"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
How does one deal with the paradox of bonded labour in a free country?
Why do farm workers who feed the richest country in the world go to sleep hungry?
What can we do to bring hope and justice in the lives of the poor and oppressed?
These are the hard-hitting questions that Vivek Pandit raised and sought answers to and which form the basis of The Fury of Hunger.
This book weaves together the author’s life experiences of organising Adivasis and Dalits for liberation from their lives of bondage and oppression in India, with his first-hand observations of the civil rights movement and the movement of farm workers in America. The stories lay bare the inner struggles of the activist faced with the sorrows of the oppressed. They capture not just the long and hard struggle against bondage, hunger and hopelessness but also the dazzling moments of victory and freedom. Pandit communicates a range of emotions from helplessness and hopelessness to humour and righteous anger.
Without being pedantic, they touch upon the universal themes of the human urge for dignity and justice and the collective pursuit of a world free of hunger and fear.
Vivek Pandit
Vivek Pandit, Chairperson of Maharashtra’s Tribal Area Review Committee (Status of Cabinet Minister) started our as a pioneering social movement leader in Maharashtra, India. He is the founder of several social organisations including Vidhayak Sansad, Shramajeevi Sanghatana, Samarthan and the National Centre for Advocacy Studies. He has worked to challenge inhuman practices such as bonded labour and child labour by strengthening community leadership and collective action. His efforts were recognised internationally through the Anti-Slavery Award, UK (1999), Ashoka Fellowship and Eisenhower Fellowship.
He has worked as member of several national committees on rural development and labour rights. He was member of Action Committee on Bonded Labour set up by the National Human Rights Commission and of Maharashtra’s state committee for universalization of primary education.
He was elected as Member of State Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra for the term 2009 to 2014.
His writings include Bandhmukthi, Akher Savlya Jinklatsch and Parighavarun in Marathi and A Handbook on the Prevention of Atrocities Act and Fearless Minds in English. His articles on government policies and social issues feature regularly in Marathi newspapers.
