My engagement in the human rights field has been long and largely motivated by the works of Paulo Friere, Gramsci, Gandhi and Fanon. I was deeply involved in human rights education in Indian universities for many years, with new social movements and policy research. They provided me the opportunity to understand the political motivation and emotional universe of students, activists, leaders across the ideological spectrum, tools of change and above all, the struggle for democracy, equality and dignity. I maintain deep interest in ways to improve advocacy to help institutionalise the rule of law, and in particular, the rights of prisoners, which comes from having worked with human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. I hope to share some of the insights gained through my interactions with university youth, social movement representatives, media workers, criminal justice actors, other government actors and prisoners, and hope in turn to to be enlightened by the participants of this online platform about the diverse ways by which they are generating accountability and transforming their socio-political contexts.

and was lucky to interview several leaders and members across ten social movement organisations (SMOs) in India, both party and non-party that gave incomparable learnings on democracy, leadership, organisational goals, tools of change, and above all, the emotional universe of activists and change makers.