Paperback of the week
Extraordinary idealism
Martin Bright on The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
Sunday December 28, 2003
The Observer
The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
Arundhati Roy
Flamingo £8.99, pp160
This slim volume contains a collection of political essays written by the author of The God of Small Things between June 2002 and August 2003. They concentrate on the international events surrounding America's war on terror, but also demonstrate a wider range of causes that fuel Arundhati Roy's anger.
These include her much publicised campaign for the indigenous Adivasi people of Madhya Pradesh, who are faced with displacement by government plans to dam the Narmada valley in central India.
But they also stretch to a celebration of the work of Noam Chomsky and a critique of the present generation of African-American politicians.
Much of the subject matter here is predictable: Roy is against the illegal war in Iraq, despises American imperialism and bemoans the malign influence of the global corporations. She has the instincts of a radical student politician. But there is nothing wrong with that if what that means is intelligent, articulate, youthful passion about the injustices being perpetrated in the name of democracy. If only more of our public intellectuals could retain some of the idealism of their youth.
The sign of a great essayist is an ability to make you think again about a much discussed subject. Her essay on 'Ahimsa' (non-violent resistance) is genuinely inspiring.
She argues that we will make no progress in resolving serious conflict until governments start listening to the concerns of peaceful protesters. Otherwise, the message goes out that violence is more effective. 'Any government's condemnation of terrorism is only credible if it shows itself to be responsive to persistent, reasonable, closely argued, non-violent dissent.' Brilliant.
