"That June, The New Yorker immortalized the boom in a group portrait celebrating the 50th anniversary of India's independence: Salman Rushdie (still in hiding, at the time) stood at the center, flanked by Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, and Rohinton Mistry, among others. A younger generation was represented by Kiran Desai, Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, and-caught in the middle of a laugh-a beaming Roy."
"But then Roy made a pivot, or what seemed like a pivot: She turned to writing critical, crusading essays about caste, class, religious violence, and the politics of power. Forsaking fiction, she focused on the marginalized and victimized, "the refugees of India's shining," as she put it in a 2010 essay. Hers was a risky act, a shift of not just genres but also loyalties. India had championed her on the world stage, and she responded by critiquing it, urgently and stridently, from within."
In spring 1997 Arundhati Roy's debut novel The God of Small Things became an international sensation and won the Booker Prize, symbolizing a new wave of Indian writing in English. The New Yorker featured her among established and younger writers in a 50th-anniversary group portrait that captured the moment. The novel combined inventive language, eccentric characters, and Kerala's lush landscape, and became a national emblem during the 'India Shining' era. Roy then pivoted to political essays, condemning caste, class, religious violence, imperialism, and globalization, centering marginalized voices. As Indian politics shifted rightward under the BJP and Narendra Modi, Roy's left-wing critiques positioned her in a sustained ideological conflict.
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