sniggiethereader's review against another edition
5.0
Hi
SEE
As a 16-year-old reading this eye-opening book I don't know anymore what I think about them who must not be named anymore. I am brainwashed to the extent that the India-Pakistan Cricket match seems rigged to me.
Some say it's propaganda, some say it's the hard-hitting truth and I don't know where I fall in this spectrum.
I did realize few things as I proceeded on in this book-
1) The media is HIGHLY corrupt. I saw videos of Roy being critiqued but the fact they just happened to state that she wants Kashmir separation from India isn't legitimate. Here is a whole chapter that justifies her stance and it SURELY can be summed up in few lines ( to present her pov at least)
But then again, one of my friends argued upon the fact that Roy happens to have quoted 'leftist' newspapers which then again made me think and think.
2) Even if the extent of fascism she described in the book isn't prevalent, I can't help but feel she's correct for most of it. Not all but most yes.
3) The most interesting aspect of this book I discovered to be was the portrayal of Islam and it's followers. I stan this woman just for voicing out her opinions for them (and not against them for a change) it's tough to see the good in what is portrayed as bad
To sum it up, even though I feel greatly moved by this book, I don't think I am influenced to the extent I blindly follow everything.
SEE
As a 16-year-old reading this eye-opening book I don't know anymore what I think about them who must not be named anymore. I am brainwashed to the extent that the India-Pakistan Cricket match seems rigged to me.
Some say it's propaganda, some say it's the hard-hitting truth and I don't know where I fall in this spectrum.
I did realize few things as I proceeded on in this book-
1) The media is HIGHLY corrupt. I saw videos of Roy being critiqued but the fact they just happened to state that she wants Kashmir separation from India isn't legitimate. Here is a whole chapter that justifies her stance and it SURELY can be summed up in few lines ( to present her pov at least)
But then again, one of my friends argued upon the fact that Roy happens to have quoted 'leftist' newspapers which then again made me think and think.
2) Even if the extent of fascism she described in the book isn't prevalent, I can't help but feel she's correct for most of it. Not all but most yes.
3) The most interesting aspect of this book I discovered to be was the portrayal of Islam and it's followers. I stan this woman just for voicing out her opinions for them (and not against them for a change) it's tough to see the good in what is portrayed as bad
To sum it up, even though I feel greatly moved by this book, I don't think I am influenced to the extent I blindly follow everything.
amouria's review against another edition
2.0
Admittedly, I wanted to read this for an essay I had read last year. However, it was placed near the end as it was one of the most recent writings. This made the majority of the book something to drudge through. Roy brings up a lot of great points but her speaking/writing isn’t for me. Another thing that bugged me was that she kept referring to her two books and while it wasn’t necessary for me to have read them since she explains the narratives, referencing them became repetitive in her speeches.
I suggest to read the articles of most interest or relevance. Roy is sure to provide thoughtful quotes and meaningful takeaways.
I suggest to read the articles of most interest or relevance. Roy is sure to provide thoughtful quotes and meaningful takeaways.
siddharthagolu's review against another edition
5.0
I don't have a lot of friends who are supporters of the ruling BJP (well at least the ones who have disclosed it publicly), and consequently whenever the conversation shifts towards the ongoings in India, more often than not, we find ourselves agreeing with each other. Although this is perfectly alright for me on most days, on few ocaasions, I find a shadow of a doubt slowly creeping up inside - what if I'm living inside a bubble, an echo-chamber where I only get exposed to the ideas which I already hold to be true, especially relevant now that everything in our lives are getting regulated by algorithms. Whenever this confirmation bias hits me, I long to read something contrarian, to engage with the other side and to try to put myself in their shoes.
So it was with a pleasant surprise that I found out one day, one of my friends "coming out of the closet" and to declare him(her)self to be a supporter of the ruling party. I grabbed the chance to finally be able to hear the arguments from the other side and so, I broke my cardinal rule of not engaging in political debates on social media and contacted him/her. The result was devastating. We passionately debated our views and had heated discussions throughout the day, in the end agreeing that maybe we shouldn't have bothered to hit each other up after all. I was visibly distressed for a few days after this incident, as if a small flicker of hope had died in that encounter.
If two educated and privileged youths in their early twenties were unable to agree on something as basic as whether Muslims deserve to live in India, or whether India should really become a "Hindu Rashtra" or not, what hope could I have from the millions of others who didn't have the same privileges as us?
Reading this book brought that hopelessness to the front once again. There are hard-hitting truths written here, things that we would sooner like to forget lest they cause us pain and make vivid the grim reality of our times. But like a festering wound which devours our body if unattended, ignorance is not bliss but a vicious disease which paralyzes us faster than we might think.
My appeal to whoever is reading this would be - reach out to others, engage in conversations, don't dismiss the whole debate as "unnecessary politics" - your mere existence is political. Politics is not about discussing who should be the next PM, it's about discussing ideas and how you view others who are different than yourself, to engage with empathy and to embrace the differences, and to speak out against wrongs.
I'll leave you with a powerful passage from the book itself, where Arundhati Roy laments about the role each of us plays in how the future shapes itself:
-------------------------------
This is also available on my website here.
So it was with a pleasant surprise that I found out one day, one of my friends "coming out of the closet" and to declare him(her)self to be a supporter of the ruling party. I grabbed the chance to finally be able to hear the arguments from the other side and so, I broke my cardinal rule of not engaging in political debates on social media and contacted him/her. The result was devastating. We passionately debated our views and had heated discussions throughout the day, in the end agreeing that maybe we shouldn't have bothered to hit each other up after all. I was visibly distressed for a few days after this incident, as if a small flicker of hope had died in that encounter.
