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Listening To Grasshoppers - Arundhati Roy

Listening to Grasshoppers is the latest book by Arundhati Roy. In this book she combines brilliant political insight and razor sharp prose. The book is collection of essays. In these, she takes a hard look at the underbelly of the world's largest democracy, and shows how the journey that Hindu nationalism and neo-liberal economic reforms began together in the early 1990s is unravelling in dangerous ways. Starting from 2001 attack on Parliament, 2002 Gujrat genocide till the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai. Her book gives us a look into these incidents with a different perspective. She shows us how the poorest of us are denied justice by Indian establishment. 'The Briefing', included as an appendix, is a fictional text that brings together many of the issue central to the collection. As it tracks the fault line that threatens to destroy India's precarious future, Listening to Grasshoppers asks fundamental questions about democracy itself, a political system that has, by virtue of being considered 'The best available option', been put beyond doubt and correction.
Unlike other non-fiction books on India. Which are either India-bashing or India-praising. This is none of them but at the same time both. It shows us what was our strength and what are our weaknesses.

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