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Arundhati Roy has been in the news recently for her separatist views which the Indian lawmakers have dubbed seditious and called for judicial action. However Roy is not alone in her views. The webworld went crazy with thousands tweeting their support for Roy’s comments and an equally large faction calling for her arrest.

 
I do not call for Roy’s arrest or support the Indian state in their role in Kashmir. Roy’s views are well within her right to freedom of speech in the Indian ‘democracy’. Roy’s views are simplistic and is ‘fundamentally a call for justice’ It might be simplistic to say, let the people of Kashmir decide what they want but this politically reductionist call would be a no goer in the current situation. India has always relied on playing the fractional card when it comes to politics and it has never really batted an eyelid when it has been for her own good.
 
Lets not forget post Independence, Hyderabad and Junagadh were amongst several princely states which wanted to remain Independent but the Indian army deployed by our Indian government quelled any chance of that happening and calling it antinationalistic. Lord Mountbatten too stood firm in letting the newly formed government have its way.
Suddenly history seems to have returned, and Roy's call for help has been termed as un-Indian and un-national.
 
NationKashmir tweets 'Independent Kashmir may be a flawed entity, but is independent
India perfect? Are we not asking Kashmiris same question that our old
colonial masters asked us: are the natives ready for freedom? Arundhati Roy
says her opinion do not amount to sedition '
 
In response to Roy's comments the extremist Bajrang Dal chief Vinod Bansal has vowed to 'teach her a lesson.' I wonder what that would be Mr Bansal? The Bajrang Dal's patriarchal extremist justice has always been raping the woman or throwing acid on her face. Lets not forget this is the same party that most recently torched dozens of muslim homes in Misroli to make it 'Muslim Free'
 
Dr Sayantan Dasgupta in his book 'A South Asian Nationalism Reader' points out, The imperatives of nationalism in South Asia are rendered more complex because of the diversity of population in this part of the world.Whilst the nation of Europe was built out of homogeneity- the defining characteristic of a France or Germany or an England was ‘the fusion of their component populations’ No such synthesis can be recognized in the case of a multicultural country like India. Whilst the diversity of this region poses a problem towards any form of nationalistic reconciliation, this heterogeneity is celebrated and is what characterizes the Indian identity in my opinion.
 
The government has tried to play the politics card by fostering zones of exclusion and Kashmir cannot lie within such a configuration. Its time to speak up and Roy is among the few who have dared to challenge the Government. For now a case has been opened at the local court against Rahul Gandhi and Arundhati Roy for 'uncivilised statements' but charging Roy or Gandhi for being seditious seems highly unlikely.