Examination of Collective Struggle and People’s Movements in Arundhati Roy’s My Seditious Heart

Abstract

The present research paper examines collective struggle and people’s movements in Arundhati Roy’s essay collection titled My Seditious Heart. The protest is not presented as a single person’s action but as a moral and political power of the people by Arundhati Roy. Through her essays on various issues like displacement, development, damage to the environment, state repression, and grassroots-level resistance, the book has meticulously dealt with the defence of marginalized communities for their land, dignified life, and right of abode. The present research paper analyzes the essays of Roy through the perspective of Marxist and cultural theories of class struggle, hegemony, commitment, and ideology. This analysis is based on the theoretical perspectives of the great intellectuals such as Marx, Williams, Eagleton, Althusser, and Agathocleous. The capacity of Roy’s writing about turning nonfiction into an observer of political events and solidarity among the people is highlighted through the present research paper. Her essays unveil the disguised nature of violence meted out to tribals, peasants, workers, and activists in the name of their “development”. Thus, the present paper aims to analyze Roy’s essay collection My Seditious Heart as a book of rebellion and a unified conscience of the people