Inside Chhattisgarh

This fascinating memoir illuminates their journey and how their world imploded. Ilina vividly describes their years at the trade union CMSS, led by the iconic Shankar Guha Niyogi, where Binayak and three doctors started a hospital and she organized workers’ education, joined the feisty women mine-workers’ struggles and discovered the rich local history, cultural and farming traditions. These experiences later found expression in Rupantar, their own NGO and when the new state’s government sought their advice for its women’s policy and for Mitanan, a precursor of the national rural health mission. Candid and deeply felt, the book celebrates Chhattisgarh but also laments the lost opportunity for its inclusive and violence-free development.