Arundhati Roy returns national award

The acclaimed writer   has said that she feels "proud" to return her national award as part of the political movement by writers, filmmakers and academics who have risen up against "ideological visciousness".

"I am very pleased to have found (from somewhere way back in my past) a National Award that I can return, because it allows me to be a part of a political movement initiated by writers, filmmakers and academics in this country who have risen up against a kind of ideological viciousness and an assault on our collective IQ that will tear us apart and bury us very deep if we do not stand up to it now,"  Roy says in an article in the Indian Express newspaper.

"It is politics by other means. I am so proud to be part of it. And so ashamed of what is going on in this country today," she writes,

Roy won the national award in 1989 for best screenplay for the film "In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones". She has also won the Booker Prize for her book "The God of Small Things".

"I want to make it clear that I am not returning this award because I am "shocked" by what is being called the "growing intolerance" being fostered by the present government. First of all, "intolerance" is the wrong word to use for the lynching, shooting, burning and mass murder of fellow human beings," she writes.

"These horrific murders are only a symptom of a deeper malaise. Life is hell for the living too. Whole populations - millions of Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and Christians - are being forced to live in terror, unsure of when and from where the assault will come," Roy says.

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