Democracy has been reduced to mean election in this part of world: Arundhati Roy

Democracy in the Indian sub-continent has been reduced to mean election, Booker-winning writer Arundhati Roy has said in Dhaka.

She held an open conversation organised by Chobi Mela with photographer Shahidul Alam at the Midas Centre in Dhanmondi on Tuesday.

Shahidul pointed out that only two parties – the BNP and the Awami League - had taken turn to power until the Awami League governed for three consecutive terms in Bangladesh after military ruler HM Ershad was ousted.

He said he would like to link up “what’s happening here” and ask what has happened to democracy.

“When I came to Bangladesh (in) ‘84 I realised that the independent Bangladesh, sovereign Bangladesh that I lived was in the hands of a military general. He’s still there. But we did fight to bring him down. (It) made us feel (that) we have democracy. …What happened to democracy?” he asked.

“Basically all the institutions that are meant to be made of democracy have been violated, penetrated, overturned in some ways,” Arundhati replied.

“And democracy in our part of the world has been reduced to mean election. Rigged or not,” she added.

Booker Prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy in a conversation with photographer Shahidul Alam at ‘Utmost Everything’, a talk organised by Chobi Mela at the Midas Centre in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi on Tuesday. The programme’s venue was changed after police barred the organisers from holding it at the Krishibid Institution.

Speaking about democracy in India, she said the government opened two locks – one was the lock of the protective market and one was the lock of the disputed site of Babri Masjid - in the late 80s and early 90s.

“When they opened these two locks they unleashed two kinds of fundamentalism - the Hindu fundamentalism and economic fundamentalism. And both fundamentalisms made them able to manufacture the bogeyman of anti-state people, the Maoist anti-development, Islamic terrorists and anti-nationals.

“Now they have merged together in some ways but both allowed the state to militarise,” Arundhati said.

“So I will wake you a little bit about this meditation on what has happened to democracy. It is actually a very very serious question. What has happened?

“…because it has been taken into the workshop and turned out to be something that you don’t recognise anymore,” she added.

The writer then read out the introduction from her book of essays “Democracy’s Failing Light”.

“While we’re still arguing about whether there’s life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? 

“…Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated go back to being what it used to be?” she read out.

Literature lovers and Arundhati’s fans also enjoyed a question-answer session with her. 

The writer shared her thoughts about literature and her works.

Earlier in the day, Chobi Mela, International Festival of Photography, had to move the venue of the programme titled ‘Utmost Everything by Arundhati Roy’ to Midas Centre from the original venue Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh after police denied it permission, according to a notice from the organisation.

Shahidul, while asking Arundhati about democracy, referred to his jailing in Bangladesh and Arundhati’s in India.

Arundhati was among a number of dignitaries who demanded Shahidul be freed from jail when the photographer was arrested on charges of inciting violence during a student movement for safe roads last year.

She won the Man Booker Prize in 1997 for her first book “The God of Small Things”. It was her only novel until the 2017 publication of “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”.