Photo: AFP
The Vaclav Havel Center, a non-profit organisation based in the United States, has named author Arundhati Roy as one of its two 2024 "Disturbing the Peace" Award winners.
Toomaj Salehi, an Iranian rapper most known for his songs denouncing political repression by the Iranian regime, is the other recipient of the honour alongside Roy. In presenting the award, jury member Salil Tripathi stated that Roy speaks for India's dispossessed and marginalised population.
The Booker Prize-winning author, he claimed, speaks for those “whose lands are taken away for big business; who oppose India’s nuclear policies; who speak up for the Dalits; and who fight for their self-determination, making the comfortable afflicted, and offering comfort to the afflicted”, Scroll.in reported.
Every year, the Vaclav Havel Center honours a "courageous dissenter" in an effort to draw attention to international writers who are championing human rights.
The award is bestowed in honour of author and political rebel Vaclav Havel, who served as the first president of the Czech Republic and the last president of Czechoslovakia.
In addition to offering a $5,000 cash prize, or Rs 4.19 lakh, it assists people who “embody Havel’s legacy while drawing attention to the many writers worldwide who bravely fight human rights violations.”
Roy was declared the 2024 winner of the PEN Pinter Prize in June. English PEN established the prize in 2009 in honour of playwright Harold Pinter, a 2009 Nobel laureate. At a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on October 10, Roy will receive the award.