“The country is now like a plane flying backwards. With institutions dysfunctional, we are today where we were during colonialism... We have to fight on the streets. But, even the streets are poisoned and we have to now start from below the streets, at sub-zero levels... The system is broken and we cannot fix it and a new system will take its place,” said Arundhati Roy, writer and activist who delivered the Gauri Lankesh Memorial Lecture in the city on Monday.
Asked what fuelled her optimism, Ms. Roy said she had dedicated a book to those who have learnt to divorce hope from reason.
“Compared to what Europe or other parts of the world has seen and experienced, we haven’t even begun to understand what is war. There is no scope for despair. We have no option but to fight,” she said, adding that the problem in the country was the hierarchical society more than the state.
