A review by lit_terary
AZADI: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. by Arundhati Roy

4.0

Azadi is a collection of essays on India and its political/social state in the last decade. Like the title suggests, the essays are an outright condemn of fascist ideologies and politics; they are particularly critical of the current Indian government (lead by far-right parties). I had little to no prior knowledge of the things that Roy tackles in her essays (e.g., the Kashmir conflict, religious/minority ghettoization), so, at first, it was pretty tough to follow through with her conversations. By the end of the book, however, because of how often she repeats things, I was capable to actively engage with the text and get the most out of it. Roy expresses her thoughts and points of view with clarity and poignancy, albeit with ardour and passion. I admire her willingness to put herself on the line to denounce cruelty, injustice, manipulation, violence, warfare crimes and more, given how voices like hers are repeatedly silenced with political manoeuvres and even death. These texts were eye-opening, thought-provoking to say the least, and they shed necessary light on the dangerous decline into fascism that India is currently going through.