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Field Notes On Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers Reviewed By Lily Azerad-Goldman
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Lily Azerad-Goldman

Reviewer Lily Azerad-Goldman, B.F.A. Lily is an artist and a children's author. Follow Here to view Lily's art work. She is also the author and illustrator of the children's book Mrs.Nosy -A Composting Story For Children & Adults.


 
By Lily Azerad-Goldman
Published on December 25, 2009
 

Author: Arundhati Roy
ISBN 978-1608460-24-3


Author: Arundhati Roy

The award winning author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) has regrouped many of her essays on her homeland, India in Field Notes on Democracy, - Listening to Grasshopper.

Born to a Christian-Syrian mother and a Hindu father, Ms Roy takes off her gloves when she delivers searing attacks on the Hindu rulers of India.Although I have to admit that Ms. Roy is a good writer, nonetheless her essays are nothing more than raving and ranting concerning democracy in India, as well as the West and Israel.

While I agree with her that the multi-nationals are committing “ecocide” in India, as well as in other parts of the world, her description of democracy is really “demon-crazy” as she put it so aptly. The thing I don’t comprehend is why is she attacking little Israel accusing them of being the root of all the evils in Palestine? Her tone of criticism borders on hatred and disguised anti-Semitism. Why doesn’t Ms. Roy write about the human right abuses that exist in China, Iran, Burma, Syria, Yemen or Sudan and the Islamic fanaticism seen in London, Paris and Barcelona? Where was Ms.Roy when Hammas snatched away Gaza from the Fatah, leading to much blood shed?

Chaos of Indian-Hindu rule is real. It’s not because of their type of democracy, but rather because corrupt leadership is difficult to change. Whoever is in power abuses their privileges. Staging rigged and fixed elections is nothing new in the area. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose! Democracy is bent and twisted into something unrecognizable. Pogroms against Muslims, Kashmiris and other poor people of different denominations are the norm and they are swept under their carpets, as with any dictatorship.

If the shoe were on the other foot and the Muslims were in power in India, they would act in the same medieval way. In fact, after the departure of Colonial England, the partition of India was disputed ferociously by many ethnic groups, including Muslims in India and Pakistan. But this, it seems, is not important to Ms Roy. She conveniently forgets about it.

She mentions several genocides that were swept under the carpet, as for example the Armenian genocide by the Turkish ruling entity in Turkey.  However, I find it strange that nowhere does she mention the holocaust! After all Ms. Roy, they were only Jews!

In her essay “Animal Farm” attacking Bush, Ms Roy sounds like a hyena howling at a baboon.

Does she offer any solutions to Hindu extremism and the West’s plundering of their minerals and other goodies? Yes, she is proud of the Kashmiri resistance movement fighting back. She is also proud of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. What she fails to mention is that the medieval Islamic extremists act as ruthlessly as their Hindu counterparts in India. However, she is well aware of a nuclear holocaust exploding between the two countries. She has one hopeful beacon, she dreams of equality and peace. May Allah hear her prayers!

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