Imprisoned in India: Corruption and Wrongful Imprisonment in the World's Largest Democracy

Description

James Tooley has been described as a 21st - century Indiana Jones, who travelled to remote villages and slums in developing countries to track something that many regarded as mythical - private schools serving the poor. Now Tooley was back in India, in the city of Hyderabad, because it was here where he first discovered these schools and wrote about them in an award-winning book, The Beautiful Tree , which also documented state corruption and the attempt to eliminate these schools. But the state was to exact revenge, it was time for payback; he was arrested and thrown in prison. Conditions in Indian prison were dire. His first cell was tiny, devoid of any furniture and completely empty, apart from piles of excrement. But the other prisoners were extraordinarily kind. Chillingly, many had been in prison for years, never charged with anything, innocent of any crime, often victims of police corruption, too poor to afford to go to court to get bail. Unlike the prisoners, the jailers were typically brutal. Throughout the experience, James Tooley realised how the rule of law is fundamental to the workings of a good society. It's a comfort blanket we take for granted, but without which all human flourishing is threatened, especially for the poor. He witnessed how the human spirit, amongst even those wrongfully imprisoned, can soar above the brutality and tyranny of those in power.

James Tooley is professor of education policy at Newcastle University. He is the author of the award-winning The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves (Penguin and Cato), as well as numerous academic books and articles on education and development. He is the co-founder of chains of low-cost private schools in India, Ghana, Nigeria and Honduras. Previously, he has taught and researched at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester. His first job was as a mathematics teacher in Zimbabwe.

"As a novel, James Tooley's book would be thrilling and horrifying enough. Yet it is a true story, of being drawn into an endless labyrinth of imprisonment, injustice, corruption, bureaucracy, incompetence and misery, all because a colleague failed to pay a bribe a decade before. Tooley has done more for the education of the poor than almost anybody else, first in Hyderabad and then in many other places. And for this he was thrown into prison without charge - in Hyderabad. Tooley tells the story with detachment and insight, then emerges with his humanity intact." Matt Ridley, Author Of The Rational Optimist; "A great story told with insight, tension and wit. It reveals vividly that James Tooley's commitment to educating children from low-income families may be tested to the limits but will never be found wanting." Sir Michael Barber, Author Of How To Run A Government