AZADI

Freedom. Fascism. Fiction.

By: Arundhati Roy

Narrated by: Shaheen Khan

Brought to you by Penguin.

FROM THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF MY SEDITIOUS HEART AND THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS, A NEW AND PRESSING DISPATCH FROM THE HEART OF THE CROWD AND THE SOLITUDE OF A WRITER'S DESK

The chant of 'Azadi!' - Urdu for 'Freedom!' - is the slogan of the freedom struggle in Kashmir against what Kashmiris see as the Indian Occupation. Ironically, it also became the chant of millions on the streets of India against the project of Hindu Nationalism.

Even as Arundhati Roy began to ask what lay between these two calls for Freedom - a chasm or a bridge? - the streets fell silent. Not only in India, but all over the world. The Coronavirus brought with it another, more terrible understanding of Azadi, making a nonsense of international borders, incarcerating whole populations, and bringing the modern world to a halt like nothing else ever could.

In this series of electrifying essays, Arundhati Roy challenges us to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism.

The essays include meditations on language, public as well as private, and on the role of fiction and alternative imaginations in these disturbing times. The pandemic, she says, is a portal between one world and another. For all the illness and devastation it has left in its wake, it is an invitation to the human race, an opportunity, to imagine another world.

© Arundhati Roy 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critic reviews

[A] startling collection of essays . . . The passion and beauty of her voice is unabated . . . Azadi is the outcome of a life of writing from the frontline of solidarity and humanism, and from a writer who is perhaps only now reaching the height of her literary powers

An eloquent and scorching indictment of the growing authoritarianism of Hindu nationalism . . . it is a tour de force

Azadi is a deeply-committed literary artist’s vision of what is wrong with our world today and a heartfelt appeal to join together to try and heal the wounds before it is too late

Eye opening narrative on Indian Politics

Arundhati Roy has been bravely narrating the other side of India from the frontline. This book offers a deeply researched and insightful view on how India has been engulfed in a blanket of hate, insecurity and age old traditions of caste and communalism by a rightist mindset that prevails current ruling class. Roy cites many warnings of impending dangers as history seems to be repeating itself. This is an eye opening though a troubling narrative on Indian society and politics.