Reimagining the Post-COVID 19 World: A Critique of Arundhati Roy’s Azadi . Freedom. Fascism. Fiction.

Abstract

Arundhati Roy’s Azadi . Freedom.  Fascism. Fiction. (2020) is a clarion call to the world at large and India in particular to break the shackles of obsoleteness, and reimagine a new and improved world. This wakeup call has been prompted by the pandemic which has brought the entire globe down on its knees. It has forced humankind to question the values that modern societies have been built on – all that they have chosen to venerate and those they have derided. COVID-19 has ridiculed borders: geographical, political, economic and cultural. The pandemic for Roy is a “portal, a gateway between one world and the next” (214). This anthology consists of 9 essays/ lectures written between 2018-2020. They are all linked together as they yield insights into how the world should be recreated. This paper attempts to critically assess the diverse ways in which Roy seeks to reinvent the world post -pandemic.