MUMBAI ATTACKS: Arundhati Roy's response

[See SAJAforum's full coverage of the Mumbai attacks]

The Indian Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy ("The God of Small Things"), says the Mumbai attacks is not India's 9/11 as most of the media outlets have used the term and compared it to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

In her article in the Guardian, she writes:

Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we're expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it's all been said and done before.

Roy further writes that November isn't September, 2008 isn't 2001, Pakistan isn't Afghanistan and India isn't America.

She also brings forth the terrorist attacks in other India cities in the recent times: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon.

Roy blames the media for focusing most of their coverage on the "marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish center" while there were casualties in a railway station and a public hospital too.

In her article, she also discusses a lot of other issues. Read Roy's complete article, "The Monster in the Mirror."

What do YOU think? Post your comments below.

UPDATE: At the Dec. 17, 2008, SAJA-Asia Society panel discussion about the attacks (Salman Rushdie, Suketu Mehta, Mira Kamdar, Rome Hartman), the speakers specifically addressed Roy's piece. Read a report and watch an excerpt of Rushdie discussing the "placement of the roots [of the attacks] in the concept of justice" and the condition of Kashmir. (3 min., 19 sec.)