violence. There are merely some of the people like her on the planet but it is unfortunate that we never give them the respect which they deserve for their contribution. Most of the minds will think that, in my whole article I only want to praise her, but my answer for them is; I only wanted to show that there are still some people in the world who believe in real ‘Peace’. “To love, To be loved, To never forget your own insignificance, To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you, To seek joy in the saddest places, To pursue beauty to its lair, To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple, To respect strength never power. Above all, to watch to try and understand, To never look away and never, never, to forget”--------Arundhati Roy