Arundhati says Indian Army being deployed against its own people

NEW DELHI: Indian writer and social activist Arundhati Roy has said in a recent event there has not been a day since 1947 that the Indian army has not been deployed against its own people, reported in Indian media.

According to the media reports Ms. Roy was speaking at the release of the Tamil translation of her annotated book on BR Ambedkar’s essay “Annihilation of Caste.”

She said that the Indian army has been deployed in areas of Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Goa, Junagadh, Kashmir and Chhattishgarh.  "Who are these people that the Indian army has been deployed against? It’s always Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits.”

The Man Booker Prize Winner spoke at length about the prevailing social injustice in India and said that the Indian army continues to operate ‘like a colonizer’

She went on to express her concern regarding the lack of importance given to what she called ‘the most cruel social hierarchy’ world over and what could be done to bring the discrimination of caste as a topic of discussion in the international arena.

“It is extremely important to shame this system internationally” said Roy.

She compared the American civil rights movement to the current condition in India. She spoke about the out of proportion African American prisoners in American prisons and said that the situation in India was quite similar, that the number of Muslim, Sikh and Dalit prisoners outnumbered the Hindus in jails.

“Caste is the mother of capitalism” she added as she expressed her views about the prevailing problem.