Aruna Roy, the IAS officer who gave up the civil service to live and understand life in rural India, is a celebrated feminist and activist. She believes in the power of social movements and collectives to transform the countryside and ensure the democratic rights of people, especially the poor and the marginalized. Some 34 years ago, she with Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh moved into a small hut in Bhim, 110 km from Ajmer, and with peasants and workers of central Rajasthan started the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) to appraise issues from the grassroots, and understand their struggles for their rights.
Her memoir, aptly titled based on the feminist slogan ‘The Personal is Political’, is a gripping commentary on her own journey as a privileged, educated person and people’s struggles with the caste system, hunger, poverty, inequality and the fight for rights enshrined in the Constitution. It was such collective struggles that resulted in the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and a School for Democracy in Bhim.