Azadi - Freedom. Fascism. Fiction by Arundhati Roy

The chant of 'Azadi! The slogan of the freedom movement in Kashmir against what the Kashmiris see as the Indian occupation is 'Urdu for' Freedom '. Ironically, it also became the chant of millions against the agenda of Hindu nationalism on the streets of India.

Even as Arundhati Roy began to wonder, what was the chasm or the bridge between these two calls for freedom? The streets have gone quiet. Not only in India but worldwide. Another, more horrific, understanding of Azadi was brought with it by Covid-19, producing nonsense of international boundaries, imprisoning whole nations, and bringing the modern world to a halt like nothing else ever could.

Arundhati Roy invites us to reflect on the definition of liberty in a world of increasing authoritarianism in this series of electrifying essays.

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, Roy 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.