AMAR NATH PRASAD

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In "Algebra of Infinite Justice" Arundhati Roy, a great champion of the social cause and human right casts her venom in the misuse of nuclear bomb. Like P.S.Buck, she is dead against the use of arms and ammunitions to curve out a grave situation. She thinks that nuclear bomb is the men’s challenge to God. She concludes the essay with a pessimistic note predicting the end of this whole earth within an hour: “The nuclear bomb is the most anti-democratic, anti-national, anti-human, outright evil thing that man has ever made. If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is man’s challenge to God. It’s worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything that you have created. If you are not (religious) then look at this way. This world of ours is 4,600 million years old. It could end in an afternoon.”(Roy, 140-41) The second essay of this book entitled ‘The Greater Comman Good’ deals with the burning issue of the deplorable and the miserable condition of the dalit and the subalterns. In this essay, Roy acted as an activist and has tried her best to raise the voice of the voiceless affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam in three different states of our country. These affected people, according to A.Roy, appealed to the state and certral governments to listen to their views but, surprisingly enough, all their requests fell flat to them. This essay very realistically and metaphorically portrays the deplorable condition of the displaced people particularly the dalit and tribal living on the banks of Narmda river. Roy says: “The millions of displaced people don’t exist any more. When history is written they won’t be in it. Not even as statistics. Some of them have subsequently been displaced three and four times—a dam, an artillery range, another dam, a uranium mine, a power project, once they start rolling there’s no resting place. The great mojority is eventually absorbed into slums on the periphery of our great cities where it coalesces into an immense pool of cheap construction labour (that builds more projects that displace more people). True, they are not being annihilated or takes to gas chambers, but I can warrant that the quality of their accomodation is worse than in any concertration camp of the Third Reich. They are not captive, but they redefine the meaning of liberty.” (Roy, 64) It is interesting to note that one of the important works of a writer is to expose the affectations and hollowness of men, manner and society. In English literature such type of writers come under the category of ‘art for the sake of life.’ These writers think that the society in infected with so many ills and maladies and writers are supposed to be such surgeons who are very expert in operating the wounds and other cancerous organs of society. Arundhati Roy belongs to such category of authors who exposes the reality of the society in a very satiric and literary manner