Having written two riveting novels and numerous lacerating political texts alongside spearheading several social movements, Arundhati Roy's grit and creativity are unmatched in literary circles. Time and again, the fiery author has intrepidly stirred up a hornet’s nest with her unflinching political opinions and her predisposition for breaking convention with her craft. While her widely acclaimed debut novel, The God of Small Things, established her as one of the most revered writers of the Indian literary canon, her short stint in the film industry also bagged her a national award. On the multi-hyphenate's 60th birthday, we take you through some of the significant milestones she has achieved over the course of her momentous life and career.
She won the National Award for Best Screenplay in 1988
Before she burst onto the Indian literary scene in 1997, Roy had already made her mark in the cinematic world with the movie, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, which won her the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1988. Besides acting in the movie—a hilarious chronicle of her time as a student of architecture—she also went on to pen sharp-witted scripts for several television dramas as well as the 1992 movie Electric Moon, which clinched the award for Best Feature Film in English at the 40th National Film Awards.
She was the first Indian to win the Booker Prize for Fiction
Roys’s magnum opus, The God of Small Things, was a smashing debut that earned her global fame, including being nominated for—and winning—the Booker Prize for Fiction, making her the first Indian to accomplish the outstanding literary feat. The novel, which took her five years to write, was informed by her own childhood experiences in Kerala's Aymanam village and wove a deeply personal and incisively political narrative. It was also acknowledged as one of The New York Times's Notable Books of the Year.
She won the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004
Even in liberal societies and democratic institutions, asking seditious questions requires massive courage and resilience of will. Roy, who has been extremely vocal about casteist and religious violence and has been at the forefront of various movements for justice, won the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004 for her ‘commitment to the global cause of peace with justice’. It is a writer's duty to hold a mirror up to society and Roy has been dedicatedly doing it for years, no matter how unsettling the reflection.
She wrote a TV serial and a documentary
Having proved her mettle as a screenwriter prior to her skyrocketing literary career, Roy once again reverted to writing screenplays with the television serial, The Banyan Tree, and the documentary, DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy. DAM/AGE delineated her uninhibited involvement in the movement against the Narmada Dam Project, which would unfairly displace millions of inhabitants. For this, the writer was even sentenced to one day of imprisonment as a “symbolic” punishment for contempt of court.
Her second novel made it to the Booker Prize longlist in 2017
Roy’s long-awaited second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, once again made it to the Booker Prize 2017’s longlist, reaffirming the faith of bibliophiles in her consummate skill. The novel was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for 2017. Set primarily in the dingy locales of Old Delhi and the lush valleys of Kashmir, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness weaves together the lives of three individuals whose violent pasts gradually unravel.
She will receive the St. Louis Literary Award in 2022
Next year, Roy will be honoured with the St. Louis Literary Award, one of the highest literary prizes in the United States, which is conferred annually on a writer who routinely nudges readers out of their comfort to introspect on the human condition, the lack of empathy that plagues it and the trauma that the systemic violence unleashes on individuals, families and generations across decades. Presented annually by the Saint Louis University Library Associates, some of the previous recipients of the accolade include Margaret Atwood, John Updike, Salman Rushdie and August Wilson. Last year's recipient was the best-selling novelist, essayist and short-story writer, Zadie Smith.
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