With the rise of Hate crimes and violent protest in current Indian regimes of 2020, it’s evident that there are some serious flaws in India’s legislative and judicial system that are more engrossed now with the recent violent protests over streets. In these times of oppression when you question your own faith and initiate to decide the sides you are going to follow, I suggest you must read the famous books of Arundhati Roy who is a very bold Indian writer and she never stays shut whenever there is an injustice announced in India. There are some very great essays of here regarding the various oppressions and crimes in India that beautifully structure inside the best books of Arundhati Roy I have curated below.

List of Top 10 Books by Arundhati Roy

1. The God of Small Things

You will be under serious awe if you read this famous book by Arundhati Roy who shook the world with this best selling rebellious novel. This book revolves around a story of two children, Esthappen and Rahel who experience all sort of issues of the caste system, Keralite Syrian Christian lifestyle and communism in their life. Esthappen and Rahel at a very young have to learn about horrifying truth of lives in India that you must look forward to if you think that the 21st century is free of any discrimination. 

2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

If you love to read love stories this is your book but spoiler alert as it might not have those cliche good endings because of the aching love story that is following some plot from the previous book ‘The God of Small Things’ but you can understand the story even if you miss out the backdrops. We explore a character named Anjum, who used to be Aftab(as you can easily guess the Islamic Indian background), who runs a guesthouse in an Old Delhi graveyard and everyday meets a lot of people who are completely lost, broken and cast out. Overall its the mirror to hidden gender and caste biases practised even today in India that you must read in this book by Arundhati Roy.

3. Capitalism: A Ghost Story

There are increasing acts of poverty and scarcity of food that you have to address one day in your life after spending some fun vacations with your family of course! Then if you do think about such problems, follow up one with the Arundhati Roy’s best book that examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India, and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism are rooting a huge amount of racism and exploitation among the poor class of society. There were thousands of farmers who committed suicide to escape from the endless debts in India, there are those who live on less than two dollars a day, these problems are eventually caused majorly by these capitalist ghosts almost everywhere in India which is finely tuned into this book

4. Walking With The Comrades

If you are aware of the Naxalite situations in India then you can understand the never-ending war of weak domestic press and foster corporations who are so eager to exploit the rare minerals buried in tribal lands that they don’t care about the casualties of People. Such oppression leads to the development of some rebellious groups that are later being called with different terrorist names. Such aura is finely captured in this list of the book by Arundhati Roy that takes readers to the unseen front lines of this ongoing battle, with the rebellious guerrillas in the forests. 

5. Broken Republic: Three Essays

This is a fantastic book by Arundhati Roy which comprises of numerous small scripts she published in newspaper amalgamated into the book displaying serious notes over the Naxalite movement and the Indian state’s counter-insurgency methods along with other questionable policies.

6. War Talk

Not only she pushes the borders of India but also gives a fine brutal mirror check to all the world through her fearless writings. This is one of the top books of Arundhati Roy where she talks about the United States call of war over Iraq with issues of democracy and dissent and racism in the collection of new essays along with the horrific events against Muslims in Gujarat, India, till the U.S. war on Iraq, Roy confronts the call to militarism in every way possible.

7. The End of Imagination

It might be the end of imagination when you oppress the voices of people and you aren’t allowed to dissent. This is one of the must-read books by Arundhati Roy that brings together five of Arundhati Roy’s acclaimed books of essays into one comprehensive volume condemning India’s nuclear tests and construction of dams that displaced countless people from their homes.

8. 13 December

This book is based over the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament in India that you must explore through this list of book of Arundhati Roy where you can know about a lot of conspiracies and unsaid stories behind these attacks. 

9. India: A Mosaic

There are various distinguished writers offering penetrating insights into the complexities of the world including Roderick MacFarquhar thoughts on the legacy of Empire and Partition, Ian Buruma’s secularism and Indian democracy views along with famous actor’s Pankaj Mishra remembering his life in Banaras along with Christopher de Bellaigue scripts on a violent Bombay making this gem a must-read book from Arundhati’s book collection. 

10. The Algebra of Infinite Justice

This gem is based over the events when India detonated a thermonuclear device in 1998, and Arundhati Roy wrote the essay “The End of Imagination,” in which she said: “My world has died. Those essays are combined together in this book by Arundhati Roy by carefully revealing the disputes, challenge, they provoked inside the whole of India.

Hope you enjoyed this fearless writer with a list of top 10 Books by Arundhati Roy that can shake you from within and question your humanity through their best collection of book in Arundhati Roy’s voice.