Over decades, Roy has emerged as a fearless public intellectual, challenging nuclear policy, refusing State honours.
She has repeatedly clashed with the government for her outspoken defence of democratic rights and free speech.
Beyond literature, her influence as a moral and political voice endures, most recently in her call to defend Kerala as a bulwark against fascism.
Arundhati Roy: A Relentless Voice of Conscience And Literary Integrity
Accepting the 2026 Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award for Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy described her writing as a continuous search grounded in freedom and artistic integrity, shaped by grief, memory and her complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy.
Summary
While accepting the 2026 Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award for her searing memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' which was published last year, Booker-winning author Arundhati Roy said that her body of work—her essays, novels and memoir—are all part of a continuous search rooted in freedom and artistic integrity. In 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' Roy delves into the complicated relationship she shared with her mother Mary Roy, who was her 'shelter and her storm'. She grappled with sadness, anger, memory, grief and love while working on her memoir in the aftermath of her mother's death in 2022.
Mary Roy, educator, crusader and a force of nature, was her daughter's most complicated and intriguing subject. Mrs Roy—as her students, and her daughter and her son Lalith Kumar Roy, used to call her—founded the unconventional Corpus Christi High School (Pallikoodam) at Kottayam. She sued her brother George Isaac to claim equal access to their ancestral property and her perseverance won a landmark legal battle for Syrian Christian women to be granted equal inheritance rights. Though she was criticised by many in her community, Mary Roy was never the one to say ‘let it be’.
Accepting the Mathrubhumi Book Award at Thiruvananthapuram, Arundhati Roy spoke about the need for writers to resist the urge to smooth over contradictions, pointing out that that there are no "uncomplicated positions in a globalised world".
At Outlook, we have watched Arundhati Roy emerge over the decades as a fierce crusader for democratic rights, a staunch defender of free speech, and a brilliant writer, marked by her many run-ins with the government.
In From Critiquing Nuclear Policy To Refusing National Award, we recount the timeline of Arundhati Roy's run-ins with the Indian government, starting from 2002 till her prosecution under UAPA.
In 1998, Roy wrote for Outlook, The End Of Imagination, stating the impending doom of the nuclear weapon, mentioning that if there is a nuclear war, the foes will not be China or America or even each other. The foe will be the earth herself.
“I am prepared to grovel. To humiliate myself abjectly, because, in the circumstances, silence would be indefensible. So those of you who are willing: let's pick our parts, put on these discarded costumes and speak our second-hand lines in this sad second-hand play. But let's not forget that the stakes we're playing for are huge. Our fatigue and our shame could mean the end of us. The end of our children and our children's children. Of everything we love.”
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In Summer Games With Nuclear Bombs, Roy reflects on the hypocrisy of Western nuclear powers over denunciation of the tests by others.
However, the author prompted another question, the value of seeking safety elsewhere or escaping the spectre of annihilation.
“ And Delhi is a prime target. It is.
But where shall we go? Is it possible to go out and buy another life because this one's not panning out?
If I go away, and everything and everyone - every friend, every tree, every home, every dog, squirrel and bird that I have known and loved - is incinerated, how shall I live on? Who shall I love? And who will love me back? Which society will welcome me and allow me to be the hooligan that I am here, at home?”
Outlook wrote about the The Booker Prize winner in Literary Icon, India’s “Troublemaker."
“In an India that likes to get by, to adjust, to compromise, to curry favour with the powerful, Roy refused to censure her political rage and personal belief. She taught a whole generation that we must stand in solidarity with the powerless and snub our noses at tyrants. Amid the sea of 1990s Indian writers known for their intricate, lace-like sentences and opaque commentary on culture, Roy’s voice was distinctive for its fearless directness.”
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In the face of authorities consistently bent on curbing dissent, Arundhati Roy has stood tall as a flagbearer. She does not mince her words.
Just two days ago, she described Kerala as a vital bulwark against fascism, urging citizens to safeguard their cultural legacy. Her influence extends far beyond her literary genius, with the 2026 Mathrubhumi Book Award adding yet another feather to her cap.
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