ARUNDHATI ROY

Childhood

• Born Suzanna Arundhati Roy on 24th November 1961

• Mother – Christian woman from Kerala

• Father – Bengali Hindu tea planter

• Parents divorced when Roy was young

• Childhood spent in Ayemenem, Kerala

Into Adulthood

• Roy left home at sixteen and lived in a squatter’s colony in New Delhi

• She sold empty beer bottles for a living• She attended architectural school and

married fellow student, Gerard Da Cunha• Both quit their studies and moved to Goa• Roy eventually left Da Cunha and moved

back to New Delhi

Career

• Whilst living in New Delhi, Roy met the film director Pradeep Krishen (whom she later married), and accepted a small acting role

• Roy wrote several screenplays that became films• Controversy first came when she wrote a critical

essay of the celebrated film Bandit Queen• Roy withdrew to private life to work on her debut

novel The God of Small Things, which took her five years to complete.

Writing

• The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize in 1997

• After its publication, Roy began to work as a political activist, writing and giving speeches on a variety of issues

• She has been imprisoned for her activism but continues to fight for her beliefs

• Roy received the Sydney Peace Prize in November 2004

Inspiration for The God of Small Things

“… the image of this sky blue Plymouth stuck at the railroad crossing with the twins inside and this Marxist procession raging around it.”

INDIA

Kerala: God’s Own Country

Kerala: God’s Own Country

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala

Social and Political• Family are Syrian Christian (60% of pop. is

Hindu, 20% Muslim, 20% Christian).• Caste system (derived from Portuguese casta

meaning breed, race, or lineage). • Castes are ranked, named, endogamous groups

with membership through birth.• 4 main castes + ‘untouchables’• Caste discrimination outlawed 1959 but still exists

in many rural areas of India.• Patriarchal (consider the impact of divorce).• Communist state (1957, first Indian state).