Political Aspects in the Works of Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy

Reena Rajput1*, Dr. K M Tripathi2

1 Research Scholar, LNCT, Bhopal, M.P. India

Email: rajputreena780@gmail.com

2 Supervisor, LNCT, Bhopal, M.P. India

Abstract - Indian democracy is implemented in the world's biggest democracy, yet "Democracy without Justice is Demon-crazy." As we debate the existence of life beyond death, may we introduce another subject for consideration? Does life exist after democracy? What kind of life will it be? When I say "democracy," I am not referring to democracy as an ideal or a goal. Is there life after democracy in the working model? Whether emerging cultures should strive to democracy as an ideal is a distinct topic. I believe it should. The first, idealistic stage may be rather exhilarating. This subject pertains to those living in democracies or nations that claim to be democracies. It does not imply that we should revert to outdated, outmoded types of totalitarian or authoritarian administration. The main aim of the study is to understand the concept and Idea of Justice in the novels of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra and evaluate democratic practices and Justice in the novels of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra and compare the writings style and genre of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra.

Keywords: Justice, Society, Modern World, British, Imperialism, Democracy

INTRODUCTION

Indian democracy is implemented in the world's biggest democracy, yet "Democracy without Justice is Demon-crazy." As we debate the existence of life beyond death, may we introduce another subject for consideration? Does life exist after democracy? What kind of life will it be? When I say "democracy," I am not referring to democracy as an ideal or a goal. Is there life after democracy in the working model? Whether emerging cultures should strive to democracy as an ideal is a distinct topic. I believe it should. The first, idealistic stage may be rather exhilarating. This subject pertains to those living in democracies or nations that claim to be democracies. It does not imply that we should revert to outdated, outmoded types of totalitarian or authoritarian administration. The statement implies that the book "Field Notes on Democracy" argues that the system of representative democracy requires fundamental changes due to an imbalance between representation and democracy. What impact have we had on democracy? What have we transformed it into? What happens once democracy has been exhausted? When it has been hollowed out and devoid of meaning? What happens when each of its institutions has developed into something harmful? What are the consequences of the fusion of democracy and the free market into a one predatory entity focused only on maximizing profit with a limited and narrow imagination? Can this procedure be reversed? Can anything that has undergone mutation revert to its original state? We need a long-term vision now for the survival of our planet.

Egypt and Turkey's governments are boldly launching a multifaceted attack on authors, artists, and intellectuals. Last month, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized Turkish academics who were his opponents, accusing them of being disloyal and working for foreign forces. As a result, several of them have been fired or put on hold. Turkey and Egypt have both detained journalists, leading to worldwide outcry. In India, intellectual and artistic freedoms are being suppressed in sophisticated ways despite the presence of formal and seemingly free democratic institutions. Indian universities, under the influence of upper-caste Hindu nationalists, have been removing individuals considered "anti-nationals" from their academic programmes and grounds for many months. Last month, Rohith Vemula, a PhD student in Hyderabad, committed himself in a surprising development.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Dwivedi, A.N. (2011) Pankaj Mishra's fiction and nonfiction have propelled him into the spotlight as one of the most recognizable voices in modern Indian English literature. His work has been largely ignored by the academic community for decades, and I hope that this study will help to rectify that. Although there have been critical essays by Rahul Gairola (2003), Padmaja Challakere (2004), Jill Didur (2009), and Dwivedi (2009), no comprehensive book-length treatment of Mishra's works and accomplishments exists. The reactions to his writing in these articles and reviews are varied. Since Mishra is a writer of the postliberalization age, he deserves further critical analysis. All of his books were published after 1991, with the exception of Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (1985), which was written during the early stages of India's liberalization and globalization, the effects of which were felt most strongly in the country's major cities. In 1969, Pankaj Mishra made his debut into this world in the sleepy village of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. His mother's family had a long tradition of attending the University of Allahabad, so it was only fitting that he studies there for his undergraduate degree as well. After living in Allahabad for three years (1985-1988), Mishra moved to Benares in the colder months of that year to engage in self-directed study.

Khair, T. (2011). Postcolonial is often used to describe formerly colonized areas that have since achieved independence, such as Kenya, India, and Australia. However, regardless of how well that word serves as a historical and political descriptor of a country's political situation after colonialism and decolonization, surely postcolonial should apply to the once-colonizing state as much as the once-colonized state in its wider discursive uses? That's why if you say Algeria is postcolonial now, then France is too; if you say India is, then Britain is too. As the chapters show, I chose to interview William Dalrymple and Pankaj Mishra because I believe that their perspectives on postcolonial travel writing, as well as those of their own substantial and critically renowned trip books, would benefit from hearing from one other.

Ambrose, Maureen et.al. (2009) There are three main forms of justice that are studied in the field of organizational psychology: distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. In recent years, scholars have advocated for broadening our attention on justice to include all its manifestations. The authors postulate that opinions about justice as a whole mediate the connection between different types of justice and outcomes. They provide two research that attempt to verify this idea. The results of Study 1 show that perceptions of justice as a whole moderate the connection between different types of justice evaluations and workers' opinions. The second study shows that assessments of employee conduct by supervisors are also influenced by the mediating connection. We address the implications for future studies on organizational justice.

