Celebrated writer Arundhati Roy on Saturday refused to accept the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the Indian government toeing the United States' line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'
The Sahitya Akademi jury had last week chose her book, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, a collection of political essays for the 2005 literary award.
"I have a great deal of respect for the Sahitya Akademi, for the members of this year's Jury and for many of the writers who have received these awards in the past. But to register my protest and reaffirm my disagreement with the policies of the Indian government, I must refuse to accept the 2005 Sahitya Akademi Award," Arundhati said in a statement in New Delhi.
"These essays written between 1998 and 2001 are deeply critical of some of the major policies of the Indian State," she said, adding that the main area of her disagreement included the government's policies of constructing big dams, pursuing nuclear weapons, increasing militarisation and economic liberalisation.
"Even today, this government shows a continuing commitment to these polices and is clearly prepared to implement them ruthlessly and violently, whatever the cost," she said.
She further noted that, in the last few months, apart from the growing number of farmers' suicide and the forcible eviction of people from their lands and livelihood in thousands, the country had witnessed police brutality on industrial workers in Gurgaon, killing of a dozen people protesting against a dam in Manipur and the killing of another dozen people protesting their displacement by a steel plant in Orissa.
The Algebra of Infinite Justice is also critical of US foreign policy, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
"This present Indian government too has seen it fit to declare itself an ally of the US government, thereby condoning the American invasion of Afghanistan and the illegal occupation of Iraq, which, under the Nuremberg principles, constitutes the supreme crime of a war of aggression," Arundhati added.
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