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beetlady's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I think I would have gained more from this book if I had better background knowledge of current Indian politics.
Great analysis of grassroots organizing (in India) and how flawed it can be.
“The first step towards reimagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination - an imagination that is outside capitalism as well as communism. … if [our rulers] say they cannot [concede space for the survival of adivasi], then perhaps they should stop preaching morality to the victims of their wars.”
Great analysis of grassroots organizing (in India) and how flawed it can be.
“The first step towards reimagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination - an imagination that is outside capitalism as well as communism. … if [our rulers] say they cannot [concede space for the survival of adivasi], then perhaps they should stop preaching morality to the victims of their wars.”
briandice's review
5.0
I purchased this book at the airport in Mumbai for the 2 1/2 hour flight to Kathmandu - and the three essays were so well written, so engaging and heartbreaking, I couldn't put the book down. Roy's treatise on the poor and disenfranchised of India is a larger discussion about where unfettered global imperialistic capitalism is taking us, and the costs from a local level (down to individual stories) straight through to the effect on national democratic discourse.
Have you seen the movie "Avatar"? Did you cheer when the indigenous people fought back and ousted the off-planet humans that wanted to rape-and-pillage their eco-balanced land? Then you definitely need to read this book, and find out that in the real world, indigenous people never win - and that all of us Westerners are the consumers that fuel the fire for this travesty.
Read this book.
Have you seen the movie "Avatar"? Did you cheer when the indigenous people fought back and ousted the off-planet humans that wanted to rape-and-pillage their eco-balanced land? Then you definitely need to read this book, and find out that in the real world, indigenous people never win - and that all of us Westerners are the consumers that fuel the fire for this travesty.
Read this book.
madhupria's review
5.0
Arundhati Roy has done a great service not just for the people inside this struggle but also for the people outside it. This was a proper depiction of a people’s movement including criticism of the party involved in this struggle. Makes you realize that it is indeed a broken republic, a broken world, a broken everything...
mveldeivendran's review against another edition
5.0
The notions of development, progress, civilized are the nightmares for those who study and practise Anthropology. Its hard that one gets to see the diversified ways of living from the knowable past and watching it how it all turn to dust in the name of mentioned notions since the days of colonialism.
Last night when I watched her talk, I realised she has a way with seeing things beyond mere ideologies and labels most of 'the intellectuals' use these days. she says the ideals of western countries are contained in themselves with the complacency of being civilized and modern. Most of the societies are already doing their cultural transition with respect to those values. Some don't. It reminds me of the book I read on February 'The Adivaasi Will Not Dance.' Maybe try reading that one to get more clarity with my rambling here.
Coming to this book, it has 4 essays written between 2009-12. Essays depict more light and clarity how Government (irrespective of ruling party) always tend to favor the special interests rather than the poor, subaltern, tribal peoples out there. On the wars waged on central India in the name of Operation Green Hunt against the indigenous people so that the lands could be leased to undergo development projects.
Its not fancy writing, the kind of writing that would make a conscientious person nauseate of their own existence in such a system. Knowing that their mere existence is making certain people toil and suffer in a system that's not favourable for everyone. I'm not even talking about equality here.
I had a year spent as a part-time researcher in the metallurgical department of IIT Madras for a sponsored project of a major private firm in central India. I was too proud about it for a certain amount of time until I leave out of it. We all play the game of meritocracy and call it is the only thing close to fairness. Maybe we all could do better than this realizing that there are many marginalized people hoping to have the luxury of imagination to have their ways of living as they would want to, unlike those who fix themselves upon mad horses. Please don't take it for granted.
Last night when I watched her talk, I realised she has a way with seeing things beyond mere ideologies and labels most of 'the intellectuals' use these days. she says the ideals of western countries are contained in themselves with the complacency of being civilized and modern. Most of the societies are already doing their cultural transition with respect to those values. Some don't. It reminds me of the book I read on February 'The Adivaasi Will Not Dance.' Maybe try reading that one to get more clarity with my rambling here.
Coming to this book, it has 4 essays written between 2009-12. Essays depict more light and clarity how Government (irrespective of ruling party) always tend to favor the special interests rather than the poor, subaltern, tribal peoples out there. On the wars waged on central India in the name of Operation Green Hunt against the indigenous people so that the lands could be leased to undergo development projects.
Its not fancy writing, the kind of writing that would make a conscientious person nauseate of their own existence in such a system. Knowing that their mere existence is making certain people toil and suffer in a system that's not favourable for everyone. I'm not even talking about equality here.