If two educated and privileged youths in their early twenties were unable to agree on something as basic as whether Muslims deserve to live in India, or whether India should really become a "Hindu Rashtra" or not, what hope could I have from the millions of others who didn't have the same privileges as us?
Reading this book brought that hopelessness to the front once again. There are hard-hitting truths written here, things that we would sooner like to forget lest they cause us pain and make vivid the grim reality of our times. But like a festering wound which devours our body if unattended, ignorance is not bliss but a vicious disease which paralyzes us faster than we might think.
My appeal to whoever is reading this would be - reach out to others, engage in conversations, don't dismiss the whole debate as "unnecessary politics" - your mere existence is political. Politics is not about discussing who should be the next PM, it's about discussing ideas and how you view others who are different than yourself, to engage with empathy and to embrace the differences, and to speak out against wrongs.
I'll leave you with a powerful passage from the book itself, where Arundhati Roy laments about the role each of us plays in how the future shapes itself:
After twenty years of writing fiction and nonfiction that tracks the rise of Hindu nationalism, after years of reading about the rise and fall of European fascism, I have begun to wonder why fascism—although it is by no means the same everywhere—is so recognizable across histories and cultures. It’s not just the fascists that are recognizable—the strong man, the ideological army, the squalid dreams of Aryan superiority, the dehumanization and ghettoization of the “internal enemy,” the massive and utterly ruthless propaganda machine, the false-flag attacks and assassinations, the fawning businessmen and film stars, the attacks on universities, the fear of intellectuals, the specter of detention camps, and the hate-fueled zombie population that chants the Eastern equivalent of “Heil! Heil! Heil!” It’s also the rest of us—the exhausted, quarreling opposition, the vain, nit-picking Left, the equivocating liberals who spent years building the road that has led to the situation we find ourselves in, and are now behaving like shocked, righteous rabbits who never imagined that rabbits were an important ingredient of the rabbit stew that was always on the menu. And, of course, the wolves who ignored the decent folks’ counsel of moderation and sloped off into the wilderness to howl unceasingly, futilely—and, if they were female, then “shrilly” and “hysterically”—at the terrifying, misshapen moon. All of us are recognizable.
-------------------------------
This is also available on my website here.
hadiya's review against another edition
challenging
informative
4.5
Roy deftly illuminates the tense political atmosphere in India, and the combination of fascism, casteism, classism, and religious fundamentalism that is eroding any democratic "decency" (as Roy puts it) it has. She speaks in particular about her own writing, the rise and origins of the BJP (and RSS) and the way that caste is inviolably woven into Indian society, and what citizenhood means in a country of a billion.
I loved the essay where she looks at how fiction/nonfiction writing is treated differently and she herself as a writer is. Her treatises on Kashmir were really informative, and I am sad to say so much of what I previously knew about the issue had been sanitized.
I think a lot of what I knew about India had been sanitized, by well meaning family, news, under reporting, a lack of research on my part, but I always knew there was a bigger monster under the bed. Roy speaks to that monster directly, that monster that is so far gone that any description inevitably wrangles it into something less wild and is thus untrue. She doesn't allow it a semblance of decency.
A lot of the reading made me feel deeply sad, frustrated, and angry. What could be done to help? I had no idea. Roy gives no answers because it's not that easy, just that we will need bravery and courage to get to a better tomorrow.
Only wrangle is since it was a collection of essays, a lot of essays overlapped on content or themes, and at points it would get repetitive.
I loved the essay where she looks at how fiction/nonfiction writing is treated differently and she herself as a writer is. Her treatises on Kashmir were really informative, and I am sad to say so much of what I previously knew about the issue had been sanitized.
I think a lot of what I knew about India had been sanitized, by well meaning family, news, under reporting, a lack of research on my part, but I always knew there was a bigger monster under the bed. Roy speaks to that monster directly, that monster that is so far gone that any description inevitably wrangles it into something less wild and is thus untrue. She doesn't allow it a semblance of decency.
A lot of the reading made me feel deeply sad, frustrated, and angry. What could be done to help? I had no idea. Roy gives no answers because it's not that easy, just that we will need bravery and courage to get to a better tomorrow.
Only wrangle is since it was a collection of essays, a lot of essays overlapped on content or themes, and at points it would get repetitive.
jershkat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
tense
fast-paced
5.0
With this book Arundhati Roy lays out the scene of an India that is deep in crisis. Mass lynchings of Muslims, Dalits, and the poor is wrecking India, as is the Hindu nationalism that is the signature of Narendra Modi’s policy platform. Millions of Indian citizens under siege with their rights either in jeopardy or non-existent, and a justice system even more corrupt than that of the US. Roy paints India as a land of repression, inequality, and murder. Azadi is an eye-opening account of the crimes that are not written about or addressed in the media. Roy manages to showcase all of this with her brilliant and easily digestible writing. This is truly a must read for anyone who cares about the powerless and oppressed of the world. Roy is truly a voice for the voiceless, calling out for someone, anyone to notice the plight of her fellow statesmen/women, the question is, will we listen?
adira_barua's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
brnineworms's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I’m enamoured by the way Roy writes – poetic yet direct. Towards the end, where the essays talk about the pandemic and the dire consequences of its mismanagement, you can see her falling from dignified resistance to desperation; the book ends with her literally begging the prime minister to resign.
I didn’t know a whole lot about the political situation in India and Azadi has really shed light on things.
CONTENT WARNINGS: colonialism, casteism, xenophobia, islamophobia, violence (including sexual violence, lynching, massacre), police brutality, military occupation, pandemic, death