Listening to Grasshoppers

Field Notes on Democracy

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In eleven powerful, and closely argued, linked essays, Arundhati Roy takes a hard look at the underbelly of the PBI – World’s largest democracy. Beginning with the state-backed killing of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, she writes about how ‘progress’ and genocide have historically gone hand in hand; about the murky investigations into the 2001 attack on the PBI – Indian Parliament; about the dangers of an increasingly powerful and entirely unaccountable judiciary; and about the collusion between large corporations, the government and the mainstream media. The volume ends with an account of the August 2008 uprising in Kashmir and an analysis of the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

‘The Briefing’, included as an appendix, is a compelling fictional text that brings together many of the issues central to the collection.