I had a year spent as a part-time researcher in the metallurgical department of IIT Madras for a sponsored project of a major private firm in central India. I was too proud about it for a certain amount of time until I leave out of it. We all play the game of meritocracy and call it is the only thing close to fairness. Maybe we all could do better than this realizing that there are many marginalized people hoping to have the luxury of imagination to have their ways of living as they would want to, unlike those who fix themselves upon mad horses. Please don't take it for granted.
vipinsirigiri's review
4.0
Perhaps the author's view could be best described by a phrase I recently came across, 'To confront a mind that radically alters our perception of the world is one of life's most unsettling yet liberating experiences. Unsettling because it can undercut carefully constructed rationales, liberating because at last the obvious is seen for what it is. However troubling reality may be, human dignity is not affirmed in fleeing it.'
As expected, Arundhati Roy gives her obsequiously passionate dialogue for left-wing militants that forces you to atleast admit that the state is equally at blame for existing scenario in the Red Corridor. The book begins with her sardonic praise for then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram and his whole nexus with mining corporates; followed up by her own experience with Naxalites and an independent book (too) aptly titled, Walking with the comrades; and concluding with her cynical description on Capitalism.
Whether Naxalite movement is justifiable is debatable, whether you agree with the author's view is debatable but whether the author makes a well-researched compelling narrative, absolutely yes!
As expected, Arundhati Roy gives her obsequiously passionate dialogue for left-wing militants that forces you to atleast admit that the state is equally at blame for existing scenario in the Red Corridor. The book begins with her sardonic praise for then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram and his whole nexus with mining corporates; followed up by her own experience with Naxalites and an independent book (too) aptly titled, Walking with the comrades; and concluding with her cynical description on Capitalism.
Whether Naxalite movement is justifiable is debatable, whether you agree with the author's view is debatable but whether the author makes a well-researched compelling narrative, absolutely yes!
ksiazkawpodrozy's review against another edition
DNF not because it is a bad book, i just dont know enough about the topic to follow what she claims.
mohiuddin_'s review
5.0
India has been a republic for the past 65 years. But, by the turn of the century the very basics on which the country was liberated from the clutches of the English colonialists seems to have vanished. The free voices seems to be stifled in the throats itself, the blatant and rampant misuse of the Constitution by the government and The courts alike are becoming the highlights of today’s era.
“What is freedom?” is an oft asked and highly quoted question. I guess, neither did we know it in 1947 nor do we know it in 2015. The reins of power shifted from the British egalitarians to the kurta-clad desi romantics. But the state of the poor remains the same. At least, in the bygone days we had the comfort of being looted by a foreigner, who looked foreign, ate foreign food, we could lament and curse under our breaths but in this age, it is our brother who loots us, he speaks our language, eats our food, has the same skin colour. But, what more he has is the money in his pockets.
Money buys everything, even free speech too. The media houses today are slaves to business barons, either the business owns the media or the media owns businesses. In this highly partial structure, only the rich get richer and the poor are left to commit suicide.
In the name of development, the poor are forced out of their homes, and the few who refuse to get forced are branded as terrorists and shot in “encounters”.
In the end, India is a democracy. By definition, it is a rule of the majority. Whatever the majority wants, it does. The fundamental rights of the Constitution are rampantly violated when the interests of the government or the corporate houses it caters to is at stake. Right to life is abused like anything. Rampant rapes, killings, murders, of adivasis and Dalits are common. The real concept of “divide and rule” is implemented. The policy of “divide and rule” was implemented by the British raj to efficiently manage the Indian mass without utilizing the resources of their own. In this age, it is used to create rift between different religions, different castes, and different regions.
In “Broken Republic”, Roy in her four essays exposes the rampant abuse of law and human rights to crush the local tribals in order to usher in the “New Development”. She doesn’t bat an eyelid in criticizing the policies of the right wing political parties to the leftists. She is also unwavering in criticizing the hypocrisies of some of the well-known social activists of today, Kejriwal, Anna Hazare, Bill Gates or even Nelson Mandela.
Most of the prose is easy on the brain and unfaltering in their essence. Though we may offer a different view on some of her theories, but we cannot ignore her overall message. The best part I like about her non-fiction is she doesn’t impose her views on the readers. She just bares the truth and leaves it out for the readers to judge. Sometimes, she can waver a bit in her accusations though.
In my opinion, all right minded, patriotic Indian must read Arundhati Roy’s non-fiction to understand what the government does and what it publishes.
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