Arun Ferreira Biography 
Arun Ferreira is an Indian activist best known for the controversies surrounding his arrests in 2007. He was alleged to support Naxalite movement in India at that time. After spending five years in prison he was acquitted in 2012. After that he turned a criminal lawyer defending political prisoners, and got arrested once again in 2018. Currently he is under home arrest. Ferreira used to run a government banned organisation named Vidyarthi Pragati Sangathana in Mumbai, which was associated with struggles and campaigns for the rights of students and other oppressed sections.
Arun Ferreira was brought up in a family environment closely linked to optimism. His uncle, Father Raymond D’Silva, was among those activists and Arun was deeply influenced by his activism. He also began to explore the strong social sinfulness of the millions of impoverished people, and reasons behind the poverty and miseries of poor. He realized the strong social imbalances between the wealthy, and the impoverished, and educated others from his community with the same. Activism along with religious beliefs and their bonds together gave a new direction to Arun’s social activism.
He was also associated with social activities like educating blind kids during his graduation days at St Xaviers College, Mumbai in the early 1990s. He got interested in liberation theology, and slowly adopted a more radical view of politics, which gives rights to poor people. Ferreira worked in favour of the slum-dwellers and squatters of Mumbai after graduation. He ran a government banned organisation named Vidyarthi Pragati Sangathana in Mumbai till he moved to Chandrapur in 2001. He got arrested in 2007 on charges of sedition, and had to spend 4 years in jail.
Published: January 05, 2020
Updated: January 05, 2020
