Aruna Roy > Quotes

“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

“Activists are compelled to respond to injustice and speak with the powerless, vulnerable and those without privilege. An activist works to make power transparent, accountable and just. As we are also the butt of many jokes and derisive remarks, it is important to see ourselves in perspective.”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir

“Activists see themselves as amplifiers of the voices of people and advocates of civil, democratic and human rights, and, therefore, willing to take adversarial positions against injustice in any form. They speak for some form of equality and for justice in policy and governance. They highlight instances, situations and events that lie outside the perception of popular media and of day-to-day understanding. There is a strong conviction that prompts them to act to try to set things right.”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir

“I remember the then election commissioner asking me, What are YOU doing here?' I replied, When I am not in dharnas and protests, I am a music lover just like you. Attending a music concert is neither connected with being an activist nor with being an election commissioner, so why single out the activist?”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir

“Just as we mourn the loss of brave soldiers protecting our nation's territorial integrity, we mourn the loss of brave soldiers protecting our constitutional integrity. The tragedy is that one is killed by bullets from across the border, and the other by one of our own.”
― Aruna Roy, The RTI Story: Power to the People

“Ceasing to dream will be the ultimate defeat. Hope must guide the possibilities of a better world. As Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
― Aruna Roy, The Personal Is Political: An Activist's Memoir