Personality of the Day: Arundhati Roy

There are many people who leave a legacy behind them. Personality of the Day presents such remarkable personalities whose life is an ideal mixture of heroism, dedication and purpose. These are the individuals who did not follow a particular path but they made their own way and contributed to the society through their thoughts and actions.

They have faced many challenges through their journey, but the difference lies in the fact that they always found the ways of turning the hardships into a path of excellence, leading to a change. They teach us that it is not only about getting personal victory, but to contribute to the betterment of the world.

Today we will feature Arundhati Roy who is an Indian fearless activist and author whose pen never swayed away from the truth.

Early Life and Education

Arundhati Roy was born on 24th November 1961 in Shillong, India. She was born in an unusual family. Her father Rajib Roy was a tea plantation manager and her mother was Mary Roy, Christian women rights activist. 

From childhood, Roy saw how a woman could take the system, stand up against it and succeed, which would become the teachings of her whole life. Her childhood was mostly spent in a small village of Kerala. She was a student at Corpus Christi School, Kottayam and Lawrence School, Lovedale, Ooty.

She immigrated to Delhi being a teenager with very little cash and made her living alone at a very young age. She continued to pursue a career in architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi but her heart was always in writing and telling stories.

Literary Career

The God of Small Things is a debut novel by Arundhati Roy, and then she entered into the world of literature in the year 1997. The novel was based on how societal laws change a person's living. 

The novel was world famous. It was published in over forty states and was translated into a number of languages. The God of Small Things was also awarded the Booker Prize in Fiction in the same year in which it was released which places Arundhati Roy as the first Indian woman and the first Indian resident to be awarded this most prestigious award.

During the two decades of her publication, Roy retreated into political essays and activism using fiction. She did not publish her second novel, The Ministry of Ultimate Happiness, until 2017. 

Voice of the Activism 

The only thing Arundhati Roy and many other writers can say is that she has never been comfortable and quiet because of her fame. She shifted her gaze to the injustice that she could see around her.

She was an influential critic of mega dam projects in India, specifically the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River that resettled hundreds of thousands of poor and tribal Indians. In 1999, her essay The Greater Common Good showed the situation of the displaced by development projects and brought international limelight to the issues. 

She is a prolific writer and speaker on topics related to nuclear arms, the Kashmir situation, corporate domination and various others. 

Arundhati Roy Achievements

Other than the Booker Prize, Arundhati Roy has been awarded many other honours both as an activist and as a writer. In 2002, she received the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize.

She was also listed as one of the most effective social thinkers in the world and her essays were studied at universities of several countries. 

In 2026, she has won the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award in the Autobiography category for her Mother Mary Comes to Me. 

Quotes by Arundhati Roy

Here are some of the quotes by Arundhati Roy: 

• “That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”

• “If you're happy in a dream, does that count?”

• “Change is one thing. Acceptance is another.”

• “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

• “There is a war that makes us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.”

Arundhati Roy has demonstrated to the world that a vocal voice equipped with the sense of truth and boldness can fight even the strongest systems. Her life is evidence that great literature is not only about beautiful sentences but also about the strength to say what should be said.

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