To what extent are autobiographical elements present in the novel The God of Small Things?

It is an interesting question to consider how much a work
of fiction reflects the life and concerns of its author. When we examine this excellent
novel in this light, we are able to detect some similarities. Arundhati Roy herself
studied architecture like her heroine, Rahel, though now no longer pursues it.
Interestingly, given the massive success of this, her first novel, she has never written
another work of fiction. Instead, she has involved herself in protesting against a
variety of dam projects that threaten to uproot and disempower indigenous people. She
has been effective in using her celebrity status to champion such causes. We can see her
focus on the way that man alters nature for the worst in her description of the river in
Chapter Five:

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One it had had the power to evoke fear. To
change lives. But now its teeth were drawn, its spirit spent. It was just a slow,
sludging green ribbon lawn that ferried fetid garbage to the sea. Bright plastic bags
blew across its viscous, weedy surface like subtropical
flying-flowers.

Note how
political opportunism and greed is said to be responsible for the "death" of this river.
Mankind's unthinking attempts to control nature and bend it to man's will are shown to
be destructive in every sense, which is a true theme of Roy's work in protesting against
large-scale damming schemes.