Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian author, essayist, and activist, born in Kerala in 1960. She studied architecture at the Delhi School of Architecture, but her path quickly expanded beyond design into storytelling, critique, and global advocacy.

In 1997, Roy published her debut novel, The God of Small Things, a groundbreaking work that won the Booker Prize for Fiction—making her the first Indian woman to receive the award. The novel has sold over six million copies worldwide and remains a defining text in postcolonial literature. Written in a nonlinear style and poetic prose, the book explores caste, forbidden love, and state violence—set in 20th-century Kerala through the lives of fraternal twins Rahel and Estha. Its unflinching portrayal of social taboos, caste hierarchies, and sexual violence sparked both acclaim and controversy in India and abroad.

Beyond her literary fame, Roy is also one of India's most outspoken and uncompromising political voices. Over the past two decades, she has written extensively on:

• Hindu nationalism and majoritarian violence

• Kashmir and state repression

• The rights of Adivasi and Indigenous communities

• India’s nuclear policies and economic inequality

  
  

Her essay collections—The Algebra of Infinite Justice, Field Notes on Democracy, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, and Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction.—challenge global capitalism, imperialism, and authoritarianism with a rare combination of lyricism and political urgency.

Arundhati Roy continues to write and speak out across borders, often at great personal and political risk. Her work invites readers not only to see the cracks in the world, but to imagine what lies beyond them.

🎨: @zaambi

Jonah Batambuze is a Ugandan-American interdisciplinary artist and founder of the BlindianProject, a global platform remixing Black x Brown identity through art, history, and storytelling. His work moves across installation, film, writing, and education—challenging systems of erasure while building new cultural blueprints.

Batambuze speaks and facilitates internationally on topics including Black South Asian solidarity, caste and colonial legacies, diasporic memory, and cultural resistance.

For speaking engagements, workshops, or media inquiries, contact: jonah@blindian-project.com or visit jonahbatambuze.com/speaking