Author and Activist Arundhati Roy Awarded PEN Pinter Prize for her ‘Unflinching, Unswerving Writings’
- The award comes two weeks after after the Indian government granted permission to prosecute the writer over comments she made about Kashmir 14 years ago.
Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy has been awarded this year’s PEN Pinter Prize for her “unflinching and unswerving writings” and “a fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.” She will receive the award in a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library in London on Oct. 10. At the event, the award’s co-winner – a Writer of Courage — selected by Roy from a shortlist – will also be announced.
It comes two weeks after after the Indian government granted permission to prosecute the writer, a vocal critic of Narendra Modi’s government, over comments she made about Kashmir 14 years ago. On 14 June, “Delhi’s most senior official sanctioned the prosecution of the writer under India’s stringent anti-terror laws because of a comment she made at an event in 2010 that the disputed region of Kashmir had never been an integral’ part of India,” according to The Guardian.
Since then, more than 200 Indian academics, activists and journalists have signed an open letter calling on the government to withdraw the decision of prosecuting Roy. “We … deplore this action and appeal to the government and the democratic forces in the country to ensure that no infringement of the fundamental right to freely and fearlessly express views on any subject takes place in our nation,” the group said in the letter.
Similarly, author Salil Tripathi, a board member of PEN International, also condemned the move. In a column in The Guardian last week, he wrote that “though Modi lost his parliamentary majority in the recent elections, it is wrong to assume [he] has changed. Pursuing someone as high-profile as Roy is the government’s way of warning critics that they must not expect anything different. The sword hangs over the critics; Roy reminds us why the pen must remain mightier than the sword.”
In a statement, Roy said she’s “delighted to accept the PEN Pinter prize.” She wished “Harold Pinter were with us today to write about the almost incomprehensible turn the world is taking. Since he isn’t, some of us must do our utmost to try to fill his shoes.”
She was selected as this year’s winner in April by a judging panel comprising English PEN chair Ruth Borthwick, actor Khalid Abdalla and writer Roger Robinson. They praised her for her “incisive commentary on issues ranging from environmental degradation to human rights abuses.”
Abdalla called Roy a “luminous voice of freedom and justice” and that her works “have been a lodestar through the many crises and the darkness our world has faced” since her debut novel, “The God of Small Things,” was published. “In honoring Arundhati Roy this year, we are celebrating both the dignity of her body of work and the timeliness of her words, that arrive with the depth of her craft exactly when we need them most.”
Roger Robinson noted that Roy was “the unanimous choice for this prestigious award,” which is “a testament to her unparalleled contribution to literature.” He continued that her “vast body of work, encompassing both fiction and non-fiction, has not only captivated readers worldwide but also consistently focused on themes of social justice..” Her “incisive commentary on issues ranging from environmental degradation to human rights abuses demonstrates her commitment to advocating for the marginalized and challenging the status quo. Her unique voice and unwavering dedication to these causes make her a deserving recipient of this honor.”
Roy was born in 1961 in Shillong, Meghalaya, and studied architecture in Delhi. She is the author of the novel “The God of Small Things,” a semi-autobiographical fiction about an Indian family with its own hardships and secrets. It received the 1997 Booker Prize and was listed as a New York Times notable book of the year. Her second novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” was named to the Man Booker longlist in 2017 and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Much of Roy’s writing has focused on social activism, including criticism of India’s nuclear policies and American imperialism and capitalism.
She has been honored with Lannan Foundation’s Prize for Cultural Freedom (2002); the Sydney Peace Prize (2004); the George Orwell Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (2004); and the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing (2011). Roy published her second novel, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in 2017. Her nonfiction books include “Capitalism: A Ghost Story and The Algebra of Infinite Justice.”