Sabbagh, Clara et.al. (2016) The ISJR's mission is to offer a forum where researchers from all fields of study may come together to discuss and share their research on justice. The discussion that ensued as a result of this thread helped move the field of justice studies forward, both theoretically and practically. This collection proves the Institute for Social Justice Research's (ISJR) scholarly pedigree and future research potential in the study of justice. The notion of the justice motivation, the categorization of justice's many faces (distributive, procedural), and justice's place in certain contexts are all included (e.g., non-humans). This paper provides a synopsis of the "state of the art" in justice research theory and proposes a roadmap for future studies in this area, both nationally and internationally. To emphasize, the contributors in this proposed collection are some of the foremost academics in the field of interest to ISJR. As a result, prospective readers have access to a body of high-quality academic material that represents both historical and contemporary perspectives on justice studies.

Folger, R., et.al. (2022) We present this theme issue on "Social Justice: Lessons Learned and Needed Research." In this special issue, the International Society for Justice Research presents Early Career Awards to deserving young scholars. The published publications add significantly to the body of knowledge in the field of justice study and theory.

POLITICAL THEORY'S SOCIAL JUSTICE

The need for order in the human environment is the foundation for the concept of justice as it is presented in the introduction. Thinking about justice begins with the concepts of equality and freedom. These ideas are neither verifiable nor disprovable, which makes their validity problematic even in cases when they are normatively required. It's crucial to keep in mind that these ideas fall within the category of ethics and morality. The idea of justice's historical development shows how it is viewed in terms of rights, needs, and deserts. Partially drawn from the current norms and paradigms of exchange expectations, the idea of proportional reciprocity in acts and in spirit—which is derived from the relations between cause and effect in the natural world—is also a useful tool to understand justice.

In the social sciences and humanities, justice is a fundamental idea. It presents both theoretical and practical challenges in terms of defining it in a way that satisfies scholarly and social consensus and carrying out its expectations. In addressing these theoretical and practical challenges, human reason and passions also play a fundamental and important role. Democracies implicitly entrust political and educational establishments, civil society, and the media with the duty of bringing about that consensus through discourse. Similarly, the media also contributes significantly to the dissemination of significant societal discussions. The discipline of political theory offers the essential conceptual framework that supports these discussions. Literary writers contribute their skills and abilities to these discussions and so constitute a significant social agent. They are members of civil society and occasionally of public or private entities. It's interesting to note that Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra have continuously written on political and social challenges in the modern world throughout their careers. This thesis aims to determine how much of an emphasis they place on the language of justice, particularly in their non-fiction works.

Developmental Paradigms:

"The Greater Common Good" and "Power Politics" Human societies have evolved from their ancestral state, in which it was exceedingly difficult to meet even their most basic needs. In terms of development, modern societies differ greatly from one another. India is referred to as a developing nation in the common language, while other nations can be classified as developed or underdeveloped. The fact that these classifications speak in broad strokes makes them extremely troublesome. The differences in people's lives in India are too pronounced to require empirical data, yet it is available. The fundamental requirements of food and water, health, and education are deemed essential for achieving overall development. It seems sense that development projects that supply basic needs like water for drinking and irrigation become quite significant. Thus, two types of such projects that raise questions about justice since they are related to development ethics are dams and power plants. Arundhati Roy released The Greater Common Good in 1999 and it was featured in numerous international journals and newspapers.

Arundhati Roy and Equity in Society

The Algebra of Infinite Justice is Arundhati Roy's second book, released following her groundbreaking work The God of Small Things. In actuality, it is an anthology of essays, a radio programme, and a lecture. First published in 2001, The Algebra of Infinite Justice underwent revisions and updates, and two new articles were added in 2002. Here, the latter has been cited whenever possible. Two further collections of articles and speeches are An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (2005) and Listening to Grasshoppers (2009). Since each essay in these publications was first published as a standalone work, the book and individual essay entries are included in the bibliography. The pieces in The Algebra of Infinite Justice are primarily reactions to real-world occurrences. These essays cover a wide range of topics, such as nuclear weapons, development paradigms in developing nations, corporate globalisation, corruption, the US and its allies' war on terrorism, the role of mass media in democracies, strategies for resistance and dissent against powerful entities like corporations and the state, people's movements, the rise of communalism in India, corruption in Indian courts, the NGOization of resistance, and casteism in India.

The End of Imagination and Nuclear Weapons

In the first essay, "The End of Imagination," Roy states that if the Indian government performed nuclear tests on May 11, 1998, and Pakistan did similar tests on May 28, 1998, then "silence would be indefensible." The essay is a passionate essay that criticises the tests on multiple fronts. "We are pitifully behind the times...," it states. in our capacity to comprehend nuclear weapons' actual nature. When nuclear weapons are used in a nuclear war, the enemy is not nation states but rather "earth herself," and the weapons "will annihilate the enemy." Therefore, nuclear war is not "just another kind of war." Roy then provides a vivid account of what might happen if such a battle broke out:

The air, land, wind, sea, and sky themselves will all turn against us. They will be quite angry. Our villages, fields, forests, and cities will all burn for several days. Rivers will become toxic. Fire will rise from the air. The flames will spread due to the wind. Smoke rises, blocking up the light, signalling that the fires have burned everything that can burn. There will be complete darkness over the planet. No day will come. Just endless darkness. Nuclear winter will arrive as the temperature plummets well below freezing. Toxic ice will form from the water.

