This is a terrific interview. Thanks CD for posting it.

I can see why Roy is getting increasingly less "darling" time in the alternative press. Is it me or is her conception of resistance getting broader and more militant? Defending armed struggle, however limited and reasonable the context, is a one-way ticket to intellectual obscurity in this country.

Great comments about the importance of audience in political theater.

Thanks again, editors.

I am so glad CD posted this. I am mostly familiar with Ms. Roy from the great interviews and speeches that David Barsamian has compiled over the years on his "Alternative Radio" program. It is a rare person that can speak so clearly, and with such wisdom, of situations so serious and profound, and yet retain and project such disarming humor. It was a good kick-start to my afternoon.

Re: "Is it me or is her conception of resistance getting broader and more militant?"

Can it not be both? And why should it not?

The depravity of the capitalist system seems to be increasing exponentially.

Look at the recent history in the most capitalist-crazed nation on the planet, the U.S.A.

In the mid to late 1980s there was blatant and wide-spread fraud in the Savings & Loan industry as outright frauds and conmen took over institutions with the full blessing of captured regulators in Washington. And the net result was a massive restructuring of that industry and prison time for about 1,000 individuals who were convicted of various frauds. That episode cost the U.S. taxpayer something on the order of $650 Billion according to the best estimates I've seen.

Fast forward a mere twenty years and now how is the capitalist system working? Well, since 2007 when the sub-prime and mortgage securitization industries began their inexorable collapse, the U.S. taxpayer has had foisted onto him/her contingent liabilities approach $24 Trillion. That would be fully 36 times the liability imposed in actual dollar or about 18 times in inflation adjusted dollars. And not one single conviction has occurred with regard to the crisis in mortgage brokerage or Wall Street securitizations based on bad mortgage paper!

On another front, let's examine the crisis of bankruptcy in America. In 2001 the Enron bankruptcy was considered the largest in history to date. It amounted to about $32 Billion. Fast forward to September, 2008 and Lehman Brothers files a $600 Billion bankruptcy motion. Again, do the math. This is about 18 times as large in dollar terms than the old standards.

By any rational calculation, capitalism is in crisis.

Yet there is only puzzlement at the highest levels of our mediacracy regarding what is going on. Check out this video for some indication at how perilous our condition is, and how little is being done to rein in the excesses: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2292-Hmmmm....-A-Crack-In-The-Dam.html

***
Arundhati Roy is a thought leader for the entire world. The direction she is going in, speaking about the Gandhian non-violent approach to activism as being not potent enough for the world we are entering is undoubtedly not going to endear her to the meek and the timid. But she seems to be reacting more intelligently to the world that exists than do the several "spiritualist" and "affirmative" media efforts I'm seeing sprout up in the fashion of the Ghost Dancer movement on the Great Plains after the natives lost the war to the American imperialists.

Boots OPENING THEIR EYES THE PEOPLE.

Beautiful Arundhati Roy you are SO right they do need BOOTS, but they can't SEA because in the land of the unconscious they have NUCLEAR, UNDISCLOSED, classified WEAPONRY and other TOYS @ experimental stages some already tested during the early stages of the invasion of Iraq.
maybe NO BOOTS but greater horror. The industrial military complex and the giant corporate monster R fusing the more it feels the eyes of the people of the world opening on them the more those two forces close ranks, the more driven it becomes the more incommensurable the horror begets.
Than again there is the OPENING THEIR EYES THE PEOPLE.

In Soulidarity.

Wow! Arundhati Roy knows more than Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger combined......But, their policies continue and their control of "The New World Order" is imminent.

She reminded us that there are no more borders for "The Elite"...Whether they are in India or the U.S., "The Elite" control us all..."They" can send hundreds of thousands of private militias into countries to wipe out an enemy created through "Their" Media.....

As you have noted, The Enemy created and pursued is now "The Taliban"...Imagine, you put The Taliban in power, the Taliban then screw one of "YOUR" companies (UNOOCAL) and "YOU" The Elite set the policy to invade Afghanistan and Iraq pending "YOUR" (The Elite's) "Pearl Harbor Type Attack of 2001"...

The Maoist Insurgency is nothing more than a military excuse to attack any threat to the Capitalist/Corporatist takeover of the people's land and natural resources...The Mining Contracts worth billions have already been made with private mining companies.

As in Afghanistan, The Oil Pipeline Contracts had already been signed!

HEY EVERYONE. HERE IS THE MUST READ ARTICLE FROM ARUNDHATI ROY FROM THE GUARDIAN:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/27/arundhati-roy-india-tribal-maoists-1

Long but fantastic writing. Phenomenal writing. Might want to read this article BEFORE viewing the video.