Azadi - Arundhati Roy

Notes
INTRODUCTION
1 . Anumeha Yadav, “Ground Report: Delhi Police Actions Caused Death of Man in Infamous National Anthem Video,” HuffPost India , March 1, 2020,
updated March 2, 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/delhi-riots-police-national-anthem-video-faizan_in_5e5bb8e1c5b6010221126276 .
IN WHAT LANGUAGE DOES RAIN FALL OVER TORMENTED CITIES?
1 . Devanagari, known earlier as Nagari, which means “belonging to a city”—or, in the case of language, “spoken in a city”—was the script used
primarily by Brahmins in the northern and western regions of the Indian subcontinent. It is the script in which Sanskrit, the language of the scriptures
traditionally recited by Brahmin priests, is written. That is why it came to be known as Devanagari. Deva means “god” or “divine.”
2 . Geeta Pandey, “An ‘English Goddess’ for India’s Down-Trodden,” BBC News, February 15, 2011, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-
12355740 .
3 . The English policy in my mother’s school has since been completely reversed. Now, only Malayalam is taught in junior classes.
4 . See Arundhati Roy, “Why I Am Returning My Award,” Indian Express , November 5, 2015, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-iam-returning-my-award/
.
5 . Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (New York: Random House, 1997), 78.
6 . Arundhati Roy, “The End of Imagination,” in My Seditious Heart: Collected Nonfiction (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2019), 10, 11.
7 . While NGOs and news reports suggest a toll of two thousand persons (see “A Decade of Shame” by Anupama Katakam, Frontline , March 9, 2012),
then Union Minister of State for Home, Shriprakash Jaiswal (of the Congress Party), told Parliament on May 11, 2005, that 790 Muslims and 254
Hindus were killed in the riots; 2,548 were injured and 223 persons were missing. See “Gujarat Riot Death Toll Revealed,” BBC News, May 11, 2005,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4536199.stm .
8 . Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (New York: Knopf, 2019), 7.
9 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 8.
10 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 11, 12.
11 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 18–19.
12 . This assertion was made by Badri Narain Upadhyaya “Premghan” while speaking at the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in 1912. Alok Rai, Hindi
Nationalism (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2001), 53.
13 . Rai, Hindi Nationalism , 52.
14 . Rai, Hindi Nationalism , 57.
15 . Atul Chandra, “Language Row in UP Assembly: Sanskrit Allowed, Urdu Not,” Catch News, March 30, 2017, http://www.catchnews.com/politicsnews/language-row-in-up-assembly-sanskrit-allowed-urdu-not-56230.html
.
16 . “BSP Corporator Takes Oath in Urdu, Is Charged with ‘Intent to Hurt Religious Sentiments,’” The Hindu , December 14, 2017,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bsp-corporator-takes-oath-in-urdu-is-charged-with-intent-to-hurt-religioussentiments/article21665609.ece
.
17 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 47–48.
18 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 49–50.
19 . Jawed Naqvi, “The Lost Precious Pearls of Gujarat,” National Herald , September 2, 2017, https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/the-lostprecious-pearls-of-gujarat
.
20 . See Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 175.
21 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 67.
22 . Roy, Ministry of Utmost Happiness , 101.
23 . Pablo Neruda, “LXVI,” The Book of Questions , trans. William O’Daly (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1991), 66.
ELECTION SEASON IN A DANGEROUS DEMOCRACY
1 . Chandan Haygunde, “Elgaar Parishad Probe: Those Held Part of Anti-Fascist Plot to Overthrow Govt, Pune Police Tells Court,” Indian Express ,
August 30, 2018, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/elgaar-parishad-probe-those-held-part-of-anti-fascist-plot-to-overthrow-govt-pune-police-tellscourt-5331832/
.
2 . Lokniti-CSDS-ABP News Mood of the Nation Survey, Round 3, www.lokniti.org/otherstudies/lokniti-csds-abp-news-mood-of-the-nation-surveyround-3-18
.
3 . Michael Safi, “Demonetisation Drive That Cost India 1.5m Jobs Fails to Uncover ‘Black Money,’” The Guardian , August 30, 2018,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/30/india-demonetisation-drive-fails-uncover-black-money .
4 . Amit Agnihotri, “Reliance Defence Granted Offset Contract in Rafale Deal without Licence: Congress,” New Indian Express , July 27, 2018,
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/jul/27/reliance-defence-granted-offset-contract-in-rafale-deal-without-licence-congress-1849429.html .
5 . “1992: Mob Rips Apart Mosque in Ayodha,” BBC “On This Day,”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/6/newsid_3712000/3712777.stm .
6 . Zeba Siddiqui, “India Leaves Four Million Off Assam Citizens’ List, Triggers Fear,” Reuters, July 31, 2018, https://in.reuters.com/article/nrc-assamnational-register-citizens/india-leaves-four-million-off-assam-citizens-list-triggers-fear-idINKBN1KL0CE
.
OUR CAPTURED, WOUNDED HEARTS
1 . Hilal Mir, “In Pulwama Bomber Adil Ahmad Dar’s Village, It’s Another Day, Another Death,” HuffPost India , February 18, 2019,
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/pulwama-attack-just-another-detail-for-suicide-bomber-adil-dars-village_in_5c699d01e4b033a79943a0da .
2 . “Pulwama Blast: At Least 40 CRPF Personnel Killed, Deadliest Attack in 20 Years,” HuffPost India , February 14, 2019,
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/pulwama-attack-at-least-30-crpf-personnel-dead-pm-modi-calls-attack-despicable_in_5c656f42e4b0bcddd40f3026
.