ARUNDHATI ROY AND THE LITERARY CANON

Roy's astounding success with The God of Small Things (Tickell 69–72) and his subsequent sputtering intrusions through polemical political works combined to create an awkward and illogical relationship with the canon of literature, English in India, and English literature in general. Several scholarly or popular publications project this association. The Oxford Companion to English Literature is the primary source used in this first and principal case.The Companion Journey, which includes an amazing and expansive pedigree in a single volume, starts in 1932 with the solo labours of Sir Paul Harvey, a retired and learned civil servant searching for meaningful employment. The eminent academics from the English-speaking globe have contributed to these Companions, which are currently available in seven full versions and four brief versions. Over 200 contributors have contributed to it collectively, and an editor and a group of associate editors are in charge. Harvey started out alone, but as the work grew and mirrored the developing field of English literature, it became an enormous undertaking that is now considered essential reading for all literature students. Notable novelist Margaret Drabble continues Harvey's legacy beyond his fourth and last edition; she edited the fifth (1985) and the sixth (2000). The seventh edition, published in 2010, was edited by University of Liverpool English literature professor Dinah Birch. Even though the most recent version does not purport to provide "comprehensive coverage," the editor's humility may have prevented such lofty promises (Birch, "Preface" ix). Even so, it is a "reliable resource for readers in general" that incorporates "new advances in literary analysis" (ix) in addition to "carefully researched material presented with flair and style" (x). These buddies' entries bear a close resemblance to the canon of English literature. As a matter of fact, an author's or a work's placement in the Companions is directly correlated with its place in the canon of English literature.

ROY AND MISHRA SEEN IN COMPARATIVE

Roy and Mishra are untrustworthy choices for literary history because of their political and non-fictional turns in their life lives. This shift is less political and more genre-specific. Their politics consist of a never-ending attempt to place historical and social underdogs in context, continuously dissecting and challenging prevailing biases in continuing social and political discussions. This is truer of Mishra than Roy because the former does this on a daily basis while Roy's sudden appearance on problems is rather infrequent. One may say that her unique métier somehow makes her leave deeper impressions. Mishra's writings demonstrate a growing engagement with global politics, questioning the tolerance and accommodating capacity of literature. Mishra sacrifices discipline norms and boundaries for a meta disciplinary understanding of the modern world in his book From the Ruins of Empire, his reviews of the writings of political philosophers like Alan Ryan and Larry Siedentop, and his travels and politically charged essays about China and its neighbouring countries. In a significant way, Roy's nonfiction writing lacks autonomy since it is dictated by outside circumstances rather than a sense of aimlessness inside the social context. However, Mishra appears to be in a more dominant position, with little emphasis placed on the responsive part of his work as he appears to be concentrating his efforts on the upcoming monograph. This is not to imply that Mishra's books don't address current affairs; rather, they fall well short of Roy's essays and his own brief pieces and reviews. Mishra, in my opinion, aspires to a broader grasp of geography and time in his writings. The career curves of these writers are quite interesting because of their variations. Although Mishra came from a literary background, it appears that he is leaving the field while Roy continues to attack her articles from literary strongholds.

CONCLUSION

To demonstrate that a significant portion of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra's nonfiction writings can be seen as significant contributions to the discourse on justice, this thesis examines their works in the context of the transdisciplinary concept of justice. It's possible that their art contains other motifs or tropes, but none could be said to be more prevalent than the need for a more just world. Despite the fact that Roy's essays are more accurate, Mishra's later writings are comparable in that they pursue justice in the world. An outline of the current thesis is provided in the introduction. It identifies the vocabulary needed to comprehend the idea of justice and its consequences. It makes the case for the normative necessity of granting humans’ freedom, equality, and a modicum of reason in order for them to act morally as members of societies and pursue their own personal goals. As a result of this endeavour, numerous social institutions emerge, all of which can be examined to see whether they are biassed or demonstrate equipoise. After then, a succinct overview of the concept of justice's history drawn from a variety of sources is included in the introduction. Even if they only appear briefly, several figures connected to the concept of justice—from Socrates to Amartya Sen—appear here. In addition, the introduction includes a thorough literature assessment of Roy and Mishra's available criticism as well as a few brief biographical details. The chapter plan is briefly described in the final part. Almost one-third of Roy and Mishra's writings, which specifically address the discourse of justice, are included in the opening chapter, "Literature and Idea of Justice." Most of the works examined here have a pan-international focus, and to make my case for the existence of justice discourse, I have used a range of philosophical techniques from both modern and historical perspectives on justice. Where necessary, counterarguments have also been included. This chapter thoroughly examines Roy’s articles about justice, focusing on his views on corporate globalization in the context of capitalism, terrorism and wars on terrorism, development methods like bigdams, and nuclear weapons.

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