Author Arundhati Roy returns National Award

She had won the National Award for the film In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones

Writer and activist Arundhati Roy has joined the growing list of scholars, artists and scientists who are returning government honours to protest against the Centre’s ineffectiveness to tackle communal tensions in India.

Ms. Roy had won the National Award in the year 1989 for the film In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones. She has also been the recipient of the Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. “Intolerance is the wrong word to use for the lynching, shooting, burning and mass murder of fellow human beings,” Roy wrote in an article in The Indian Express newspaper. “These horrific murders are only a symptom of a deeper malaise. Life is hell for the living too. Whole populations - millions of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and Christians - are being forced to live in terror, unsure of when and from where the assault will come.”

She also added that she had turned down the Sahitya Akademi award in 2005 when the Congress was the ruling government. “So please spare me that old Congress-versus-BJP debate. It has gone way beyond all that,” she wrote.