Reviews - Capitalism: A Ghost Story

Capitalism: A Ghost Story by Arundhati Roy

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a (sadly) very short collection of some of roy's essays on India. I'm ashamed to admit that apart from some vague knowledge of a few bits and pieces i basically knew shit about the situation in India before reading this so I'm just becoming aware of how much i don't know and can't make comments on accuracy or comprehensiveness. but it's a great introduction to some of the issues at stake. roy is a powerful and clear writer who never lets up in her criticism of the government. she's not exactly anti capitalist as far as i can tell, but i still feel she very much "gets it" and she's clearly sympathetic - she suggests some reformist stuff but it's pretty strong for reformism, especially in this day and age. she makes a few criticisms of the left but it's clearly a constructive kind - she mentions the silence on a few topics and the problems experienced when contradictions developed and holding together groups with different priorities and the failure to properly respond to feminism or understand caste which led to splits which impoverished both sides. there's nothing about the naxalites here but she talks about their use as a bogeyman to smear even reformists with - people working for justice in kashmir being arrested as "Maoists" arbitrarily. she talks about the mass death the past half century of capitalist development has forced on the people of India (hence a ghost story) - the suicides of farmers, the mass forced migration, the destruction of villages. she talks about the way ngos and corporate foundations and funding are used to defang and buy off radicals. it's very good all round and powerful reading

she mentions occupy a few times and it's kind of weird in retrospect but i admire the optimism