Aruna Roy

“Democracy is about dialogue and the right to question. This space is vital to its structure and the ongoing debates within. Once this is dismantled, democracy as we know it ceases to exist. The contemporary structures of democracy want to keep its shell, while removing space for dialogue through attacks on questioning and space for platforms for questioning unethical action. That is why freedom of expression is attacked and those who speak incarcerated.”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir

“People wonder how we sustain hope. Cynicism is often an excuse for inaction and comfort. If a poor woman with all the odds stacked against her can hope, on what grounds of logic do I place my middle-class despair? Being hopeless is an indulgence the poor can ill-afford.
For those of us who live on the edge of survival, the appeasement of hunger and getting work seem enough to carry on. This does not take away from the fact that we have to continue to struggle for guaranteed livelihood and long-term survival with dignity. The tenacity of the struggle and the dreams for its achievement can lead to success, as it did with the MGNREGA.”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir