"Gandhi is part of the personal and political history for Indians of my generation," said Aruna Roy, an Indian social and political activist. "He was a great beacon of light for those of us looking for space to struggle for political rights outside electoral politics." Roy took inspiration from Gandhi (civil disobedience, collective struggle, concern for public ethics) and other Indian social leaders in her own work. Following a career in the civil service, Roy decided to quit for community work in 1975 and later for political activism in 1987, through her work from a small village in central Rajasthan. With several collaborators, Roy co-founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), which translates roughly to "Organization for the Empowerment of Workers and Peasants."
Reflecting on her work, Roy summed up the MKSS as a crowdfunded, non-party political organization that "interfaces with institutional democracy to claim what rightfully belongs to workers and peasants." She emphasized that there should be no division between people's policy and public policy. This is a false dichotomy. The person for whom a policy is made must be at the center of that policy making process, she argued.
With the MKSS, and the NCPRI, Roy pushed for greater accountability and transparency from the Indian government. She recounted numerous tales, official labor registries paying wages to dead people, construction contracts overstating the amount of materials that had been sold, and other forms of corruption that were not always evident to the people until they accessed government records and started holding public hearings and meetings organized by the MKSS. During these public events held in the early years of the campaign, villagers compared official documents to reality and were outraged by the rampant corruption. There was a major sit-in for 40 days in a nearby town resulting in an all-India campaign in 1996.
These protests developed into the National Campaign for the Peoples Right to Information, (NCPRI ), Roy explained. "Our slogan was 'our money, our accounts,'" she said, highlighting that this slogan emerged organically from the protesters. "During this period, people became aware of how governance issues affect their daily lives."
What began as a peasant and workers campaign built alliances across other sectors and interest groups. After a series of state laws and a weak national law passed in 2002, the Indian government passed a robust right to information law in 2005, reflecting greater transparency and access to official records. An estimated 6 to 8 million people now use this law each year according to Roy.
Roy also highlighted current issues in India and other democracies around the world. Today, we have political participation through suffrage, she explained, but not necessarily more than that. "Politicians are puppets in the hands of financial flows," she said, noting that they are often controlled by special interests and don't always represent the true voice of the people.
While people may use social media to make their voices heard, it does not translate to greater power in decision making in governments, Roy added. "Dialogue and debate has gone undercover while social media has taken over," she emphasized.
She concluded by highlighting the need for equality across several dimensions. "In democracy, we need to share not just political power but also economic and social power," she urged.
Watch an interview with Roy and her full lecture below.
Roy made her remarks during a public lecture on March 22.