s I »I I I F I E LD N O T ES ON D E M O C R A CY LISTENING TO GRASSHOPPERS COMBINING FIERCE CONVICTION. DEFT POLITICAL ANALYSIS. AND BEAUTIFUL WRITING. THIS IS THE ESSENTIAL NEW BOOK FROM ARUNDHATI ROY Field Notes on Democracy tracks the fault lines that threaten to destroy India's precarious democracy and send Shockwaves through the region and beyond. 'In her searing account of the actual practice of the world's largest democracy, Arundhati Roy calls for 'factual precision' alongside of the 'real precision of poetry.' Remarkably, she combines those achievements to a degree that few can hope to approach ... Roy asks whether our shriveled forms of democracy will be 'the endgame for the human race'—and shows vividly why this is a prospect not to be lightly dismissed." 6 J —NOAM CHOMSKY 'After so much celebratory salesmanship about India the 'emerging market,' Roy draws us into India the actual country, peeling away the gloss until we are confronted with perhaps the most challenging question of our time: who and what are we willing to sacrifice in the name of development? Roy is one of the most confident and original thinkers of our time." 5 —NAOMI KLEIN 'The notion of Democracy and the pleading for human compassion first came together in Sophocles and the Greek tragedies. More than two thousand years later we live under an economic world tyranny of unprecedented brutality, which depends upon the systematic abuse of words like democracy or progress. Arundhati Roy, the direct descendant of Antigone, resists and denounces all tyrannies, pleads for their victims, and unflinchingly questions the tragic. Reflect with her on the answers she receives from the political world today." r J —JOHN BERGER /T"i Haymarket ISBN 978-1608460-24-3 f f ' Books www.haymarketbooks.org (continued from front flap) something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatoiy or ganism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing profit? Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated go back to being what it used to be?" —FROM THE INTRODUCTION ARUNDHATI ROY was born in 1959 in Shillong, India. She studied architecture in New Delhi, where she now lives. She has worked as a film designer and screenplay writer in India. Roy is the author of the novel The God of Small Things, for which she received the 1997 Booker Prize. The novel has been translated into dozens of lan guages worldwide. She has written several nonfiction books, including The Cost of Living, Power Politics, War Talk, An Ordinal j Person's Guide to Empire, and Public Power in the Age of Empire. Roy was featured in the BBC television documentary Dam/age, which is about the struggle against big dams in India. A collection of interviews with Arundhati Roy by David Barsamian was published as The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile. Roy is the recipient of the 2,002, Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Prize. Cover illustration: Jaime Orozco Author photograph: Sanjay Kak Cover design: AbbyWeintraub FielNdo teosn D emocracy ListetnoiG nrga sshoppers ArundhaRtoiy HaymarketB ooks Chicago,Il linois Firpsutb libsyhH eady marBkoeotki sn2 009 © 200A9r undhRaotyi HaymarBkoeotk s P.O.Bo x1 801C6h5i,c aIgLo6 ,0 618 773-7588834- [email protected] www.haymarketbooks.org ISBN9:7 8-16084.6 0-24-3 Traddei stribution: Int hUe. St.h rouCgohn sorBtiouomSk a laensdD istribuwtwiwo.nc,b sd.com Int hUeK ,T urnaroPuunbdl iSsehrevri wcwwe.st,u rnaround-psl.com InA ustrPaallgiraa,Mv aec milwwlwan.,palgravemacmillan.com.au. Allo thceoru ntPruibelsi,sG hreoruWspo rldwwiwwd.ep,g w.com/home/worldwide.aspx Specdiials coaurnaetv sa ilfoarbb luelp ku rchbayso ersg anizaantdii nosntsi tPultieoancssoe.n tact HaymarBkoeotkfo srm orien formaatti7 o7n3 -758883o4-ri [email protected]. Thibso owka sp ubliwsihtethdh gee nersouupsp oofrt thW ea llaGcleo bFauln d. Covedre sibgyAn b bWye intraub Mapo flndcioau rtePseyn gouBfio no kIsn dia PrinitneC da nabdayu niolna boonrr ecycplaepdce orn tai1n0ip0ne gr cpeonstt -conwsausmteer in accordwainttchhe ge u ideloiftn heGesr eePnr eIsnsi tiwawtwi.vger,e enpressinitiative.org LibroafrC yo ngrCeIsPsD atiaas v ailable 2 4 160 9 8 7 5 3 1 Contents Map ofI ndia ix IntroducDteimoonc racyF'asi liLnigg ht 1 One Democracy: Who'sS heW henS he'ast H ome? 30 Two How DeepS halWle Dig? 50 Three "AndH isL ifSeh oulBde comeE xtinct" TheV erSyt ranSgteo royft heA ttacoknt heI ndiPaanr liament6 8 Four Breakitnhge N ews 100 Five CustodiCaoln fessiotnhse,M ediaa,n dt heL aw 113 Six BabyB ushG,o Home 118 Seven AnimaFla rmI I: InW hichG eorgBeu shS aysW hatH eR ealMlye ans 120 Eight Scandailnt heP alace 128 Nine ListentionG gr asshoppers: GenocidDee,n iaaln,d C elebration 141 Ten Azadi 169 Eleven NineI sN otE leven · (AndN ovembeIrs nS'etp tember) 184 Twelve TheB riefing 202 Glossya r 211 Sources 216 Notes 219 Index 245 Tot howshheoa vlaeer ntedodi vhoporfreco emr eoans Whesrhedo w uegl oa fttehrle afr sottn iers? Whesrhueol tdhb eid flsry a fttehrle as skty ? Whesrhedo t uhpleal nstlpseaft eerth lea bsrte ofaa tihr ? -"TheE arItCshl osoinUn sg" MahmoDuadr wish t CHINA ' ' . ,' ... Map not to scale Introduction DemocracyF'asi liLnigg ht Whiwlee' srteai rlglu aibnowguh te tthheerlr ieaf'festd eerac tahn, wea dadn otqhueers ttoti hocena rItst? h elriaefft eed re mocracy? _Whsaotor flt i wfieil btle B?y" dmeocrIad coynm"'e tad nme ocracy asa ni deoaral na spirIam teiatonhnw e.o rklmnogd Weels:t elrinb ­ erdamelo craancidytv ,sa ri�auncathsts h,ae rye . Soi,ts h elriaefft eed re mocracy? Attemtpoat nss wtehqriu se sotftieotnnu irnnat c oo mparison ofd irffeenstys toefgm osv ernaannedc newd,i tahs m oewhat pricckolmyb,ad teifveoenf sdee maocIcytr.fl' asw ewdes, a Iyt. isn't perfbeuictttb ',es t ttheaernv y etrheilnsge otnoh ffaeItrn'.es vl iyt,a b someiontn hee wilrlo soam"y A:f ghaPnaiksitSsaatnua,Adn ri,a bia, Soma.l.ii.tsa h wahta ytow uo uplrde fer?" Whethdeerm ocsrhaocbuyelt dhu et otphialaalt" delvoeping" soiceiteass p�iori esas epaqruasetteia olnte otgh.(e Itr hiintk shouTlhdee.a rildayel,i pshtaicscaeb n eq uihteea dTyh.eq )u estion aboluitaf fetd eerm ocirasad cdyr etsots heoodsfu e sw hoa lready liivnde e mcoracoirie ncs o,u ntrpireest tetobnh edda e tmc oracies. Iits mne'attn ost u ggtehswatetl apisneot lo,d d eirscrmeoddietlesd oft otaloirat uatrhioarngi otvaerriInatamn'ne sca etn.ost u ggtehsatt