AZADI: Fascism, Fiction & Freedom in the Time of the Virus

With fascism on the march once more, this is an urgent dispatch from one of the great writers and intellectuals of our time

‘Azadi!’ - Urdu for ‘freedom’ - is the iconic chant of the Kashmiri freedom struggle. And now, while Kashmir’s streets have been silenced, the irony is that this same anthem echoes round the streets of the country that most Kashmiris view as their coloniser. What lies between the silence of one street and the sound of the other? Is it a chasm, or could it become a bridge?

In this series of penetrating essays on politics and literature, Arundhati Roy examines this question, challenging us to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism. Azadi, she warns, hangs in the balance for us all.