India’s Forgotten Country: A View from the Margins could not have been written by Bela Bhatia without living the life she has lived in the underbelly of India. In these pages, there are cries distraught with despair in the stories of the everyday lives lived by the poor, oppressed and tormented of our country. But there is an underpinning of hope and a spirit of resilience when Adivasis, Dalits, women, minorities and the marginalized stand up to face the brutal reality of the conniving status quoist innards of our cosmetic democracy.
The collection of essays in the book have emerged from more than thirty-five years of a rare combination of activism and scholarship, mapping resistance and struggle of the marginalized across eleven States, with in-depth research and fieldwork, making an invaluable contribution to the social history of rural India. The empathetic and insightful scholarship comes armed with a postgraduation in social work (TISS), a law degree (Gujarat) and a doctorate (Cambridge).