Walls of words
Words do not always liberate
Sometimes they also imprison
I am in search of such a line
That will set me free
From the web of suffocating sentences.
– Punjabi poet Surjit Patar
The recent vilification of Arundhati Roy in the mainstream Indian media has once again highlighted the question of limits to freedom of expression. She successfully deflected possible charges of sedition by pointing out that civilised countries do not imprison their writers for words spoken in passion or compassion. Sebastian Seeman, a Tamil filmmaker, was not so fortunate – he has twice been arrested under the National Security Act for saying much less in support of Tamil Eelam. But Home Minister P Chidambaram is a Harvard graduate and a corporate lawyer, and knows the difference between an English-language and a Tamil-language writer too well to treat them in a similar manner. So, Roy was let off the hook – but with enough of a hint to the friendly press to create an unfriendly environment so that her freedom became much more oppressive than the honour of being a prisoner of conscience in a supposedly democratic state.
There is little to complain about in the observation that Roy made. With the people wanting azaadi, and living in an almost permanent state of siege by the Indian security forces, Kashmir has indeed never been an integral part of India. This statement is applicable to some states of the Northeast too, where Indian has connotations different from what the word is taken to signify elsewhere. Had the government gone for Arundhati Roy's head for telling the truth, its actions would only have added further lustre to her celebrity status. What the Indian establishment has done instead is to let loose upon her the hounds of the media and the foxes of the chattering classes.