Roy received the Sydney Peace Prize at a ceremony in Sydney for her nonviolent advocacy on social and environmental justice.
On 26 May 2004, Arundhati Roy was presented with the Sydney Peace Prize at a ceremony in Sydney, Australia. The prize, awarded annually by the Sydney Peace Foundation, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to peace through nonviolent means, human rights advocacy, and social justice campaigns.
Roy received the honor for her tireless activism against large-scale dam projects that displaced impoverished communities, her outspoken opposition to nuclear weaponization in South Asia, and her broader critiques of globalization's impact on the world's most vulnerable populations. By this point, Roy had largely stepped back from fiction writing to devote herself to political essays and grassroots activism, particularly her involvement with the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement opposing the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
The Sydney ceremony placed Roy alongside previous laureates who had been recognized for challenging power structures through peaceful resistance. Her acceptance speech, delivered before an international audience, reinforced her reputation as one of the most articulate voices connecting literary skill with political conscience. The award affirmed that her activism, controversial to some for its sharp criticism of Indian state policy and global capitalism, was internationally recognized as a legitimate and courageous form of peacebuilding.