Greater Common Good By Arundhati Roy Analysis

The “Greater Common Good” is an non-fiction essay by Booker- Prize winning author Arundhati Roy.The essay was written in 1999 surrounding the construction of Sardar Sarovar Dam as part of the Narmada Valley Project.The essay grew out of the author’s involvement in fighting the construction of Narmada river dams.In this essay,the author tries to address the ramifications of the so called “Big Projects” taken up in the name of development,specifically the construction of dams,their environmental and more importantly the social and cultural impact of the people directly affected(in a seemingly negative way) due to these projects.
There have been quite a number of reports and articles on the issue , but most of them have been intended for
Embedded in the story of dams and development is also a story of India’s democracy. In Roy’s telling, the politicians and their allies in the bureaucracy, the dam-building industry, the international aid community, and India’s urban areas lord over the people of the valley. To Roy, projects like the dam take power away from the people and put it in the hands of a single authority who will decide who gets what water when, essentially the power of life and death. India’s democracy, for Roy, is “the benevolent mask behind which a pestilence flourishes unchallenged.”
The author equates the forceful rehabilitation of the people to a war.She says,” The millions displaced are nothing but refugees of an unacknowledged war. Carelessness can't account for their disappearance. Nor can
The writing style is lucid but there is use of strong sentences,even vulgarities to move the reader.Some readers may recoil but others will be inspired.Though writen in 1999,the discussion is relevant to this day.So saying,the book also has its downsides. The essay is largely based on the author’s interpretation of known facts. I have found some of the data to be exaggerations resulting from being taken out of context and use of absolute numbers instead of proportions, which in a country so big as ours would indeed seem to be monstrously high.The author sometimes goes overboard but one can’t deny many of the facts. I would recommend this book to anyone with patience enough to look for the authenticity of the facts that have been stated.Else,the reader might end up forming one sided opinions without getting a complete overview of the issue.An open mind is what is needed to get to the essence of the