NEW DELHI: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led youth protest at Jantar Mantar "destroyed" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public image of more than two decades in just two weeks and delivered a political blow that is "bigger than any election victory", acclaimed author Arundhati Roy has said.
Speaking at the launch of the Hindi translation of her book "Mother Mary Comes to Me", titled "Meri Maa, Meri Gangster", on Monday, Roy argued that while electoral victories and defeats are only one aspect of politics, the recent public mobilisation had shown that even narratives built over decades could be shaken within weeks.
"What I like the most is that no one knows what will happen to us, the country. The script is being written. And everyone has their own part. People often believed they would have to live under the same conditions for a thousand years, but in two weeks, it was shaken a little, from the roots.
"The image of 24 years (of PM Modi)... made by spending crores of rupees, not even addressing a press conference, where some call him the incarnation of Vishnu... and in two weeks, cockroaches have destroyed that whole 24 years," Roy told a packed hall at the India International Centre (IIC).
"This is, in a way, a bigger victory than elections," she added.
The Booker Prize-winning author of "The God of Small Things", however, cautioned that the challenge was far from over if the government continued to retain control over institutions and the levers of power.
"If this government... keeps the institutions or levers of power, then it will be very difficult for us," she said and urged opposition parties and civil society to work together to defend democratic institutions.
Roy also urged opposition parties to take a leaf out of the book of protesters at Jantar Mantar, where, she said, young participants showed "maturity" despite them not possibly agreeing with each other on every issue.
"They played their role very responsibly," she added.
Drawing a musical analogy, the 64-year-old likened their cooperation to members of a musical band, saying each person had a distinct role to perform but contributed towards a common purpose.
"The bass guitarist can't be the singer, the singer can't be the drummer, the drummer can't be the guitarist... they all have played their roles differently. Now the adults also have to show their maturity," she said.
Over the past two decades, Roy has authored non-fiction books -- including "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" -- and numerous essays on varied subjects ranging from Kashmir, big dams, and globalisation to Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, meetings with Maoist rebels, and conversations with whistleblower Edward Snowden and Hollywood actor John Cusack.
Revered by her fans and almost unfailingly reviled by her critics, the 2024 Pen Pinter Prize awardee's work has often provoked extreme reactions, and even brought her on the wrong side of law -- from her effigies being burnt and her events disrupted, to being labelled 'anti-national' and told to 'go to Pakistan', and even facing charges of sedition and contempt.
"Meri Maa, Meri Gangster", translated by Prabhat Singh and published by Rajkamal Prakashan, is centred around Roy's fraught relationship with her mother Mary Roy, a celebrated educator and women's rights activist who fought the landmark case allowing Kerala's Syrian Christian women equal rights in their father's property.
The book, Roy claimed, is "neither her autobiography nor her mother's biography" but rather the "biography of a relationship" -- the relationship between two women who just happened to be mother and daughter.
She also explained why she referred to her mother as a "gangster" in the book.
"Some people, perhaps in the Hindi-speaking world, get offended because I called my mother a 'gangster'. But both the criticism and the defense miss the point. The critics say, 'How can you call your mother a gangster?' On the other hand, people defending me say, 'She was just very protective'. Both are wrong. She was a gangster.
"And to be honest, whenever I'm attacked -- as happens to everyone these days -- I find myself saying to myself, 'Do you know who my mother is? Do you know whose daughter I am? What can you possibly do to me"', she explained.
During the discussion, Roy also reflected on the burden of being celebrated as a "successful writer", questioning the idea of personal achievement when she said violence and injustice continued unabated elsewhere.
Referring to the chapter "Collateral" in "Mother Mary Comes to Me", Roy recounted a childhood incident in which she pretended to be asleep while her mother woke up her brother in the middle of the night and beat him with a wooden ruler for bringing home a report card that described him as an "average student".
The following morning, Roy writes, she was rewarded with a warm hug for securing top grades.
The episode, she said, left a lasting impression on her understanding of success and privilege.
"Since then, for me, all personal achievement comes with a sense of foreboding. On the occasions when I am toasted or applauded, I always feel that someone else, someone quiet, is being beaten in the other room," she writes in the book.
Drawing on that memory, Roy said the metaphor of "the other room" had become central to her writing.
"People think I am a successful writer, I am not. They felicitate me, they give me prizes, they give me the Booker... but in the other room, someone is being beaten. The whole of my writing is about that," she said.
Expanding on the metaphor, Roy said that "someone is being beaten" everywhere -- "in Gaza, at a bus stand, in a village, at Jantar Mantar" -- and that her work had consistently tried to draw attention to those who remained unseen despite public celebrations of individual success.
She concluded by saying that the responsibility now lay with citizens to resist normalising injustice.
"Now we have to show that we will not be beaten anymore," Roy said to a thundering applause from the audience.
"Meri Maa, Meri Gangster", priced at Rs 577, is available across online and offline stores. The English edition has already been translated into more than 40 languages, including all the European languages, Japanese, Chinese and Mongolian.